Democracy in America is a sociology book on Jacksonian-era American democracy written by the French political scientist and philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville. It was published in two volumes in 1835 and 1840, and it covered Alexis de Tocqueville and his colleague Gustave de Beaumont's travels and studies in the United States from their arrival in New York City in May 1831 to their return to France in February 1832. The book examined America's religious, political, and economic character, and how these factors enabled democracy and republicanism to succeed in the United States, while it had failed in France after the short-lived French Revolution.
Summary[]
Introduction[]
American democracy[]
De Tocqueville introduced his book by declaring, "Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people." He proceeded to explain that America's egalitarianism gave "a peculiar direction to public opinion, and a peculiar tenor to the laws; it imparts new maxims to the governing authorities, and peculiar habits to the governed." He then stated his perception that the influence of egalitarianism extended far beyond the political character and the laws of the country, and that "this equality of condition is the fundamental fact from which all others seem to be derived." Tocqueville compared America's democratic culture to Europe's state of affairs, observing that American democracy appeared to be rapidly rising into power in Europe, albeit not in the extreme limit.
Evolution of democracy in France[]
Looking at his own country, France, De Tocqueville recalled that, 700 years ago (the 12th century), France was divided amongst a small number of landholders and families, followed by the establishment of the political power of the clergy, whose own egalitarian nature (in terms of opening their ranks to all classes) led to the complication of the relations of men with each other. He also recalled, "Whilst the kings were ruining themselves by their great enterprises, and the nobles exhausting their resources by private wars, the lower orders were enriching themselves by commerce. The influence of money began to be perceptible in state affairs." The "diffusion of intelligence, and the increasing taste for literature and art, caused learning and talent to become a means of government; mental ability led to social power, and the man of letters took a part in the affairs of the state." As new avenues to power were discovered, the value attached to high birth declined, and nobles often granted power to the common people to diminish the power of their rivals. By the 18th century, "The taste for luxury, the love of war, the empire of fashion, and the most superficial as well as the deepest passions of the human heart, seemed to cooperate to enrich the poor and to impoverish the rich."
The Hundred Years' War, which resulted in the culling of the French nobility
As the Crusades and the English wars had decimated the nobles and divided their possessions, the municipal corporations "introduced democratic liberty into the bosom of feudal monarchy; the invention of firearms equalized the vassal and the noble on the field of battle; the art of printing opened the same resources to the minds of all classes; the post office brought knowledge alike to the door of the cottage and to the gate of the palace; and Protestantism proclaimed that all men are alike able to find the road to heaven. The discovery of America opened a thousand new paths to fortune, and led obscure adventurers to wealth and power." De Tocqueville concluded that a twofold revolution had taken place in French society from the 11th century to the 19th century, with the noble going down on the social ladder as the commoner went up; he also concluded that "every half-century brings them nearer to each other, and they will soon meet."
God and democracy[]
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, a French Roman Catholic abbot and staunch supporter of the French Revolution
De Tocqueville noted that this phenomenon of social equalization was not peculiar to France, arguing that, "Whithersoever we turn our eyes, we perceive the same revolution going on throughout the Christian world." He stated that the gradual development of the principle of equality was "a providential fact", as it was durable, universal, constantly eluded all human interference, and all events and men contributed to its progress. De Tocqueville then euqstioned "Would it, then, be wise to imagine that a social movement, the causes of which lie so far back, can be checked by the efforts of one generation? Can it be believed that the democracy which has overthrown the feudal system, and vanquished kings, will retreat before tradesmen and capitalists? Will it stop now that it had grown so strong, and its adversaries so weak?" De Tocqueville theorized that the conditions of men were more equal in the Christian world than ever before or anywhere else in the world, and said that the magnitude of this prevented him from foreseeing what was yet to be accomplished. He also inferred that the world's democratic evolution was God's will, arguing that, "...The planets will move in the orbits traced by the Creator's hand...To attempt to check democracy would be...to resist the will of God."
Failures of the French Revolution[]
A caricature of a sans-culotte extremist during the French Revolution
De Tocqueville then declared, "In no country in Europe has the great social revolution which I have just described made such rapid progress as in France; but it has always advanced without guidance." Reiterating his belief in democracy's unstoppable tide, De Tocqueville said that the heads of state had made no preparation for the French Revolution and its ideals, and that it had advanced without their consent or knowledge. "The most powerful, the most intelligent, and the most moral classes of the nation," De Tocqueville argued, "Have never attempted to take hold of it in order to guide it. The democracy has consequently been abandoned to its wild instincts, and it has grown up like those children who have no parental guidance, who receive their education in the public streetes, and who are acquainted only with the vices and wretchedness of society." Alluding to the threat of mob rule, De Tocqueville recalled how democracy suddenly acquired supreme power, and, "Everyone then submitted to its caprices; it was worshipped as the idol of strength; and when afterwards it was enfeebled by its own excesses, the legislator conceived the rash project of destroying it, instead of instructing it and correcting its vices. No attempt was made to fit it to govern, but all were bent on excluding it from the government." Because the educated elite of France had never made an attempt to learn about, and later lead democracy, De Tocqueville argued that democracy had been taken over by the uneducated, that democracy had been misguided, and that the National Convention ultimately decided to destroy democracy rather than attempt to fix it.
As a result, "the democratic revolution has taken place in the body of society, without that concomitant change in the laws, ideas, customs, and manners, which was necessary to render such a revolution beneficial. Thus we have a democracy, without anything to lessen its vices and bring out its natural advantages; and although we already perceive the evils it brings, we are ignorant of the benefits it may confer." However, De Tocqueville also argued that, while monarchs and aristocracies peaceably governed the nations of Europe, society had several sources of happiness "which can now scarcely be conceived or appreciated." The rise of democratic ideals led to the collapse of the obligation-based system of feudalism, and, "Inequality and wretchedness were then to be found in society; but the souls of neither rank of men were degraded." De Tocqueville added that "Gradually the distinctions of rank are done away; the barriers which once severed mankind are falling down; property is divided, power is shared by many, the light of intelligence spreads, and the capacities of all classes are equally cultivated."
The Threat of Class Warfare and Mob Rule[]
The radical Jacobin mob preparing to execute the middle-class moderate Georges Danton and his allies
De Tocqueville then warned, "The spell of royalty is broken, but it has not been succeeded by the majesty of the laws. The people have learned to despise all authority, but they still fear it; and fear now extorts more than was formerly paid from reverence and love." He also warned that supporters of democracy had destroyed the powers which were single-handedly able to cope with tyranny, and that government inherited the privileges of which families, corporations, and individuals had been deprived." In addition, he warned that the power of a small number of persons (which "if it was sometimes oppressive, was often conservative") had succeeded the weakness of the whole community. The division of property lessened the distance which separated the rich from the poor, but, the nearer the classes drew to each other, the greater was their mutual hatred, envy, and dread. He added, "The idea of Right does not exist for either party, and Force affords to both the only argument for the present, and the only guarantee for the future. The poor man retains the prejudices of his forefathers without their faith, and their ignorance without their virtues; he has adopted the doctrine of self-interest as the rule of his actions, without understanding the science which puts it to use; and his selfishness is no less blind than was formerly his devotedness to others." He then warned, "If society is tranquil, it is not because it is conscious of its strength and its well-being, but because it fears its weakness and its infirmities; a single effort may cost it its life. Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure. The desires, the repinings, the sorrows, and the joys of the present time lead to no visible or permanent results, like the passions of old men, which terminate in impotence."
