The Coalescence of a Body Politic

Many salient episodes of United States history deal with the concept and processes of forming unions. What is it that makes political affiliation and union possible? This post addresses some thinking on the subject from two sources. First, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote about the most important elements of union and, second, Benjamin Rush, in a letter to Richard Price, dated Oct. 27, 1786, discussed different schemes of union passing through the minds of Americans prior to the forming of union under the Constitution.

A common theme between the two quotes should be apparent to readers once the information is consumed.

August Glen-James, editor

A government retains its sway over a great number of citizens, far less by the voluntary and rational consent of the multitude, than by that instinctive, and to a certain extent involuntary agreement, which results from similarity of feelings and resemblances of opinion.

These confederacies they say will be united by nature, by interest, and by manners, and consequently they will be safe, agreeable and durable.

Alexis de Tocqueville

The inhabitants of the United States talk a great deal of their attachment to their country; but I confess that I do not rely upon that calculating patriotism which is founded upon interest, and which a change in the interests at stake may obliterate. Nor do I attach much importance to the language of the Americans, when they manifest, in their daily conversations, the intention of maintaining the federal system adopted by their forefathers. A government retains its sway over a great number of citizens, far less by the voluntary and rational consent of the multitude, than by that instinctive, and to a certain extent involuntary agreement, which results from similarity of feelings and resemblances of opinion. I will never admit that men constitute a social body, simply because they obey the same head and the same laws. Society can only exist when a great number of men consider a great number of things in the same point of view; when they hold the same opinions upon many subjects, and when the same occurrences suggest the same thoughts and impressions to their minds.

Tocqueville, A. D., Reeve, H., & Spencer, J. C. (1840). Democracy in America. New York: J. & H.G. Langley.

Benjamin Rush

Some of our enlightened men who begin to despair of a more complete union of the States in Congress have secretly proposed an Eastern, Middle, and Southern Confederacy, to be united by an alliance offensive and defensive. These confederacies they say will be united by nature, by interest, and by manners, and consequently they will be safe, agreeable and durable. The first will include the four New England states and New York. The second will include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland; and the last Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia.

Benjamin Rush to Richard Price, 27 Oct. 1786