Alexis de Tocqueville (July 29, 1805-April 16, 1859) was a French statesman, historian and social philosopher.
He arrived in New York, May 11, 1831, with Gustave de Beaumont, and began a nine month tour of the country for the purpose of observing the American prison system, the people and American institutions.
His two-part work, which was published in 1835 and 1840, was titled Democracy in America. It has been described as:
<the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written.> 1805AT001
In it, Alexis de Tocqueville related:
<Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this new state of things, to which I was unaccustomed.
In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country.> 1805AT002
<Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief.
I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion - for who can search the human heart? - But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.> 1805AT003
<The sects that exist in the United States are innumerable. They all differ in respect to the worship which is due to the Creator; but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man.
Each sect adores the Deity in its own peculiar manner, but all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God....
Moreover, almost all the sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same.> 1805AT004
<In the United States, if a political character attacks a sect, this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect, from supporting him; but if he attacks all the sects together [Christianity], every one abandons him and he remains alone.> 1805AT005
<In the United States the sovereign authority is religious....There is no country in the whole world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.> 1805AT006
<America is still the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest real power over men's souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.> 1805AT007
<The Americans show by their practice that they feel the high necessity of imparting morality to democratic communities by means of religion. What they think of themselves in this respect is a truth of which every democratic nation ought to be thoroughly persuaded.> 1805AT008
<I do not question that the great austerity of manners that is observable in the United States arises, in the first instance, from religious faith....its influence over the mind of woman is supreme, and women are the protectors of morals. There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated....> 1805AT009
<In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people....
Christianity, therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate.> 1805AT010
<The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.> 1805AT011
<The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other; and with them this conviction does not spring from that barren traditionary faith which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live.> 1805AT012
<They brought with them...a form of Christianity, which I cannot better describe, than by styling it a democratic and republican religion....From the earliest settlement of the emigrants, politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved.> 1805AT013
<The Christian nations of our age seem to me to present a most alarming spectacle; the impulse which is bearing them along is so strong that it cannot be stopped, but it is not yet so rapid that it cannot be guided: their fate is in their hands; yet a little while and it may be no longer.> 1805AT014
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that there existed in America:
<The revolutionists of America are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for Christian morality and equity.> 1805AT015
In August of 1831, while traveling through Chester County in New York, Alexis de Tocqueville had the opportunity to observe a court case. He wrote:
<While I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the assizes of the county of Chester (state of New York), declared that he did not believe in the existence of God or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all confidence of the court in what he was about to say. The newspapers related the fact without any further comment. The New York Spectator of August 23d, 1831, relates the fact in the following terms:
"The court of common pleas of Chester county (New York), a few days since rejected a witness who declared his disbelief in the existence of God. The presiding judge remarked, that he had not before been aware that there was a man living who did not believe in the existence of God; that this belief constituted the sanction of all testimony in a court of justice: and that he knew of no case in a Christian country, where a witness had been permitted to testify without such belief."> 1805AT016
In Book Two of Democracy in America, de Tocqueville wrote:
<Christianity has therefore retained a strong hold on the public mind in America...In the United States...Christianity itself is a fact so irresistibly established, that no one undertakes either to attack or to defend it.> 1805AT116
Alexis de Tocqueville wrote to Arthur de Gobineau, October 22, 1843, (Tocqueville Reader, p. 229):
<I studied the Koran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Mohammed. So far as I can see, it is the principle cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.> 1805AT216
In Democracy in America, 1840, Vol. II, Book 1, Chapter V, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote:
<Mohammed brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in an age of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such age, as in all others.> 1805AT217
Alexis de Tocqueville stated in Travail sur l'Algérie in 'uvres complètes), 1841, concerning the conquest of Algeria:
<I came back from Africa with the pathetic notion that at present in our way of waging war...if our sole aim is to equal the Turks, in fact we shall be in a far lower position than theirs: barbarians for barbarians, the Turks will always outdo us because they are Muslim barbarians.> 1805AT218
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, compiled by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (1895, p. 379), has Alexis de Tocqueville's statement:
<Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts-the cradle of its infancy, and the divine source of its claims.> 1805AT018
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1805AT001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville. Robert N. Bellah, et. al., Habits of the Heart, p. viii. Gary DeMar, The Biblical Worldview (Atlanta, GA: An American Vision Publication- American Vision Inc., 1993), Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 14.
