Essay 50: Author’s Note To Volume 2
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.
French aristocrat and government official, Alexis de Tocqueville visited the United States for a nine-month period during 1831-1832. He traveled with his companion, Gustave Beaumont, to study penal reform.
The United States during the 1830s and 1840s was experiencing a democratic revolution with the rise of universal male suffrage for white men in most states. Moreover, De Tocqueville visited toward the end of the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson symbolized the rise of the “common man” and democracy, though the democratic currents were caused by more than just who occupied the White House.
The democratic ethos was spreading throughout America in countless ways. The republican institutions guaranteed greater political participation than anywhere in the world at the time. They engaged in self-governance primarily in small towns and communities as farmers and artisans. The Second Great Awakening was characterized by intense religious ferment and led to the rise of new Christian denominations, the democratization of religion, and strong streaks of religious individualism and emotional religiosity. Americans were enjoying the prosperity of a growing market economy, equal opportunity, and social mobility. They were also geographically mobile, moving further westward in search of land, new opportunities, and often, a new start.
Thus, it is perhaps not surprising that when De Tocqueville wrote his two volumes of his masterpiece, Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840 respectively, he focused on both American institutions and the American character.
In his “Note” to Volume II in Democracy in America, De Tocqueville describes the purpose of the first volume in a nutshell. “The Americans have a democratic social state that has naturally suggested to them certain laws and political mores.” As a result, he studied American institutions, popular sovereignty, and the geography of the United States in shaping the political practices and beliefs of Americans.
In the “Note,” De Tocqueville further explains his purpose in Book II by giving readers a small taste of its themes. He states that democracy has “given birth to a multitude of sentiments and opinions” among Americans that differ from the aristocratic societies of Europe. In the second volume, he will be examining those democratic sentiments and opinions that exist in America especially in forming voluntary associations.
De Tocqueville states that, “I thought that many would take it upon themselves to announce the new goods that equality promises to me, but that few would dare to point out from afar the perils with which it threatens them. It is there principally at those perils that I have directed my regard.”
Therefore, De Tocqueville will make observations on the ideas and effects of the principle of equality to which Americans are drawn and the equality of condition that Americans experienced to a much greater degree than Europeans. However, as he notes above, he is interested in the promise and the perils of equality.
The dark side of that egalitarianism is a passion for equality, especially an equality of outcomes that endangers liberty. In other words, Americans may too willingly surrender their freedoms for equality. We can observe many examples in the modern world from how progressive taxation threatens freedom of property, the regulatory state can endanger liberty, and DEI aims of equality of outcomes or equity over equal opportunity.
De Tocqueville grappled with the complexities of American democracy and the American character in a thoughtful and lasting manner that is still relevant today. Perhaps he and his masterpiece can be a guide to examining ourselves and the relationship of liberty and equality in America.
Tony Williams is Senior Teaching Fellow at the Bill of Rights Institute; a Constituting America Fellow; author of Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America, and Hamilton: An American Biography.
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It’s always amazing when reading about De Tocqueville’s observations of the early United States and how much he could draw from it, especially in regards to the comparison of equality between our nation and his.