“There is no country in the world in which the bolder political theories of the eighteenth-century philosophers are put so effectively into practice as in America.”
Founders Quote of the Week
I’m taking a bit of a detour here, if you can call it that. This quote was not from anyone we can call a Founding Father, but from Alexis de Tocqueville.
Alexis, along with Gustave de Beaumont, was sent to America by the French Government to study the American prison system. Arriving in May of 1831 and traveling for nine months throughout the country, they used their time to do just that, but to also study American society as a whole. Their studies resulted in reports on the penitentiary system, slavery, and Alexis de Tocqueville’s now famous book, Democracy in America.
He was for sure not a Founding Father, but his book has become a staple for anyone seeking to understand the nature of young America, which fits right in with my weekly study of the words of the Founders. It’s like reading a series of interviews of normal, everyday people in young America then hearing Alexis discuss his observations from an outside perspective.
Here is the full quote from Alexis and what I’m addressing here, which is the heart and mind of the American People:
