Alexis De Tocqueville Analysis

President Andrew Jackson was the president at the time Tocqueville visited. Discussed was the emergence of the Jeffersonian democracy, which influence the 1920’s and 1830’s. This was considered an important era of rapid growth and regional diversification. The way the world was viewed rapidly changed including the way of living. The Jeffersonian were known for equalitarian but not really. Stated in the reading: “They believed in government of and for the people, but not by the people”. The Jeffersonian did not want the people to have any control of the government but to focus more on the individual freedom and liberty rather than equal rights. When president Jackson was elected, it became the era of equality quoted in the story “ the over-riding

United States has always had a good government structural system and lead other countries in the world to do the same. Although we did have a point in time were slavery was a huge economic profit, it was not right. Just as Tocqueville stated “Thus it is in the United States that the prejudice which repels the Negroes seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated, and inequality is sanctioned by the manners while it is effaced from the laws of the country. But if the relative position of the two races that inhabit the United States is such as I have described, why have the Americans abolished slavery in the North of the Union, why do they maintain it in the South, and why do they aggravate its hardships? The answer is easily given. It is not for the good of the Negroes, but for that of the whites, that measures are taken to abolish slavery in the United States.” One point in time American citizens were definitely wrong for taking advantage of the African Americans and I am glad that Tocqueville has stated his point on it. I believe we were too selfish and greedy and the whites were thinking too much about becoming rich that we did not think anything bad about slavery at the time. Eventually the north fought the south (Civil War) to abolish slavery and give the actual meaning of equal opportunity to every person in the United States in which was the moral thing to do. In conclusion Tocqueville has discussed the equality and liberalism as he adventured through America. He made many different observations about America from the poor to the rich. He realized the ambitious American citizens for their growth in the industry as well as their economic growth and had motivated him to write this book and to teach his own