1805AT002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 337. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, p. 319. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 97.
1805AT003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 334. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, p. 316.
1805AT004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, 2 vols. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), Vol. I, p. 303. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, pp. 314-315. Gary DeMar, The Biblical Worldview (Atlanta, GA: An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., 1993), Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 14. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 97.
1805AT005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United states of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 334.
1805AT006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, translator (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 331-332. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), Vol. I, p. 303. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, pp. 314-315. Gary DeMar, "The Christian America Debate" (Atlanta, GA: The Biblical Worldview, An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., February 1993), Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 14. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 97. "Our Christian Heritage," Letter from Plymouth Rock (Marlborough, NH: The Plymouth Rock Foundation), p. 5.
1805AT007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835, 1840, Democracy in America, Henry Reeve, translator, Francis Bowen ed., (Cambridge: 2nd edition, 1876). Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, George Lawrence, translator, (NY: Harper & Row, 1988) p. 291. John Whitehead, The Second American Revolution (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1982), p. 34.
1805AT008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835, 1840, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), Vol. 2, pp. 152-153. Frederick Kershner, Jr., ed., Tocqueville's America- The Great Quotations (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Cooper Industries, 1983), p. 64.
1805AT009. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, p. 314-315. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 98.
1805AT010. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1945), Vol. I, p. 314-315. Tim LaHaye, Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Publishers, Inc., 1987), p. 98. Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 333.
1805AT011. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 44.
1805AT012. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 335.
1805AT013. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 328.
1805AT014. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 5.
1805AT015. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocquerville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), Vol. I, p. 305. Gary DeMar, The Biblical Worldview (Atlanta, GA: An American Vision Publication-American Vision, Inc., 1993), Vol. 9, No. 2, p. 15. Alexis de Tocqueville, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions, Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 337.
1805AT016. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, August 1831, The Republic of the United States of America and Its Political Institutions-Reviewed and Examined, Henry Reeves, trans., (Garden City, NY: A.S. Barnes & Co., 1851), Vol. I, p. 334. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 2 vols. (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), Vol. I, pp. 311, 319-320. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, George Lawrence, translator, (NY: Harper & Row, 1988) p. 47. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 337. The Annals of America, 20 vols. (Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1968, 1977), Vol. 5, pp. 486-487, 497. Sidney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972), p. 386. Frederick Kershner, Jr., ed., Tocqueville's America-The Great Quotations (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Cooper Industries, 1983), p. 62. Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), pp. 228-229, 273. John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution-The Faith of Our Founding Fathers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, A Mott Media Book, 1987; 6th printing, 1993), p. 408. Pat Robertson, The Turning Tide (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1993), p. 270.
1805AT116. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville, Book Two of Democracy in America.
1805AT216. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville. Writing to Arthur de Gobineau, October 22, 1843 (Tocqueville Reader, p. 229).
1805AT217. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville. Democracy in American, 1840, Vol. II, Book 1, Chapter V. 1805AT218. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville. Travail sur l'Algérie, 1841, in 'uvres complètes, Paris, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1991, pp 704 and 705. Extract of Travail sur l'Algérie, in 'uvres complètes, Gallimard, Pléïade, 1991, p. 704 & 705. Olivier LeCour Grandmaison (June 2001). "Torture in Algeria: Past Acts That Haunt France - Liberty, Equality and Colony". Le Monde diplomatique.
1805AT018. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Alexis de Tocqueville. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 90.
1805AT017. Alexis de Tocqueville, 1831. Alexis de Tocqueville, Journey to America, George Lawrence, translator, J.P. Mayer, ed., (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1959), p. 114. Frederick Kershner, Jr., ed., Tocqueville's America-The Great Quotations (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Cooper Industries, 1983), p. 64.
Use of attributed quotation:
Empty Pews & Selections from Other Sermons on Timely Topics, Madison Clinton Peters; Zeising, 1886, p. 35:
"I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their valleys. I visited their manufactories, their commercial markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ, as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America was great and free, and why France was a slave."
