Originally penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains one of the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This edition, based on the revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition and meticulously edited by the distinguished de Tocqueville scholar J. P. Mayer, is widely recognized as the preeminent translation. “De Tocqueville, whose brilliance has always been granted by academics, is now accessible to readers who don’t mind brilliance as long as it is readable.” - San Francisco Chronicle “Among the most remarkable productions of our time.” - John Stuart Mill The complete edition based on the revised and corrected text of the 1961 French edition Originally penned in the mid-eighteenth century by Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America remains the most penetrating and astute picture of American life, politics, and morals ever written, as relevant today as when it first appeared in print nearly two hundred years ago. This edition, meticulously edited by the distinguished de Tocqueville scholar J. P. Mayer, is widely recognized as the preeminent translation. Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) was born in Verneuil, France. A historian and political scientist, he came to the United States in 1831 to report on the prison system. His experiences would later become the basis for his classic study Democracy in America . Democracy in America By Alexis de Tocqueville HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2006 Alexis de Tocqueville All right reserved. ISBN: 0061127922 Chapter One Physical Configuration of North America North America divided into two vast regions, one sloping toward the pole, the other toward the equator. Mississippi valley and its geology. The Atlantic coast and the foundation of the English colonies. Contrast between North and South America at the time of discovery. North American forests and prairies. Nomadic native tribes and their appearance, mores, and languages. Traces of an unknown people. North America has striking geographical features which can be appreciated at first glance. Land and water, mountains and valleys, seem to have been separated with systematic method, and the simple majesty of this design stands out amid the confusion and immense variety of the scene. The continent is divided into two vast and almost equal regions. One region is bounded by the North Pole and the great oceans to east and west, while to the south it stretches down in an irregular triangle to the Great Lakes of Canada. The second starts where the other ends and covers the rest of the continent. One region slopes gently toward the pole, the other toward the equator. The lands to the north of the first region slope so imperceptibly that they may almost be described as plains, and there are no high mountains or deep valleys in the whole of this vast level expanse. Chance seems to trace the serpentine courses of the streams; great rivers mingle, separate, and meet again; they get lost in a thousand marshes, meandering continually through the watery labyrinth they have formed, and only after innumerable detours do they finally reach the Arctic sea. The Great Lakes, which bring this region to an end, are not framed, as are most lakes in the Old World, by hills or rocks; their banks are level, hardly rising more than a few feet above the water. So each is like a huge cup filled to the brim. The slightest change of global structure would tilt their waters to the pole or to the tropics. The second region is broken up more and is better suited as a permanent home for man. Two mountain chains run right across it; the Alleghenies parallel to the Atlantic, and the Rockies to the Pacific. The area between these two mountain chains is 1,341,649 square miles, or about six times that of France. But the whole of this vast territory is a single valley sloping down from the smooth summits of the Alleghenies and stretching up to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, with no obstacles in the way. An immense river flows along the bottom of this valley, and all the waters falling on the mountains on every side drain into it. Formerly the French called it the St. Louis River, in memory of their distant fatherland, and the Indians in their grandiloquent tongue named it the Father of Waters, the Mississippi. The Mississippi rises in the borderland between our two regions, not far from the highest point in the plain which links them. Another river which rises nearby flows down into the polar seas. The Mississippi itself sometimes seems in doubt which way to go; it twists backward several times, and only after slowing down in lakes and marshes seems finally to make up its mind and meander on toward the south. Sometimes gently flowing along the clay bed which nature has carved out for it, and sometimes