April 24, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in our 23rd episode of our ongoing 'Story of America' Series, Dr. Bill McClay, author of Land of Hope, tells the story of Alexis de Tocqueville—a Frenchman who came to America to write a book on the "wave of the future" as he saw it—Democracy.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, another installment of our series About Us, The
Story of America's series with Hillsdale College professor and author
of the terrific book Land of Hope, Bill McLay. Today,
(00:30):
Bill shares the story of a foreigner whose observations on
our nation still seem current nearly two hundred years later.
His name Alexis Deteauville. Let's get into the story. Take
it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Who was Alexis Detoukville? Let me back up. Alexis de
Touville was born in eighteen five to a French aristocratic family.
There was a family that had suffered greatly because of
(01:07):
the French Revolution. Tuckle's father, who was a loyal civil servant,
ended up being imprisoned. His mother suffered from mental illness
as a result of this, his grandfather was murdered. He
was very much affected by the French Revolution. He grew
(01:29):
up in the wake of that cataclysmic event. So a
great question always for him was what was to be
learned from this event? Was this something that represented an
inevitable movement of history, or was it a fluke. Was
(01:49):
the restoration of the monarchy which took place when he
was a young man. Was that a restoration of the
normal order of things? So he was living at a
kind of cusp of history, and which things seemed as
if they could go one way or another way. So
that's Tokville. He came to America in eighteen thirty ostensibly
(02:15):
to study the prison system of the United States, which,
believe it or not, was regarded as advanced by the
world's standards at that point. But that was just a pretext. Really,
what he wanted to do was to write a great
book about this emerging phenomenon, this first great democracy, this
(02:36):
first great republic, of which he said, all the world
talks and no one knows. So he was going to
write the book that would make the world understand what
this great experiment meant, and to look at its virtues,
its vices, and try to discern from that what Europe
(02:57):
could learn, what France in particular, or could learn in
its future, and to guide the forces of democracy to
a better harbor, to a more felicitous conclusion than what
had come out of the revolution, which was bloodshed. Napoleon
and a restoration of the monarchy after much warfare and disruption.
(03:22):
He actually had political ambitions also, I should not bear
from mentioning that. And you thought making this trip to
America writing a great book would launch him. It really
didn't have that effect. He wrote a great book, it
didn't launch a great political career, as it turned out.
And so far as America is concerned, Tokville wrote the
(03:44):
book called Democracy in America. The Democratis on americ published
in two volumes eighteen thirty five in eighteen forty, and
these two volumes are arguably make up together the greatest
single work about America ever written. I think if you
(04:06):
were condemned to a desert island with only one book
to read about America for all the time left to
you in life, I don't think you could do much
better than Democracy in America, because it describes certain fundamental
properties of American society that have persisted, and it describes
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in very powerful ways the virtues and the pathologies of democracy,
that is, of the regime based on the principle of
human equality, making no distinctions of rank, of nobility and
the other marks of aristocracy, but treating all human beings
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as fundamentally legally civically equal. It was still a new
I idea America from the start, From the very beginning,
we were republic and conceived of ourselves as a republic.
Topville wanted to see firsthand, how does that work, what
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does that look like? And he's only twenty six years old,
but he's got to have been the most perceptive twenty
six year old. He was to sociology and political science
what Mozart was to music. He got it very early,
and he got it right. So Topville came to America,
(05:38):
and he says is very clearly, he came there to
see what the future held. He came to feel the democracy,
that is, a regime that stressed the equality of all
people was the wave of the future. Like it or not,
America was the avant garde. It was in the vain
(06:00):
guard of change that he expected and believed was coming everywhere.
He says, I confessed that in America I saw more
than America. I sought the image of democracy itself, with
its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in
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order to learn what we have to fear or to
hope from its progress. That I think is a very
clear statement of what he intended to do. He really
wasn't trying to write the best book on America. He
just did that as a matter of course, in the
process of writing the best book on democracy, and he
(06:40):
spends nine months in the country, writes subcopious notes. Now,
as the quote I just read, he implies, Topeville did
not think was all roses and sugar plums in America.
He was not advocating for democracy. He was saying democracy
what is coming. Democracy has its virtues, it has its faults.
(07:05):
We need to understand both. We need to understand virtues,
we need to see the false. We need to acknowledge
the faults, and that these faults may be inherent to
the nature of democracy. And the best we can do
is find a way to live with them.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
When we come back. More of the story of alexis
to Tokville Democracy in America. After these messages, this is
Lee Hbibe, and this is our American stories, and all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
(07:46):
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale. Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned to our American stories
(08:12):
and with our Story of America series, let's pick up
where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He captured great things about the nation. He Altuo captured flaws.
He's not an American booster, not an American cheerleader, but
an observer and astute observer. He didn't want to become
an American. There were a lot about Americans that was
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distasteful to him. He remember, he's an aristocrat. Actually, many
foreign observers of that time talked about Americans the way
Americans ate that they massive amounts of food without much
attention to the food. A Frenchmen would not do this.
(09:04):
So it was not all together admiring figure. And yet
he did admire many things, and we'll get to those
in a moment. I want to talk about the flaws
that he saw first. One example is the policy of
Indian removal that's going on at this very time. Tokville
(09:28):
witnessed at firsthand. He's stumbled upon a group of Shoctaw
Indians crossing the Mississippi River near Memphis. And here's what
he said. It is impossible to conceive the extent of
the sufferings which attend these force immigrations. They're undertaken by
a people already exhausted and reduced, and the countries to
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which the newcomers betake themselves are inhabited by other tribes
which received them with jealous hostility. Hunger is in the rear,
war awaits them, and misery besets them on all sides.
