July 12, 2022
What we're concerned about in these January 6th hearings, as far as the rhetoric of law, by the way, can also be found on p. 271 of Democracy in America (Tocqueville, Mansfield/Winthrop translation) - Vol. I. Part 2, Chap. 9 Sec. 1 ("On the principal causes tending to maintain a Democratic Republic in the United States" - "On the accidental or providential causes contributing to the maintenance of a democratic republic in the United States").
Sometimes man advances so quickly that the wilderness reappears behind him. The forest has only bent underneath his feet; as soon as he has passed, it recovers. It is not rare, when passing through the new states of the West, to encounter abandoned dwellings in the middle of the woods; often one discovers the debris of a hut in the deepest solitude, and one is astonished to come across partial clearings which attest at once to human power and human inconstancy. The ancient forest He's not slow to push up new shoots among the abandon fields, over the day-old ruins; animals retake possession of the empire: laughing, nature comes to cover over the vestiges of men with green branches and flowers, and hastens to make his ephemeral traces disappear.
I remember that in crossing one of the wilderness districts it's still cover the state of New York, I reach the shore of a lake surrounded with forest, as if at the beginning of the world. A small island rose amid the waters. The woods that covered it, extending their foliage around it, he did sure entirely. On the banks of the lake nothing told of the presence of man; only on the horizon did one perceive a colony of smoke, going perpendicularly from the tree tops to the clouds, which seem to hang from the height of the heavens rather than to mount to them.
An Indian canoe was drawn up on the sand; I used it to go visit the island that headfirst attracted by regard, and soon after I reached its sure the entire island formed one of those delightful solitudes of the New World it almost makes civilized man regret savage life. But it's marvels, vigorous vegetation told of the incomparable wealth of the soil. A profound silence reigned, as in all the wilderness of North America, interrupted only by the monotonous cooing of the wood pigeons or by the tapping of the green woodpeckers on the bark of trees. I was far indeed from believing that this place had once been inhabited, so much did nature still seem abandoned to itself; but when I reached the center of the island, I suddenly believed I had encountered the vestiges of man. Then I carefully examined all the surrounding objects, and soon I no longer doubted that a European had come to seek refuge in this place. But how his work had changed face! The wood that he had formerly cut in haste to make shelter had since pushed up shoots: its fences had become live hedges, and his hut had been transformed into a grove. In the midst of these shrubs, one still perceived some stones blackened by fire around a small heap of cinders; doubtless this place was the hearth: the chimney, in crumbling, had covered it with debris. For some time I admired in silence the resources of nature and the weakness of man; and when finally I had to leave these enchanted places, I kept repeating sadly: What! Already in ruins!
In Europe we habitually regard restiveness of mind, immoderate desire for wealth, extreme love of independence as great social dangers. It is precisely all these things that guarantee a long and peaceful future to the American republics. Without these rest of passions, the population would be concentrated around certain places and Wood, as among us, soon field needs difficult to satisfy. What a happy country is the New World, where man's vices are almost as useful to society as his virtues!
This exerts a great influence on the manner in which human actions are judged in the two hemispheres. Often the Americans call a praiseworthy industry what we name love of gain, and they see a certain cowardly heart in what we consider moderation of desires.
In France, one regards simplicity of taste, tranquility of mores, the spirit of family, and love of one's birthplace as great guarantees of tranquility and happiness for the state; but in America, nothing appears more prejudicial to society than virtues like these. The French of Canada, who have faithfully preserved the tradition of old mores, already have difficulty living on their territory, and the small people, which has just been born, will soon be prey to the miseries of old nations. In Canada, the men who have the most enlightenment, patriotism, and humanity make extraordinary efforts to disgust the people with the simple happiness that still suffices for them. They celebrate the advantages of wealth, just as among us they would perhaps vaunt the charms of an honest mediocrity, and they put more care into spurring the human passions than elsewhere one makes efforts to calm them. To exchange the pure and tranquil pleasures that the native country offers even to the poor for the sterile enjoyments that well-being provides under a foreign sky; to flee the paternal hearth in the fields where one's ancestors rest; to abandon the living and the dead to run after fortune – there is nothing that merits more praise in their eyes.
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