In the former case their power escapes from them; it is wrested from their grasp in the latter.

Many observers, who have witnessed the anarchy of democratic States, have imagined that the government of those States was naturally weak and impotent.

The truth is, that when once hostilities are begun between parties, the government loses its control over society.

But I do not think that a democratic power is naturally without force or without resources: say, rather, that it is almost always by the abuse of its force and the misemployment of its resources that a democratic government fails.

Anarchy is almost always produced by its tyranny or its mistakes, but not by its want of strength.
It is important not to confound stability with force, or the greatness of a thing with its duration.