INTRODUCTION.
AMONGST the novel objects that attracted my
attention during my stay in the United States,
nothing struck me more forcibly than the general
equality of conditions. I readily discovered the
prodigious influence which this primary fact
exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a
certain direction to public opinion, and a certain
tenour to the laws; by imparting new maxims
to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to
the governed.
I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the Government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, suggests the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce.
The more I advanced in the study of American
