Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville was a Frenchman, best known in the United States for a roughly 9-month tour in 1831 which helped him formulate, write and publish Democracy in America.

Speech Relevance

Reagan mentions de Tocqueville in his The Myth of the Great Society speech in 1966 and in some of the radio commentaries.

From The Myth of the Great Society:

The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville a hundred years ago said, "The end of freedom comes when the party in power learns it can perpetuate itself through taxation."

This quote has been attributed to, not just de Tocqueville, but several leading thinkers, but no evidence has been found of it in his writings.

To quote de Tocqueville again he warned that such a government would cover the face of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, and thus the will of man is not shattered, but softened and guided, until the nation is reduced to a flock of timid and industrious animals of which government is the shepherd.

This line is found in Democracy in America and is part of de Tocqueville's discussion on "soft despotism." His full paragraph is as follows:

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. --Tocqueville: Book I Chapter 1

From the Radio Commentaries: Reagan was fond of using one particular quote, but it has been debunked over the last 25 years.

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.