The Swiss Republic

In the republics of the ancient world, where representative assemblies were unknown, legislative power vested with the citizens, the sovereign power being exercised by the whole people, acting directly in their own persons. They met in what we should now call primary assemblies. This early democracy found its most logical expression in the Comitia of Rome and the Ecclesia of Syracuse. The Ecclesia embraced all citizens over twenty-one years of age, unless they had become liable to any loss of civic rights; it met so frequently, often once a week, that it would be inconceivable, if we did not remember that ordinary and professional labor was carried on not by the free citizens, but by the numerous slaves. The same plan prevailed in the early Teutonic tribes. Tacitus describes such an assembly, almost in the words of Homer: “In matters of inferior moment the chiefs decide; important questions are reserved for the whole community. When a public meeting is announced, they never assemble at the stated time; regularity would look like obedience; to mark their independent spirit, they do not convene at once, but two or three days are lost in delay. Each man takes his seat, completely armed. The king or chief of the community opens the debate; the rest are heard in their turn, according to age, renown in war, or fame for eloquence. No man dictates to the assembly; he may persuade, but cannot command. When anything is advanced not agreeable to the people, they reject it with a general murmur; if the proposition pleases, they brandish their javelins; this is the highest and most honorable mark of applause; they assent in a military manner, and praise by the sound of their arms.”

Montesquieu is of the opinion that, in this treatise on the manners of the Germans, by Tacitus, an attentive reader may trace the origin of the British constitution; a system which he claims was found in the forests of Germany. The Saxon Witenagemot was beyond all doubt an improved political institution, grafted on the rights exercised by the people in their own country. The author of the “European Settlements in America” writes: “The Indians meet in a house, which they have in each of their towns for the purpose, on every solemn occasion, to receive ambassadors, to deliver them an answer, to sing their traditionary war songs, or to commemorate the dead. These councils are public. Here they propose all such matters as concern the state, which have already been digested in the secret councils, at which none but the head men assist.”

During the Middle Ages these assemblies died out, and the right of making laws passed either to the sovereign or to a representative body; the older method surviving only in some of the Swiss Cantons. In Uri, in the half-Cantons composing Unterwalden and Appenzell, and in Glarus, the law-making body is the Landsgemeinde, the free assembly of all the qualified voters, the folk-moot. The whole people come together to pass laws, to nominate magistrates, to administer affairs, just as was formerly the case with the Germans of Tacitus and the Achaians of Homer; with less pretensions, however, than the assembly of a Greek city, for it is rather an agricultural democracy, such as Aristotle commended. It is the direct government dreamed of by Rousseau, who in his dislike of representative systems wrote the “Contrat Social,” demanding that the entire community should meet periodically to exercise its sovereignty. Rousseau suggests that he was led to the opinions advanced in this work, by the example of the ancient tribal democracies; yet at a later date he declared that he had the constitution of Geneva before his mind; and he cannot but have known that the exact method of government which he proposed still lived in the oldest Cantons of Switzerland; where by the raising of hands offices and dignities were distributed, and sanction given to the laws; where feudalism and royalty had never penetrated, and where the most perfect liberty reigned, without class struggles or social strife. The assemblies in the Cantons named are called Landsgemeinden,—that is, “National Communes.” It is a strictly precise term, implying that the whole country forms, so to say, a single Commune. This was the case originally. Later, as different villages were formed, they constituted separate autonomic Communes; but the great Commune of the Canton, with the General Assembly of all the inhabitants, the Landsgemeinde, was maintained. Under the Helvetic republic of 1798 the Landsgemeinde was abolished, in order to make way for the representative system. It was, however, re-established under Napoleon’s act of mediation, promulgated in 1803. The sagacity with which the First Consul discriminated the most important features in the condition of the Swiss Cantons, may be appreciated by the following extract from the speech he delivered on the formation of the internal constitution of the Confederacy: “The re-establishment of the ancient order of things in the democratic Cantons,” said he, “is the best course which can be adopted, both for you and me. They are the states whose peculiar form of government renders them so interesting in the eyes of all Europe; but for this pure democracy you would exhibit nothing which is not to be found elsewhere. Beware of extinguishing so remarkable a distinction. I know well that this democratic system of administration has many inconveniences; but it is established, it has subsisted for centuries, it springs from the circumstances, situation, and primitive habits of the people, from the genius of the place, and cannot with safety be abandoned. When usage and systematic opinion find themselves in opposition, the latter must give way. You must never take away from a democratic society the practical exercise of its privileges. To give such exercise a direction consistent with the tranquillity of the state, is the part of true political wisdom.”

