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You could, dear father, render me a great service, which, with the leisure that you now enjoy, would not
cost you much, I think. Here is what I wish to say. One of things which particularly attracts my attention in the
United States is the internal administration of each State, and after that of the entire Union. I try so far as it is
possible to understand with clarity what part of the government is given to the towns, to the provincial [state]
bodies, and finally to the central government in matters having to do with the administration of the country.
In this examination, one great obstacle arrests me. Each fact is without particular physiognomy for me, and
without great significance because I can make no comparisons. Nothing would be more useful for judging America
well than to know France. But it's this last point that doesn't exist. I know in general that with us the government
concerns itself with almost everything; a hundred times the name centralization has been dinned into my ears,
without its being explained. I have never had the time or the opportunity to examine the play of the different
administrative circuits which cover France.
You have acquired cognizance of these different things, my dear papa, through reflection and necessity.
You have seen the administration acting in great matters and in small, and I think that the subject is familiar enough
to you for you to be able, without putting yourself to any inconvenience, to furnish me with the documents which I
need.
I should like to know what exists with us in the way of internal administration, what are first of all the
general principles accepted in this field; secondly, what are the applications, that is to say, what portions of
independence remain to the commune, what it may and may not do, what are the powers of the councils of
the arrondissement and of the department, finally, just what the prefect and the central government take a
hand in. If you could, my dear papa, decompose for me this word centralization, you would render me an
immense service, not only at the present moment, but for the future.
There as you see, is an altogether positive labor. If you could join to it in a second part a few political
observations, the utility of the whole would be very much greater. Thus, I would know at what point, in your
opinion, the action of the central government should stop, what kind of independence one may give to the
communes, what is the usefulness of the administrative courts, what power may without danger be accorded to the
departmental assemblies.
The evil is that if you undertake this little labor, you mustn't, my dear papa, delay sending it to me, for the
time passes and our sojourn here is limited ...
[written] Oct. 7, 1831
(Pierson, p. 404)
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