Status Updates From La democracia en América

"The collective force of the citizens will always be more powerful to produce social well-being than the authority of government . . . I also think that when the central administration claims to replace completely the free cooperation of those primarily interested, it deceives itself and wants to deceive you." (86)

"The frightful sufferings that attend [forced migrations is inconceivable ]...Already exhausted, the lands to which [they arrive] are inhabited by other tribes...Hunger is in the rear, war awaits them, & misery besets on all sides. To escape so many enemies, they separate, & each individual [tries to eke out a living]. The social tie is then dissolved; they have no longer a country, & soon they will not be a people."

Sect."Condition of the Indian tribes..."
"From the moment when a European settlement is formed in the neighborhood, the beasts of chase take the alarm...The approach of the whites is often felt at 200 leagues' distance from the frontier. Their influence is thus exerted over tribes whose name is unknown to them, and who suffer the evils of usurpation long before they are acquainted with the authors of their distress."

Poignant anecdote of stumbling across an "Indian woman", "Negress", & white girl of 5 or 6 years, seeing them enjoy time by a forested spring, until they noticed him watching at which point they left.
dT:"a bond of affection here united the oppressors with the oppressed, and the effort of Nature to bring them together rendered still more striking the immense distance placed between them by prejudice and the laws."

"The Negro plunged in this abyss of evils [chattel slavery], scarcely feels his own calamitous situation. Violence made him a slave, and the habit of servitude gives him the thoughts & desires of a slave; he admires his tyrants more than he hates them, & finds his joy & his pride in the servile imitation of those who oppress him. His understanding is degraded to the level of his soul."-A more reasonable depiction.