Christian individualism makes the stones, and the democratic party has just perceived it.  In a country where independence of soul has acclimated independence in all its forms, men may indeed bow the head sometimes to democracy allied to slavery; but this debasement has a limit, and the time is coming when they will raise their heads.  Strong beliefs are a strong rampart, the slaves of truth are free men, and true independence begins in the heart.  To have convictions in order to have characters, to have believers in order to have citizens, to have energetic minds in order to have powerful nations, to have resistance in order to have support—­such is the programme of individualism.  Show me a country where men are proud enough not to bow before the majority, where they do not think themselves lost when they depart from, the beaten track, and jostle of received opinions; and I will admit that there it will be possible to practise democracy without falling into servitude.

There is but one country of individual belief, that could attempt the alliance, hitherto deemed impossible, of democracy and liberty.  The theory in accordance with which the public liberties of England have the aristocracy for their essential basis, is admitted as an axiom; without contemning this element of social organization, it is advisable to mine deeper than this to discover the true foundation of liberty.  Individual belief—­this is the foundation.  The more we reflect, the more we discover that the essential thing is not the forms of government, or even the relations of the different classes, but the moral state of the community.  Are men there?  Have souls become masters of themselves?  Are characters formed?  Has the force of resistance appeared?  Whoever shall have replied to these questions will have decided, knowingly or unknowingly, whether liberty be possible.

I do not know that any people should be excluded from liberty; only all are bound to pursue it by the path that leads to it, by earnestness of convictions, by internal affranchisement, which signifies by the Gospel.  We may seek in vain, we shall find no means comparable to this (I speak in the political point of view) when the question is to make citizens.  To place one’s self under the absolute authority of God and his word, is to acquire in the face of mere parties, majorities, general opinions, an independence that nothing can supply.  The independence within is always translated without; he who is independent of men, in the domain of beliefs and of thoughts, will be equally so in the domain of public affairs.  Thus democracy itself will not degenerate into socialism.  No one has been able to point out the slightest symptom of socialism in the United States.  Notwithstanding, democracy is fully complete there, and the election of Mr. Lincoln, once drover, once flatboatman, once rail-splitter, once clerk—­of Mr. Lincoln, the son of his works, who has succeeded by his own powers in becoming a well-informed man and an orator,