Author’s Introduction, p 31 “Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power, or debased by the habit of obedience; but by the exercise of power which they believe to be illegitimate, and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.”
PART ONE, 1. Origin of the Anglo-Americans, p 46 “In the States of New England, from the first, the condition of the poor was provided for; strict measures were appointed to attend to them”
PART ONE, 3. The Sovereignty of the People in America, p 57 “the further electoral rights are extended, the greater is the need of extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength. The ambition of those who are below the appointed rate is irritated in exact proportion to the great number of those who are above it. The exception at last becomes the rule, concession follows concession, and no stop can be made short of universal suffrage.”
PART ONE, 4. Local Government, p 58 “Every individual is always supposed to be as well informed, as virtuous, and as strong as any of his fellow-citizens. He obeys the government, not because he is inferior to those who conduct it, or because he is less capable than any other of governing himself; but because he acknowledges the utility of an association with his fellow-men, and he knows that no such association can exist without a regulating force. He is a subject in all that concerns the duties of citizens to each other; he is free, and responsible to God alone, for all that concerns himself.”
PART ONE, 4. Local Government, p 59 – 60 “the affectations of men generally turn towards power. Patriotism is not durable in a conquered nation.”
PART ONE, 7. Aspects of the Federal Constitution, p 80 “The President of the United States, it is true, is the commander-in-chief of the army, but the army is composed of only six thousand men; he commands the fleet, but the fleet reckons but few sail; he conducts the foreign relations of the Union, but the United States are a nation without neighbors. Separated from the rest of the world by the ocean, and too weak as yet to aim at the dominion of the seas, they have no enemies, and their interests rarely come into contact with those of any other nation of the globe. This proves that the practical operation of the government must not be judged by the theory of its constitution. The President of the United States possesses almost royal prerogatives, which he has no opportunity of exercising, and the privileges which he can at present use are very circumscribed. The laws allow him to be strong, but circumstances keep him weak.”
PART ONE, 7. Aspects of the Federal Constitution, p 81 – 82 “All the passions which are most fatal to republican institutions increase with an increasing territory, whilst the virtues which favor them do not augment in the same proportion. The ambition of private citizens increases with the power of the state; the strength of parties, with the importance of the ends they have in view; but the love of country, which ought to check these destructive agencies, is not stronger in a large than in a small republic.”
PART ONE, 8. Political Parties, p 89 “The accession of the Federalists to power was, in my opinion, one of the most fortunate incidents which accompanied the formation of the great American Union: they resisted the inevitable propensities of their country and their age. But whether their theories were good or bad, they had the fault of being inapplicable, as a whole, to the society which they wished to govern, and that which occurred under the auspices of Jefferson must therefore have taken place sooner or later. But their government at least gave the new republic time to acquire a certain stability, and afterwards to support without inconvenience the rapid growth of the very doctrines which they had combated. A considerable number of their principles, moreover, were embodied at last in the political creed of their opponents; and the Federal Constitution, which subsists at the present day, is a lasting monument to their patriotism and their wisdom.”
PART ONE, 10. Political Associations in the United States, p 100 “He who in given cases consents to obey his fellows with servility, and who submits his will, and even his thoughts to their control, how can he pretend that he wishes to be free?”
PART ONE, 11. Advantages of Democracy in the United States, Respect for the Law, p 107 “In the United States, then, that numerous and turbulent multitude does not exist, who, regarding the law as their natural enemy, look upon it with fear and distrust. It is impossible, on the contrary, not to perceive that all classes display the utmost reliance upon the legislation of their country, and are attached to it by a kind of parental affection. […] it is the opulent classes who frequently look upon the law with suspicion. […] In the United States, where the poor rule, the rich have always something to fear from the abuse of their power. This natural anxiety of the rich may produce a secret dissatisfaction; but society is not disturbed by it, for the same reason which withholds the confidence of the rich from the legislative authority, makes them obey its mandates: their wealth, which prevents them from making the law, prevents them from withstanding it. Amongst civilized nations, only those who have nothing to lose ever revolt”
PART ONE, 11. Advantages of Democracy in the United States, Political Activity Which Pervades The United States, p 108 “The cares of politics engross a prominent place in the occupations of a citizen in the United States; and almost the only pleasure which an American knows is to take a part in the government, and to discuss its measures.”
PART ONE, 11. Advantages of Democracy in the United States, Political Activity Which Pervades The United States, p 109 “if an American were condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence; he would feel an immense void in the life which he is accustomed to lead, and his wretchedness would be unbearable.”
PART ONE, 11. Advantages of Democracy in the United States, Political Activity Which Pervades The United States, p 109 “It is incontestable that the people frequently conduct public business very ill; but it is impossible that the lower orders should take a part in public business without extending the circle of their ideas, and quitting the ordinary routine of their thoughts.”
