A French Visitor Watches Americans Govern

A Bill's Long Road

1A bill is a proposed law. In Congress, a member of the House or Senate introduces it. A committee studies it, may hold hearings, and can change it or set it aside. At hearings, experts and citizens can speak for or against a bill, and many bills never leave committee. If the committee approves, the full chamber debates and votes. The other chamber must then pass the same version. Last, the bill goes to the President, who may sign it into law or veto it. Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each house.

2Citizens can shape this process. The First Amendment protects "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." In the 1800s, Americans sent thousands of petitions to Congress on subjects from new post roads to slavery. Citizens also choose the members of Congress by voting, and they can write to them about a bill. If lawmakers ignore what voters want, voters can replace them at the next election.

3Some kinds of taking part are duties rather than choices. The Sixth Amendment promises a person accused of a crime a trial by an impartial jury, so courts need ordinary citizens to serve. A person who receives a jury summons is required by law to appear, and a juror listens to the evidence and decides the facts of the case.

4In 1857, Representative Justin Morrill of Vermont introduced a bill to give each state public land that it could sell to pay for colleges teaching farming and the mechanical arts. Some lawmakers, many of them from Southern states, argued that the plan gave the national government too much say over education and land.

5Both houses passed the bill in 1859, but President James Buchanan vetoed it, and supporters could not gather enough votes to override. Then, in 1860 and 1861, eleven Southern states left the Union, and their members left Congress. Morrill introduced his bill again in 1861. Congress passed it in 1862, and President Abraham Lincoln signed it on July 2, 1862. Many of today's state universities began as these land-grant colleges.

Adapted from a translation of Democracy in America (1835)

As soon as you set foot on American ground, you hear a kind of busy noise on every side. In one part of a town, neighbors meet to decide on building a church. In another, people are electing a representative. A little farther on, delegates hurry into town to talk over some local improvements.

If a street is blocked and wagons cannot pass, the neighbors at once form a meeting of their own. This meeting picks people to act, and they fix the problem before anyone thinks of calling on a higher official.

I see the jury as a free school that is always open. Each juror learns his rights, meets educated citizens of the upper classes and is taught the law in a practical way. I believe Americans owe much of their good sense in public affairs to their long use of the jury.