It was used by Reverend John McDowell Labor Day sermon, Sept. 1922 in New York City; printed in the 1908 copy of The Methodist; and in The Herald and Presbyter, Sept. 6, 1922, pg. 8, col. 3: NEW YORK LETTER.BY REV. CLARENCE G. REYNOLDS, D.D.; in the New York Times, Feb. 23, 1926, 'Tributes Here Hail Heroic Washington,' pg. 5:
'American ideals are as high today,' he (U.S. Senator Henry F. Ashurst of Arizona) said, 'as ever in our history. The secret of America's genius is not in her halls of Government or even in the Senate, but in her homes and churches. America is great because she is good, and when she is no longer good she will no longer be great.';
Sherwood Eddy (1871-1963) included the quote in his book 1941 book called The Kingdom of God and the American Dream (1941);
General Dwight D. Eisenhower in a 1951 Presidential campaign speech. It was printed in the New York Times Nov. 4, 1952:
"Many years ago a wise philosopher came to this country seeking the answer to this same question; Wherein lie the greatness and genius of America This was his answer: 'I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests - and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and vast world commerce - and it was not there...I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it is no there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good - and if America ever ceases to be good - America will cease to be great.''
Eisenhower used the quote again, printed in the New York Times, Sept. 22, 1953, "Address at Republican Party Dinner Held at the Boston Garden:
"This sovereign ideal we believe to be the very source of the greatness and the genius of America. In this, we proclaim nothing very new. It was seen clearly by a wise French visitor who came to America considerably more than a century ago. he patiently and persistently sought the greatness and genius of America in our fields and in our forests, in our mines and in our commerce, in our Congress and in our Constitution, and he found them not. But he sought still further and then he said: 'Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and her power. America is great because America is good - and if America ever ceases to be good - America will cease to be great.' I read those words to such an audience as this once before. It was here in Boston, eleven months ago in this hall. The utter truth they held for me then, they hold today.";
On Saturday, October 31, 1953, President Eisenhower recorded a program for the Committee on Religion in American Life. In the message, which was broadcast nationally over radio and television, President Eisenhower commended:
"It was once said, "America is great because America is good-and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." By strengthening religious institutions, the Committee on Religion in American Life is helping to keep America good, thus it helps each of us to keep America great. I earnestly hope that during November, and throughout this and every year, each American citizen will actively support the religious institution of his own choice."
Dwight David Eisenhower, October 31, 1953, in a program produced for the Committee on Religion in American Life, broadcast nationally via radio and television. Public Papers of the Presidents-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-Containing Public Messages, Speeches, and Statements of the President, January 20 to December 31, 1953 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1960), Item 236, p. 736.
Richard Nixon use of the quote was printed in the New York Times, Oct. 25, 1970, 'Nixon's Statement Rejecting the Report of Obscenity Panel,':
"Alexis de Tocqueville, observing America more than a century ago, wrote: 'America is great because she is good - and if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.';
President Ronald W. Reagan in a 1982 speech, and again in 1984:
"[Tocqueville] is said to have observed that 'America is great because America is good'";
Reagan used the quote again, as printed in the New York Times, May 13, 1983, 'Reagan Plays The Issues In More Than A Single Key' by Francis X. Clines, pg. E1:
"Invoking the power of Jesus and denouncing the nuclear freeze movement, the President told a fervid audience of evangelical preachers that - 'America is great because America is good.'
Robert Flood, The Rebirth of America (The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986), p. 32. The New American, December 12, 1986, p. 10.
Russell P. McRory, "Faith of Our Founding Fathers" (Wall Street Journal, Letter to the Editor, June 1993).
D.P. Diffine, Ph.D., One Nation Under God-How Close a Separation? (Searcy, Arkansas: Harding University, Belden Center for Private Enterprise Education, 6th edition, 1992), p. 1.
Sam Bartholomew, God's Role in America (Nashville, TN: Eggman Publishing, Inc., 1996), p. 63.
For an interesting account of the Tocqueville quote, see John J. Pittney's "The Tocqueville Fraud," in The Weekly Standard, November 13, 1995.