Quote of the Day (Tocqueville, on American Immigrants)

“How is it that in the United States, where the inhabitants arrived yesterday on the soil they occupy, where they have brought neither usages nor memories; where they meet for the first time without knowing each other; where, to say it in one word, the instinct of the native country can scarcely exist; how is it that each is as interested in the affairs of his township, of his district, and of the state as a whole as in his own affairs? It is that each, in his sphere, takes an active part in the government of society.”—Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Volume One, Part Two, Chapter 6, translated and edited by Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop