 The national broadcasting company in conjunction with the fund for adult education presents democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville What you say, mr. Governor surprises me very much and there are two things I still want to know Why do you in America not need soldiers on your streets? And why is the governor of the state of New York? calmly living in an ordinary boarding house without a trace of pump or ceremony The governor in the boarding house a study in American equality Item two in the series democracy in America Prepared by the division of general education of new york university under the direction of george probest american historian A series designed to bring to life the america of 1831 as recorded by alexis de Tocqueville And so to illuminate the image of democracy itself A study in american equality the governor in the boarding house May 1831 Our first day in new york city and to our surprise and delight we were visited early in the morning By a gentleman we had come to know on the ship an enthusiastic american gentleman named mr. Sharma horn Tocqueville here is mr. Sharma horn to see us. What a pleasant surprise. How kind of you to think of us Well, you two seem to be important men. Did you see the mercantile adventure one of the morning papers? No, we'll have a look right here The mercantile adventurer of new york may 12 1831 Two magistrates messes debauchement and the toqueville have arrived here Sent by the ministry of the interior to examine the various prisons in our country and make a report and their return to france We have no doubt that every facility will be extended to these gentlemen Our first taste of democratic hospitality if true. Oh, it's true enough. Here's how things work out This paragraph will be picked up by some of the other journals It'll be passed on from one town to the next and from one state to the next All kinds of people are going to read an important people then they'll call on you and offer their services But why is that how things are always done in a democracy? That's certainly how things are done here and the why is really pretty simple I guess you know, we're pretty proud of ourselves over here in america We observed on the voyage that praises certainly came easily to the lips of americans don't be too polite It's a little stronger than that every book that comes out is exalted to the skies The public orators flatter the people the people flatter the orators clergymen praise their flocks And the flocks stand amazed at the excellence of their clergymen I want to ensure Sunday school teachers admire their pupils and the scholars magnify their teachers And here's something you'll find out for yourselves As far as guests from abroad are concerned You'll find that you're going to need a dark corner to hide your faces in when everybody starts to praise you But who will praise us mr. Sherman Hall? We are merely two inquisitive young men from France. Why are we praised worthy? Well, that's what I was coming to we're boasters. I admit it. We're proud of ourselves. I admit that But we aren't all that proud. We haven't been in business long enough yet. We still aren't quite sure of ourselves We have a lot of hard things to say about the old world But even while we're saying them we're sometimes Casting a look out of the corner of our eye to see whether we've really impressed them or not And you being sent here by your government means you people think we've got something to teach you Possibly the new world has got the jump on the old world and the old world admits it That's why you're going to be flattered and popular. That's why things are going to be easy for you France is trying to learn something from america. You've heard the old proverb Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and we reckon your flattery right now is pretty sincere I begin to understand this may make our task a little easier Now look in new york city, we get moving early people assume we calling on you You'll get invitations from all over the place. So I want to get in ahead of them I've arranged for you to see enos through This is charming of you. But who is this mr. Throop enos thompson throop sir is the governor of the state of new york Governor this is certainly an honor normally the governor resides in the city of albany But he's in new york city right now for the tamany society dinner. What is the tamany society? We will find out uh, no i've made all the arrangements Mr. Morse who's a judge at cherry valley. He'll introduce morse is a friend of my nice fellow. I've written it down for you. Here's the address What a scene of harry and bustle in these streets I wonder if all this running is critical of a democracy You notice everybody overtakes us. I thought myself a lively enough walker, but over here. I seem only to dawdle Why do the citizens of a democracy harry? How do we know tockville? These are typical citizens Elsewhere things may be very different This new york is only one city in a vast country do not begin I beg you to build your theories until you have more facts Well, they all seem to wear the same clothes Certainly there seems to be a great deal of outward equality All the classes seem to be intermingled. This sort of thing would be preposterous in paris I wonder what this governor throop is going to be like. I took a few notes He is 47 years old Formerly a circuit judge. What is a circuit judge? I wonder and he was only elected governor this year Do you know what a circuit judge is bowman? Bowman, oh, oh, forgive my inattention. You are observing the crowds Yes, but it's not only the people who are here that interest me so much as the ones that are missing Missing there are almost no children And no soldiers If we had walked this far in the French city, we should have seen hundreds of children and dozens of soldiers. Now, where are they? It will give us something to ask governor throop Well, here is the governor's residence