French revolutionaries publicly flaunting a severed head
De Tocqueville concluded, "We have, then, abandoned whatever advantages the old state of things afforded, without receiving any compensation from our present condition; we have destroyed an aristocracy, and we seem inclined to survery its ruins with complacency, and to fix our abode in the midst of them." He also lamented, with regard to the instability brought about by the failed revolution, "The democracy of France, hampered in its course or abandoned to its lawless passions, has overthrown whatever crossed its path, and has shaken all that it has not destroyed. Its empire has not been gradually introduced, or peaceably established, but it has constantly advanced in the midst of the disorders and agitations of such a conflict." He added, "I can recall nothing in history more worthy of sorrow and pity, than the scenes which are passing under our eyes. It is as if the natural bond which unites the opinions of man to his tastes, and his actions to his principles, was now broken; the sympathy which has always been observed between the feelings and the ideas of mankind appears to be dissolved, and all the laws of moral analogy to be abolished."
The Threat of Anti-Clericalism[]
A French revolutionary caricature of priestly opulence
With regard to Christianity, De Tocqueville noted that, while "Christianity, which has declared that all men are equal in the sight of God, will not refused to acknowledge that all citizens are equal in the eye of the law," "...Religion has been for a time entangled with those institutions which democracy assails; and it is not unfrequently brought to reject the equality which it loves, and to curse that cause of liberty as a foe, for whose efforts it might hallow by its alliance." De Tocqueville declared that, "Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith." However, he noted that secular supporters of liberty saw religion in the ranks of their adversaries and inquired no further; "some of them attack it openly, and the remainder are afraid to defend it."
Hypocrisy of Slave-owners[]
A viral 2019 tweet identifying the slaveholding "Founding Fathers" of the United States (34/47 of them)
De Tocqueville then attacked slavery, arguing "In former ages, slavery was advocated by the venal and slavish-minded, whilst the independent and the warmhearted were struggling without hope to save the liberties of mankind." He contrasted these feudal overlords with "Men of high and generous characters...whose opinions are at variance with their inclinations...who praise that servility which they have themselves never known...speak of liberty as if they were able to feel its sanctity and majesty, and loudly claim for humanity those rights which they have always refused to acknowledge." He also lamented, "There are virtuous and peaceful individuals whose pure morality, quiet habits, opulence, and talents fit them to be the leaders of the surrounding population. Their love of country is sincere, and they are ready to make the greatest sacrifices for its welfare. But civilization often finds them among its opponents; they confound its abuses with its benefits, and the idea of evil is inseparable in their minds from that of novelty." He compared these misguided patriots to, "others, whose object is to materialize mankind," who would "hit upon what is expedient without heeding what is just, to acquire knowledge without faith, and prosperity apart from virtue; claiming to be the champions of modern civilization, they place themselves arrogantly at its head, usurping a place which is abandoned to them, and of which they are wholly unworthy."
Vision of America[]
An American family during the early republic
De Tocqueville then rhetorically asked, "Where are we, then?", noting "The religionists are the enemies of liberty, and the friends of liberty attack religion; the high-minded and the noble advocate bondage, and the meanest and most servile preach independence; honest and enlightened citizens are opposed to all progress, whilst men without patriotism and without principle put themselves forward as the apostles of civilization and intelligence." De Tocqueville questioned if this situation was the fate of the centuries of democratic development, but he stated his religious belief that, "I cannot believe that the Creator made man to leave him in an endless struggle with the intellectual miseries which surround us. God destines a calmer and a more certain future to the communities of Europe. I am ignorant of his designs, but I shall not cease to believe in them, and I had rather mistrust my own capacity than his justice." He then laid the exposition for the rest of his book: "There is a country in the world where the great social revolution which I am speaking of seems to have nearly reached its natural limits. It has been effected with ease and quietness; say rather that this country is reaping the fruits of the democratic revolution which we are undergoing, without having had the revolution itself."
He then described the founding of America, saying, "The emigrants who colonized the shores of America in the beginning of the seventeenth century somehow separated the democratic principle from all the principles which it had to contend with in the old communities of Europe, and transplanted it alone to the New World. It has there been able to spread in perfect freedom, and peaceably to determine the character of the laws by influencing the manners of the country." He then said that, "It appears to me beyond a doubt that, sooner or later, we shall arrive, like the Americans, at an almost complete equality of condition." However, he posited that the rest of the world would not be led to draw the same political consequences which the Americans had derived from a similar social organization, and said that he was "far from supposing that they have chosen the only form og voernment which a democracy may adopt; but as the generative cause of laws and manners in the two countries is the same, it is of immese interest for us to know what it has produced in each of them."