In the hope of escaping from such a host of enemies,
they separate, and each individual endeavors to procure the means
(10:14):
of supporting his existence in solitude and secrecy, living in
the immensity of the desert, like an outcast civil society.
Social tie which distress had long since weakened. His en dissolved.
They've lost their country and their people won deserts them.
(10:35):
Their very families are obliterated, the names they bore in
common are forgotten, their language perishes, and all the traces
of their origin disappeared. And he ended his writing on
this subject with Another feature of Tokville was a man
who possessed of enormous compassion and insight, but also an
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ability to make very hard and difficult judgments, and so
he ends with this. These are great evils, and it
must be added that they appear to me to be irremediable.
I believe that the Indian nations of North America are
doomed to perish, and that whenever the Europeans shall be
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established on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, that race
of men will be no more. The Indians had only
the two alternatives of war or civilization. In other words,
they must either have destroyed the Europeans or become their equals. That,
of course, is not the only law. Circa eighteen thirty
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one that Tokeville saw he had some contact with the
institution of slavery. A few words about that the Indians
will perish in the same isolated condition which they've lived.
But the destiny of the Negroes is in some measure
interwoven with that of the Europeans. The two races are
attached to each each other without intermingling, and they are
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alike unable entirely to separate or to combine. The most
formative all of all the eels which threaten the future
existence of the Union arises from the presence of a
black population upon its territory, and in contemplating the cause
of the present embarrassments or of the future dangers of
(12:24):
the United States, the observer is invariably led to consider
this as a primary fact. The permanent evils to which
men kind is subjected are usually produced by the vehement
or increasing efforts of men. But there is one calamity
which penetrated furtively into the world, and which was at
first scarcely distinguishable amidst the ordinary abuses of power. It
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originated with an individual whose name history has not preserved.
It was wafted like some accursed germ, upon a portion
of the soil. But it afterwards nurture itself, grew without effort,
and spread naturally with the society to which it belongs.
I need scarcely add that this calamity is flavored. Cokevo
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was very acute in identifying another aspect of our national character,
and that is a certain restlessness, restlessness in the midst
of our prosperity. Let me give you a portion of that.
(13:46):
In certain remote corners of the old world, you may
still sometimes stumble on a small district It seems to
have been forgotten amid the general tumult, and to have
remained stationary while everything around it was in motion. The inhabitants,
for the most part, are extremely ignorant and poor. They
take no part in the business of the country, and
are frequently oppressed by the government. Yet their countenances are
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generally placid, and their spirits are light. In America, by contrast,
I saw the freest and most enlightened men placed in
the happiest circumstances that the world affords. It seemed to
me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their brow,
and I thought them serious and almost sad, even in
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their pleasures. The chief reason for this contrast is that
the former do not think of the ills they endure,
while the latter are forever brooding over advantages they do
not possess. It is strange to see with what feverish
ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch
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the vague dread that constantly torments them, lest they should
not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.
In the United States, a man builds a house in
which to spend his old age, and he sells it
before the roof is on he plants a garden and
lets it just as the trees are coming into burry.
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He brings a field into tillage and leaves other men
to gather the crops. He embraces a profession and gives
it up. He settles in a place which he soon
afterwards leaves to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his
private affairs leave him any leisure, he instantly plunges into
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the vortexa politics. And if at the end of a
year of unremitting labor, he finds he has a few
days vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast
extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen
hundred miles in a few days to shake off its happiness.
At first sight, there's something surprising in this strange unrest
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of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance.
The spectacle itself, however, is as old as the world.
The novelty is to see a whole people furnish an
exemplification of and completing the list of the foibles deficiencies
of democracy that took the identified is one that I
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think was identified already by some of the founders who
see it in the federalist papers discussed, and that is
the concept of the tyranny of the majority. That actually America,
for all of its seeming liberty, was not an empire
of reason, was not a place in which people felt
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free to disagree. Thought is an invisible and almost intangible
power that makes sport of all tyranny in our day.
The most absolute sovereigns of Europe cannot prevent certain thoughts
hostile to their authority. It is not the same in
America as long as the majority is doubtful when speaks,
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but when it has irrevocably pronounced, everyone becomes silent. The
friends and enemies alike then seem to hitch themselves together
for its wagon. The reason for this is simple. There
is no monarch so absolute that he can gather in
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his hands all the strength of society and defeat resistance,
as can a majority vested with the right to make
the laws and execute them. In America, the majority draws
a formidable circle around thought. Inside those limits, the writer
is free, but unhappiness awaits him if he dares to
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leave them.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
When we come back more here on our American stories,
and we returned to our American stories, and with his
(18:11):
Story of America series, when we last left off, Professor
Bill McLay told us the story of the negative aspects
of America that French observer Alexis to Toeuville saw. While
here the trail of tears, slavery, our restlessness, and the
tyranny of the majority. Let's return to the story of
Alexis to Touville. It's time now for what he saw
(18:33):
that was positive.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
These are some of the flaws that Toeuville saw in
American democracy, and yet he proposes ways that American democracy
can and already is countervailing against them. Maybe one of
the most redeeming features of American life is the way
that we organize ourselves political associations. He marveled at the
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ability of Americans to form organizations themselves politically, to spontaneously
come together without necessarily the direction of government or any
coercive authority, to accomplish good works for the public interests.
