Democracy In America, vol 1 | Page 4

and best plan of general
government that was ever devised for a free people.
He found that the American people, through their chosen
representatives who were instructed by their wisdom and experience
and were supported by their virtues - cultivated, purified and ennobled
by self-reliance and the love of God - had matured, in the excellent
wisdom of their counsels, a new plan of government, which embraced
every security for their liberties and equal rights and privileges to all in
the pursuit of happiness. He came as an honest and impartial student
and his great commentary, like those of Paul, was written for the
benefit of all nations and people and in vindication of truths that will
stand for their deliverance from monarchical rule, while time shall last.
A French aristocrat of the purest strain of blood and of the most
honorable lineage, whose family influence was coveted by crowned
heads; who had no quarrel with the rulers of the nation, and was secure
against want by his inherited estates; was moved by the agitations that
compelled France to attempt to grasp suddenly the liberties and
happiness we had gained in our revolution and, by his devout love of
France, to search out and subject to the test of reason the basic
principles of free government that had been embodied in our
Constitution. This was the mission of De Tocqueville, and no mission
was ever more honorably or justly conducted, or concluded with greater
eclat, or better results for the welfare of mankind.
His researches were logical and exhaustive. They included every phase
of every question that then seemed to be apposite to the great inquiry
he was making.
The judgment of all who have studied his commentaries seems to have
been unanimous, that his talents and learning were fully equal to his
task. He began with the physical geography of this country, and
examined the characteristics of the people, of all races and conditions,
their social and religious sentiments, their education and tastes; their
industries, their commerce, their local governments, their passions and
prejudices, and their ethics and literature; leaving nothing unnoticed
that might afford an argument to prove that our plan and form of

government was or was not adapted especially to a peculiar people, or
that it would be impracticable in any different country, or among any
different people.
The pride and comfort that the American people enjoy in the great
commentaries of De Tocqueville are far removed from the selfish
adulation that comes from a great and singular success. It is the
consciousness of victory over a false theory of government which has
afflicted mankind for many ages, that gives joy to the true American, as
it did to De Tocqueville in his great triumph.
When De Tocqueville wrote, we had lived less than fifty years under
our Constitution. In that time no great national commotion had
occurred that tested its strength, or its power of resistance to internal
strife, such as had converted his beloved France into fields of slaughter
torn by tempests of wrath.
He had a strong conviction that no government could be ordained that
could resist these internal forces, when, they are directed to its
destruction by bad men, or unreasoning mobs, and many then believed,
as some yet believe, that our government is unequal to such pressure,
when the assault is thoroughly desperate.
Had De Tocqueville lived to examine the history of the United States
from 1860 to 1870, his misgivings as to this power of self- preservation
would, probably, have been cleared off. He would have seen that, at the
end of the most destructive civil war that ever occurred, when
animosities of the bitterest sort had banished all good feeling from the
hearts of our people, the States of the American Union, still in complete
organization and equipped with all their official entourage, aligned
themselves in their places and took up the powers and duties of local
government in perfect order and without embarrassment. This would
have dispelled his apprehensions, if he had any, about the power of the
United States to withstand the severest shocks of civil war. Could he
have traced the further course of events until they open the portals of
the twentieth century, he would have cast away his fears of our ability
to restore peace, order, and prosperity, in the face of any difficulties,
and would have rejoiced to find in the Constitution of the United States
the remedy that is provided for the healing of the nation.
De Tocqueville examined, with the care that is worthy the importance
of the subject, the nature and value of the system of "local

self-government," as we style this most important feature of our plan,
and (as has often happened) when this or any subject has become a
matter