American Minute with Bill Federer
Tocqueville: on America, Algeria, & How "despotism" of "all powerful government" comes when citizens "debase" their souls seeking "vulgar pleasures"
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Alexis de Tocqueville
was born JULY 29, 1805.
A French social scientist, he traveled the United States in 1831, and wrote a two-part work,
Democracy in America
(1835; 1840), which has been described as:
"the most comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the relationship between character and society in America that has ever been written."
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In it,
Tocqueville
wrote:
"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 ..."
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Tocqueville
wrote further:
"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 ..."
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Tocqueville
continued:
"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."
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Tocqueville
wrote:
"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 ...
This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but
it belongs to the whole nation."
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Tocqueville
observed:
"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,
all the sects
of the United States are comprised within
the great unity of Christianity,
and
Christian morality
is everywhere the same."
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Tocqueville
added:
"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 than in America ...
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."
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Tocqueville
continued:
"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."
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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."
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In August of 1831, while traveling through Chester County, New York,
Alexis de Tocqueville
observed a court case:
"While I was in America, a witness, who happened to be called at the assizes of the county of Chester, 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 ..."
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He continued:
"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.'"
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In 1895, Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert compiled
The Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers,
which included the statement from
Alexis de Tocqueville:
"Christianity
is the
companion of liberty
in all its conflicts -- the cradle of its infancy, and
the divine source of its claims."
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A contemporary of
Alexis de Tocqueville,
who traveled with him across America, was the
French historian Gustave de Beaumont
(1802-1865).
Beaumont
wrote in his work,
Marie ou l'Esclavage aux E'tas-Unis
(1835):
"The principal established
religious sects
in North America are the:
- Methodists,
- Anabaptists,
- Catholics,
- Presbyterians,
- Episcopalians,
- Quakers or Friends,
- Universalists,
- Congregationalists,
- Unitarians,
- Dutch Reformed,
- German Reformed,
- Moravians,
- Evangelical Lutherans, etc ..."
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Gustave de Beaumont
continued:
"Religion
in America is not only a moral institution but also a political institution ...
In the United States,
the law is never atheistic
...
All of the American constitutions proclaim
freedom of conscience
and the
liberty and equality
of all the confessions ..."
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Beaumont
stated further:
"The
Constitution of Massachusetts
proclaims the freedom of the various faiths in the sense that it does not wish to persecute any of them; but it recognizes within the state only
Christians
and protects only the
Protestants.
Maryland's Constitution
also declares that
all of the faiths are free,
and that no one is forced to contribute to the maintenance of a particular church.
However, it gives the legislature the right to establish
a general tax,
according to the circumstances,
for the support of the Christian religion.
The Constitution of
Vermont
recognizes
only the Christian faiths,
and says specifically that
every congregation of Christians
should celebrate the
Sabbath or the Lord's Day,
and observe the
religious worship
which seems to it most pleasing to the
will of God,
manifested by revelation.
Sometimes the
American constitutions offer religious bodies some indirect assistance:
thus,
Maryland law
declares that, to be admitted to public office,
it is necessary to be a Christian ..."
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Gustave de Beaumont
continued in
Marie ou l'Esclavage aux E'tas-Unis
(1835):
"The
Pennsylvania Constitution
requires that one believe in
the existence of God
and in
a future life of punishment or rewards
...
The law ... confirms
the power of religion
...
The
religious sects
... are far from showing themselves indifferent to political interests and to the government of the country.
They all take a lively interest in the maintenance of American institutions through the voice of their ministers in the sacred pulpit and even in the political assemblies ..."
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Beaumont
concluded:
"In America,
Christian religion
is always at the service of
freedom.
It is a principle of the United States legislature that, to be good citizen, it is necessary to be
religious
; and it is a no less well-established rule that, to fulfill
one's duty toward God,
it is necessary to be a good citizen ...
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... In general, anyone who adheres to one of the
religious sects,
whose number is immense in the United States, enjoys all of his social and political rights in peace.
But the man who would claim to have neither a church nor religious beliefs would not only be excluded from all civil employment and from all political offices ... but ... would be an object of moral persecution of all kinds. No one would care to have any social relations with him ...
No one in the United States believes that a man without religion could be an honest man."
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In the 1840's,
Alexis de Tocqueville
traveled twice to the North African country of ALGERIA.
In
Democracy in America,
Vol. II, (1840, 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.
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... 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."
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Similar comments on the political and military aspects of Islam were made by
St. Alfonsus Liguori
(1696-1787), who wrote in
The History of Heresies & their Refutation
(published 1847):
"The
Mahometan
paradise, however, is only fit for beasts; for filthy sensual pleasure is all the believer has to expect there ...
Mahometans
... are permitted to have four wives by their law ...
It is prohibited to dispute on the
Alcoran (Qur'an)
and the Scriptures; and the devil appears to have dictated this precept himself, for, by keeping those poor people in ignorance, he keeps them in darkness ..."
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Liguori
continued:
"Mahomet
died in 631, in the sixty-third year of his age, and nine years after he was recognized as Sovereign of Arabia.
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... He saw almost the whole Peninsula subject to his sway, and for four hundred leagues to the North and South of Medina no other Sovereign was known.
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... He was succeeded by
Aboubeker,
one of his earliest disciples, and a great conqueror likewise.