Through a strange and happy combination of circumstances this ancient custom may still be seen in the Cantons of Uri, Unterwalden, Glarus, and Appenzell. The homely peasants who tend their own cows and goats upon the mountain-side, and by patient industry raise their little crops from the narrow patches of soil, hemmed in by rock and glacier, meet to discuss the affairs of their Canton, to make its laws, and to swear to observe them; a parliament of Swiss peasants, differing little in manner or habits from their forefathers of the thirteenth century. It affords a rare study in politics; an example of pure democracy such as poets might imagine, and speculative philosophers design. It was my privilege to have seen one of these primitive assemblies, held on the hill-side market-place of Trogen, the seat of government of Appenzell-ausser-Rhoden. Trogen is in the rolling, grassy, breezy Appenzell Alps, the home of primitive virtue, the stronghold of Swiss simplicity, honesty, and courage, and the region of light hearts and merry tongues. It was the first Sunday in May, from which day the Appenzellers date all the events of the year. Leaving St. Gallen for Trogen, some seven or eight miles distant, in a carriage, about nine o’clock in the morning of a bright and beautiful day, the main road and the many branches that entered it, as far as the eye could reach, were full of peasants making their way on foot to Trogen; every man carrying in one hand the family umbrella, and in the other an old sword or ancient rapier, which, on this occasion the law at once commands him to carry and forbids him to draw, and which is brought out for this day only from its dignified seclusion; each one wearing a short green coat, with a stiff high collar, and a silk hat, both bearing unmistakable evidence of being venerable heirlooms. The convening of the Landsgemeinde was announced at twelve o’clock M. by heralds, as a drum and fife corps, with a wonderful uniform of black and white, the cantonal colors. There were estimated to be present six to seven thousand voters. No provision was made for seating them, and all stood during the proceedings, which lasted nearly three hours. The assembly opened with a silent prayer, the Landammann setting the example, and instantaneously the thousands of heads were uncovered and bowed, with an indistinct but audible wave of sound from the speechless lips; then a national song in which all joined; the Landammann and his colleagues of the council mounted a rough platform erected in the centre of the field, draped with black and white, and with two ancient-looking swords crossed before it. Close attention was given to the Landammann while he addressed them as “Trusty, faithful, and well-beloved confederates.” He submitted a report of the administration of affairs for the past year, and proposed a few new laws and some amendments to the old laws. These were five in number, only two of which were accepted, by the raising of hands, the vote being taken without discussion; though each man had full right to speak his own mind as long as he pleased. The President, on behalf of the council, took from a bag, not of silk, but of plain homespun material, the seal of state and surrendered it into the hands of those by whom it had been given; and in delivering up this official charge he concluded with the statement, that he had not voluntarily injured any one, and asked the pardon of any citizen who might think himself aggrieved. The President and the members of the council then retired and took their places as simple citizens in the ranks of their fellows, leaving the Canton for the time being, without any executive official, an absolute interregnum. In a few moments some one in the crowd placed in nomination for re-election the retiring President, and he was unanimously chosen; the same process was repeated as to all the other members of the council; they then returned to the platform and resumed possession of the seal of state. Some subordinate officials were chosen in a similar manner, all without opposition except in the case of the grossweibel, for which place, owing to some charges of intemperance against the incumbent, there had arisen quite a contest, resulting in a half-dozen names being placed in nomination, each one of whom submitted his claims in a few remarks. The vote was taken for the several candidates, in turn, by uplifted hands, and the executive council found it impossible to