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Book Review taken from the
Edinburgh Review of 1889
Mr. Bryce's three elaborate
volumes on the political institutions of the United States will be read with
attention and eagerness by all who take an interest in politics, and more
especially by those who are in the habit of regarding the political
institutions of America as in every way superior to our own, and of admiring
them as combining in themselves the best forms of popular government, and as
reflecting on the whole the nearest approach to ideal perfection. An
attentive perusal of Mr. Bryce’s pages may probably tend to diminish this
admiration, while with those who are somewhat sceptical as to the perfection
of the American Constitution, it may have the effect of confirming their
suspicions and of strengthening their belief that however admirably the
institutions of America may be adapted to the requirements of the American
people, those under which we live on this side of the Atlantic, are more
elastic and in some respects superior. Mr. Bryce is not only an enlightened,
he is also a very candid critic, and has answered the question Americans so
persistently put to strangers with an elaborate frankness which, though
perhaps at times a little galling, they can scarcely fail to admire. Of
course the book which Mr. Bryce’s will most readily suggest to an English
reader is M. de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, but the two works are
conceived on quite different lines. Mr. Bryce’s object, as he tells us, has
been less to discuss the merits of democracy than to paint the institutions
and people of America as they are, and to trace what is peculiar in them not
merely to the sovereignty of the masses, but also to the history and
traditions of the race, to its fundamental ideas, and to its material
environment. The European work of which the three volumes remind us most, is
Von Hoist’s Constitutional Law of the United States, though as compared with
this they are much fuller, more critical, more popular, and less legal.
Taking the American Commonwealth as it is, Mr. Bryce proceeds to describe
its framework and constitutional machinery, the methods by which it is
worked and the forces which move it and direct its course, and divides his
work into six parts. The first contains an account of the several Federal
authorities, the President, Congress, and the Courts of Law, describes the
relations of the National or central power to the several States, and
discusses the nature of the Constitution as a fundamental supreme law,
showing how in a few points it has been expressly, and in many others
tacitly and half unconsciously modified. The second deals in a similar way
with the State Governments and gives some account of the systems of rural
and city governments which have been created in the various States, and
which form, to say the least, an extremely interesting subject of study. The
Third deals with the political parties, and sketches the organizations which
have been instituted for winning elections and securing office. The object
of the Fourth Part is to sketch the leading political ideas, habits and
tendencies of the people and to show how they express themselves in action.
Part V. contains a number of illustrations, drawn from recent American
history, of the working of the political institutions and public opinion,
together with a number of very pregnant reflections on the merits and
demerits of American democracy. The Sixth and last Part is devoted to the
Social Institutions of the United States and deals with many topics of great
interest, such, for instance, as the Bar and Bench, the Universities, the
Churches, the Clergy, the influence of Religion, the position of women, the
influence of democracy on thought, the relation of the United States to
Europe, American oratory, the pleasantness and uniformity of American life.
But to indicate all the topics of interest on which Mr. Bryce dwells is here
impossible. There is not a chapter in the whole of his three bulky volumes
which is not instructive. Description and criticism occur in almost every
chapter and several are devoted wholly to the latter. There are three
chapters in the last volume which will be read with special attention, but
more particularly the last of them which discusses the question—How far
American experience is available for Europe. From this it will be seen that
Mr. Bryce’s admiration of the American institutions is very qualified, and
that even the Americans, proud of their institutions as they are, are alive
to the fact that they have still some things to learn from the older
countries, and that their own experiments are not in every respect to be
imitated. Of the literary ability which the volumes exhibit it is needless
to speak. In this country, at least, Mr. Bryce’s work is without a rival,
and its excellence will make it a standard work on the subject wherever the
English language is spoken or understood.
PREFACE
As the introductory chapter
of this work contains such explanations as seem needed of its scope and
plan, the Author has little to do in this place except express his thanks to
the numerous friends who have helped him with facts, opinions, and
criticisms, or by the gift of books or pamphlets. Among these he is
especially indebted to the Hon. Thomas M. Cooley, now Chairman of the
Inter-State Commerce Commission in Washington; Mr. James B. Thayer of the
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass.; Hon. Seth Low, formerly Mayor of
Brooklyn ; Mr. Theodore Roosevelt of New York; Mr. G. Bradford of Cambridge,
Mass.; and Mr. Theodore Bacon of Rochester, N.Y.; by one or other of whom
the greater part of the proofs of these volumes have been read. He has also
received valuable aid from Mr. Justice Holmes of the Supreme Court of
Massachusetts; Mr. Theodore Dwight, late Librarian of the State Department
at Washington; Mr. H. Villard of New York; Dr. Albert Shaw of Minneapolis;
Mr. Jesse Macy of Grinnell, la.; Mr. Simeon Baldwin and Dr. George P. Fisher
of New- haven, Conn.; Mr. Henry C. Lea of Philadelphia; Col. T. W. Higginson
of Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. Bernard Moses of Berkeley, Cal.; Mr. A. B. Houghton
of Corn¬ ing, N.Y. ; Mr. John Hay of Washington ; Mr. Henry Hitchcock of St.
Louis, Mo.; President James B. Angell of Ann Arbor, Mich. ; Hon. Andrew D.
White of Syra¬ cuse, N.Y.; Mr. Frank J. Goodnow of New York; Hr. Atherton of
the State College, Pennsylvania; and the U. S. Bureau of Education. No one
of these gentlemen is, however, responsible for any of the facts stated or
views expressed in the book.
The Author is further
indebted to Mr. Low and Mr. Goodnow for two chapters which they have
written, and which contain, as he believes, matter of much interest relating
to municipal government and politics.
He gladly takes this
opportunity of thanking for their aid and counsel four English friends : Mr.
Henry Sidgwick, who has read most of the proofs with great care and made
valuable suggestions upon them; the Eev. Stopford A. Brooke, whose literary
criticisms have been very helpful; Mr. Albert V. Dicey, and Mr. W. Robertson
Smith.
He is aware that,
notwithstanding the assistance rendered by friends in America, he must have
fallen into not a few errors, and without asking to be excused for these, he
desires to plead in extenuation that the book has been written under the
constant pressure of public duties as well as of other private work, and
that the difficulty of obtaining in Europe correct information regarding the
constitutions and laws of American States and the rules of party
organizations is very great.
When the book was begun, it
was intended to con¬ tain a study of the more salient social and
intellectual phenomena of contemporary America, together with descriptions
of the scenery and the aspects of nature and human nature in the West, all
of whose States and Territories the Author has visited. But as the work
advanced, he found that to carry out this plan it would be necessary either
unduly to curtail the account of the government and politics of the United
States, or else to extend the book to a still greater length than that
which, much to his regret, it has now reached. He therefore reluctantly
abandoned the hope of describing in these volumes the scenery and life of
the West. As regards the non-political topics which were to have been dealt
with, he has selected for discussion in the concluding chapters those of
them which either were comparatively unfamiliar to European readers, or
seemed specially calculated to throw light on the political life of the
country, and to complete the picture which he has sought to draw of the
American Commonwealth as a whole.
October 22, 1888.
Volume 1 |
Volume 2 |
Volume 3 |