Here's how he talks about it. The political associations that
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exist in the United States form only a detail in
the midst of the immense picture that the sum of
associations resents. There Americans of all ages, all conditions all
minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and
industrial associations of which all take part, but they also
have a thousand other kinds religious, moral, grave, feudal, very
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general and very particular, immense and very small. Americans use
associations to give fetes to found seminaries, to build ins,
to raise churches, to distribute books, to stend missionaries to
the antipodes. In this manner they create hospitals, prisons, fools. Finally,
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if it's a question of bringing to light a truth
or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example,
they associate everywhere that at the head of a new
undertaking you see the government in France and a great
lord in England. Countenant that you will see an association
in the United States. This is still a characteristic of
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American life today. Here's to well a few more comments
about associations. I encountered all sorts of associations in America
which I had no idea, and I often admire the
infinite art with which the inhabitants of the United States
managed to fix a common goal to the efforts of
many men and get them to advance cities freely. Thus
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the most democratic country on earth is found to be,
above all the one where men in our day have
most perfected the art of pursuing the object of their
common desires in common. Does this result from an accident,
or could it be that there's in fact a necessary
relation between associations and equality. Aristocratic societies always include within them,
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in the midst of a multitude of individuals who can
do nothing by themselves, a few very powerful and wealthy citizens.
Each of these can execute great undertakings by himself. In
aristocratic societies, men have no need to unite the act
because they're kept very much together. In democratic peoples, on
the other hand, all citizens are independent and weak. They
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can do almost nothing by themselves. They therefore all fall
into impotence if they do not learn to aid each
other freely. A government could take the place of some
of the greatest American associations, But what political power would
ever be in a state sufficient for the innumerable multitude
of small undertakers and American citizens execute every day with
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the aid of an association. The morality and intelligence of
a democratic people would risk no fewer dangers than its
business and its industry. If the government came to take
the place of associations everywhere. He had a vision that
as government took over and commandeered the role that had
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formerly been delegated to associations, associations would weaken their hold,
They would weaken their force, They would weaken their capacity
to bring about civic unity, civic consciousness, civic cohesion, civic capital.
Tokio was a great admirer of the American Constitution, and
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particularly its federalism, its division of powers between the elements
of the national government and the elements of the state
governments and unities. Even below this level of the state
government county's municipalities, and the way that this dispersal of
power among the states affects American life itself. Here's what
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he has to say about that in great centralized nations,
the legislators obliged to impart a character of uniformity to
the laws, which does not always suit the diversity of
customs and of districts. As he takes no consequence of
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special cases, he can only proceed upon general principles, which
is the cause of endless trouble and misery. This disadvantage
does not exist in confederations. Congress regulates the principal measures
of the national government men in all the details of
administration are observed to the provincial of Legislature's death, by
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which he means the states. It's impossible to imagine how
much this division of sovereignty contributes to the well being
of each of the states. In these small communities, all
public authority and private energies employed in internal amelioration. They
concentrate on their own business. The central government of each state,
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which is an immediate juxtaposition to the citizens, is daily
apprized of the wants which arise in society, and new
projects are proposed every year, which are discussed either at
town meetings or by the legislatures of the state, and
which are transmitted by the press to stimulate the zeal
and excite the interests of the citizens. This spirit of
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amelioration is constantly alive in the American republics, without compromising
their tranquility. Ambition of power yields the less refined and
less dangerous love of comfort. It is not unusual to
attribute a large share of the misfortunes which have befallen
the New States of South America to the injudicious erection
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of great republics instead of a divided and confederate sovereignty.
Interesting observation about Latin America. Just in passing. It is
incontestably true that the love and the habits of republican
government in the United States were engendered in the townships
and the provincial assemblies. In a small state like that
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of Connecticut, for instance, or cutting a canal or laying
down a road as a momentous political question where the
state has no army to pay and no wars to
carry on, where much wealth and much honor cannot be
bestowed on the chief citizens, no form of government can
be more natural or more appropriate than that of a republic.
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But it is the same republican spirit. It is these
manners and customs of a free people which are engendered
and nurtured in the different states, to be afterwards applied
to the country at large. The public spirit of the
Union is, so to speak, nothing more than an abstract
of the patriotic zeal of the provinces. Every citizen of
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the United States transfuses his attachment to his little republic
in the common store of American patriotism. In defending the Union,
he defends increasing prosperity of his own district. That's a
magnificent and fascinating comment on the nature of American patriotism,
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and American patriotism is not only based on an appeal
to the ideals of the nation, but to the ideals
of a nation that happens to be a nation that
delegates as much is possible to local entities the sovereign
rights of government. That's part of the reason to feel
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patriotical America is when she leaves you alone.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And what a final thought there. When we come back,
we'll continue with Professor Bill mcclay's story of Alexis to
Toakville's trip to America. Here on our American Stories, and
(27:37):
we return to our American Stories, and the final portion
of our story about Alexis to Toakeville is a part
of our Story of America series with Hillsdale College professor
an author of the terrific book Land of Hope, Professor
Bill McLay. When we last left off, Bill was telling
us about the great things that Tokeville saw in our country.
(27:59):
Let's return to the story. Here again is Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Now we've heard how Toko wrote about American restlessness. He
was concerned about this flaw in our character. This tendency
does dissipate our energies. One of the great counterbalances to
this recklessness, in his view, was religion. Religion was essential.
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Without it, there might not be any way to fill
the centrifugal forces of materialism and individualism that would otherwise
sweep through the country. Here's what he says. In the
United States, on the seventh day of every week, the
trading and working life of the nation seems suspend. It,
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all noises cease, a deep tranquility. Say, rather, the solemn
calm of meditation exceeds the turmoil of the week, and
the soul resumes possession and contemplation of his self. Upon
this day, the marts of traffic are deserted. Every member
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of the community, accompanied by his children, goes to church,
where he listens in strange language. What would seem to
be unsuited to his ear. He's told of the countless
evils caused by pride and covetousness. He's reminded of the
necessity of checking his desire, of the finer pleasures which
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belong to virtue alone, and of the true happiness which
attends it. On the return home, he does not turn
to the ledgers of his calling, but he opens the
book of Holy Scripture. There he meets with the blind
or affecting descriptions of the greatness and goodness of the Creator,
of the infinite magnificence, of the handiwork of God, of
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the lofty destinies of man, of his duties, and of
his immortal Which is thus it is that the American
at times steals an hour from himself, laying aside for
a while the petty passions which agitate his life and
the ephemeral interests which engross it. He strays at once
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into an ideal world, where all is great, eternal, and pure.
