copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2013-08-14): Alexis de Tocqueville’s (1805-1859) travels through the United States and his depiction of those travels and observations in Democracy in America (1835) remains a great example of political analysis. De Tocqueville’s insights into the then-new country have proven prescient. His comment that "I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not" could just as easily be applied today as when he toured the United States in the early 19th Century. [...] The degree to which de Tocqueville was concerned – "cynical" might be too harsh a word – about the survival of democracy in America was evidenced in some of his observations:
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2011-04-10): Alexis de Tocqueville was one of the first thinkers in the nineteenth century to challenge the prevailing historical account of the American Founding. According to that account, which was well on the way to becoming solidified when Tocqueville visited the United States in 1831, America's polity or regime was established in the period that began with the Revolutionary War and ended with the ratification of the Constitution. The principal leaders during this time, referred to as "founders" or "fathers," were celebrated for having decisively shaped the character of America's way of life. An illustration of this position can be found in Timothy Pitkin's widely read A Political and Civil History of the United States, published in 1828. Pitkin begins by promising his readers "a more intimate knowledge and recollection of the difficulties which their political fathers had to overcome," so that they might better appreciate the "great charter of their union, as their best and only security against domestic discord and foreign force."Footnote 1
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2010-01-01): Foreign publications did not spare compliments. The English found in Tocqueville an abundance of arguments against the American republic141 and recalled in reviews the precarious character of the experiment.142 The London and Paris Courier of 14 January 1836 asserted on its part: "Much, indeed, has been written by Englishmen respecting America, and a good deal by visitants from the continent of Europe. But with the solitary exception of the Démocratie en Amérique, by M. de Tocqueville, nothing absolutely has been written by a foreigner which approaches to an accurate delineation of our political organization." [...] My intention here is to present the principal features of Tocqueville’s biography during the years that preceded the Democracy. For more details, refer to R.-Pierre Marcel, Essai politique sur Alexis de Tocqueville (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1910); Antoine Rédier, Comme disait Monsieur de Tocqueville (Paris: Perrin, 1925); J.-P. Mayer, Prophet of the Mass Age: A Study of Alexis de Tocqueville (London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1939); André Jardin, Alexis de Tocqueville (Paris: Hachette, 1984); Hugh Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2007). [...] Tocqueville said yesterday [the note is in Beaumont’s hand]:
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2023-11-18): Title: The Art of Governance: Balancing Public Welfare and DistrustIntroduction:In the world of politics, bribery has long been associated with corruption and the erosion of democratic institutions. Alexis de Tocqueville, a renowned political philosopher, once warned, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." This powerful statement encapsulates the potential dangers of exploiting public funds for political gain. While seemingly straightforward, it raises profound questions about the delicate balance between serving the public interest and succumbing to temptations. Exploring this concept against the backdrop of an unexpected philosophical concept reveals the multidimensional challenges faced by those in power. Let us navigate through the intricate tapestry of governance, as we delve into the implications of Tocqueville's statement.Summary and Significance:Tocqueville's quote essentially suggests that the American Republic can only thrive as long as those in Congress refrain from using public funds as a means of manipulating public sentiment for personal or partisan advantage. It serves as a warning against the perversion of the democratic process and highlights the fragile nature of political power.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2023-02-01): Léon Noël, Alexis de Tocqueville (1848). Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain [...] As a freshman, in 1967, I read the book, in an American history course, as it is most often admired and cited. It’s intriguing how many of Tocqueville’s observations about the strengths and weaknesses of the American political system and social order have endured: the workings of the federal system, the separation of powers, the promise, perils, and consequences of individualism, the potential dangers of the tyranny of the majority, and much more. [...] Tocqueville’s greatest accomplishment, in my judgment, is not that he presciently foresaw the future or that he somehow unlocked the key to the American (democratic) genius, as I was taught as a college freshman. Rather, I believe that he illuminated key tensions in American democratic life. The long-recognized tense relationship between democracy and tyranny, and the more recently recognized tension between democracy and the despotism of an anti-intellectual populist segment of a polarized society. Tocqueville’s gift to us is the illumination of tensions inherent to American democracy. Sometimes this led him to mistaken conclusions, such as in his observations about race, class, and gender.