De Tocqueville’s Eyes

In 1831-32, over a period of about seven months, French sociologist and political scientist, Alexis de Tocqueville toured the United States as it then was. He was attuned to its political, economic, and religious character and wrote extensively of his observations. The first part of that appeared in print in 1835, the second in 1840.

The modern English-language product is “Democracy in America,” Dover’s paperback edition (2017) being a daunting 559 page volume I, followed by 499 pages of volume II. I have worked through volume I; it is so relevant to the test of democracy in our times. But “Democracy in America” cannot be reduced to a single “The Magic Library Card!” essay. Sections through Chapter I, volume I, are enough for one essay, the present one.

Here are some of de Tocqueville’s profound observations, the first right on page 1.

“Amongst 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.” Of course, no mention of skin color yet, and there is a warning: “racial and cultural references that may be deemed offensive by modern standards.” This is 1835.

“I look back for a moment on the situation of France seven hundred years ago, when the territory was divided amongst a small number of families, who were the owners of the soil and the rulers of the inhabitants; the right of governing descended with the family inheritance from generation to generation; force was the only means by which man could act on man; and landed property was the sole source of power.” An age of kings and lesser nobles.

“In that land [America] 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.”

“The laws of the French republic may be, and ought to be, in many cases, different from those which govern the United States; but the principles on which the American constitutions [federal and state] rest, - those principles of order, of the balance of powers, of true liberty, of deep and sincere respect for right, - are indispensable to all republics; they ought to be common to all; and it may be said beforehand, that wherever they shall not be found, the republic will soon have ceased to exist.”

With just these few quotations as starters, how could one not wish to trek on through Alexis de Tocqueville’s grand view of America at that particular time in history. Even though it is flawed in respect to the racial bias of the times, or so the reader is forewarned, it does reflect a powerful insight into our origins and the Founding Fathers. The Founders were very much flawed, too. The Civil War and 13th through 15th amendments to the Constitution were yet to be.

Yet, serious flaws aside with respect to how white people viewed the world in the 1830s and before, and now, it is the underlying ideas of sovereignty and governance to which we all must cling. Alexis de Tocqueville gives us, irrespective of tribe, irrespective of lessons unlearned even now, a portal view at an earlier moment in American history.