Give democratic nations, education and freedom, and leave them alone.
They will soon learn to draw from this world all
the benefits which it can afford. They'll improve each of
the useful arts, and will, day by day render life
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more comfortable, more convenient, and more easy. Their social condition
naturally urges them in this direction. I do not fear
that they will slacken their course. But while man takes
delight in this honest and lawful pursuit of his well being,
it is to be apprehended that he may in the
end lose the use of his sublime i'm as faculties,
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and that whilst he's busy in improving all around him,
he may at length degrade himself. Here, and here only
does the peril lie. It should therefore be the unceasing
object of the legislators of democracies and of all the
virtuous and enlightened men, to raise the soul of their
fellow citizens and keep them lifted up towards heaven. Topevil
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was very concerned about materialism. Materialism not only in the
sense of the desire to acquire things, that sense of materialism,
but also a few of human life, that the human soul,
moral values are all reducible to mere material that is,
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a loss of a sense of the spiritual dimension of life.
That this in turn might undermine the very possibility of democracy,
and of course religions a barrier to materialism. Materialism is,
amongst all nations, a dangerous disease of the human mind.
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But it is more especially to be dreaded among a
democratic people, because it readily amalgamates with that vice which
is most familiar to the heart. Under such circumstances, democracy
encourages a taste for physical gratification. This taste, if it
becomes excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is
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matter only, and materialism in turn hurries them back with
mad impatience to these same delights. Such is the fatal
circle within which democratic nations are driven round. It were
well that they should see the danger and hold back.
Most religions are only general, simple and practical means of
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teaching men the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
That's the greatest benefit which a democrat cratic people derives
from its belief, and hence belief is more necessary to
such a people than to all others. When therefore, any
religion has struck its roots deep into a democracy, beware
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lest you disturb, rather watch it carefully, as the most
precious bequest of aristocratic agents. Seek not to supersede the
old religious opinions of men by new ones. Less in
the passage from one faith to another, the soul being
left for a while stripped of all belief, the love
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of physical ratifications should grow upon it and feel it holy.
Another aspect of American religion of which Tokevill heartily approved
was the voluntaristic nature of American religion that we did
not have an established church in America, a national church
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to which all Americans were bound to ben the knee
or accept something like second class citizenship. State religion, established religion.
This was a danger to religion itself, Tokeville believed. And
here's what he says as to state religions. I've always
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held that if they be sometimes of momentary service to
the interests of political power, they always sooner or later
become fatal to the church above all else about Toauville,
that readers and listeners should take away know that he
valued liberty above almost everything else. He was very much
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opposed to doctrines like Marxism and other forms of determinism
that were rising and were popular in the circle of
the educated elites of European society and American society increasingly
too in his time, and he spoke against him at
the very end, the very end of the book. He
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has a passage that I want to read you in closing.
I am not unaware that several of my contemporaries have
thought that peoples are never masters of themselves. Here below,
that they necessarily obey I do not know which insurmountable
and unintelligent force born of previous events, the race, the soil,
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or the climate. Those are false and cowardly doctrines that
can never produce any but weak men and pusillanimous nations.
Providence has not created the human race, either entirely independent
or perfectly slave. It traces. It is true a fatal
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circle around each man that he cannot leave. But within
its fast limits, man is powerful and free, though to
with people. Nations of our day cannot have it that
conditions within them are not equal. But it depends on
them whether equality leads them to servitude or freedom, to enlightenment,
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or barbarism, to prosperity or misery. And let me just
sort of try to unpack what he's saying here. In
the first place, he's saying there's no such thing as
absolute freedom to operate without any regard to circumstances. That
there are these great movements of history, and the movement
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towards equality is one of them. We can't roll back
the sense of time. We have to accept the conditions
in which we find ourselves. But within those conditions there
is still a lot of freedom. The fatal circle that's
drawn around us is a circle that has a certain
amplitude to it. Within that circle, we can make a
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difference in whether the forms that democratic life takes on
are forms that ennoble the human person or degrade him.
What will uplift us? What will make us better? He
saw coming what he saw coming, and he reported the
truth as he saw it. And he at the same
time he sought to implore upon his readers the knowledge
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is power. Knowledge is an ability to shape the future
to the extent it's given to us to shape anything
to our best advantage. So there you have it. That's
the nature of free will as Topeville understood it, and
he wanted to learn from the Americans for the sake
of the Europeans. The Americans can now learn from him.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. A special thanks to Professor
Bill Maclay. He teaches at Hillsdale College. His book Land
of Hope is available on Amazon or anywhere else you
buy books. The Story of America The Story of alexis
to Tolkville's visit to America, his nine month visit here
(38:08):
on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, another installment of our series About Us, The
Story of America's series with Hillsdale College professor and author
of the terrific book Land of Hope, Bill McLay. Today,
(00:30):
Bill shares the story of a foreigner whose observations on
our nation still seem current nearly two hundred years later.
His name Alexis Deteauville. Let's get into the story. Take
it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Who was Alexis Detoukville? Let me back up. Alexis de
Touville was born in eighteen five to a French aristocratic family.