decide who had received the most votes, until five trials were had, when the old official was declared re-elected. Neither the voting nor the result of this unusual contest was accompanied with the slightest manifestation of feeling. The entire proceeding was marked by an earnest, serious, reverent decorum, as could be found in any church service. When the newly-chosen Landammann enters upon his office, he first binds himself by an oath to obey the law, and then administers to the multitude before him the same oath. There was a heart-stirring solemnity in hearing the voice of these thousands of freemen, beneath the canopy of heaven, in firm, clear accent, pledging themselves to obey the laws which they themselves had made. The Landammann’s oath was: “To promote the welfare and honor of his fatherland, and to preserve it from injury; to enforce the constitution and laws of his country, to protect, defend, and assist widows and orphans, as well as all other persons, to the best of his power, and as the law and his conscience teach him; and that neither through friendship, enmity, nor bribe, nor for any other reason will he be moved to deviate therefrom. Likewise that he will accept no gifts from any prince or lord, except for the public purse.” The people swear: “To promote the welfare and honor of their fatherland, and to preserve it from injury, to protect its rights and liberties to the best of their power, to obey the laws of the magistrates as well as to defend the council and court, likewise to accept presents, bribes or gifts from no prince or lord, except for the public purse; and that every one to whatever position elected shall accept it, and do as well as he is able and has the power to do.” The foregoing oath, after being read to the multitude, was sworn to in a loud, distinct voice in the following form: “We have well understood what has been read to us. We will keep it truly and steadfastly, faithfully, and without fear, so truly as we wish and pray that God may help us.” The laws adopted by the Landsgemeinde of Appenzell in reference to these official oaths are very peculiar. They bear date 1634, and read: “Because an oath is a thing through which good law and order must be maintained, so for that reason it is highly necessary to consider it, in itself, seriously and well, humbly praying to God, the heavenly Father, that through his Holy Spirit he may enlighten our hearts, so that we may know what a true and false oath is, and may in time with the chosen ones live up to it eternally: Amen! A genuine oath is a considerate and solemn invocation and declaration to the true God, as the proper guardian of my heart, to be witness and judge of my sworn declaration or promise, to bless my body and soul if I swear in truth and sincerity, and if, on the contrary, I swear falsely, to punish my body and soul. At the same time every Christian who swears an oath shall lift up three fingers, by which will be signified the supreme power of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; but the two last fingers shall remain bent back against the hand, and thereby will be represented the entire submission of soul and body to the supreme power of God. Now the man who is so forsaken and so hostile to himself as to reject in his heart what he professes in such a way with his mouth, in the face of the all-seeing God, swears a false oath. He swears, as if he said, I will rather be shut out from the community and benefaction of Christendom; or as if he said, the name of God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ shall never prove a help and comfort to me at the time when soul and body shall be separated; or as if he said, the grace of God, the redemption of Jesus Christ, and the strength of the Holy Ghost shall be entirely lost and thrown away on me, poor sinner. Finally, whoever swears falsely speaks as if he said, as I swear false to-day, so do I make myself guilty of this judgment, that my soul, which is indicated by the fourth finger, and my body, which is indicated by the fifth finger, shall be separated from every claim of the All Holy, and be deprived eternally and forever of the refreshing sight of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hereby can every Christian perceive and understand what is the meaning and effect of a false oath, and take heed against it, for the salvation of the soul. God guard us all eternally and forever from sorrow and grief: Amen!”