Purpose of the Examination[]
A New Yorker caricature of De Tocqueville in America
De Tocqueville proceeded to describe the reasons why he examined America, namely "to find there instruction by which we may ourselves profit." He said that he did not intend to write a "panegyric", adding, "nor has it been my object to advocate any form of government in particular, for I am of opinion that absolute excellence is rarely to be found in any system of laws. I have not even pretended to judge whether the social revolution, which I believe to be irresistible, is advantageous or prejudicial to mankind. I have acknowledged this revolution as a fact already accomplished, or on the eve of its accomplishment; and I have selected the nation...in which its development has been the most peaceful and the most complete...to find out, if possible, the means of rendering it profitable to mankind." He then wrote, "I confess that, in America, I saw more than America; I sought there the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress." De Tocqueville then stated that, in the first part of his work, he attempted to show the direction given to the laws by the democracy of America, "which is abandoned almost without restraint to its instinctive propensities", and to describe how it impacted American government and public affairs. He also "sought to discover the evils and the advantages which it brings," describing how he examined the precautions used by the Americans to direct it, as well as those which they had not adopted. While he said that he might not have succeeded in making known what he saw in America, he was "certain that such has been my sincere desire, and that I have never, knowingly, moulded facts to ideas, instead of ideas to facts. He also noted that he had cited his authorities in the notes for anyone to refer to them, and that he had always consulted the most enlightened men when writing about opinions, political customs, or remarks on the manners of the country.
Volume One[]
Chapter One: Exterior Form of North America[]
Location of the Mississippi River
De Tocqueville described North America as divided into two vast regions, one inclining towards the Pole, and the other toward the Equator; it had "a sort of methodical order" which seemed to have regulated the separation of land and water, mountains and valleys. He noted that the space which lay between the Allegheny Mountains and the Rockies was six times the size of France, but the vast territory formed a single valley, which the French had formerly called the "St. Louis", and the Native Americans "in their pompous language" had named it the "Father of Waters", or the Mississippi. The river watered over 2,500 miles in its course, and 57 large navigable rivers contributed to the Mississippi, including the 2,500-mile Missouri, the 1,300-mile Arkansas, the 1,000-mile Red River, the 959-mile Ohio, and the Illinois, St. Peter's, St. Francis, and Des Moines, which each stretched from 800 to 1,000 miles in length. De Tocqueville marveled that "The valley which is watered by the Mississippi seems to have been created for it alone, and there, like a god of antiquity, the river dispenses both good and evil," namely the fertile land near the stream and the poor soil further inland. De Tocqueville described the Mississippi Valley as "the most magnificent dwelling-place prepared by God for man's abode," but noted "it may be said that at present it is but a mighty desert."
The "Tidewater" region which De Tocqueville described as a "tongue of arid land"
He then mentioned that, on the eastern side of the Alleghenies, there was a long ridge of rocks and sand left behind as the sea retired, noting that it had soil which offered every obstacle to the husbandman, and its vegetation was scanty and unvaried. Upon that coast, the first united efforts of human industry were maid, and, "This tongue of arid land was the cradle of those English colonies which were destined one day to become the United States of America. The center of power still remains here; whilst in the rear of it the true elements of the great people to whom the future control of the continent belongs are gathering almost in secrecy together."
Trees on a Caribbean island
De Tocqueville then recalled how, when the Europeans first landed in the Caribbean and on the coast of South America, "they thought themselves transported into those fabulous regions of which poets had sung. The sea sparkled with phosphoric light, and the extraordinary transparency of its waters discovered to the view of the navigator all the depths of the abyss...Every object which met the sight, in this enchanting region, seemed prepared to satisfy the wants or contribute to the pleasures of man." He mentioned the nourishing fruits of almost all th etrees, as well as the beauty of the groves of fragrant lemon trees, wild figs, flowering myrtles, acacias, and oleanders, which were covered with flowers and home to birds who "displayed their bright plumage, glittering with purple and azure, and mingled their warbling with the harmony of a world teeming with life and motion." De Tocqueville then lamented, "Underneath this brilliant exterior, death was concealed. But this fact was not then known, and the air of these climates had so enervating an influence, that man, absorbed by present enjoyment, was rendered regardless of the future."
