Introduction

Among the novel objects that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, nothing struck me more forcibly than the general equality of condition among the people. I readily discovered the prodigious influence that this primary fact exercises on the whole course of society; it gives a peculiar direction to public opinion and a peculiar tenor to the laws … It has no less effect on civil society … it creates opinions, gives birth to new sentiments, founds novel customs, and modifies whatever it does not produce.