There was a family that had suffered greatly because of
(01:07):
the French Revolution. Tuckle's father, who was a loyal civil servant,
ended up being imprisoned. His mother suffered from mental illness
as a result of this, his grandfather was murdered. He
was very much affected by the French Revolution. He grew
(01:29):
up in the wake of that cataclysmic event. So a
great question always for him was what was to be
learned from this event? Was this something that represented an
inevitable movement of history, or was it a fluke. Was
(01:49):
the restoration of the monarchy which took place when he
was a young man. Was that a restoration of the
normal order of things? So he was living at a
kind of cusp of history, and which things seemed as
if they could go one way or another way. So
that's Tokville. He came to America in eighteen thirty ostensibly
(02:15):
to study the prison system of the United States, which,
believe it or not, was regarded as advanced by the
world's standards at that point. But that was just a pretext. Really,
what he wanted to do was to write a great
book about this emerging phenomenon, this first great democracy, this
(02:36):
first great republic, of which he said, all the world
talks and no one knows. So he was going to
write the book that would make the world understand what
this great experiment meant, and to look at its virtues,
its vices, and try to discern from that what Europe
(02:57):
could learn, what France in particular, or could learn in
its future, and to guide the forces of democracy to
a better harbor, to a more felicitous conclusion than what
had come out of the revolution, which was bloodshed. Napoleon
and a restoration of the monarchy after much warfare and disruption.
(03:22):
He actually had political ambitions also, I should not bear
from mentioning that. And you thought making this trip to
America writing a great book would launch him. It really
didn't have that effect. He wrote a great book, it
didn't launch a great political career, as it turned out.
And so far as America is concerned, Tokville wrote the
(03:44):
book called Democracy in America. The Democratis on americ published
in two volumes eighteen thirty five in eighteen forty, and
these two volumes are arguably make up together the greatest
single work about America ever written. I think if you
(04:06):
were condemned to a desert island with only one book
to read about America for all the time left to
you in life, I don't think you could do much
better than Democracy in America, because it describes certain fundamental
properties of American society that have persisted, and it describes
(04:31):
in very powerful ways the virtues and the pathologies of democracy,
that is, of the regime based on the principle of
human equality, making no distinctions of rank, of nobility and
the other marks of aristocracy, but treating all human beings
(04:52):
as fundamentally legally civically equal. It was still a new
I idea America from the start, From the very beginning,
we were republic and conceived of ourselves as a republic.
Topville wanted to see firsthand, how does that work, what
(05:14):
does that look like? And he's only twenty six years old,
but he's got to have been the most perceptive twenty
six year old. He was to sociology and political science
what Mozart was to music. He got it very early,
and he got it right. So Topville came to America,
(05:38):
and he says is very clearly, he came there to
see what the future held. He came to feel the democracy,
that is, a regime that stressed the equality of all
people was the wave of the future. Like it or not,
America was the avant garde. It was in the vain
(06:00):
guard of change that he expected and believed was coming everywhere.
He says, I confessed that in America I saw more
than America. I sought the image of democracy itself, with
its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in
(06:20):
order to learn what we have to fear or to
hope from its progress. That I think is a very
clear statement of what he intended to do. He really
wasn't trying to write the best book on America. He
just did that as a matter of course, in the
process of writing the best book on democracy, and he
(06:40):
spends nine months in the country, writes subcopious notes. Now,
as the quote I just read, he implies, Topeville did
not think was all roses and sugar plums in America.
He was not advocating for democracy. He was saying democracy
what is coming. Democracy has its virtues, it has its faults.
(07:05):
We need to understand both. We need to understand virtues,
we need to see the false. We need to acknowledge
the faults, and that these faults may be inherent to
the nature of democracy. And the best we can do
is find a way to live with them.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
When we come back. More of the story of alexis
to Tokville Democracy in America. After these messages, this is
Lee Hbibe, and this is our American stories, and all
of our history stories are brought to us by our
generous sponsors, including Hillsdale College, where students go to learn
(07:46):
all the things that are beautiful in life and all
the things that matter in life. If you can't get
to Hillsdale. Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu. That's
Hillsdale dot edu. And we returned to our American stories
(08:12):
and with our Story of America series, let's pick up
where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
He captured great things about the nation. He Altuo captured flaws.
He's not an American booster, not an American cheerleader, but
an observer and astute observer. He didn't want to become
an American. There were a lot about Americans that was
(08:39):
distasteful to him. He remember, he's an aristocrat. Actually, many
foreign observers of that time talked about Americans the way
Americans ate that they massive amounts of food without much
attention to the food. A Frenchmen would not do this.
(09:04):
So it was not all together admiring figure. And yet
he did admire many things, and we'll get to those
in a moment. I want to talk about the flaws
that he saw first. One example is the policy of
Indian removal that's going on at this very time. Tokville
(09:28):
witnessed at firsthand. He's stumbled upon a group of Shoctaw
Indians crossing the Mississippi River near Memphis. And here's what
he said. It is impossible to conceive the extent of
the sufferings which attend these force immigrations. They're undertaken by
a people already exhausted and reduced, and the countries to
(09:51):
which the newcomers betake themselves are inhabited by other tribes
which received them with jealous hostility. Hunger is in the rear,
war awaits them, and misery besets them on all sides.
In the hope of escaping from such a host of enemies,
they separate, and each individual endeavors to procure the means
(10:14):
of supporting his existence in solitude and secrecy, living in
the immensity of the desert, like an outcast civil society.
Social tie which distress had long since weakened. His en dissolved.
They've lost their country and their people won deserts them.
(10:35):
Their very families are obliterated, the names they bore in
common are forgotten, their language perishes, and all the traces
of their origin disappeared. And he ended his writing on
this subject with Another feature of Tokville was a man
who possessed of enormous compassion and insight, but also an
(10:57):
ability to make very hard and difficult judgments, and so
he ends with this. These are great evils, and it
must be added that they appear to me to be irremediable.
