CHAPTER XVII. Principal Causes which tend to maintain the democratic Republic in the United States Accidental or providential Causes which contribute to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States Influence of the Laws upon the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States Influence of Manners upon the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States Religion considered as a political Institution, which powerfully Contributes to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic among the Americans Indirect Influence of religious Opinions upon political Society in the United States Principal Causes which render Religion powerful in America How the Instruction, the Habits, and the practical Experience of the Americans, promote the Success of their democratic Institutions The Laws contribute more to the Maintenance of the democratic Republic in the United States than the physical Circumstances of the Country, and the Manners more than the Laws Whether Laws and Manners are sufficient to maintain democratic Institutions in other Countries beside America Importance of what precedes with respect to the State of Europe CHAPTER XVIII. The present and probable future Condition of the three Races which Inhabit the Territory of the United States The present and probable future Condition of the Indian Tribes which Inhabit the Territory possessed by the Union Situation of the black Population in the United States, and Dangers with which its Presence threatens the Whites What are the Chances in favor of the Duration of the American Union, and what Dangers threaten it Of the republican Institutions of the United States, and what their Chances of Duration are Reflections on the Causes of the commercial Prosperity of the United States Conclusion Appendix INTRODUCTION. Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of conditions. I readily discovered the prodigious influence which this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society, by giving a certain direction to public opinion, and a certain tenor to the laws; by imparting new maxims to the governing powers, and peculiar habits to the governed. I speedily perceived that the influence of this fact extends far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that it has no less empire over civil society than over the government; it creates opinions, engenders sentiments, the ordinary practices of life, and modifies whatever it does not produce. The more I advanced in the study of American society, the more I perceived that the equality of conditions is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived, and the central point at which all my observations constantly terminated.