In Europe, associations consider themselves, in some degree, as the legislative and executive councils of the people, which is unable to speak for itself.

In America, where they only represent a minority of the nation, they argue and they petition.
The means which the associations of Europe employ are in accordance with the end which they propose to obtain.

As the principal aim of these bodies is to act, and not to debate, to fight rather than to persuade, they are naturally led to adopt a form of organization which differs from the ordinary customs of civil bodies, and which assumes the habits and the maxims of military life.

They centralize the direction of their resources as much as possible, and they intrust the power of the whole party to a very small number of leaders.
The members of these associations respond to a watchword, like soldiers on duty; they profess the doctrine of passive obedience; say rather, that in uniting together they at once abjure the exercise of their own judgment and free will; and the tyrannical control which these societies exercise is often far more insupportable than the authority possessed over society by the Government which they attack.

Their moral force is much diminished by these excesses, and they lose the powerful interest which is always excited by a struggle between oppressors and the oppressed.