I believe that the Indian nations of North America are
doomed to perish, and that whenever the Europeans shall be
(11:19):
established on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, that race
of men will be no more. The Indians had only
the two alternatives of war or civilization. In other words,
they must either have destroyed the Europeans or become their equals. That,
of course, is not the only law. Circa eighteen thirty
(11:41):
one that Tokeville saw he had some contact with the
institution of slavery. A few words about that the Indians
will perish in the same isolated condition which they've lived.
But the destiny of the Negroes is in some measure
interwoven with that of the Europeans. The two races are
attached to each each other without intermingling, and they are
(12:03):
alike unable entirely to separate or to combine. The most
formative all of all the eels which threaten the future
existence of the Union arises from the presence of a
black population upon its territory, and in contemplating the cause
of the present embarrassments or of the future dangers of
(12:24):
the United States, the observer is invariably led to consider
this as a primary fact. The permanent evils to which
men kind is subjected are usually produced by the vehement
or increasing efforts of men. But there is one calamity
which penetrated furtively into the world, and which was at
first scarcely distinguishable amidst the ordinary abuses of power. It
(12:49):
originated with an individual whose name history has not preserved.
It was wafted like some accursed germ, upon a portion
of the soil. But it afterwards nurture itself, grew without effort,
and spread naturally with the society to which it belongs.
I need scarcely add that this calamity is flavored. Cokevo
(13:19):
was very acute in identifying another aspect of our national character,
and that is a certain restlessness, restlessness in the midst
of our prosperity. Let me give you a portion of that.
(13:46):
In certain remote corners of the old world, you may
still sometimes stumble on a small district It seems to
have been forgotten amid the general tumult, and to have
remained stationary while everything around it was in motion. The inhabitants,
for the most part, are extremely ignorant and poor. They
take no part in the business of the country, and
are frequently oppressed by the government. Yet their countenances are
(14:11):
generally placid, and their spirits are light. In America, by contrast,
I saw the freest and most enlightened men placed in
the happiest circumstances that the world affords. It seemed to
me as if a cloud habitually hung upon their brow,
and I thought them serious and almost sad, even in
(14:33):
their pleasures. The chief reason for this contrast is that
the former do not think of the ills they endure,
while the latter are forever brooding over advantages they do
not possess. It is strange to see with what feverish
ardor the Americans pursue their own welfare, and to watch
(14:53):
the vague dread that constantly torments them, lest they should
not have chosen the shortest path which may lead to it.
In the United States, a man builds a house in
which to spend his old age, and he sells it
before the roof is on he plants a garden and
lets it just as the trees are coming into burry.
(15:16):
He brings a field into tillage and leaves other men
to gather the crops. He embraces a profession and gives
it up. He settles in a place which he soon
afterwards leaves to carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his
private affairs leave him any leisure, he instantly plunges into
(15:36):
the vortexa politics. And if at the end of a
year of unremitting labor, he finds he has a few
days vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over the vast
extent of the United States, and he will travel fifteen
hundred miles in a few days to shake off its happiness.
At first sight, there's something surprising in this strange unrest
(15:59):
of so many happy men, restless in the midst of abundance.
The spectacle itself, however, is as old as the world.
The novelty is to see a whole people furnish an
exemplification of and completing the list of the foibles deficiencies
of democracy that took the identified is one that I
(16:22):
think was identified already by some of the founders who
see it in the federalist papers discussed, and that is
the concept of the tyranny of the majority. That actually America,
for all of its seeming liberty, was not an empire
of reason, was not a place in which people felt
(16:42):
free to disagree. Thought is an invisible and almost intangible
power that makes sport of all tyranny in our day.
The most absolute sovereigns of Europe cannot prevent certain thoughts
hostile to their authority. It is not the same in
America as long as the majority is doubtful when speaks,
(17:05):
but when it has irrevocably pronounced, everyone becomes silent. The
friends and enemies alike then seem to hitch themselves together
for its wagon. The reason for this is simple. There
is no monarch so absolute that he can gather in
(17:26):
his hands all the strength of society and defeat resistance,
as can a majority vested with the right to make
the laws and execute them. In America, the majority draws
a formidable circle around thought. Inside those limits, the writer
is free, but unhappiness awaits him if he dares to
(17:49):
leave them.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
When we come back more here on our American stories,
and we returned to our American stories, and with his
(18:11):
Story of America series, when we last left off, Professor
Bill McLay told us the story of the negative aspects
of America that French observer Alexis to Toeuville saw. While
here the trail of tears, slavery, our restlessness, and the
tyranny of the majority. Let's return to the story of
Alexis to Touville. It's time now for what he saw
(18:33):
that was positive.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
These are some of the flaws that Toeuville saw in
American democracy, and yet he proposes ways that American democracy
can and already is countervailing against them. Maybe one of
the most redeeming features of American life is the way
that we organize ourselves political associations. He marveled at the
(19:03):
ability of Americans to form organizations themselves politically, to spontaneously
come together without necessarily the direction of government or any
coercive authority, to accomplish good works for the public interests.