A Pre-Columbian Native American village
De Tocqueville proceeded to contrast the Caribbean with North America, saying, "There, everything was grave, serious, and solemn; it seemed created to be the domain of intelligence, as the South was that of sensual delight. A turbulent and foggy ocean washed its shores. It was girt round by a belt of granitic rocks, or by wide tracts of sand. The foliage of its woods was dark and gloomy; for they were composed of firs, larches, evergreen oaks, wild olive trees, and laurels." He also described the thick shades of the central forests, the mingling of the different trees, and the perpetual destruction occurring in North America's forests just as in the Old World, as the ruins of vegetation heaped upon each other, and there was no laboring to remove them. He added, "These immense deserts were not, however, wholly untenanted by men. Some wandering tribes had been for ages scattered among the forest shades or the green pastures of the prairie. From the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the Delta of the Mississippi, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, these savages possessed certain points of resemblance which bore witness of their common origin: but at the same time, they differed from all other known races of men; they were neither white like the Europeans, nor yellow like most of the Asiatics, nor black like the negroes. Their skin was reddish brown, their hair long and shining, their lips thin, and their cheekbones very prominent. The languages spoken by the North American tribes were various as far as regarded their words, but they were subject to the same grammatical rules."
Native Americans praying around a fire, 1585
He also contrasted the social state of the Native tribes from those seen in the Old World, noting, "They seem to have multiplied freely in the midst of their deserts, without coming in contact with other races more civilized than their own. Accordingly, they exhibited none of those indistinct, incoherent notions of right and wrong, none of that deep corruption of manners, which is usually joined with ignorance and rudeness among nations who, after advancing to civilization, have relapsed into a state of barbarism. The Indian was indebted to no one but himself; his virtues, his vices, and his prejudices were his own work; he had grown up in the wild independence of his nature." He stated his belief that, in "polished countries", the lowest of the people were rude and uncivil not merely because they were "poor and ignorant", but because they were in daily contact with "rich and enlightened men", "excit(ing) in their hearts at the same time the sentiments of anger and fear..." De Tocqueville concluded that, "This unfortunate effect of the disparity of conditions is not observable in savage life: the Indians, although they are ignorant and poor, are equal and free."
Native attack on Jamestown in 1622
De Tocqueville then described the first contact of the Europeans and the Native Americans, stating, "the Natives of North America were ignorant of the value of riches, and indifferent to the enjoyments which civilized man procures to himself by their means. Nevertheless there was nothing coarse in their demeanor; they practiced a habitual reserve, and a kind of aristocratic politeness." He described the Indians as "Mild and hospitable when at peace, though merciless in war beyond any known degree of human ferocity," adding, "The famous republics of antiquity never gave examples of more unshaken courage, more haughty spirit, or more intractable love of independence, than were hidden in former times among the wild forests of the New World." In spite of these harsh characterizations of Native Americans, De Tocqueville wrote, "The Indian could live without wants, suffer without complaint, and pour out his death-song at the stake. Like all the other members of the great human family, these seavages believed in the existence of a better world, and adored, under different names, God, the creator of the universe. Their notions on the great intellectual truths were in general simple and philosophical."
The migration routes of the Ancient Americans
De Tocqueville then recalled an obscure tradition of the Native American tribes which "informs us that these very tribes formerly dwelt on the west side of the Mississippi. Along the banks of the Ohio, and throughout the central valley, there are frequently found, at thi sday, tumuli raised by the hands of men. On exploring these heaps of earth to their center, it is usual to meet with human bones, strange instruments, arms and utensils of all kinds, made of metal, and destined for purposes unknown to the present race." He lamented that, "The Indians of our time are unable to give any information relative to the history of this unknown people. Neither did those who lived three hundred years ago, when America was first discovered, leave any accounts from which even a hypothesis could be formed. Tradition - that perishable yet ever renewed monument of the pristine world - throws no light upon the subject." However, he deduced that, "in this part of the globe thousands of our fellow-beings once lived. When they came hither, what was their origin, their destiny, their history, when and how they perished, no one can tell."
