He was the younger son of noble parents, his father being of ancient Norman descent, and his mother granddaughter of Malesherbes, the venerated defender of Louis the Sixteenth; but his aristocratic birth had no influence to check the generous sympathies with which his heart always palpitated. In 1831 he came to America as a commissioner from the French Government to examine our prisons, but with a larger commission from his own soul to study republican institutions. His conscientious application, rare probity, penetrating thought, and refinement of style all appeared in his work, “De la Démocratie en Amérique,” first published in 1835, whose peculiar success is marked by the fourteenth French edition now before me, and the translations into other languages. At once he was famous, and his work classical. The Academy opened its gates. Since Montesquieu there had been no equal success in the same department, and he was constantly likened to the illustrious author of “The Spirit of Laws.” Less epigrammatic, less artful, and less French than his prototype, he was more simple, truthful, and prophetic. A second publication in 1840, with the same title, the fruit of mature studies, presented American institutions in another aspect, exhibiting his unimpaired faith in Democracy, which with him was Equality as “first principle and symbol.”[634] Entering the French Chambers, he became eminent for character, discussing chiefly those measures in which civilization is most concerned,--the reform of prisons, the abolition of slavery, penal colonies, and the pretensions of socialism. His work, “L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution,” awakens admiration, while his correspondence is among the most charming in literature, exciting love as well as delight. His honest and practical insight made him philosopher and prophet, which he was always. A speech in the Chambers, 27th January, 1848, was memorable as predicting the Revolution which occurred one month later. But his foresight with regard to America brings him into our procession. His clearness of vision appears in the distinctness with which he recognized the peril from Slavery and from the pretensions of the States. And in Slavery he saw also the prolonged and diversified indignity to the African race. This was his statement:-- “The most formidable of all the evils which menace the future of the United States springs from _the presence of the blacks on their soil_. When we seek the cause of the present embarrassments and of the future dangers of the Union, from whatever point we set out, we almost always come upon this primary fact.”[635]