Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles Carroll of Carrollton

July 29 2009 by Kevin Dayhoff http://tinyurl.com/lyt9pw

Today is the birthday of a famous French aristocrat, Alexis de Tocqueville, who published in 1835 what many historians to this day, consider to be the foremost classic analysis of American culture, society, and government, “Democracy in America.”

To see a copy of “Democracy in America,” go here: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html; or here: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/tocqueville/alexis/democracy/.

For more information on “Democracy in America,” go here: http://www.tocqueville.org/.

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was born on July 29, 1805 in Paris.

Today’s segment of “The Writer’s Almanac,” narrated by Garrison Keillor, noted, “In 1831, (Tocqueville) was 25 years old, and he and Gustave de Beaumont, who was just 29, were sent by the French government to study the prison system in America. They arrived in Manhattan at sunrise on May 11, 1831.”

According to my Elon College history textbook, “The American Nation,” written by John A. Garraty, Tocqueville wrote at the time, “We are leaving with the intention of examining, in detail and as scientifically as possible, all the mechanism of that vast American society which everyone talks of and no one knows… We are counting on bringing back the elements of a fine work.”

[I used notes from my 1971 Elon College history class for the http://www.explorecarroll.com/ column I wrote last night for this Sunday’s Archives column on this topic. (Click here for a larger image: http://twitpic.com/c0ysz)

In addition to my Elon College history textbook, “The American Nation,” written by John A. Garraty.

In the fall of 1971, I had Mrs. Holt for History 211-E, 9:05 AM, MWF. The classroom was in CO-206.

In the spring of 1972, I had George Troxler for History 212-G, 10:10 AM, MWF. The classroom was in CO-213.]

In 1831, our fledgling nation was much on the minds of the French for many reasons, but most notably for the fact that it was in that year that France and the United States teetered on the brink of war over monetary claims accumulated against the French for their actions during the Napoleonic Wars.

The dispute raged-on for years and was prosecuted, for the most part, by President Andrew Jackson, who was not only upset with the French, but also with Great Britain – and Canada – and native Americans...

In today’s world, Jackson would have been diagnosed with an anger management problem. Eventually, the French settled the dispute because, as Garraty puts it, Jackson “showed poor judgment, being ready to take monumental risks to win petty victories… (It) reinforced the impression held by foreigners that the United States was a rash young country with a chip on its shoulders and pathologically mistrustful…”

It is an attitude held by much of Europe to this day.

Historians have developed a number of explanations as to why these young writers made the trip. One accounts says: “Both were at odds with the new government of Louis Philippe,” (the last King of France, Louis-Philippe I,) who had just come to power on August 13, 1830, and they were looking for an excuse to leave France.

Whatever the reason, the result was an ageless classic which is studied and interpreted over and over again, to this day.

My Elon College history textbook, “The American Nation,” written by John A. Garraty, observed that “… many of the fundamental traits of the (American) society Tocqueville analyzed may still be observed in America today.”

For example, “The Writer’s Almanac” segment notes that Tocqueville observed: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”

The “Almanac” segment reports, “For the next nine months, they traveled more than 7,000 miles, from New England to Wisconsin to Louisiana.” I have yet to determine whether or not they came through what we now know as Carroll County.

Although there is an oblique Carroll County connection nevertheless because the man, after whom our county is named, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, was one of the many Tocqueville interviewed – just before Carroll died on November 14, 1832.

Carroll, who was, at the time Tocqueville interviewed him, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was also the only Catholic to sign; and was considered to be one of the wealthiest men in the U.S.

One publication on the travels and work of Tocqueville notes “Tocqueville interviewed presidents, lawyers, bankers and settlers and even met with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland…”

Carroll was probably a fascinating interview because it was not until after his death that his reputation was rehabilitated…

Dr. Bradley J. Birzer is currently writing a new biography on Carroll, “American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll (Lives of the Founders) ,” that is scheduled to be released in February 2010.

In a recent interview with Dr. Bradley J. Birzer, in the Washington Times, (Hat Tip: “Against The Grain,”) it was brought out that Carroll “was one of Alexis de Tocqueville's main informants. So there are moments in de Tocqueville's Democracy in America … when he is being critical of the democratic spirit, and it seems very clear to me that he is taking that from his interview with Carroll…

“He was so critical of what happened to the republic after the founding. He's very critical of the democratic element in the American republic - he's worried that self-interest and greed are replacing republican virtue.”

“So from the late 1700s, Carroll starts being called ‘the hoary-headed aristocrat.’ He starts to be seen as a relic of an older age. But after Carroll dies, there's a resurgence of his reputation. All across the country, the headlines read, ‘The last of the Romans is dead.’”

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