Democracy in America: In Two Volumes

Chapter 22.a Why Democratic Peoples Naturally Desire Peace and Democratic Armies Naturally Desire War

1153 s4s4s4s4s4 c h a p t e r 2 2a Why Democratic Peoples Naturally Desire Peace and Democratic Armies Naturally Desire War The same interests, the same fears, the same passions that divertdemocratic peoples from revolutions distance them from war; the military spirit and the revolutionary spirit grow weaker at the same time and for the same reasons.b a. “What I said in the preceding chapter explains why democratic peoples naturally love peace. “Democratic armies naturally love war, because in these armies ambition is much more general and more (illegible word) than in all others, and because in times of peace advancement is more difficult. “These opposite dispositions of the peopleandof thearmymakedemocraticsocieties run great dangers. “Remedies indicated for averting these dangers” (YTC, CVf, p. 49). In the Rubish, all the manuscripts belonging to the chapters on war are gathered in the same jacket with the title: influence of equality on warrior passions. Initially the titles of the chapters were the following: military spirit. [Chapter 22] how a democratic army could cease to be warlike and remain turbulent . [This section constitutes the current chapter 22.] which class in the democratic army is the most naturally warlike and revolutionary. [Chapter 23] rubish of chapter 4. [Chapter 24] influence of equality on military discipline. [Chapter 25] rubish of chapter 6. [Chapter 26] Tocqueville finished drafting these chapters at the end of the month of April 1838. “The objection which presents itself to all these chapters is that I do not have a sufficient personal knowledge of the matter” (Rubish, 2). b. At this place you find in the manuscript a reference to note (a). In the rubish, a 1154 peace and war The ever-increasing number of property owners friendly to peace, the development of personal wealth, which war so rapidly devours, this leniency of morals, this softness of heart, this predispositiontowardpitythat equality inspires, this coldness of reason that makes men hardly sensitive to the poetic and violent emotions which arise among arms, all these causes join together to extinguish military spirit. I believe that you can accept as a general and constant rule that, among civilized peoples, warrior passions will become rarer and less intense, as conditions will be more equal. War, however, is an accident to which all peoples are subject, democratic peoples as well as others. Whatever taste these nations have for peace, they must clearly keep themselves ready to repulse war, or in other words, they must have an army. Fortune, which has done such distinctive things to favor the inhabitants of the United States, placed them in the middle of a wilderness where they have, so to speak, no neighbors. A few thousand soldiers are sufficient for them, but this is American and not democratic. Equality of conditions, and the mores as well as the institutions that derive from it, do not release a democratic people from the obligation to maintain armies, and its armies always exercise a very great influence on its fate. So it is singularly important to inquire what the natural instincts are of those who compose its armies. Among aristocratic peoples, among those above all in which birth alone determines rank, inequality is found in the army as in the nation;theofficer is the noble, thesoldieristheserf. Theoneisnecessarilycalledtocommand, the other to obey. So in aristocratic armies, the ambition of the soldier has very narrow limits. jacket bears the notation “Piece that originally was inserted at sign (a) and that must not be definitively deleted except after consultation. “To have copied after reestablishing page 2, which I took out for another use.” This jacket contains ideas that already appear in the chapter. A copy, reproduced in YTC, CVk, 1, pp. 89–91, bears this commentary: “Piece copied separately; I must payattention to it at the final examination./ “Piece that originally began the chapter. I removed it as extending and reproducing ideas if not entirely similar, at least very analogous to those contained in the preceding chapter. To see again” (YTC, CVk, 1, p. 89). peace and war 1155 Nor is that of the officers unlimited. An aristocratic body is not only part of a hierarchy; it always contains an internal hierarchy; the members who compose it are placed some above the others, in a certain way that does not vary. This one is naturally called by birth to command a regiment, and that one a company; having reached the extreme limits of...