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Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 1428
AUTHOR: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59)
QUOTATION: The political activity prevailing in the United States is something one could never understand unless one had seen it. No sooner do you set foot on American soil than you find yourself in a sort of tumult; a confused clamor rises on every side, and a thousand voices are heard at once, each expressing some social requirements. All around you everything is on the move: here the people of a district are assembled to discuss the possibility of building a church; there they are busy choosing a representative; further on, the delegates of a district are hurrying to town to consult about some local improvements; elsewhere it’s the village farmers who have left their furrows to discuss the plan for a road or a school.
ATTRIBUTION: ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, Democracy in America, ed. J. P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence, vol. 1, part 2, chapter 6, p. 242 (1969). Originally published in 1835–1840.
SUBJECTS: Politics