Abandoned Native cliff dwellings at Chaco Canyon
De Tocqueville marveled at the disappearance of the Ancient American peoples, writing, "How strange does it appear that nations have existed, and afterwards so completely disappeared from the earth that the memory even of their names if effaced! Their languages are lost; their glory is vanished like a sound without an echo; though perhaps there is not one which has not left behind it some tomb in memory of its passage. Thus the most durable monument of human labor is that which recalls the wretchedness and nothingness of man." He then noted that, while much of the continent was once inhabited by Indians, by the time that the Europeans had arrived, their lands formed "one great desert". He wrote, "Their implacable prejudices, their uncontrolled passions, their vices, and still more, perhaps, their savage virtues, consigned them to inevitable destruction. The ruin of these tribes began from the day when Europeans landed on their shores: it has proceeded ever since, and we are now witnessing the completion of it. They seem to have been placed by Providence amidst the riches of the New World only to enjoy them for a season; they were there merely to wait till others came." De Tocqueville then expressed his belief that America was designed by God to be its own great nation: "Those coasts, so admirably adapted for commerce and industry; those wide and deep rivers; that inexhaustible valley of the Mississippi; the whole continent, in short, seemed prepared to be the abode of a great nation yet unborn. In that land the great experiment was to be made, by civilized man, of the attempt to construct society upon a new basis; and it was there, for the first time, that theories hitherto unknown, or deemed impracticable, were to exhibit a spectacle for which the world had not been prepared by the history of the past."
Chapter Two: Origin of the Anglo-Americans, and Importance of this Origin in Relation to their Future Condition[]
De Tocqueville began his second chapter by remarking on how the idea of a child being spent in the toils or pleasures of childhood, being received by the world as he grew up, and developing his vices and virtues when he was first studied was "a great error". Instead, De Tocqueville proposed that one must begin higher up by watching the infnat in his mother's arms, seeing the first images which the external world cast upon "the dark mirror of his mind", and his other earliest traits in order to judge him; he argued, "The entire man is, so to speak, to be seen in the cradle of the child." He then stated that the growth of nations presented something analogous to that idea, as they all bore some marks of their origin.
De Tocqueville then posited that "America is the only country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society, and where the influence exercised on the future condition of states by their origin is clearly distinguishable. At the period when the peoples of Europe landed in the New World, their national characteristics were already completely formed, and they already knew how to study themselves and develop opinions, manners, and laws. He argued that America consequently exhibited "in the broad light of day the phenomena which the ignorance or rudeness of earlier ages conceals from our researches." He then emphasized, "If we carefully examine the social and political state of America, after having studied its history, we shall remain perfectly convinced that not an opinion, not a custom, not a law, I may even say not an event, is upon record which the origin of that people will not explain." He proceeded to explain that, while the emigrants who came at different periods to settle in the United States came from many different backgrounds and nations, they had certain features in common, as they were all placed in an analogous situation, spole a common language, and had a common English heritage which included the township system and the sovereignty of the people. He then added that the Spanish and French also established themselves in the New World with the elements, if not the development, of a complete democracy, as the emigrants had no notion of superiority over one another upon leaving their home countries, and also because there was no medieval aristocracy in the New World, but land broken up into small portions which would instead by inherited by landed property-holders rather than aristocrats of historical privilege.
Virginia colonists in the early 17th century
De Tocqueville then described the discernible differences between the two branches of Anglo-American society, one in the American South, and the other in New England. Virginia was settled by English colonists in 1607, and the men sent to Virginia were "seekers of gold, adventurers without resources and without character, whose turbulent and restless spirit endangered the infant colony, and rendered its progress uncertain...although they were a more moral and orderly race of men, they were hardly in any respect above the level of the inferior classes in England."