A long line of
Caliphs
united in their own persons the Spiritual and Royal power of the Arabian Empire.
They destroyed the Empire of Persia; and Egypt, and Syria, and the rich provinces and kingdoms of the East yielded to their arms."
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Thomas Paine
referred to the political aspect of
"Mahomet"
in his 3rd edition of
Common Sense,
Philadelphia, Feb. 14, 1776:
"Kings
... could we ... trace them to their first rise, we should find ... the principal
ruffian
of some restless gang,
whose
savage manners
... obtained him the title of
chief among plunderers
... History stuffed with fables ... to trump up some
superstitious tale
conveniently timed,
Mahomet-like,
to
cram hereditary right down the throats of the vulgar."
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Alexis de Tocqueville
stated in "Travail sur l'Algerie dans oeuvres complètes" (1841):
"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."
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Washington Irving,
the U.S. Minister to Spain, wrote in
Mohammed and His Successors
(1850, ch. 16):
"Mohammed
... hitherto he had relied on ... persuasion to make proselytes ...
He now arrived at a point where he completely
diverged from the celestial spirit of the Christian doctrines,
and stamped his religion with the alloy of
fallible mortality
...
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He had come to Medina a
fugitive
seeking an asylum ... In a little while, and probably to his own surprise,
he found an army at his command
... men of resolute spirit, skilled in the use of arms, and
fond of partisan warfare
...
He endeavored to persuade himself ... 'I, therefore, the last of the prophets, am
sent with the sword!
...
'The sword,'
added he, 'is the key of heaven and hell' ...
Such were the ... revelations which
converted Islamism
... from a religion of meekness ... to one of
violence and the sword."
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John Wesley,
who founded Methodism, wrote in
The Doctrine of Original Sin
(published 1817, p. 35; Works, 1841, ix. 205):
"An ingenious writer, who a few years ago published a pompous translation of the
Koran,
takes great pains to give us a very favorable opinion both of
Mahomet and his followers
...
but a moderate share of reason, cannot but observe in his
Koran
... the most gross and impious absurdities ...
Human understanding must be
debased
to an inconceivable degree, in those who can swallow such
absurdities
as divinely revealed ...
That these men then have
no knowledge or love of God
is undeniably manifest, not only from their gross,
horrible notion
s of him, but from their not loving their brethren ...
Mahometans will butcher each other by thousands,
without so plausible a plea as this ... because they differ in the manner of dressing their head.
The
Ottoman
vehemently maintains ... that a
Mussulman
should wear a round turban. Whereas the
Persian
insists upon his liberty of conscience, and will wear it picked before.
So, for this wonderful reason, when a more plausible one is wanting, they
beat out each other's brains
from generation to generation ..."
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Wesley
added:
"It is not therefore strange, that
ever since the religion of Mahomet appeared
in the world, the
espousers of it,
particularly those under the Turkish emperor,
have been as wolves and tigers
to all other nations;
rending and tearing all that fell into their merciless paws,
and grinding them with their iron teeth: that
numberless cities are razed from the foundation."
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Alexis de Tocqueville
wrote of Muslim "political tendencies" in a letter 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
...
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... 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
...
I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself."
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Alexis de Tocqueville
predicted how Americans would lose their freedom.
It would happen a little at a time, as he wrote in
Democracy in America
(Vol. 2, 1840, The Second Part, Bk 4, Ch. VI):
"I had noted in my stay in the
United States
that
a democratic state of society
similar to the American model could lay itself
open to the establishment of despotism with unusual ease ...
It would
debase men
without tormenting them ... Men, all alike and equal, turned in upon themselves in a restless search for those
petty, vulgar pleasures
with which they fill their souls ...
Above these men stands
an immense and protective power ...
It prefers its
citizens to enjoy themselves
provided they have
only enjoyment in mind.
It restricts the activity of free will
within a narrower range and
gradually removes autonomy itself from each citizen ..."
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He continued:
"Thus, the ruling power, having
taken each citizen one by one into its powerful grasp
... spreads its arms over the whole of society, covering the surface of social life with
a network of petty, complicated, detailed, and uniform rules
...
It does not break men's wills but it does soften, bend, and control them
... It constantly opposes what actions they perform ...
It inhibits, represses, drains, snuffs out, dulls so much effort
that finally it reduces each nation to nothing more than
a flock of timid and hardworking animals
with the government as shepherd ... a single, protective, and
all-powerful government
...
Individual intervention
... is ... suppressed ... It is ... in the details that we run the risk of enslaving men.
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... For my part, I would be tempted to believe that
freedom in the big things of life is less important than in the slightest
...
Subjection in the minor things of life
is obvious every day ...
It constantly irks them until
they give up the exercise of their will
... and
enfeebles their spirit
...
It will be useless to call upon those very citizens who have become
so dependent upon central government
to choose from time to time the representative of this government ..."
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de Tocqueville
concluded:
"Increasing
despotism in the administrative sphere
... they reckon citizens are incompetent ...
It is ... difficult to imagine how
men
who have
completely given up the habit of self-government
could successfully choose those who should do it for them ...
The
vices of those who govern
and the
ineptitude of those governed
would soon bring it to
ruin
and ... revert to its abasement to one single master."
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wjfederer@gmail.com
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