How very peculiar A boarding house exactly like our own Knock on the door How will people believe us when we say that the chief of the police is in the house? Magistrate of the state of new york lives in an ordinary boarding house Possibly he and his entourage have taken over the premises. I'm sure we'll find him surrounded by the pump and ceremony appropriate to his situation Good morning Gustav de la Bonignère de Bowman and Alexis de Tocqueville for an audience with the governor of new york Permit me to present our credentials from the government of france You're the two french fellows old shama horn told me about you're surely welcome step right on in and meet the governor I'm judge morse and i'm real pleased to meet you. It is an honor Forgive me. I do not know the proper address toward a person in your station. Just call me judge You and shut the door behind you, will you? You just call any man here what you want to call him but the fancier you call him the more he'll be pleased I thought there were no aristocratic titles in a democracy If managed to scrape up a few non-aristocratic ones You couldn't toss a rock out into any street of new york city any hour of the day or night without bringing down at least a colonel Why just the other day? I heard tell of a delegation from one of the counties of florida The 18 men in it four generals six colonels three majors one ex governor one doctor and one aspirator That left only two fellows that were just people Here we are governor Meet mr. Tuckville and mr. Beaumont Gentlemen meet governor throop Delighted to have the honor Excellency, excellent seat. Which of you fellas is which I am alexis to tuckville. Excellent. And i'm gustav de Beaumont at your service Well, that's dandy pull up chair sit down You boys seem to have got the american language pretty well laid We have applied ourselves conscientiously excellency call the governor a mr. Governor. He won't know who you're talking to Forgive us mr. Governor. Allow me to offer you some tobacco gentlemen. No, thank you judge. No, thank you Oh, you gentlemen don't you know Well, you're quite right. It's a filthy habit disgusting Hand over the plug judge. I'll take a bite I wish I'd never taken it up First excellent, uh, mr. Governor. Let me present my credentials. I don't need credentials I read all about you in the papers Come to look over the prisons and to see what it is like in the democracy. Well, I'm sure we'll do everything in our power to help you You uh, you've been having a little trouble over there in france. I guess Governments going up and down things like that Oh, don't like to say anything. Well, that's smart and patriotic too We admire patriots over here. What do you make of us mr. Tuckville? How do you mean how do you like america? We like it very much. What little we have seen of it I see you're in the attack and discernment business too Everything is so different from france. Uh, even on the streets. There are differences Where are the children children? I I guess they'd be in school. Wouldn't you say judge? Sure. That's where they are Unless they're playing hooky All the children are educated just about as many as we can lay our hands on We americans are great believers in public education and self-improvement Did you think we didn't have any children? Well, I thought they might be working in factories or something of the sort Oh, some of them I guess are but most will be in school and also there are new soldiers Now how do you keep up law and order without soldiers? Well, we have soldiers Every man you see is a soldier The constitution of our union lays it down as a sacred right of every citizen to bear arms If we ever had need of soldiers you'd find them springing up all around you It's happened before and if it's needed it'll happen again Every man fit to bear arms is his own soldier This I understand mr. Governor although it surprises me But there is something else about it that surprises me even more First, why is the governor of the state of new york living in a boarding house without pomp and ceremony? And second, why do you not positively need at least some soldiers on your streets? How does your society hold together without this splendor of the civic arm and the might of the military arm? Well gentlemen, I'll tell you It's because we in america Have started on a great adventure I am afraid mr. Governor that I do not understand you Mr. de Beaumont, myself, we are on an adventure Everything we see is full of surprises Like finding the governor of the state of new york in a boarding house? Exactly. Well, it's convenient. That's what it is If there's one thing it's hard to find nowadays around new york city. It's domestic help And don't you see the governor doesn't have to worry about his prestige or anything like that It doesn't come from himself. You see it comes from the people Don't forget. This is a democracy even if we wish to forget it which I assure you we do not We find it thrust upon us at every point Well, I guess every country is proud of its native institutions And I guess we americans are a little prouder than the average because we figure we really have something to be proud about I believe we have noticed that I believe you have mr. Tarkville I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't been pumped up to the eyebrows with boasting from everyone you've met myself included Still if you're on a good thing you want other people to know about it And you are convinced mr. Governor that this democracy is a good thing. Sure. I'm convinced Oh, not that it hasn't it's a bad side mind you and judge morse here and myself know all about it We've sat on the bench and judged our fellow creatures in a pretty miserable bunch Some of them turned out to be too. They surely did But even there I take issue with you mr. Governor go ahead Well, I had a fella before me one day who was by way of being a burglar This fella had broken into a good-looking