Map of 17th-century New England
He contrasted these settlers with the English colonists of the North, more generally known as New England, positing that it was there that the two or three main ideas which constituted the basis of American social theory were first combined. These principles spread at first to the neighboring states, and then to the more distant ones, interpenetrating the whole confederation; he compared New England to a "beacon lit upon a hill, which, after it has diffused its warmth immediately around it, also tinges the distant horizon with its glow." De Tocqueville called the foundation of New England a "novel spectacle", as, while most colonies were first inhabited by "men without education and without resources, driven by their poverty and their misconduct from the land which gave them birth, or be speculators and adventurers of greedy gain," (such as the buccaneer colony of Santo Domingo and the prison island of Australia), the settlers who founded New England came from "the more independent classes of their native country...These men possessed, in proportion to their number, a greater mass of intelligence than is to be found in any European nation of our own time. All, perhaps without a single exception, had received a good education, and many of them were known in Europe for their talents and their acquirements. The other colonies had been founded by adventurers without families; the emigrants of New England brought with them the best elements of order and morality; they landed on the desert coast accompanied by their wives and children." He also added that the aim of their undertaking was also important, as they were obliged not by necessity to leave their country, but because of persecution by the government of their mother country for their Puritanism, which De Tocqueville described as "not merely a religious doctrine, but it corresponded in many points with the most absolute democratic and republican theories."
Puritan settlers in New England
De Tocqueville then quoted the historian Nathaniel Morton, who quoted the Bible and attributed the Pilgrims' happiness to God. He also recalled how the 150 Pilgrims had left the Netherlands and founded the Plymouth Colony on the arid coast of New England, and argued that their faith was "scarcely less a political than a religious doctrine." He again quoted Morton, who described the Puritans' constitution of a society in 1620. From 1620 on, the emigration went on, with the religious and political passions which ravaged the British empire during the reign of King Charles I driving fresh crowds of sectarians every year to the shores of America. In England, the stronghold of Puritanism continued to be in the middle classes, and it was from the middle classes that most of the emigrants came. New England's population increased rapidly, and it "approximated more and more the novel spectacle of a community homogeneous in all its parts. A democracy, more perfect than antiquity had dared to dream of, started in full size and panoply from the midst of an ancient feudal society." He also noted that the English government was not dissatisfied with a large emigration which removed "the elements of fresh discord and further revolutions", and that the government had actually done everything to encourage emigration, having "no anxiety about the destiny of those who sought a shelter on the soil of America from the rigor of their laws." He glowingly called New England, "A region given up to the dreams of fancy, and the unrestrained experiments of innovators."
A Pilgrim family
De Tocqueville noted that the English colonies had always enjoyed more internal freedom and more political independence than the colonies of other nations, and that principle of liberty was nowhere more extensively applied than in New England. He then described the practice of granting certain tracts from the crown to individuals or companies, granting protection to their settlers, and appointing governors loyal to the King. In 1628, a charter of that kind, favorable to liberty, was adopted in New England. Plymouth, Providence, New Haven, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were founded without the help, and almost without the knowledge, of England, however, and the new settlers derived their powers from their own society until King Charles II of England recognized their existence by a royal charter thirty or forty years later. He added that the New Englanders exercised the rights of sovereignty, named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws "as if their allegiance was due only to God," creating the "solution of the great social problem which the United States now present to the world is to be found." Amongst the documents was the code of laws promulgated by Connecticut in 1650, which borrowed its provisions from the text of Holy Writ; it included the death sentence for worshipping any other God than the Lord, ten or twelve enactments of the same kind copied from Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Blasphemy, sorcery, adultery, and rape were punished by death, was was an outrage offered by a son to his parents. De Tocqueville claimed that the chief care of the legislators was the maintenance of orderly conduct and good morals, meaning that they "constantly invaded the domain of conscience". He attributed the errors to human reason, which attested "the inferiority of our nature, which is incapable of laying firm hold upon what is true and just, and is often reduced to the alternative of two excesses."
