De Tocqueville's France

I find it odd that after all these years there is still a controversy or lack of full clarity on some of Alexis de Tocqueville's actual words to his countrymen as regards America. Scan the web as I have (below) and even read a real book or two (Democracy in America perhaps?) and see if you might understand my meaning.

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

Par exemple:

"America is great because America is good."

Bartleby has this excerpt from Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).

AUTHOR: Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59)
QUOTATION: I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her
commodious harbors and her ample rivers—and it was not there … in her
fertile fields and boundless forests—and it was not there … in her
rich mines and her vast world commerce—and it was not there … in her
democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution—and it was not
there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her
pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her
genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America
ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE by Dwight D.
Eisenhower in his final campaign address in Boston, Massachusetts,
November 3, 1952. Unverified.

The last two sentences are attributed to de Tocqueville’s Democracy
in America by Sherwood Eddy, The Kingdom of God and the American
Dream, chapter 1, p. 6 (1941). This appears with minor variations in A
Third Treasury of the Familiar, ed. Ralph L. Woods, p. 347 (1970), as
"attributed to de Tocqueville but not found in his works."

Leaving some to conclude that it might be Eisenhower or one of his
speechwriters who coined the phrase often quoted in sermons and
speeches within the last century (and to this day).

However, this page from the The Big Apple blog by OED contributor and consultant Barry Popick  is a pretty good compilation regarding the facts of the matter.

And Barry notes a possible source for subsequent newspaper and other citations,
especially Eisenhower's usage of the phrase in that campaign address just noted.

6 September 1922, The Herald and Presbyter,
"A Presbyterian Family Paper" pg. 8, col. 3:
NEW YORK LETTER.
BY REV. CLARENCE G. REYNOLDS, D.D.
As most of the pastors had not returned from their vacations, there were
very few Labor Day sermons preached last Sabbath. All of the daily papers
had a message from Rev. John McDowell, D.D., one of the secretaries of our
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, in which he plead for the spirit of
Christ in modern industry, both on the part of employers and employes. Dr.
McDowell says that industry has a right to look to the Church for moral
guidance on economic matters. Dr, McDowell says that the spirit of Christ is
the spirit of cooperation, justice and fair dealing, brotherhood and
humanity, service and sacrifice. Dr, McDowell closed his message with the
quotation from Alexis de Tocqueville, as follows:

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors
and her ample rivers, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of
America in her fertile fields and boundless forests, and it was not there. I
sought for the greatness and genius of America in her rich mines and her
vast world commerce, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and
genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of
learning, and it was not there. I sought for the greatness and genius of
America in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution, and it
was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her
pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius
and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever
ceases to be good America will cease to be great."

From the text of the book, Empty Pews, Selections from Other Sermons on Timely
Topics, Madison Clinton Peters; Zeising, 1886, p. 35  we are left with a very different quote:

Some years ago, De Tochneville [sic], the distinguished
French statesman, was commissioned by his country for
the purpose of studying the genius of our institutions.

In reporting to the French Senate, he said:

"I went at your bidding, and passed along their thoroughfares of
trade. I ascended their mountains and went down their
valleys. I visited their manufactories[sic], their commercial
markets, and emporiums of trade. I entered their judicial
courts and legislative halls. But I sought everywhere in
vain for the secret of their success, until I entered the
church. It was there, as I listened to the soul-equaliz-
ing and soul-elevating principles of the Gospel of Christ,
as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon the masses of
the people, that I learned why America was great and
free, and why France was a slave."

Additionally:

De Montalembert, another French statesman, said:

"Without a Sabbath, no worship, without worship, no
religion, and without religion, no permanent freedom."
Here we have the corner-stone of American liberties.
There can be no permanent freedom without religion,
and there can be no religion without Worship, and there
can be no worship without the Sabbath. Therefore,
without the Sabbath there can be no permanent freedom.
I believe that the security or disaster of American insti-
tutions depends upon the issue of the Sabbatic contest."

###########

Again, here is the newer, more common (Sherwood Eddy / Eisenhower) quote from the "New York Letter" dated September 6, 1922 within "Herald and Presbyter, Volume 93" from Rev. John McDowell:

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic Congress
and her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. Not until I went into
the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I
understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because
America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good America will cease to
be great."

So the key to the puzzle seems to lie somewhere between the time of Dr. Madison
Clinton Peters' writing (1886) and Rev. John McDowell's writing (1922).

The 1908 copy of The Methodist Review in which de Toqueville was quoted as
saying:

"It was there, as I listened to the soul-equalizing and soul-elevating
principles of the Gospel of Christ as they fell from Sabbath to Sabbath upon
the masses of the people, that I learned why America is great and free, and
why France is a slave."

--Seem not to be [all] de Tocqueville’s words either. [Guess which ones]

Somewhere between the various "Sabbatic contests" - and letters from ministers
to their own Methodist Review(s) or Herald and Presbyter(s) - as De Montalembert may
have written it, the "security or disaster of [American] institutions" and
the nation's very soul was inspired, declared or simply made elegant,
wise [?] slogan for the Ages:

"America [or any nation] is great 

because [when] America [or any nation] is good."

Time and the actions of men and women - under God - will continue to tell.

Is a nation that attracts, produces and encourages great people, great?

In the meantime, more clues to De Tocqueville's France lie here.