house But when he got in He found there was more to the wrap in than there was to the package I beg your pardon the place looked good, but there was nothing worth stealing inside He hunted around a spell couldn't find anything he wanted. So he finally left But when he got outside he found it had come on to rain Back he goes into the house and steals a fine new cotton umbrella It was just coming on daylight when he got back into the city And this umbrella was getting to be an embarrassment to him He didn't want to be caught with it. I asked him why I didn't get rid of it Well now judge, I tell you he said I calculated there'd be even more trouble if anyone had caught me even in a way So what he did he give it to a friend in the same line of business as himself They caught the friend The friend said where he'd got the umbrella from and this other fellas in the penitentiary right now thinking it all over Well, that's a good story judge, but I don't see where it fits in it fits in this way mr. Governor We've got our bad eggs and our rotten apples same as anyone else But even when they're bad, they got a democratic flavor about them That fella talked to me from the dock as though I were his equal if no he did better than that He talked to me as though he were my employer if you will forgive me, sir Your story shows me something else the way you tell it shows me a sort of fundamental sympathy with this wrong door I wouldn't exactly say that A good judge ought to come at a criminal the way he goes for a bottle of port Try him carefully Then punish him severely But nonetheless, I detect a feeling that this man is after all a human being Well, isn't he oh quite so But in our country, there are many people who find it very hard to realize that Madame de sevigne for instance, she was a brilliant sensitive woman, but a true aristocrat It would be scarcely unfair to say that madame de sevigne like many aristocrats had no clear notion of suffering In anyone who was not a person of quality As I see what you mean, that certainly isn't true here We have our faults, but on the whole I believe we're a humanitarian people We like to think well of people and usually we have a basic belief in fair play But uh, mr. Governor to return to the question of soldiers. Oh, yes. Yes. Why aren't there any that what you mean exactly Or is this just peculiar to the city of new york? We've already been told several times that new york is not after all america nor is it But you won't find much in the way of soldiers wherever you go As I said, we're on an adventure every man jack has a stake in the country It's to his own benefit to live in a peaceful happy community Everything in short is regulated as far as possible by enlightened self-interest, which is the basis of our democracy Every man is every man's equal Every man is every man's associate Every man is every man's customer Put your society on those terms mr. Tuckville and you'll not need the military because you will have extinguished the mob That body of the poor and depressed Who can have no interest in the stability which never steadies them? A settled tranquility which never relaxes them A prosperity which never touches them The bond of this mighty continental nation gentlemen for to tell you the truth I don't know whether we're a nation or a continent yet The bond is commercial liberty Not mere political liberty, but positive freedom from all the slightest restraints That is the birthright of this growing country Is freedom from all restraints holy good, mr. Governor? Is anything holy good mr. Tuckville? I don't know I'm sure it must have its dark side and I'm equally sure that this country wants it and that this country's got it It is a heritage as natural as the air we breathe Whether it sweetens the hard toil of new england or inflates the hot pride of the south It's always the same brave spirit pervading the same republic And its influence is not the less powerful because it is everywhere propagated by an animating spirit of dispute Animating spirit You are taking notes mr. Tuckville. I'm glad to see you do it I've taken out of this The american people Disperse over an immense territory Abounding in all the means of commercial greatness Who early found an opportunity of adapting their government to their circumstances Their government to their circumstances They followed the manifest order of nature When they adopted a constitution which was free a constitution Which was republican and a constitution which was based on a commercial federation that mr. Governor was that desirable? No, sir. I will not comment on its desirability Except to say this As far as we are concerned it is infinitely desirable Because it was wholly inevitable Will you uh forgive me if I speak for a moment of your own country and Speak to you privately as a man. We should be honored Very well, sir Your country too has recently passed through a great revolution But one which I cannot help feeling has had a very different influence on your destiny You will forgive the strong language, but I cannot help but remark That the course and indeed the catastrophe of the french revolution Has cast a gloom over republicanism which perhaps it may never shake off And which renders it in europe repulsive and discreditable At least for the present But here sir is the difference between your revolution and ours The american republic is the natural fruit of the american soil The spirit of freedom may be impassioned it may be factious But it is neither furious nor bloody The strong bonds of union are here and will remain There is a common language. There are common laws There are common political attachments and finally and above all There is the great reciprocal bond of common interest Remember this always gentlemen We live on trade We live by trade. We live for trade Trade is our life And I tell you frankly we all regard the carrying on of trade as something to which a man may honorably devote his