Here's how he talks about it. The political associations that
(19:25):
exist in the United States form only a detail in
the midst of the immense picture that the sum of
associations resents. There Americans of all ages, all conditions all
minds constantly unite. Not only do they have commercial and
industrial associations of which all take part, but they also
have a thousand other kinds religious, moral, grave, feudal, very
(19:51):
general and very particular, immense and very small. Americans use
associations to give fetes to found seminaries, to build ins,
to raise churches, to distribute books, to stend missionaries to
the antipodes. In this manner they create hospitals, prisons, fools. Finally,
(20:13):
if it's a question of bringing to light a truth
or developing a sentiment with the support of a great example,
they associate everywhere that at the head of a new
undertaking you see the government in France and a great
lord in England. Countenant that you will see an association
in the United States. This is still a characteristic of
(20:37):
American life today. Here's to well a few more comments
about associations. I encountered all sorts of associations in America
which I had no idea, and I often admire the
infinite art with which the inhabitants of the United States
managed to fix a common goal to the efforts of
many men and get them to advance cities freely. Thus
(21:02):
the most democratic country on earth is found to be,
above all the one where men in our day have
most perfected the art of pursuing the object of their
common desires in common. Does this result from an accident,
or could it be that there's in fact a necessary
relation between associations and equality. Aristocratic societies always include within them,
(21:26):
in the midst of a multitude of individuals who can
do nothing by themselves, a few very powerful and wealthy citizens.
Each of these can execute great undertakings by himself. In
aristocratic societies, men have no need to unite the act
because they're kept very much together. In democratic peoples, on
the other hand, all citizens are independent and weak. They
(21:49):
can do almost nothing by themselves. They therefore all fall
into impotence if they do not learn to aid each
other freely. A government could take the place of some
of the greatest American associations, But what political power would
ever be in a state sufficient for the innumerable multitude
of small undertakers and American citizens execute every day with
(22:14):
the aid of an association. The morality and intelligence of
a democratic people would risk no fewer dangers than its
business and its industry. If the government came to take
the place of associations everywhere. He had a vision that
as government took over and commandeered the role that had
(22:37):
formerly been delegated to associations, associations would weaken their hold,
They would weaken their force, They would weaken their capacity
to bring about civic unity, civic consciousness, civic cohesion, civic capital.
Tokio was a great admirer of the American Constitution, and
(22:59):
particularly its federalism, its division of powers between the elements
of the national government and the elements of the state
governments and unities. Even below this level of the state
government county's municipalities, and the way that this dispersal of
power among the states affects American life itself. Here's what
(23:23):
he has to say about that in great centralized nations,
the legislators obliged to impart a character of uniformity to
the laws, which does not always suit the diversity of
customs and of districts. As he takes no consequence of
(23:43):
special cases, he can only proceed upon general principles, which
is the cause of endless trouble and misery. This disadvantage
does not exist in confederations. Congress regulates the principal measures
of the national government men in all the details of
administration are observed to the provincial of Legislature's death, by
(24:05):
which he means the states. It's impossible to imagine how
much this division of sovereignty contributes to the well being
of each of the states. In these small communities, all
public authority and private energies employed in internal amelioration. They
concentrate on their own business. The central government of each state,
(24:28):
which is an immediate juxtaposition to the citizens, is daily
apprized of the wants which arise in society, and new
projects are proposed every year, which are discussed either at
town meetings or by the legislatures of the state, and
which are transmitted by the press to stimulate the zeal
and excite the interests of the citizens. This spirit of
(24:52):
amelioration is constantly alive in the American republics, without compromising
their tranquility. Ambition of power yields the less refined and
less dangerous love of comfort. It is not unusual to
attribute a large share of the misfortunes which have befallen
the New States of South America to the injudicious erection
(25:15):
of great republics instead of a divided and confederate sovereignty.
Interesting observation about Latin America. Just in passing. It is
incontestably true that the love and the habits of republican
government in the United States were engendered in the townships
and the provincial assemblies. In a small state like that
(25:37):
of Connecticut, for instance, or cutting a canal or laying
down a road as a momentous political question where the
state has no army to pay and no wars to
carry on, where much wealth and much honor cannot be
bestowed on the chief citizens, no form of government can
be more natural or more appropriate than that of a republic.
(26:00):
But it is the same republican spirit. It is these
manners and customs of a free people which are engendered
and nurtured in the different states, to be afterwards applied
to the country at large. The public spirit of the
Union is, so to speak, nothing more than an abstract
of the patriotic zeal of the provinces. Every citizen of
(26:22):
the United States transfuses his attachment to his little republic
in the common store of American patriotism. In defending the Union,
he defends increasing prosperity of his own district. That's a
magnificent and fascinating comment on the nature of American patriotism,
(26:46):
and American patriotism is not only based on an appeal
to the ideals of the nation, but to the ideals
of a nation that happens to be a nation that
delegates as much is possible to local entities the sovereign
rights of government. That's part of the reason to feel
(27:08):
patriotical America is when she leaves you alone.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And what a final thought there. When we come back,
we'll continue with Professor Bill mcclay's story of Alexis to
Toakville's trip to America. Here on our American Stories, and
(27:37):
we return to our American Stories, and the final portion
of our story about Alexis to Toakeville is a part
of our Story of America series with Hillsdale College professor
an author of the terrific book Land of Hope, Professor
Bill McLay. When we last left off, Bill was telling
us about the great things that Tokeville saw in our country.
(27:59):
Let's return to the story. Here again is Bill McLay.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Now we've heard how Toko wrote about American restlessness. He
was concerned about this flaw in our character. This tendency
does dissipate our energies. One of the great counterbalances to
this recklessness, in his view, was religion. Religion was essential.
