Alexis visited Flint, Michigan.

That’s correct; he stood right here on the grounds of our campus!

Wait.  What?

Who was this Alexis person?

Well, he was a globe-trekker —  a world explorer, especially into rough country and new civilizations.

He was also a law student.    A husband.  A civil servant.  A judge.  An elected member of the legislature.  A politician and a patriot.  And an author of some importance and world renown.

He was French gentry; a man who’s father was mayor of the town where he was born.  He attended the royal college in Metz where he studied rhetoric and philosophy before moving to Paris to study law.  After law school, he traveled to Italy with his brother Edouard and visited Rome, Naples and Scicily.  He wrote his first book after that trip, “Voyage en Sicile.”

Upon his return to France, Alexis was appointed juge auditeur in Versailles, which later lead to a position as deputy public prosecutor at the court of Versailles.

Alexis was born and raised among the privileged members of the last of the titled (and entitled) nobility of France in the early 1800s.

However, in 1830 during the July Revolution, the last Bourbon King of France (Charles X) is overthrown.  The new government is established as a constitutional monarchy, with Louis-Philippe as the new ruler.

[Click on any image to enlarge.]

Alexis reluctantly takes the required oath of loyalty to the new government and the new king, and in exchange receives a reduced position as juge suppleant (substitute judge).

 

 

By August, he is thinking of getting out of the country for a while.

In October, another Frenchman (Beaumont) wrote a report to the Minister of the Interior on the reform of the penal system in France.  In February the following year, Tocqueville and Beaumont were given an 18-month leave to study the penal system in the United States.  On April 2, Beaumont and d’Tocqueville together embark for America from Le Havre, France.  His life as an explorer in the wilds has begun.

And what, you ask has this got to do with the Thompson Library and the University of Michigan-Flint? 

[Click on any image to enlarge.]

Among his many stops during his 1800s tour of the United States, Alexis De Tocqueville visited Michigan.  In fact, at one point he stood on the banks of the Flint River, pretty much where our campus is currently situated.

Meanwhile, back in July 22 of 1832, Monsieur de Tocqueville arrived in Detroit (which he remarked upon for being very like France on one side of the river, while on the other, savages and naked children were to be found running around).

 

He stayed with some locals in Pontiac, where he observed a woman “dressed like a lady,” commenting that “Americans and their log house have the air of rich folk who have temporarily gone to spend a season in a hunting lodge.”

 

 

 

[Click on any image to enlarge.]

 

From Pontiac, De Tocqueville traveled with an Indian guide who took them to Flint and Saginaw via the Flint River, documenting everything he saw along the way.

Writing extensively on his travels, he diligently described in his book the area of Flint, the sights he saw and the people he observed during the early 1800s, recording for posterity the life and times of the early settlers in the United States during the early 1800s.

 

Recording his observations throughout his journey, he interviewed presidents, lawyers, bankers and many settlers along the way.  Eventually he assembled his thoughts and ruminations on the formation of the new country and how its people lived into a ground-breaking two volume book entitled, Democracy in America.

 

The first volume of Democracy in America was published in 1835.  The second volume, in 1840.

 

 

Not only has this book been quoted or referenced by untold scads of other books and mentioned in many major speeches (including President Clinton’s STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS in ’95, Speaker Gingrich’s Opening Session speech of the 104^th Congress in ’95, Ross Perot’s speech on saving Medicare and Medicaid in ’95, US Supreme Court cases any many others), it has also  never been out of print from the day it was first published to the present.

Fast forward almost 200 years.

The television network, C-SPAN, celebrates the incredible journey and writings of Alexis de Tocquville with a year-long program, filming a major documentary while driving to the many locations mentioned in de Tocqueville’s writings.

The C-SPAN people worked with schools to assist in teaching the history of de Tocqueville and the young United States, and with local communities to celebrate de Tocquville’s travels throughout the country.  As a way of honoring the book and its author, C-SPAN conferred commemorative plaques to memorialize the locations of note from his tour of the country.

As a “location of note” described in great detail in his writings, C-SPAN visited Flint, Michigan and presented us with a plaque noting the event and time period.

And now we arrive at the intertwined history of Monsieur Alexis de Tocqueville, French patriot and author, with the University of Michigan-Flint and the Thompson Library.

In a ceremony sponsored by the UM-F student History Club along with the Department of History and hosted by the Thompson Library, the C-SPAN plaque was officially and formally dedicated on November 20, 2014.

 

Speakers at the event included Dr. Roy Hanashiro, Chair of the History Department; Prof Thomas Henthorne, History Dept; Robert Houbeck, Director of Thompson Library; and Justin Wetenhall, President of the History Club.   (Mr. Wetenhall and Mr. Houbeck kindly shared the text of their speech with us, which appears in full at the bottom of this article.)

Members of the History Club, notably Jeanette Routhier and Shelby Blair, assembled a remarkable display of works by and about Alexis de Tocqueville, some of which are still on display in the Library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please see Shelby’s poster on the 3^rd floor of Thompson Library near the Reference Desk.  On the 2^nd display case of the Genesee Archives, Jeanette has created a smaller display highlighting some of the writings of de Tocqueville held in the Archives collection.

These, and many other works by Alexis de Tocqueville can be found in the Thompson Library.  We invite you to visit the Library and the Archives to read and view some of these works and films about his works.

They are YOUR  history.

The plaque has been officially installed in the memorial garden round near Thompson Library and the Flint River, no doubt close to (if not actually on THE  spot) where Monsieur Alexis de Tocqueville — explorer and author of Democracy in America — stood overlooking the Flint River so many years ago.

 

[Click on any image to enlarge.]

 Images of French Revolution of 1830 which propelled de Tocqueville to America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

---