MR. BRYCE ON THE AMERICAN COMMON- WEALTH.*
[SECOND NOTICE.]
THE most interesting volume in Mr. Bryce's book is, as we said in our previous notice, the second, which is chiefly con- cerned with State government ; but the first and third are full of attractive matter, as well, we must add, of useless repeti- tions and unnecessary digressions. The first we should describe as the most exhaustive essay yet written upon the Federal Constitution, both in its principles and its working. As regards the former, Mr. Bryce is favourable,—perhaps, as we shall try to show, too favourable ; but as regards the latter, we take it he is more than doubtful. He reasserts, it is true, the old idea that Federalism makes the extension of Empire easy, and denies that the Constitution was in any way the cause of the Civil War. That war originated in a radical difference of civilisation between two sections of the country, and would have arisen under any form of government, the only effects of the Constitution being to make the Southerners think revolution lawful, and for a. moment to hamper the formation of opinion in the North. The Constitution did not, however, prevent great and decisive national action, and it is not fair, therefore, to say that it fails in the hour of danger. Mr. Bryce admits, however, that the Constitution is excessively cumbrous, so cumbrous as to be nearly unworkable unless the people are either intensely • The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce. 3 vols. London: Macmillan and Co. 1888.
excited or indifferent ; that it creates, like the State Con- stitutions, an inferior Legislature; and that it places serious impediments in the way of its own modification to suit the growing wants of the people subject to it. It pro- vides no solution, for instance, for the great question of polygamy which has been unexpectedly forced upon the Union by the rise in the Territory of Utah of a polygamous power. That question will be settled, possibly settled with some ease, and settled in the right way, but only by with- holding from the people of Utah their right to form a State.
If that right had been conceded, the question could have been settled only by an amendment to the Constitution most difficult to obtain, or by a revolutionary appeal to force such as drove the Mormons from their settlement at Nauvoo. As to the common Legislature provided by the Constitution, a single illustration of its working must suffice. All power in the House of Representatives has virtually passed to the Speaker.
It is simply impossible for the House as a whole to deal with the multitude of important and trumpery Bills of all kinds pre- sented to it every Session, and a Bill is therefore always referred first of all to a small Committee. If that Committee reports against the Bill, it is practically dead. If the Committee does not report at all, it is also dead. If, on the other hand, the Committee reports favourably, the Bill usually passes without discussion. In other words, there is practically no House of Representatives at all such as the Constitution intended, but only some fifty or more insignificant Legislative Committees.
In each of these Committees, the Speaker names the members, and can therefore, by naming enemies or friends of the Bill, secure or destroy any measure. Of course, in nine cases out of ten, he cares nothing about the matter, and the Bill is fairly
treated ; but still, the total result is that the Speaker can legis- late if he likes, that he is the second most powerful man in the
United States, and that Congress as a Legislature is probably the least trustworthy and efficient body in the world.
Where, then, is the merit of the Constitution ? It is to be deduced, says Mr. Bryce in sentences and para- graphs scattered throughout his three volumes, from its result. It has undoubtedly succeeded. Under it the Republic has grown to be one of the most powerful States of the world, and has been occupied by a people drawn from all Europe, who, as fast as they become Americans, become devoted to the Grand Charter of the Union. No section of them has ever attacked the Constitution, for the South seceded only in favour of a particular interpretation of it, and having seceded, placed itself theoretically and practically under one almost exactly similar. Moreover, this population, originally so wanting in homogeneity and now so vast in numbers, is, under the Con- stitution, the happiest of all the nations of the globe. Upon this point Mr. Bryce insists again and again, all through his book ; and, indeed, it is, in spite of his impartial and profuse criticism, almost its key-note. He says, for example :—
" Democracy has not only taught the Americans how to use liberty without abusing it, and how to secure equality : it has also taught them fraternity. That word has gone out of fashion in the Old World, and no wonder, considering what was done in its name in 1793, considering also that it still figures in the pro- gramme of assassins. Nevertheless there is in the United States a sort of kindliness, a sense of human fellowship, a recognition of the duty of mutual help owed by man to man, stronger than any- where in the Old World, and certainly stronger than in the upper or middle classes of England, France, or Germany. The natural impulse of every citizen in America is to respect every other citizen, and to feel that citizenship constitutes a certain ground of respect. The idea of each man's equal rights is so fully realised that the rich or powerful man feels it no indignity to take his turn among the crowd, and does not expect any deference from the poorest. An employer of labour has' I think, a keener sense of his duty to those whom he employs than employers have in Europe. He has certainly a greater sense of responsibility for the use of his wealth. The number of gifts for benevolent and other public purposes, the number of educational, artistic, literary, and scientific foundations, is larger than even in England, the wealthiest and most liberal of European countries. Wealth is generally felt to be a trust, and exclusiveness condemned not merely as indicative of selfishness, but as a sort of offence against the public. No one, for instance, thinks of shutting up his pleasure-grounds ; he seldom even builds a wall round them, but puts up low railings or a palisade, so that the sight of his trees and shrubs is enjoyed by passers-by. That any one should be permitted either by opinion or by law to seal up many square miles of beautiful mountain country against tourists or artists is to the ordinary American almost incredible. Such things are to him the marks of a land still groaning under feudal tyranny."
Mr. Bryce maintains that except in four or five cities, and among the Negroes—whom he throughout refuses to discuss, and ' evidently regards as uncivilised men—there is universal well- being, universal content, universal hope, and universal pleasant- ness of temper. "Life in America," he declares, "is in most ways pleasanter, easier, simpler, than in Europe; it floats in a sense of happiness like that of a radiant summer morning." This opinion, which, of course, embodies a world of approbation, Mr. Bryce repeats, even to wearisome repetition, as the note which differentiates America from Europe; and though not in any way blind to the physical advantages en- joyed by Americans, or to the exhilarating character of their climate, the influence of which has not been half enough studied, he attributes most of this diffusion of happiness to the character of American institutions, which have given the people not only equality, but "a relish for equality," and therefore a disposition to be kindly and make themselves pleaqnnt to their equals.
This is the sum and substance of Mr. Bryce's judgment, and we will not dispute with him on facts. We should ourselves have said that born Americans were among the most anxious of races, that the majority of their women were cruelly over- worked, that there was everywhere in the Union a want of that sense of rest which is as imperative as sleep, and that, owing to the monotonous uniformity of American careers, thoughts, and scenery, which Mr. Bryce fully admits, the interestingness of life had almost been taken out of it ; but we will not pit our knowledge against Mr. Bryce's. We have only studied, while he has studied and seen too. We content ourselves with asking what a Federal Constitution has to do with it all. The wealth of land would be the same under any government, and so would be the exhilarating effect of a clear sky. Equality, of course, if genuinely accepted, makes life lighter to those who, like the English, feel inequalities too much, and who waste life in efforts to rise nearer to the topmost strata ; but so far as the equality is real, it is a result of Democracy, and not of Federalism. Suppose the Americans had adopted the demo- cratic system without Federalism, and instead of adding State to State, had added scores of counties to scores of counties, and scores of cities to scores of cities, all remaining dependent on a central and powerful Legislature and Execu- tive, would they have been less happy? Our contention is that they would have been happier, for that equality would have been equally secured ; that national pride and the sense of national work to be done would have brought their best men to the top ; that their statesmen would have been greater, their Judges juster, their laws enforced with a vigour infinitely better calculated to promote order. Those ele- ments in their society which make for happiness would all have remained intact, while those elements which make for littleness would have been far less potent than they are now. We leave aside the great question whether happiness is the true end of man, and accepting for the moment the dictum that success can only be tested, by its effects on happiness, we affirm that the total result of the most careful reading of Mr. Bryce's great book upon impartial minds will be that Federal- ism has injured instead of benefiting democracy in America, and has reduced, not increased, the attraction of its example to the nations of the older world. This effect will be all the more powerful because it is unintentional, the author evidently agreeing with the majority that in America Federalism was the inevitable form of government.
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