The Landsgemeinde at Uri is attended with much more display and elaborate ceremonial than that of Appenzell, and a description of it is here taken from Mr. Freeman’s essay on the “Growth of the English Constitution:”

“It is one of the opening days of May; it is the morning of Sunday; for men there deem that the better the day the better the deed; they deem that the Creator cannot be more truly honored than in using, in his sphere and in his presence, the highest of the gifts which he has bestowed on man. From the market-place of Altdorf, the little capital of the Canton, the procession makes its way to the place of meeting at Bözlingen. First marches the little army of the Canton, an army whose weapons never can be used save to drive back an invader from their lands. Over their heads floats the banner, the bull’s head of Uri, the ensign which led men to victory on the fields of Sempach and Morgarten. And before them all, on the shoulders of men clad in a garb of ages past, are borne the famous horns50 whose blast struck such dread into the fearless heart of Charles of Burgundy. Then, with their lictors before them, come the magistrates of the commonwealth on horseback, the chief magistrate, the Landammann, with his sword by his side. The people follow the chiefs whom they have chosen to the place of meeting, a circle in a green meadow, with a pine forest rising above their head, and a mighty spur of the mountain-range facing them on the other side of the valley. The multitude of freemen take their seats around the chief ruler of the commonwealth, whose term of office comes that day to an end. The assembly opens; a short space is first given to prayer, silent prayer, offered up by each man in the temple of God’s own rearing. Then comes the business of the day. Thus year by year, on some bright morning of the springtide, the sovereign people, not intrusting its rights to a few of its own number, but discharging them itself in the majesty of its corporate person, meets in the open market-place or in the green meadow at the mountain’s foot, to frame the laws to which it yields obedience as its own work, to choose rulers whom it can afford to greet with reverence as drawing their commission from itself. You may there gaze and feel what none can feel but those who have seen with their own eyes, what none can feel in its fulness more than once in a lifetime, the thrill of looking for the first time face to face on freedom in its purest and most ancient form.”

The Landsgemeinde exercises two equally important functions. First, it elects the principal officers of the Canton, the Landammann and his substitute, the treasurer, and the chief of the cantonal militia; it also appoints the deputies for the Federal Assembly. These cantonal functionaries are paid but nominally; their duties are light, and the small claim which they make on the individual causes them to appear a universal duty of the citizen. It belongs to the Landsgemeinde to sanction all cantonal laws, and all treaties which are concluded with other Cantons or with foreign states. With the exception of Glarus, the legislative power is exercised in this sense, that it accepts or rejects as a whole the propositions which are made to it, without the power to introduce changes in them. In Glarus the constitution invests the Landsgemeinde with power to modify or reject the propositions which are made to it, or refer them to the triple council finally, either to report on them or to decide. The constitution of Glarus also contains this provision: “The people are responsible only to God and their consciences for the exercise of their sovereignty in the May Assembly. What must guide the May Assembly is not, however, caprice without limit and without condition; it is justice and the good of the state which are alone compatible with it. The people are obliged to vote according to these principles in taking annually the oath of the May Assembly.” In all of the Cantons, having these assemblies, the proposition to be submitted must be made public a certain time in advance. The administrative power is ordinarily confided to quite a numerous council, called Rath or Landrath. The functions of this body are extensive. It watches over the enforcement of the constitution, federal and cantonal; regulates in their general organization public instruction, financial, military, and sanitary administration, public works, charity, except the legal provisions regarding the province and obligations of inferior authorities; receives the reports of the administration of all the functionaries of the Canton; deliberates upon the proposed laws to be presented to the Landsgemeinde, through the intermediary of the triple council; and watches over the execution of what the laws or decrees of the Landsgemeinde prescribe to it. In Nidwald the council has, besides, judicial function. In Glarus, Uri, and Obwald there have been organized, side by side with the Landrath, special authorities to which have been transferred all the judicial functions formerly granted to the Landrath. About the Landrath are grouped various bodies, evidently formed from it by addition or reduction. The double and the triple or Great Council are nothing but the council of the Landrath itself, doubled or tripled by the addition of new members, whom the territorial divisions appoint in the same manner and in the same proportion as the first. In Glarus, for example, each local assembly (tagwen) adds two members to the one which it appoints to form a simple council. Thus the triple council is composed there of one hundred and seventeen members, as follows:

(1) Of the nine members of the Commission of State.

