Alexis de Tocqueville

A French political scientist, wrote a four volume "Democracy in America" in 1854 after a visit to our young nation of only 60 years. Much acclaimed at the time, he included his fears for our survival as a democracy: "But it would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them. -------- (reducing them) to industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."