New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-07-29

Is not due so much to peculiar virtues or TO its
in which it is placed.
About the same time he makes his first at
| tempt at sketching for himself the American
| character. declaring:
There are as yet no American habits Every one
taxes from the mass that which suits him, but
Here the laws vary necessarily; magistrates
vary nature ITSELF Changes more rapidly than mann
By singular inversion OF the order of @aings. nat
ure seems 10 be moving and man immoGable
The two friends passed several weeks in New
York and its neighborhood. and then set out
for the West by the way Of Albany and the
Mohawk Valley. Utica, Syracuse. Auburn and
Oneida Lake were visited on the way and they
were for some time the guests of John c.
Spencer al Canandaigua.
Buffalo was the next stage in Tocquevilles
westward Journey and thence he and his COM
rade We're carried by steamer TO Detroit. An
excursion into the wilderness beyond Pontiac
gave them A glimpse Of the frontier and of
Indian life. and followed by a steamboat
tour Of the lakes, which carried them as far rs
Green Bay Back again in Buffalo they visited
Niagara Falls. and then made a trip through
Canada Returning from Canada in September.
they journeyed 10 Boston by way of Lake Cham
plain and Albany. John Quincy Adams William
Ellery Claiming and Jared Sparks were con-
suited in New-England. as Albert Gallatin had
been in New-York. a little later Tocqueville is
found studying the Qua1ers of Philadelphia
ana in a letter written in that city he speaks
of the superiority of the spirit and manner of
people over its laws in shaping its condition
Again, in Baltimore. find him inquiring after
the distinctive features of the Southern charac-
ter and the workings Of slavery. He there
visited Charles Carroll. then ninety five years of
e;oy
laration of Independence.
Returning 10 Philadelphia. the two young men
traversed Pennsylvania and. emba rking at
Pittshurg. descended the Ohio to Louisville
stopping on the way at Cincinnati. where
Tocqueville cenversed with Justice John Mclean.
of the Supreme Court. The winter journey from
Louisville 10 Memphis was a fatgung one. and
for several days Tocqueville was seriously i'll
at Sandy Bridge. The river voyage from Mem
phis Ia New-Orleans occupied week. and after
a short stay in Louisiana the return journey to
the Atlantic seabosrd was made by way of
Montgomery, Norfolk and Washington At the
end Of his tour he wrote to his father:
During the last six weeks when nv bod,, has
II has been for long while. have carefully con
be absolutely impractcabe for one who has passed
but year in this great country to draw a com
would be as wearisome it would be informative
On tile olher hand, u is possible, by selecting
material 10 present those subjects which are more
or less closely related the social and nOIitica1
conditions Of France. Such work might have an
the same time, permanent and immediate interest
and talent for its execution? One other considera
ton is always before I shall write nothing or
] shall write what think
The preparation of their report on penal meth
DDS occupied Tocqueville and Beaumont as soon
as they had returned to France but when that
was out Of the way the former at once set 10
work on his study OF American institutions The
first two volumes OF Democracy In America"
were published in January, 1885, and met with
instant and extraordinary success The pub
Usher, who had undertaken it after 1t had been
rejected by others, ventured first edition
of only 500 copies, being fearful OF fits failure
but second at once called for. and with
out delay it translated and reissued both
in England and America.
The publication of the first part of "Den1oc
racy In America" made Tocqueville at thirty
one Of the famous men of his time In 1886 the
French Academy decreed for it an extraordinary
prize: two years later he was elected a member
Of the Institute and in 1871. following the pub-
lication Of the last volumes OF his work he was
chosen member OF the Academy Meanwhile
he had entered public life. and from 1899 TO
ls4s he represented Valognes in the Chamber Of
Deputies There he acted and voted with the
constitutional opposition, and. though owing to
delicate health, he was rarely heard in debate,