Free Republic

This occasion is a time to reflect on our blood-bought freedoms. I like to return to George Washington's "Farewell Address" on such occasions because, in it, the father of our nation spells out what he took to be maxims of a free society. Washington urged us, in the "Farewell Address," to contemplate and frequently review those maxims that our nation might endure. We also honor those who've fought and died to protect our freedom by doing so. The maxim I wish us to review and contemplate today is that a free society requires a moral populace. Washington noted that: Of...

Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications and to watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent...

BEYOND TOCQUEVILLE, MYRDAHL, AND HARTZ: THE MULTIPLE TRADITIONS IN AMERICA ROGERS M. SMITH Yale University Analysts of American politics since Tocqueville have seen the nation as a paradigmatic "liberal democratic" society, shaped most by the comparatively free and equal conditions and the Enlightenment ideals said to have prevailed at its founding. These accounts must be severely revised to recognize the inegalitarian ideologies and institutions of ascriptive hierarchy that defined the political status of racial and ethnic minorities and women through most of U.S. history. A study of the period 1870-1920 illustrates that American political culture is better understood as the...

A Tocquevillian Perspective on a Charter School’s First Graduating Class One thing we have learned over the last two years at this school is that if you challenge students with meaningful assignments, they will meet and exceed your expectations. Indeed, we adults have often come to realize that these young people are better—more educated, more polished, perhaps even more humane—than we were at that age. The purpose of a classical education, for instance, has always been to make good orators. You have seen that Miss Wilson and Mr. van Maren have indeed become orators—to the extent that they leave their...

<p>That facility of the French for generalization, which turned the world upside down, reached its apex in Alexis de Tocqueville. He employed the methods and the style of the philosophes and the Encyclopedists to alleviate, more than a half-century later, the consequences of their books. In some respects, the pupil, Tocqueville, excels his philosophical master, Burke: certainly his Democracy contains an impartial examination of the new order which Buurke never had time or patience to undertake. Tocqueville is a writer who should be read not in abridgement, but wholly; for every sentence has significance, every observation sagacity. The two big volumes of Democracy are a mine of aphorisms, his Old Regime is the germ of a hundred books, his Souvenir is packed with a terse brilliance of narrative that few memoirs possess. Some people besides professors still read Tocqueville. They ought to, because he was the best friend democracy ever has had, and democracy's most candid and judicious critic.</p>

In Alexis de Tocqueville's classic work Democracy in America there is a chapter called "What Causes Almost All Americans To Follow Industrial Callings." Alexis de Tocqueville was in the United States from 1831 to 1832. At that time he said Americans "are all led to engage in commerce, not only for the sake of the profit it holds out to them, but for the love of the constant excitement occasioned by that pursuit." He was amazed at the industry not only of the people but the infrastructure they had created to enhance and expand industry. What has occurred in...

RELIGION, CONSERVATISM, AND LIBERATIONISM Is conservatism necessarily grounded in religious faith? The answer depends, of course, on what is meant by both conservatism and religion. My charge is to make my answer personal, but I hope not too personal. I woul dnot want to say that conservatives must be Catholics, much less think and believes as I do in every respect. So I am going to define conservatism for this occasion in an expansive way. And I am going to limit myself to sayig that much of Christian psychology and portions of Christian faith must be true for me to...

The latest installment of quotations for freepers from Alexis De Tocqueville's Democracy in America,. Quotes compiled and organized by yours truly. Regards and enjoy - PsyOp. Author and text: Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835. AMBITION The sentiment of ambition is universal, but the scope of ambition is seldom vast. - De Tocqueville. AMERICA. In the United States, as soon as a man has acquired some education and pecuniary resources, he either endeavors to get rich by commerce or industry, or he buys land in the bush and turns pioneer. All that he asks of the state is, not...