The American Democrat

Flrst things first. It should be noted off the bat that the title of this book, "The American Democrat," is something of a misnomer. Fennimore Cooper wrote "The Aemrican Democrat" is a reaction to the radically democratic ideals of the Jacksonian presidency and the "democratic revolution." While Cooper didn't exactly hate democracy, he doesn't love it either. This book is an attempt to put arguments behind that sentiment. What does Cooper like about democracy? First off, that it is better than a monarchy or aristocracy (he has only bitter words for the latter, and measuredly skeptical views about the former). Also, Cooper is a fan of the type of legal equality - equality of rights, rather than outcomes - that is generally found only in democratic systems. Lastly, Cooper (wrongly, in my judgment) suggests that democracy raises people up a bit in manners, habits, and thought. And this is where his like for democracy seems to end. What does he dislike about it? In one of the best chapters of the book, "On Demogogues," Cooper notes that peolpe are easily misled by false power-seekers. "The man who is constantly telling the people that they are unerring in judgment, and that they have all power, is a demogogue." And the people, he notes, eat such praise up; the demogogue thus gains the people's trust and gains what she/he is really after: power OVER the people. In another prescient chapter, "On Public Opinion," Cooper also notes that public opinion is all too often not the result of calm, detached reasoning, but of emotion, party/faction loyalty, pressure to conform, etc. In a chapter on the press, he even talks about the (in his word) "despotism" of the press and how its not-always-honest writings hold undue sway on the American public. In these skepticisms, Cooper was not alone (even though this book was in large part to blame for Cooper's fall from American celebrity to American tragedy). Most of the original founders had these very concerns. One read through the Federalist papers show that the founders were concerned with such things as factionization, mob rule, and how to make demogoguery difficult. And who cannot say that the dangers that Cooper points out (making him very unpopular in his day!) have not come to pass? Every politician nowadays seems to fit Cooper's notion of a demogogue. They gain power OVER us by flattering us into believing that it is we, not they, at the helm. And public opinion being as often made by emotion and faction as by reason? Just look around you. That is to say nothing of the endless talk (on the right and left) about "media bias," which to my knowledge, "The American Democrat" was the first book to really address. For all that, there is one area (a large one, to be sure) of "American Democrat" that was unpalatable to me; that is, Cooper's obsession with naturally occuring inequalities between people. Obviously it is true that some are better at certain things than others (that, for instance, not all wil

Whereas, Alexis de Tocqueville offers his perspective on America as an outside observer, the literary genius James Fenimore Cooper offers his assessment of culture, politics and society in 19th century America. He doesn't hold democracy to be sacrosanct like we do today, but rather like any other system of government with its advantages and disadvantages. His look at the nature of liberty and its relation with equality is particularly intriguing.He is cognizant of the dangers posed to American self-government, which values legal equality. Equality, is a virtue, only insofar as it pertains to equal rights and equality before the law. Any effort at establishing equality of outcome is tantamount to tyranny and opposed to liberty. Cooper illustrates the precarious relationship between liberty and equality. Unless, tradition, custom, the rule of law and the Constitution are revered and upheld- the American Polity could easily collapse into majoritarian tyranny under a demagogue. One gains an appreciation of the system of government established by the American founding fathers after reading this book... They established a constitutionally-limited federal republic, with limits not only on the power of government, but with limits placed on the power of majority rule, so as to limit the fundamental role of government to protecting the rights of its citizens. This constitutional republic sought to balance out monarchial, democratic, and aristocratic elements...

First published in 1838, The American Democrat is a wide-ranging series of essays, many of them couched in theoretical terms, about the historical and cultural bases of American democracy, and an informed critique of many aspects of American politics, society, and culture in the 1830s.. Cooper wrote the book shortly after returning to Jacksonian America after a seven-year sojourn in Europe, and it reflects much of his discontent with what he found. As a cogent and informed commentary on 19th Century America it belongs with a book with which it has often been compared -- Toqueville's Democracy in America.

Cooper was an acute commentator on the strengths and weaknesses of American society as it developed during the first half of the 19th century. Like a number of other observers Cooper came to be fearful that a society built upon the ideas of self-government, along with legal equality ("democracy" in the social sense), unless it is strongly bound by law and custom and unless such fundamentals as property rights remain sacrosanct, would come to be transformed into some sort of popular tyranny. Source: Literature and Liberty, The New American March 17, 1997.