What’s in a Parade? Tocqueville’s America at 250

What’s in a Parade? Tocqueville’s America at 250

French historian Alexis de Tocqueville, the man who understood the bases of American democracy better than any man in history, spent July 4, 1831 — America’s Independence Day — in Albany, New York, amused, slightly condescending — and profoundly moved. He marched with a mixture of citizen militias and trade associations in a solemn parade through town to, of all incongruous places to celebrate the secular nation’s independence, a church. He foun…