The American Monitor. ON THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS. "A state wisely composed of three different orders, derives its union from the agreement of the most various elements; and what is called harmony in music, is union in the social order; the strongest and best pledge of the public safety, but which it is impossible to preserve without justice."-CICERO. "La place naturelle de la vertu est auprès de la liberté; mais elle ne se trouve pas plus auprès de la liberté extrême qu'auprès de la servitude."-MONTESQUIEU. The political existence of the American states. which are rising upon the ruins of the Spanish and Portugueze monarchies, consists of three distinct eras which claim particular attention. The first era, in the life of each state, is its birth, or period of separation from the mother-country, and the struggle inseparably connected with it; the second relates to the consolidation of the revolution, by the internal organization which is its consequence and completion; and the third is its introduction into the general social order of the world, arising from its recognition by the other states, and is, in fact, its legitimation, the title which confers upon it its political existence in society. The first condition, in respect to America, is completed her internal and external struggle is at an end: her foreign enemies have ceased to exist, and can never again rise to disturb her tranquillity. England greets : each of her independent states with the name of nation, and her eventual recognition by the other powers of the globe, with whatever various degrees of opposition or reluctance, is yet considered with the certainty of geometrical demonstration by every one who forms a correct estimate of the present state of the world. The undivided solicitude of South America is, therefore, due to the second period of her life, or to the choice of those organic institutions which are to constitute her form of government, and upon which depend her national existence, her happiness and future prosperity. The fate of America is now in her own hands; and nothing will henceforth counteract the brilliant destinies which await her, if she accomplish the difficult work of her political organization, with the magnanimity and firmness with which she has effected her independence. But, after the powerful efforts of an immense population in their struggle for liberty; after the development of every means, and the suspension of every inclination or habit, to secure its acquisition; and, after the success which is followed by the exultation of victory; the moderation, which knows how to stop at the precise point where liberty ends and licentiousness begins, has ever been considered a virtue of arduous and uncommon attainment. And, indeed, nations have, at all times, found it more easy to overcome the oppression of tyranny, than to confine their rights, after victory, within limits conformable to their genius, their wants, and the relative situation of surrounding states. Hence, the destructive errors, the absurd laws, the contradictions, and all the fatal instances of reaction which, from the very origin of society, have attended revolutions sanctioned by every principle of justice, and yet sometimes most disastrous in their consequences. This, however, will not be the fate of the new American states; they will not, under the influence of mere abstract views, plunge themselves into the abyss in which so many nations have perished. They will learn wisdom from the experience of every age, and without the admonitory retrospection of the catastrophes which marked the fate of Greece and Rome, the events which have taken place in Europe, within a less period than the last half century, will offer to the consideration of America a lesson which, if well studied, will be more than sufficient to consolidate ten republics. America, like the rest of the world, has beheld the most justifiable revolutions become, by the abuse of principles, a source of disorders and crimes, at which human nature shudders; and the French, the mildest people in Europe, releasing themselves from the fetters of the most oppressive aristocracy, have been seen immediately submitting to the dominion of a sanguinary democracy, and at last relapsing into the torpor of despotism. America, within a period still more recent, has witnessed the two European peninsulas impelled towards liberty by the power of civilization, and almost immediately hurled back into the most ignominious slavery, by the folly of men who, ignorant of the real situation of their country, perceived not that the influence of manners over liberty, is not less powerful than that of laws; and that it became necessary to sap the foundation of tyranny, previously to the effort which aimed at its subversion. America sees the humiliating degra dation to which the violence of all parties have reduced the continent of Europe, after so many useless experi ments, and under circumstances so favourable to the establishment of a rational liberty. With such facts before her eyes, what more can she require to direct her political education, and to induce her to adopt a constitution founded upon this great principle of Plato, that " Tyranny springs from licentiousness, as its natural source." . But, what constitution is best calculated to cement the national independence, and the civil liberty of the Americans? The importance of this question and the magnitude of the interests inseparable from it, demand the most serious consideration. Its solution requires an appeal to first principles; not to those idle theories which time has exploded, but to those great essential principles, sanctioned by the authority of ages, and of all the societies that ever existed. We will, now, apply these general principles to the local circumstances of the American states, and, in a second article, we will examine to what extent the institutions which some of them have already adopted, are contrary to the spirit of these principles, as well as to that of the legislative doctrines of the contemporary mations the most wisely and powerfully constituted. Cicero admits three forms of government of a beneficial tendency, and three of an opposite and destructive nature; but he considers none of the first description as perfectly good: he prefers to all of them those which, by a wise mixture, blend the advantage of each. "What I approve," says he, " is, that there should exist in the state, an eminent and royal * principle; that one portion of power should be acquired and entrusted to the patricians; and that another should be assigned to the decision and will of the multitude. This constitution has not only a prominent character of equality essential to the existence of every free people; it offers also the advantage of great stability. When the first elements to which I allude are isolated, their nature is easily impaired, and they fall into the opposite extreme, so that the king is succeeded by the despot, the nobles by a factious oligarchy, and the lawful authority of the people by licentiousness and anarchy. To this may be added, that they are often replaced and expelled by each other." The opinion, 1900 years ago, of the most illustrious defender of liberty among the ancients, who was at once a great writer, a great politician, a great philosopher, and the martyr of republican doctrines,-has been adopted by the most celebrated legislators of succeeding ages, and confirmed by the history of all nations. Montesquieu does not acknowledge the existence of liberty in those governments which prejudice calls free, and in which the people seems to do whatever they please, thus confounding the ideas of liberty and licentiousness; but he admits the triumph of liberty in those governments in which the distribution of the different powers preserves each in such a state of equilibrium, that the weight of no one preponderates over that of another. The same opinion is professed by Grotius, Fox, Adams, Vatel, Puffendorf, and, whatever may be said to the contrary, even by Paine and Rousseau. * This word in the mouth of the Roman orator, signifies merely chief, magistrate, |