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2020-05-26): Tocqueville worries about the potential for abuse, minorities simply have nowhere to hide in such a society where the people control the government in its entirety. (Not sure how much of his argument stands given the polarization of politics). [...] It should be obvious by now that Tocqueville is neither an enemy of democracy nor America. On the contrary, he is a self-described "friend of democracy" and only came to America to study the most functional democracy in his time. Indeed, he is cautious of the potential for intellectual tyranny. But even this he concedes is somewhat necessary: no society can function without unity sustained by commonly shared opinions based on nothing but authority alone. Not everyone can or should be a free-thinker. Dogma is somewhat necessary for the healthy functioning of society. [...] Tocqueville further broadens the scope of this already surprising claim. Every action in history, whether for or against democracy explicitly, has engendered it in some way:
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-04-03): Americans can't let political parties divide us | Opinion "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money," said Alexis de Tocqueville. Alexis de Tocqueville, a French diplomat, wrote in 1835 that "[t]here are many men of principle in both parties … but there is no party of principle." This statement could never be truer than it is today, evidenced by the dithering of politicians who, instead of joining together to achieve prosperity, engage in partisan fights over minute details instead of seeking a beneficial compromise.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-12-05): Alexis de Tocqueville was a 19th century French diplomat, political scientist, and historian who is best known for his two-volume work "Democracy in America" (published in 1835 and 1840), in which he offered his observations on American politics, society, and culture gleaned from his travels across the U.S. in 1831-32. [...] Like presidents Eisenhower and Reagan before him, Bill Clinton was fond of attributing these words to Alexis de Tocqueville. Many another political figure, news commentator, and patriotic orator has cited this observation, said to have been made by American's most famous tourist. Library of Congress researchers call the attribution "unverified." They did find the complete quotation, attributed to de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, in a 1941 book called The Kingdom of God and the American Dream by evangelist Sherwood Eddy (1871-1963) ... Who actually wrote these words remains a mystery. Sherwood Eddy gave no source for his de Tocqueville attribution. According to biographer Rick L. Nutt, Eddy tended to work from memory. Perhaps he'd read the 1908 copy of The Methodist Review in which de Tocqueville was quoted as saying he'd searched in vain for the sources of America's distinction until he entered a church: "It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of the people, that I learned why America is great and free, and why France is a slave." These uncharacteristic words are not de Tocqueville's either.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-06-14): FACT CHECK: Did Alexis de Tocqueville Say, ‘America Is Great Because America Is Good’? An image shared on Facebook claims that French author and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville wrote, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and genius of America. America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good America will cease to be great." [...] Robert Tracy McKenzie, a history professor at Wheaton College, told The Daily Caller that the quote is spurious. "It has been debunked numerous times over the last 67 years or so – no serious Tocqueville scholar believes that he wrote anything remotely similar, nor does it capture the essence of what he believed about the success of democracy in the United States," he said in an email.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-11-26): An image shared on Facebook credits French author and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville with saying, "A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office." [...] Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835 — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) November 21, 2019 "A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office," she credits Tocqueville with saying. However, the quote does not appear in his canonical work "Democracy in America," or any of his other writings. The Daily Caller News Foundation searched his collected works for the expression but found no matches. (RELATED: Did Alexis de Tocqueville Say, ‘The American Republic Will Endure Until The Day Congress Discovers That It Can Bribe The Public With The Public’s Money’?)
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2024-08-03): - This is a variant expression of a sentiment which is often attributed to Tocqueville or Alexander Fraser Tytler, but the earliest known occurrence is as an unsourced attribution to Tytler in "This is the Hard Core of Freedom" by Elmer T. Peterson in The Daily Oklahoman (9 December 1951): "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy." - Variant: The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money. [...] - It was John Innes Clark Hare in his book "American Constitutional Law - Volume 1" who claimed that this was from Toqueville in an unsourced paraphrase that started with "It was long since remarked by De Tocqueville..." Actual quote, from Toqueville's Democracy In America, Chapter VII: "When the American republics begin to degenerate it will be easy to verify the truth of this observation, by remarking whether the number of political impeachments augments."