(28:26):
Without it, there might not be any way to fill
the centrifugal forces of materialism and individualism that would otherwise
sweep through the country. Here's what he says. In the
United States, on the seventh day of every week, the
trading and working life of the nation seems suspend. It,
(28:50):
all noises cease, a deep tranquility. Say, rather, the solemn
calm of meditation exceeds the turmoil of the week, and
the soul resumes possession and contemplation of his self. Upon
this day, the marts of traffic are deserted. Every member
(29:10):
of the community, accompanied by his children, goes to church,
where he listens in strange language. What would seem to
be unsuited to his ear. He's told of the countless
evils caused by pride and covetousness. He's reminded of the
necessity of checking his desire, of the finer pleasures which
(29:32):
belong to virtue alone, and of the true happiness which
attends it. On the return home, he does not turn
to the ledgers of his calling, but he opens the
book of Holy Scripture. There he meets with the blind
or affecting descriptions of the greatness and goodness of the Creator,
of the infinite magnificence, of the handiwork of God, of
(29:55):
the lofty destinies of man, of his duties, and of
his immortal Which is thus it is that the American
at times steals an hour from himself, laying aside for
a while the petty passions which agitate his life and
the ephemeral interests which engross it. He strays at once
(30:15):
into an ideal world, where all is great, eternal, and pure.
Give democratic nations, education and freedom, and leave them alone.
They will soon learn to draw from this world all
the benefits which it can afford. They'll improve each of
the useful arts, and will, day by day render life
(30:38):
more comfortable, more convenient, and more easy. Their social condition
naturally urges them in this direction. I do not fear
that they will slacken their course. But while man takes
delight in this honest and lawful pursuit of his well being,
it is to be apprehended that he may in the
end lose the use of his sublime i'm as faculties,
(31:01):
and that whilst he's busy in improving all around him,
he may at length degrade himself. Here, and here only
does the peril lie. It should therefore be the unceasing
object of the legislators of democracies and of all the
virtuous and enlightened men, to raise the soul of their
fellow citizens and keep them lifted up towards heaven. Topevil
(31:24):
was very concerned about materialism. Materialism not only in the
sense of the desire to acquire things, that sense of materialism,
but also a few of human life, that the human soul,
moral values are all reducible to mere material that is,
(31:44):
a loss of a sense of the spiritual dimension of life.
That this in turn might undermine the very possibility of democracy,
and of course religions a barrier to materialism. Materialism is,
amongst all nations, a dangerous disease of the human mind.
(32:08):
But it is more especially to be dreaded among a
democratic people, because it readily amalgamates with that vice which
is most familiar to the heart. Under such circumstances, democracy
encourages a taste for physical gratification. This taste, if it
becomes excessive, soon disposes men to believe that all is
(32:31):
matter only, and materialism in turn hurries them back with
mad impatience to these same delights. Such is the fatal
circle within which democratic nations are driven round. It were
well that they should see the danger and hold back.
Most religions are only general, simple and practical means of
(32:53):
teaching men the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
That's the greatest benefit which a democrat cratic people derives
from its belief, and hence belief is more necessary to
such a people than to all others. When therefore, any
religion has struck its roots deep into a democracy, beware
(33:14):
lest you disturb, rather watch it carefully, as the most
precious bequest of aristocratic agents. Seek not to supersede the
old religious opinions of men by new ones. Less in
the passage from one faith to another, the soul being
left for a while stripped of all belief, the love
(33:34):
of physical ratifications should grow upon it and feel it holy.
Another aspect of American religion of which Tokevill heartily approved
was the voluntaristic nature of American religion that we did
not have an established church in America, a national church
(33:56):
to which all Americans were bound to ben the knee
or accept something like second class citizenship. State religion, established religion.
This was a danger to religion itself, Tokeville believed. And
here's what he says as to state religions. I've always
(34:17):
held that if they be sometimes of momentary service to
the interests of political power, they always sooner or later
become fatal to the church above all else about Toauville,
that readers and listeners should take away know that he
valued liberty above almost everything else. He was very much
(34:42):
opposed to doctrines like Marxism and other forms of determinism
that were rising and were popular in the circle of
the educated elites of European society and American society increasingly
too in his time, and he spoke against him at
the very end, the very end of the book. He
(35:04):
has a passage that I want to read you in closing.
I am not unaware that several of my contemporaries have
thought that peoples are never masters of themselves. Here below,
that they necessarily obey I do not know which insurmountable
and unintelligent force born of previous events, the race, the soil,
(35:30):
or the climate. Those are false and cowardly doctrines that
can never produce any but weak men and pusillanimous nations.
Providence has not created the human race, either entirely independent
or perfectly slave. It traces. It is true a fatal
(35:51):
circle around each man that he cannot leave. But within
its fast limits, man is powerful and free, though to
with people. Nations of our day cannot have it that
conditions within them are not equal. But it depends on
them whether equality leads them to servitude or freedom, to enlightenment,
(36:15):
or barbarism, to prosperity or misery. And let me just
sort of try to unpack what he's saying here. In
the first place, he's saying there's no such thing as
absolute freedom to operate without any regard to circumstances. That
there are these great movements of history, and the movement
(36:36):
towards equality is one of them. We can't roll back
the sense of time. We have to accept the conditions
in which we find ourselves. But within those conditions there
is still a lot of freedom. The fatal circle that's
drawn around us is a circle that has a certain
amplitude to it. Within that circle, we can make a
(37:01):
difference in whether the forms that democratic life takes on
are forms that ennoble the human person or degrade him.
What will uplift us? What will make us better? He
saw coming what he saw coming, and he reported the
truth as he saw it. And he at the same
time he sought to implore upon his readers the knowledge
(37:24):
is power. Knowledge is an ability to shape the future
to the extent it's given to us to shape anything
to our best advantage. So there you have it. That's
the nature of free will as Topeville understood it, and
he wanted to learn from the Americans for the sake
of the Europeans. The Americans can now learn from him.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
And a terrific job on the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Monte Montgomery. A special thanks to Professor
Bill Maclay. He teaches at Hillsdale College. His book Land
of Hope is available on Amazon or anywhere else you
buy books. The Story of America The Story of alexis
to Tolkville's visit to America, his nine month visit here
(38:08):
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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