In his enduring classic, "Democracy in America (1835-1840)," Alexis de Tocqueville located the distinctive character of American civilization in the unforced blending of "the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty." In America, unlike revolutionary France, liberty did not assert itself against religion but rather saw in it "the cradle of its infancy and the divine source of its rights." Religion reminded a commercially minded people about the things of the spirit and prevented them from succumbing to an excessive engrossment in material things.
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