Essay 78: How In Ages Of Equality And Doubt It Is Important To Move The Goal Of Human Endeavor Beyond Immediate Concerns (Vol. 2 Pt. 2 Ch. 17)
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 522 (start at chapter 17 heading) – 524 of this edition of Democracy in America.
In his 1796 Farewell Address resigning from the presidency after two terms, George Washington advised his fellow Americans to understand the link between religion, virtue, and self-government. Washington wrote, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”
Washington continued to elaborate, explaining with a syllogism that, “It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” He reasoned, along with most other founders, that religion was the basis of virtue and morality, and that virtue and morality were necessary foundations of republican self-government. This is because republics needed citizens and leaders who practiced patriotic self-sacrifice, moderation, self-control, and the public good over private interest.
During the 1830s and 1840s, the Second Great Awakening was a time rife with religious revivalism and expansion of Protestant denominations focusing on a personal and emotional relationship with Christ. The Second Great Awakening had profound social effects as it promoted widespread moral and social reforms including abolitionism, temperance, prison reform, and women’s suffrage.
This was the America that Alexis de Tocqueville visited in 1831-1832, and described in his book, Democracy in America. It should hardly surprise us that De Tocqueville offers his views on the important role of religion played in the American republic.
De Tocqueville notes that religious faith provides the means for suppressing human inclinations for sin by exercising self-control over a “thousand little passing desires.” He argues that humans without God easily give into their “desires without delay.” Greed, gluttony, immoderation, and recklessness are the inevitable result in his estimation.
De Tocqueville advises that a society without virtue is characterized by “the instability of the social state” as citizens easily give themselves to the passions and desires of human nature. He warns that for a self-governing people, “The danger I point out is increased.” In a monarchy, people have to be good subjects; in a republic, the people have a duty to be good citizens. A republic rooted in sin and vice would quickly become unworkable and collapse.
In a republic, the citizens must practice the civic virtues that knit and bind society together. Citizens must govern their passions and practice virtues to make self-government possible. Much like Washington in his Farewell, De Tocqueville writes that civic virtue leads to true happiness and a thriving polity.
For De Tocqueville, leaders are just as responsible, if not more so, for practicing virtue as are the citizenry. This is because representatives in a democracy “by their example…also teach particular persons the art of conducting private affairs.” In other words, they are important exemplars of character.
For De Tocqueville, one of the roles of government is supporting the institutions of civil society in “habituating citizens to think of the future.” He states that even if society is not very religious, government encouragement of practicing civic virtue in a republic will turn the eyes of the people toward heaven and permanent things. It would “lead the human race by a long detour back toward faith.”
De Tocqueville concurred with the American founders that religious practice promotes virtue and that virtuous citizens are necessary to a healthy and well-functioning republic. We would be wise to remember this logic as we prepare for the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. We can abide the principles of the Declaration when we practice moderation and work together with a common purpose and spirit for the common good as Americans. Religion and civic virtue supports this mission.
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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