Essay 49: Volume 1 Conclusion

Essay Read by Constituting America Founder, Actress Janine Turner

The essays in our study reference the following edition of Democracy In America: University of Chicago Press – 1st edition translated by Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. Today’s essay references pages 379 (Start at heading “On Republican Institutions”) – 384 (Stop at heading “Some Considerations…”) of this edition of Democracy in America.

Democracy in America, Conclusion 1

A political scientist, historian, and politician, Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) traveled the United States in 1831. He and fellow traveler Gustave de Beaumont spent nine months traversing the expanse of the 1830s United States. They wanted to learn more concerning the young nation. Their observations were published in two volumes titled Democracy in America. The first volume was published in 1835 and the second in 1840.

Even though De Tocqueville identified America as a “republican government,” he remained impressed by the nation’s democratic features; that is, America had more equal, social conditions than its European counterparts. Although more than a few modern-day Americans might disagree, De Tocqueville remarked that all had a “similar condition” and held onto common “customs and opinions to which that social condition has given birth.”

The Frenchman begins his Conclusion to Volume 1 by reminding readers not to let the particulars distract from the whole. In other words, some people cannot see the forest because of the trees.

For starters, he considers the United States a “magnificent inheritance,” and he regrets that his native country did not establish a significant stronghold in North America.

In his first volume, De Tocqueville was somewhat prophetic. Almost a decade and half before the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), he predicted conflict between the two countries. There was a lot of what De Tocqueville described as “uninhabited land” in the west. He anticipated the “Anglo-Americans” to take “possession of the soil and establish such institutions” that newcomers and legal owners would eventually find the land “quietly settled.” Americans were what De Tocqueville called “swift pioneers.” In particular, he discussed the American settlement of Texas. He erroneously thought that all Mexicans would be removed from Texas. The Tejano existence, for one, did not occur to him.

He also predicted disagreements between America and Russia, even before the Cold War and current events. In 1831, the two nations, to him, were sleeping giants who had remained off of Europe’s radar. A lengthy quote is illustrative. Remember, this viewpoint was expressed in the 1830s.

There are two great peoples on the earth today . . . the Russians and the Anglo-Americans. Both of them have grown larger in obscurity; and while men’s regards were occupied elsewhere, they have suddenly taken their place in the first rank of nations, and the world has learned of their birth and of their greatness almost at the same time.

De Tocqueville believed most other nations’ growth had stopped—not so, for the United States and Russia. According to the Frenchman, the nations achieved greatness by different means. The Americans struggled against nature’s obstacles while the Russians confronted men. In De Tocqueville’s estimation, the American conquest was via the plowshare while the Russians conquered by the sword.

Although De Tocqueville foretold that both nations would eventually “sway the destinies of half the globe,” America and Russia had different means to greatness. The Atlantic Ocean divided England from the United States. With a French perspective, De Tocqueville refers to “Anglo-Americans,” yet he did so in a positive way. De Tocqueville is redundant during the last few pages of his Conclusion, though, but in essence, he writes:

The [Anglo-American] relies on personal interest and allows the force and reason of individuals to act, without directing them. The second in a way concentrates all the power of society in one man. The one has freedom for his principle means of action, the other servitude.

Remember, De Tocqueville observed American culture in 1831. His report (the first volume) was published in 1835.

The Atlantic Ocean divided England from the United States. De Tocqueville believed (and hoped) Anglo-Americans would identify with those across the ocean as more similar than different. In sum, despite prior differences between the two nations, resulting in prior actual and diplomatic wars, he forecasted that industrialization and technology and transportation improvements would unite rather than divide the two countries.

Troy Kickler is Founding Director of the North Carolina History Project and Editor of northcarolinahistory.org. He holds an M.S. in Social Studies Education from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tennessee.

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