The Project Gutenberg EBook of Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2), by
Alexis de Toqueville

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Title: Democracy In America, Volume 2 (of 2)

Author: Alexis de Toqueville

Translator: Henry Reeve

Release Date: January 21, 2006 [EBook #816]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, V2 ***

Produced by David Reed and David Widger

DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA

By Alexis De Tocqueville

Translated by Henry Reeve

Book Two: Influence Of Democracy On Progress Of Opinion In
the United States.

De Tocqueville's Preface To The Second Part

The Americans live in a democratic state of society, which has naturally
suggested to them certain laws and a certain political character. This
same state of society has, moreover, engendered amongst them a
multitude of feelings and opinions which were unknown amongst the elder
aristocratic communities of Europe: it has destroyed or modified all the
relations which before existed, and established others of a novel kind.
The--aspect of civil society has been no less affected by these changes
than that of the political world. The former subject has been treated
of in the work on the Democracy of America, which I published five years
ago; to examine the latter is the object of the present book; but these
two parts complete each other, and form one and the same work.

I must at once warn the reader against an error which would be extremely
prejudicial to me. When he finds that I attribute so many different
consequences to the principle of equality, he may thence infer that I
consider that principle to be the sole cause of all that takes place in
the present age: but this would be to impute to me a very narrow view. A
multitude of opinions, feelings, and propensities are now in existence,
which owe their origin to circumstances unconnected with or even
contrary to the principle of equality. Thus if I were to select the
United States as an example, I could easily prove that the nature of the
country, the origin of its inhabitants, the religion of its founders,
their acquired knowledge, and their former habits, have exercised, and
stil