Discovery of the Source of a Text Tocqueville Cited in Democracy in America

Abstract

In Volume 1, Part 2, Chapter 3 of Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville illustrates freedom of the press in the United States by quoting extensively from a newspaper’s vitriolic attack on the incumbent president during his visit, Andrew Jackson. The author of the passage refers to Jackson as a “heartless despot” who plays at politics with “false dice” and who is incapable of repenting for any of it.