The same interests, the same fears, the same passions which deter democratic
nations from revolutions deter them also from war; the spirit of military glory
and the spirit of revolution are weakened at the same time and by the same
causes. The ever increasing numbers of men of property—lovers of peace, the
growth of personal wealth which war so rapidly consumes, the mildness of
manners, the gentleness of heart, those tendencies to pity which are engendered
by the equality of conditions, that coolness of understanding which renders
men comparatively insensible to the violent and poetical excitement of arms—
all these causes concur to quench the military spirit. I think it may be ad-
mitted as a general and constant rule that among civilized nations the warlike
passions will become more rare and less intense in proportion as social condi-
tions shall be more equal. War is nevertheless an occurrence to which all
nations are subject, democratic nations as well as others. Whatever taste they
may have for peace, they must hold themselves in readiness to repel aggression,
or in other words they must have an army.

Fortune, which has conferred so many peculiar benefits upon the inhabitants
of the United States, has placed them in the midst of a wilderness where they