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2024-01-24): 9 Alexis de Tocqueville’s Perspective on American democracy Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) Alexis de Tocqueville was born in Normandy, France in 1805, and visited the US only once, for about eleven months in 1832-33. The purpose of his trip was to study how Americans treated their prisoners, which was far more humanely than they were treated in Europe. After he wrote that book, he turned his general observations about the US into a much broader book for a wider audience: a study of democracy in the US and its lessons for the democratic revolution that he believed was inevitable in Europe. As he said in his introduction, "A new science of politics is necessary for a new era," and his book became the seminal work in the field of democratic theory.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-06-07): Alexis de Tocqueville was born in 1805 into an aristocratic family recently rocked by France’s revolutionary upheavals. Both of his parents had been jailed during the Reign of Terror. After attending college in Metz, Tocqueville studied law in Paris and was appointed a magistrate in Versailles, where he met his future wife and befriended a fellow lawyer named Gustave de Beaumont. [...] Alexis de Tocqueville: American Travels [...] Alexis de Tocqueville: Legacy
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2015-04-28): The following remarks on a famous work by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 - 1859) were presented as a lecture to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Scholars Program at the University of Sydney, 24th April, 2015. [...] That at least was the theory. On the basis of his travels and observations, Tocqueville predicted that American democracy would in future have to confront a fundamental dilemma. Put at its simplest, it was this: if privileged Americans try, in the name of such-and-such a principle, to restrict social and political privileges to a few, then their opponents will be tempted to organise themselves, for the purpose of pointing out that such-and-such privileges are by no means ‘natural’, or God-given, and are therefore an open embarrassment to democracy. Democratic mechanisms, said Tocqueville, stimulate a passion for social and political equality that they cannot easily satisfy. He thought there was much truth in the view of Jean-Jacques Rousseau that democratic perfection is reserved for the deities. The earthly struggle for equalisation is never fully attainable. It is always unfinished. Democracy lives forever in the future. There is no such thing as a pure democracy and there never will be a pure democracy. Democracy (as Jacques Derrida later put things) is always to come.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2024-10-08): Notes [edit]- ^ de Tocqueville, Alexis (1835). De la démocratie en Amérique. Vol. I (1st ed.). Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin. Retrieved 24 June 2015. via Gallica; de Tocqueville, Alexis (1835). De la démocratie en Amérique. Vol. II (1st ed.). Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin. Retrieved 24 June 2015. via Gallica - ^ de Tocqueville, Alexis (1840). De la démocratie en Amérique. Vol. III (1st ed.). Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin. Retrieved 24 June 2015. via Gallica; de Tocqueville, Alexis (1840). De la démocratie en Amérique. Vol. IV (1st ed.). Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin. Retrieved 24 June 2015. via Gallica - ^ Johri, Vikram. "'Alexis de Tocqueville': the first French critic of the US". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 22 April 2011. [...] - ^ Tocqueville, Alexis de (2000). Democracy in America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-80532-8. [...] - Alexis de Tocqueville: Tyranny of the Majority EDSITEment from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Yale Tocqueville Manuscripts. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2019-10-08): FACT CHECK: Did Alexis de Tocqueville Say, ‘The American Republic Will Endure Until The Day Congress Discovers That It Can Bribe The Public With The Public’s Money’? An image shared on Facebook claims that French author and political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville once said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money." [...] The American republic will endure until the day Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the public’s money – Alexis De Tocqueville — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 3, 2012
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2010-11-26): "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money." – Quote often attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2021-03-04): Happy Birthday to arguably the greatest country in the history of the world! America has been far more blessed, far more powerful, and used by God for far more good in the world than any nation before her. Yet if the present trend continues America will soon pass from the world stage like so many other nations and empires in history. No matter the current state of our being, there is still hope. Alexis de Tocqueville said many years ago, "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. His prophecy and his wisdom are becoming ever more evident in these days; we will soon cease to be great, as we cease to be good. He also said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress [and its President] discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money. That day is upon us.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2017-09-27): Purcell: Bribing the public with other people's money [...] I prefer to call it what it really is: bribery. Our politicians use our own money to promise things to other people who sell their votes to the politicians who promise them the most.
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2024-02-17): A half a century later, French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville assessed early America with great intrigue, but is said to have surmised, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money." Nearly 200 years have gone by since de Tocqueville criss-crossed the land of promise in its early days, and America has stood the test of time by any measure. Self-government, at first the wide-eyed hope of young Founding Fathers, is now more common throughout the world than not. Though it has been the inspiration of a new world order, the American Republic has seemingly edged ever closer to its undoing by the abandonment of virtue in Washington. The late U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD, having spent the latter part of his career in Congress railing against "careerism" in Washington, concluded, "career politicians do not have the courage to prioritize spending and say no to the demanding special interest groups who do not reflect the best interest of the country."
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2010-03-09): Sound economic policy was sacrificed on the altar of short-term political gain. This buying of political support with taxpayers’ money brings to mind the words of Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money."
Claim: Claim that Alexis de Tocqueville said, "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." (Viral Quote, 2019-10-02)
Evidence (2020-07-08): Though it went virtually unnoticed, April 16th marked the 150th anniversary of the death of one of the significant thinkers of modern times, author of the classic Democracy in America (1835/1840), Alexis de Tocqueville. Today Tocqueville is largely ignored in his native France, where the left-dominated intelligentsia dismiss him as "antidemocratic." Americans of all generations, however, have regularly turned to this nineteenth-century aristocrat to understand their past and future. [...] Without question Tocqueville regarded these features of America as portents of a great future. But other dimensions of American democracy troubled him, the poignancy of which is difficult to ignore today.