(2) Of thirty-five members appointed by the tagwen following fixed proportions.

(3) Of seventy members appointed by the same assemblies, following the same proportions.

(4) Finally, of three Catholic members, appointed by the same council, and of which one forms a part.51

The principal functions of the triple council are to watch over the council and the tribunal, to establish the project of the budget of receipts and expenditures, and to convoke the Landsgemeinde in extraordinary assembly. The process of addition is applied in many ways in Appenzell-interior; it is applied in particular to the little council, which is charged with the principal judicial powers. This body judges sometimes as a weekly council; it is then only a section of the little council; sometimes with a simple addition, again with the reinforced addition. Finally, with a last reinforcement, it forms what is called the council of blood (Blutrath). As there are councils formed by addition, so there are others formed by reduction, as, for example, the weekly council of Unterwald-lower. It is appointed by the Great Council (Landrath) and chosen from its body. It is the executive, administrative, and police authority, subordinated to the Great Council. It is composed of the Landammann, as President, and of twelve members appointed for two years. It assembles in ordinary session on Monday of each week, and in extraordinary session, when convoked by the President, and as often as there is need. The third and remaining authority in this pure democracy is the Commission of State. It is appointed by the Landsgemeinde, and replaces the council, for affairs of lesser importance. In Glarus this commission is divided into two sections, to expedite business. The first is composed of all the members of the commission; and the second, of three members, the President included, alternating among themselves after a manner of rotation, established by the commission. The first section (or the commission in pleno) is charged with the correspondence of foreign states, the federal authority, and the Confederate states; with giving preliminary advice upon questions referred to it, or even with deciding them by the council. The second section is charged with the ratification of deeds of sale and of wills, with decisions upon the prolongation of the terms for the liquidation of bankrupt estates, etc. The Commission of State of Appenzell-exterior has also the surveillance of the administration of the Communes. The Landammann presides over the Landsgemeinde, the double or triple council, the council or Landrath, and the Commission of State. He receives all the despatches addressed to the authorities presided over by him, and he is bound to make them known at the next session. He keeps the seal of state, signs and seals concordats and conventions. He watches over the execution of the decrees of the Landsgemeinde, the Councils, and the Commission of State, in so far as the execution is not intrusted to a special authority. The re-election of the Landammann is universal; and the office, though always filled by an annual selection, becomes almost hereditary in a single family.

