Democracy In America, vol 1 | Page 6

patriotic effort to preserve them
and to inculcate their teachings. They have mastered the power of
monarchical rule in the American Hemisphere, freeing religion from all
shackles, and will spread, by a quiet but resistless influence, through
the islands of the seas to other lands, where the appeals of De
Tocqueville for human rights and liberties have already inspired the
souls of the people.
Hon. John T. Morgan
Special Introduction By Hon. John J. Ingalls
Nearly two-thirds of a century has elapsed since the appearance of
"Democracy in America," by Alexis Charles Henri Clerel de
Tocqueville, a French nobleman, born at Paris, July 29, 1805.
Bred to the law, he exhibited an early predilection for philosophy and
political economy, and at twenty-two was appointed judge-auditor at
the tribunal of Versailles.
In 1831, commissioned ostensibly to investigate the penitentiary
system of the United States, he visited this country, with his friend,
Gustave de Beaumont, travelling extensively through those parts of the
Republic then subdued to settlement, studying the methods of local,
State, and national administration, and observing the manners and
habits, the daily life, the business, the industries and occupations of the
people.
"Democracy in America," the first of four volumes upon "American
Institutions and their Influence," was published in 1835. It was received
at once by the scholars and thinkers of Europe as a profound, impartial,
and entertaining exposition of the principles of popular, representative
self-government.
Napoleon, "The mighty somnambulist of a vanished dream," had
abolished feudalism and absolutism, made monarchs and dynasties
obsolete, and substituted for the divine right of kings the sovereignty of
the people.
Although by birth and sympathies an aristocrat, M. de Tocqueville saw
that the reign of tradition and privilege at last was ended. He perceived
that civilization, after many bloody centuries, had entered a new epoch.
He beheld, and deplored, the excesses that had attended the genesis of
the democratic spirit in France, and while he loved liberty, he detested
the crimes that had been committed in its name. Belonging neither to

the class which regarded the social revolution as an innovation to be
resisted, nor to that which considered political equality the universal
panacea for the evils of humanity, he resolved by personal observation
of the results of democracy in the New World to ascertain its natural
consequences, and to learn what the nations of Europe had to hope or
fear from its final supremacy.
That a youth of twenty-six should entertain a design so broad and bold
implies singular intellectual intrepidity. He had neither model nor
precedent. The vastness and novelty of the undertaking increase
admiration for the remarkable ability with which the task was
performed.
Were literary excellence the sole claim of "Democracy in America" to
distinction, the splendor of its composition alone would entitle it to
high place among the masterpieces of the century. The first chapter,
upon the exterior form of North America, as the theatre upon which the
great drama is to be enacted, for graphic and picturesque description of
the physical characteristics of the continent is not surpassed in literature:
nor is there any subdivision of the work in which the severest
philosophy is not invested with the grace of poetry, and the driest
statistics with the charm of romance. Western emigration seemed
commonplace and prosaic till M. de Tocqueville said, "This gradual
and continuous progress of the European race toward the Rocky
Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event; it is like a deluge
of men rising unabatedly, and daily driven onward by the hand of
God!"
The mind of M. de Tocqueville had the candor of the photographic
camera. It recorded impressions with the impartiality of nature. The
image was sometimes distorted, and the perspective was not always
true, but he was neither a panegyrist, nor an advocate, nor a critic. He
observed American phenomena as illustrations, not as proof nor
arguments; and although it is apparent that the tendency of his mind
was not wholly favorable to the democratic principle, yet those who
dissent from his conclusions must commend the ability and courage
with which they are expressed.
Though not originally written for Americans, "Democracy in America"
must always remain a work of engrossing and constantly increasing
interest to citizens of the United States as the first philosophic and

comprehensive view of our society, institutions, and destiny. No one
can rise even from the most cursory perusal without clearer insight and
more patriotic appreciation of the blessings of liberty protected by law,
nor without encouragement for the stability and perpetuity of the
Republic. The causes which appeared to M. de Tocqueville to menace
both, have gone. The despotism of public opinion, the tyranny of
majorities, the absence of intellectual freedom which seemed to him to
degrade administration and bring statesmanship, learning, and literature
to the