Status Updates From By Alexis de Tocqueville De...

"It is to be remembered, too, that the affections of men generally turn towards power." -p. 66, Alexis de Tolkien 🤭

Townships and Municipal Bodies.
"No idea was ever entertained of attacking the principal or contesting the rights of society; but the exercise of its authority was divided, in order that the office might be powerful and the officer insignificant, and that the community should be at once regulated and free. In no [other] country in the world... is the right of applying [the law] vested in so many hands." -p.71

Sovereignty of the People.

"When a nation begins to modify the elective qualification, it may easily be foreseen that, sooner or later, that qualification will be entirely abolished...no stop can be made short of universal suffrage." -p. 57
Suffrage ended up going further than T might have been able to conceive.

"The people reign in the American political world as the Deity does in the universe." -p. 58

Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans.
T marvels how Americans don't face the classism of aristocracy (frequent sale of inherited land & assumption of new professions keeps ppl from amassing inordinate wealth over others) yet also don't succumb to despotic governance & illiberty w/o aristocratic powers to oppose such.
"Their circumstances, origin, intelligence & morals establish & maintain their freedom."-54, parap

Origin of the Anglo-Americans.
Tocqueville sees the founding colonies of the US as independent political regions that benefitted from notions of democracy coming from England, notions of independence and laws coming from novel ("Enlightment" in modern parlance) ideas, and shared Christian belief & practice (while admitting some sects were hostile to others).
"Liberty regards religion as its companion..." -p. 44

Exterior Form of N.A.
"The famous republics of antiquity never gave examples of more unshaken courage, more haughty spirit, or more intractable love of independence than were hidden in former times among the wild forests of the New World. The Europeans produced no great impression when they landed upon the shores of North America... What influence could they possess over such men as I have described?" - p. 23

Author's Introduction.

"Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people." - p. 3

Critics note T, despite floating the MS river to N.O., seems never to have visited a plantation to see chattel slavery. I'll be interested to see how he describes the potential for African-Americans later.

This is reading for work!

In "Author's Introduction":
"Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people....It is evident to all alike that a great democratic revolution is going on among us....It seems irresistible, because it is the most uniform, ancient, most permanent tendency in human history." Paraphrase, p. 3