Customs still exercise a considerable empire in these Cantons, and the Landsgemeinde makes but few laws; there is none of the confusion and uncertainty that come from a multiplicity of laws; a source to which was imputed a great part of the miseries suffered by the Romans at the time when “the laws grew to be innumerable in the worst and most corrupt state of things.”52 The people of these Cantons fill the idea of Bacon, as to innovation, “to follow the example of time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but quietly and by degrees scarce to be perceived.” Changes in established institutions must be considered in reference to existing interests, habits, manners, and modes of thinking. In vain should we try to promote the common weal by introducing alterations, however well designed, which have no hold on the feelings of the people, or are at variance with them, or which shock their deeply-seated prejudices. There are two different considerations involved: the propriety of retaining institutions merely because they have been sanctioned by our ancestors, or transmitted to us through a series of ages; and the propriety of retaining them because they are strongly settled in the actual habits, tastes, and prejudices of the people. While it would argue extreme imbecility, to spare cumbrous or hurtful institutions on no better ground than the former, it is absolutely indispensable to pay a cautious regard to the latter. The existing habits, tastes, and prejudices of the community, equally with the universal properties of human nature, are material elements of the politician’s calculations. They are all sources of pleasure and pain, all springs of action which call, on his part, for tender handling and accurate appreciation. There is scarcely a question in the whole compass of politics on which there is a greater unanimity among philosophers and statesmen than there is on the policy of cautious and gradual, in opposition to rash and sudden, reforms on the one hand, and to a pertinacious retention of incongruities and abuses on the other. As to the improvements which are to be introduced into a political system, their quantity and their period must be determined by the degree of knowledge existing in any country, and the state of preparation of the public mind for the changes that are to be desired. A passage in the correspondence of Mr. Jefferson contains a highly instructive exposition of his opinion on this subject, expressed in his happiest manner: “I am certainly,” says he, “not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne, because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened; as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions changed with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times.” It is well to stand fast in the old paths; but the old paths should be the paths of progress; to shrink from mere change for the sake of change; but fearlessly to change, whenever change is really needed. All mountain races love the past, and suspect new things. Their fundamental laws are few and slowly formed; as slowly formed as they are stoutly held. The constitutions of the Swiss Cantons were originally of the simplest forms of ancient democracy. The old democracy, whether absolute or modified in form, was always direct; modern democracy is, as a rule, representative. It is obvious that the former presupposes great simplicity of life and occupation, as in the small communities of mountain valleys; nothing could render it consistent with the public peace, but the simple habits of a people of shepherds and husbandmen among whom political dissensions do not prevail. This substitution of the many for the one or the few, of the totality of the community for a determinate portion of it, is an experiment perhaps of insuperable difficulty, except for very small states, and especially for agricultural or pastoral peoples. The Landsgemeinde is only able, at most, to announce the general opinion, to express its approval or its disapproval of a proposition already known; but altogether incapable of deliberating seriously on a projected law, or of solving the more complicated problems of politics. On a wider field and with a more complex society, no such polity would be possible. To a great nation with extended territories and large population, the application of the federal principle is necessary. Therefore in all but four Cantons of Switzerland this primitive type of government has passed away. That it contains the germs out of which every free constitution in the world has grown cannot be denied. A cognate influence, if well considered, will go far towards accounting for that prodigious resolution and success with which the ancient commonwealths maintained their national rights. The whole territories of the Athenian, Spartan, and Roman republics, were originally but a single province; and the whole strength of the province was concentrated in a single city, the embryo of their future greatness, the nucleus around which all their subsequent acquisitions were formed. Within the sacred walls of Rome and Athens, all classes of citizens assembled like one great united family; they lived, they consulted, they transacted business together, and together repaired for public debate or religious devotion, for manly amusement, or philosophical speculation, to the forum or the temple, the circus or the portico. Virtuous emulation was roused, the force of public opinion increased, and the importance of the individual in the general scale visibly exalted. The Landsgemeinde is self-government in its noblest reach and simplest form, where every man is legislator, judge, and executive. What rare simplicity! No wrangling after power, no intrigue after place, no lust for fame; one thought alone, to live just as their fathers did, in perfect liberty, and fearing none but God. These simple democracies in the Cantons of Switzerland, which have existed for a thousand years, little touched by the stream of European life, deserve our respect for their long history that is rich in many episodes, and for the peaceful and happy existence of their people. They furnish us with a bit of realistic political education, a successful working example of the purest democracy in the world. It throbs with a vital sense of government at first hands; every citizen a very live political entity, and the sense of government very individual. Obstinately conservative, with a profound disbelief in theory, they remind one of the ox, which walks straightforward with a slow, heavy, and firm tread. They take no stock in the fallacy, that a new system, political or social, can be ordered like a new suit of clothes, and would as soon think of ordering a new suit of flesh and skin. With sincere satisfaction and pride, they are given to exclaim, “Thanks to our sublime resistance to innovations; thanks to the cold sluggishness of our national character, we still bear the stamp of our forefathers:”