PART ONE, 12. Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States and Its Consequences, Power Exercised by the Majority in America upon Opinion, p 116 “It is in the examination of the exercise of thought in the United States, that we clearly perceive how far the power of the majority surpasses all the powers with which we are acquainted in Europe. Thought is an invisible and subtile power, that mocks all the efforts of tyranny. At the present time, the most absolute monarchs in Europe cannot prevent certain opinions hostile to their authority from circulating in secret through their dominions, and even in their courts. It is not so in America; as long as the majority is still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced, every one is silent, and the friends as well as the opponents of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety. The reason of this is perfectly clear: no monarch is so absolute as to combine all the powers of society in his own hands, and to conquer all opposition, as a majority is able to od, which has the right both of making and of executing the laws.
The authority of a king is physical, and controls the actions of men without subduing their will. But the majority possesses a power which is physical and moral at the same time, which acts upon the will as much as upon the actions, and represses not only all contest, but all controversy.”
PART ONE, 12. Unlimited Power of the Majority in the United States and Its Consequences, Power Exercised by the Majority in America upon Opinion, p 117 – 118 “In America, the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion: within these barriers, an author may write what he pleases; but woe to him if he goes beyond them. Not that he is in danger of an auto-da-fe, but he is exposed to continued obloquy and persecution. His political career is closed forever, since he has offended the only authority which is able to open it. Every sort of compensation, even that of celebrity, is refused to him. Before publishing his opinions, he imagined that he held them in common with others; but no sooner has he declared them, than he is loudly censured by his opponents, whilst those who think like him, without having the courage to speak out, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, overcome by the daily effort which he has to make, and subsides into silence, as if he felt remorse for having spoken the truth.
Fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly employed; but the civilization of our age has perfected despotism itself, though it seemed to have nothing to learn. Monarchs had, so to speak, materialized oppression: the democratic republics of the present day have rendered it as entirely an affair of the mind, as the will which it is intended to coerce. Under the absolute sway of one man, the body was attacked in order to subdue the soul: but the soul escaped the blows which were directed against it, and rose proudly superior. Such is not the course adopted by the tyranny in democratic republics; there the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The master no longer says, “You shall think as I do, or you shall die”; but he says, “You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life, your property, and all that you possess; but you are henceforth a stranger among your people. You may retain your civil rights, buy they will be useless to you, for you will never be chosen by your fellow-citizens, if you solicit their votes; and they will affect to scorn you, if you ask for their esteem. You will remain among men, but you will be deprived of the rights of mankind. Your fellow-creatures will shun you like an impure being; and even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace! I have given you your life, but it is an existence worse than death.”
Absolute monarchies had dishonored despotism; let us be ware lest democratic republics should reinstate it, and render it less odious and degrading in the eyes of the many, by making it still more onerous to the few.”
PART ONE, 14. Causes Which Tend to Maintain Democracy, Importance of What Precedes with Respect to the State of Europe, p 133 – 134 “If absolute power were re-established amongst the democratic nations of Europe, I am persuaded that it would assume a new form, and appear under features unknown to our fathers. There was a time in Europe when the laws and the consent of the people had invested princes with almost unlimited authority, but they scarcely ever availed themselves of it. I do not speak of the prerogatives of the nobility, of the authority of high courts of justice, of corporations and their chartered rights, or of provincial privileges, which served to break the blows of sovereign authority, and to keep up a spirit of resistance in the nation. Independently of these political institutions,–which, however opposed they might be to personal liberty, served to keep alive the love of freedom in the mind, and which may be esteemed useful in this respect,–the manners and opinions of the nation confined the royal authority within barriers which were not less powerful because less conspicuous. Religion, the affections of the people, the benevolence of the prince, the sense of honor, family pride, provincial prejudices, custom, and public opinion limited the power of kings, and restrained their authority within an invisible circle. The constitution of nations was despotic at that time, but their manners were free. Princes had the right, but they had neither the means nor the desire, of doing whatever they pleased.
But what now remains of those barriers which formerly arrested tyranny? Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary which divided good from evil is overthrown; everything seems doubtful and indeterminate in the moral world; kings and nations are guided by chance, and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bounds of license. Long revolutions have forever destroyed the respect which surrounded the rules of the state; and, since they have been relieved from the burden of public esteem, princes may henceforward surrender themselves without fear to the intoxication of arbitrary power.”
PART ONE, 14. Causes Which Tend to Maintain Democracy, Importance of What Precedes with Respect to the State of Europe, p 135 “What force can there be in the customs of a country which has changed, and is still perpetually changing, its aspect,–in which every act of tyranny already has a precedent, and every crime an example,–in which there is nothing so old that its antiquity can save it from destruction, and nothing so unparalleled that its novelty can prevent it from being done? What resistance can be offered by manners of so pliant a make that they have already often yielded? What strength can even public opinion have retained, when no twenty persons are connected by a common tie,–when not a man, nor a family, nor chartered corporation, nor class, nor free institution, has the power of representing or exerting that opinion,–and when every citizen, being equally weak, equally poor, and equally isolated, has only his personal impotence to oppose to the organized force of the government?”
PART ONE, 14. Causes Which Tend to Maintain Democracy, Importance of What Precedes with Respect to the State of Europe, p 136 “It is difficult to make the people participate in the government; but it is still more difficult to supply them with experience, and to inspire them with the feelings which they need in order to govern well.”