TOCQUEVILLE, Iok'VW, ALEXIS CHARLES HENRI CLEREL DE (1805-59). A French states man and political philosopher, born at Verneuil, in the Department of Seine-et-Oise. At the Res toration his father was made a peer of France. His mother was a granddaughter of Malesberbes, the academician, political writer, and magistrate, who defended Louis XV1. at the bar of the Con vention. Alexis de Tocqueville studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1825, traveled in Italy, and on his return became an assistant magistrate at Versailles. In 1831 he gave up his appoint ment at Versailles, and with his colleague there, Gustave de Beaumont, accepted a Government mission to America, to study the working of the penitentiary system. The commissioners, after their return to Europe, published their report (Du systrme anx Etats-Unis, 1832; Eng. trans., Philadelphia, 1833)—an admirable work, which modified all the ideas previously en tertained in France regarding prison discipline. But this was not the most important result of their inquiries. In 1835 De Tocqueville published his great work, Dc la democratic! en Amerique. In his introduction he sought to show that a great democratic revolution had for centuries been going on in Europe. There is a general progress toward social equality, which must be looked on as a providential fact. In France it has always been borne on by chance, the intelli gent and moral classes of the nation never hav ing connected themselves with it, in order to guide it. In America. he found that the same revolution had been going on more rapidly than in Europe, and had indeed nearly reached its limit in the absolute equality of conditions. There, accordingly, be thinks we may see what is about to happen in Europe. Ile points out that the people in America may be strictly said to govern. They make the laws and administer them. lie draws from what he has observed the
conclusion that democracy may be reconciled with respect for property, deference for rights, safety to freedom, and reverence for religion. The work made a profound impression. Its au thor was elected to the Academy of Moral Science in 1836 and to the French Academy in 1841.
In 1835 De Tocqueville visited England, where he received an enthusiastic welcome from the leaders of the Whig Party. In the same year he married Miss May Mottley, an English woman. In 1837 he was defeated as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies.from Valognes, but two years after he was elected by an overwhelm ing majority, and ranged himself with the Mod erate Opposition Party. After the February Revolution he was a formidable opponent of the Socialists and extreme Republicans, as well as of the partisans of Louis Napoleon. He became, in 1849, vice-president of the Legislative Assem bly, and from June to October in the same year was Minister of Foreign Affairs. During that time he defended the policy of the expedition to Rome, on the ground that it would secure liberal institutions to the States of the Church. After the coup d'etat of December, 1851, he retired to Tocqueville, where he devoted. himself to agricul tural pursuits. In 1856 appeared his second great work, L'ancien regime et la re'votution. In June, 1858, he took up his abode at Cannes, where he died. De Toequeville's (Burnes rt cor respondanee im'clites were published (1860), by his friend De Beaumont, who prefixed a bio graphical notice. Ilis Mrnioires are a valuable contribution to the history of the Revolution of 184S and the coup (F6tat. An English transla tion, The ftecolfecsions of Alexis de Tocqueuille, was published in New York in 1S96.