whole life And indeed while we are talking today A hundred ships are discharging their cargoes And a thousand emigrants from all parts of the globe Are landing with big hearts and stout hopes To realize their dreams of a free and happy west Listen bowmore listen to the street criers everywhere. We are pursued by this wild enthusiasm for trade There are also street criers in france, but these street criers are different. They have meaning. They belong to a pattern Sweep all up from the bottom to the top Well eyeing that chimney sweep as if he were a future millionaire of this new democracy. Who knows perhaps he may be Becoming as ideas have excited you what we are seeing bowmore is a new world She's selling reeds and bulrushes I will not write down that americans sometimes sleep on the tails of cats We look across the street in front of every shop There are long boards nailed across two posts with appeals for trade on them Visit the pleasure railway at obokan Bars warm cool shower and vapor Sulphur and other medicated bars in marble and tin tux Tockville stop looking at those silly signs and listen for a moment. Certainly amolios Dogs that is the sound of dogs quite so but what are they doing to them? Look you down there There are men running after dogs and killing them with clubs Let's go and see but this is appalling. There's blood all over the road and seven eight nine dead dogs beaten to death This is a strange scene for a humanitarian country. It recalls what one has learned of the reign of terror Pardon me, sir But why are these men killing so many dogs? Are you a foreigner? Yes, sir From germany likely and no from france you over here in business. You might say so, but why are these dogs? Hardware export and import anything that strikes off and see these dogs Same as me I don't believe I caught your name tockville. It sounds foreign. Of course. You said you were foreigner Dutch name Blame me. That's what you said Don't believe I caught your name, sir either. My name is bombo. That sounds foreign. No, wait. You told me Swedish name also french. Well, that's refreshing. I'm certainly honored to make the acquaintance And now what can I do for you? Why are all those men killing all those dogs? Why they're the city dog killers What else would you expect them to do this then is their job around here? There are too many dogs. They just run wild in the streets You got to do something about them Usually we got to kill off four or five thousand in a year In the hot weather they're knocking them down at the rate of 300 a day, but it is so cruel. Look Sometimes the animals are only maimed. What else would you suggest? I wouldn't want to do the job myself I don't like getting blood all over me, but I'll tell you this The job's got to be done Americans don't like anybody criticizing anything that we reckon we ought to do At least of all italians and portuguese and foreigners generally So I think you'd find it wise to remember that and not be so free with your unwarranted accusations I give you good day Well Evidently an american democrat can be just as sensitive and touchy as a european aristocrat But the european boast of what his country is The american of what it does Let us leave the shambles already. I can see it's not going to be very easy to understand this country More noise There is a band now Surely the streets of new york must be the noisiest and busiest in the world And yet for all their bustle and prosperity I feel all the time that we are walking about in the city, which is nothing but one gigantic suburb There they go across the end of the street Flags banners bands What can all this be? I can hardly believe my own eyes This is a parade of tradesmen of mechanics Look at them. Look at the banners the butcher the baker the candlestick maker. It is miraculous Did you ever see such assurance such confidence such calm complacency with which these fellows hold up all the traffic? And listen to the cheers of the people Yes The governor told us that these people think that the carrying on of trade Is something to which a man may honorably devote his whole life And look at their clothes sweet coats glossy hands gay watch cars and doskin gloves Look at the dandy mechanics. Give them three cheers boys The mechanics it is the right name for them. There is an unbelievable Outward equality in america The whole country has melted into a middle class a remarkable thing A country blessed with nature's richest gifts and selected by providence for the noblest experiment tried by man Which is not only the civilization of a new world But the practical establishment of principles that till now have only had an ideal existence A great people Which has no army a country full of activity and vigor where the action of the government is Hardly perceived A world given up to trade and equality And proud of both You have just heard the governor in the boarding house a study in american equality item two In a series based on a lexus to tokeville's democracy in america This series presented by the national broadcasting company Was prepared by the division of general education of new york university Under the direction of george probes to american historian Produced in the studios of the canadian broadcasting corporation by andrew allen Script by lister sin player music by lucio agostini This series democracy in america is made possible by a grant from the fund for adult education As part of a general course of study in the nature of american society For information about the use of these de tokeville dramatizations for study or discussion And how to secure these new materials about american democracy at a reasonable charge Right to the american foundation for continuing education Post office box seven four nine chicago 90 illinois Now this is ben grower inviting you to join us next week for item three The fourth of july in albany 1831 On democracy in america An american in orbit now scheduled saturday on nbc