The Agora of Athens, mentioned by De Tocqueville as a germ of early township democracy
De Tocqueville further examined the Connecticut Colony, noting that its electoral body consisted, from its origin, of the whole number of citizens; at the same time, there was "an almost perfect equality of fortune, and a still greater uniformity of opinions." All the executive functionaries, including the Governor, were elected, and the citizens above the age of sixteen formed a national militia which appointed its own officers and was always ready to march for the defense of the country. He also noted that Connecticut's laws provided "the germ and gradual development of that township independence, which is the life and mainspring of American liberty at the present day." He contrasted America from Europe, stating, "It may be said that the township was organized before the county, the county before the State, the State before the Union." By 1650, townships were completely and definitively constituted in New England, with local interests, passions, rights, and duties collecting and clinging to the independence of the township. The towns named their own magistrates and levied their own taxes, and De Tocqueville compared this to the discussion of ancient Athens' community affairs by a general assembly of the citizens at the market place.
De Tocqueville commended the early settlers for understanding the science of government and the advanced theory of legislation, as, in New England, the condition of the poor was provided for, strict measures were taken for the maintenance of roads, and surveyors were appointed to attend to them. In addition, records were established in every town to record the results of public deliberations, and the births, deaths, and marriages of citizens. Clerks were directed to keep the records, officers were charged with the administration of vacant inheritances and with the arbitration of litigated landmarks, and many others were created to maintain public order. De Tocqueville praised this system, claiming, "The law enters into a thousand various details to anticipate and satisfy a crowd of social wants which are even now very inadequately felt in France." He also argued that it was by the mandates relating to public education that the original character of American civilization was at once placed in the clearest light. "In America," De Tocqueville claimed, "religion is the road to knowledge, and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom." Meanwhile, in Europe, absolute monarchy had triumphed over the ruins of the oligarchical and feudal liberties of the Middle Ages, and the ideas of rights were overlooked.
De Tocqueville proceeded to put to rest his explanation of the character of Anglo-American civilization and propose that America's development was the result of two distinct elements (which often clashed elsewhere): religion and liberty. He recalled, "The settlers of New England were at the same time ardent sectarians and daring innovators. Narrow as the limits of some of their religious opinions were, they were free from all political prejudices." He described the Puritans as seeking with nearly equal zeal for material wealth and moral good, for well-being and freedom on earth and salvation in heaven, moulding and altering all political principles and human laws and institutions. He posited, "In the moral world, everything is classified, systematized, foreseen, and decided beforehand; in the political world, everything is agitated, disputed, and uncertain." With regard to the two earlier themes, De Tocqueville remarked on how "Religion perceives that civil liberty affords a noble exercise to the faculties of man, and that the political world is a field prepared by the Creator for the efforts of the mind...Liberty regards religion as its companion in all its battles and its triumphs - as the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims."
Issuing a disclaimer about his writings, De Tocqueville noted that, while the social condition, the religion, and the manners of the first emigrants undoubtedly exercised an immense influence on the destiny of their new country, they could not found a state of things originating solely in themselves, as they could not shake off the influence of the past, nor help mingling habits and notions derived from their education and their mother country's national traditions. He argued that one must distinguish between what was of Puritanical and what was of English origin when knowing and judging the Anglo-Americans of the 1830s. He criticized the idea of cash bail, as it was "hostile to the poor, and favorable only to the rich...Nothing can be more aristocratic than this system of legislation. Yet in America, it is the poor who make the lwa, and they usually reserve the greatest advantages of society to themselves. The explanation of the phenomenon is to be found in England; the laws of which I speak are English, and the Americans have retained them, although repugnant to the general tenor of their legislation and the mass of their ideas." He also argued that nations were least apt to change their civil legislation, which was familarly known only to lawyers, who sought to maintain them (good or bad) because they themselves were conversant with them. He then concluded, "The picture of American society has, if I may so speak, a surface-covering of democracy, beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep out."