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Interpreting a Correspondence, the Case of Tocqueville

Today critical editions of letters often part of collected works-are overcrowding librarieswhich was already the case during the nineteenth century, when some contemporaries complained about that sort of tsunami of useless editions of trifles. As for Tocqueville, during the 1860 his friend Gustave de Beaumont published selected letters in several volumes, as it was usual when some prominent author was dead. From 1951 on, in France it have been published 18 volumes of complete works of Tocqueville; among them 11 are correspondence, in 16 volumes Some of these letters have been published in the US, for example see the recent edition by Aurelian Craiutu and Jeremy Jennings of Tocqueville's letters to Americans and their answers.

This is not an isolated case: in France there are huge editions of correspondence: Chateaubriand, Lamennais the Catholic thinker, George Sand, the novelist, Benjamin Constant (published in Switzerland in a huge edition). See also the English publication in 1963 of The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1812-1848, ed. Francis E. Mineka (Vols. XII and XIII of The Collected Works), and The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XIV - The Later Letters of John Stuart Mill 1849-1873 Part I, ed. Francis E. Mineka and Dwight N. Lindley (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972). Earlier volumes Contained 537 letters, about half of which had not been previously published; The Last Contain volumes over 1800, More Than Half Hitherto unpublished.

We can obviously as an historian be interested in these letters to develop a history of reading (see illustrations Chartier la correspondance, les usages de la lettre au XIXme sicle,

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Fayard), diffusion of literacy, exchange networks, or privacy of young girls, especially if we are historians of the 19th century. The increased mass of letters during the 19th century is one of the effects of the increasing role of writing in the 19th century, an effect of the entry into the market society and of the development of public archive, there is a great difference between the correspondence of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, Diderot and Voltaire, and the everyday writing of the 19th century, and a greater difference with the email flood!
Figure 1 writing letters, popular practices,19th century

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Figure 2Vermeer, Une femme crivant une lettre. National Gallery. Washington. 47 x 36,8. v.1666.

If that is a very interesting phenomenon for historians, what can be the use of these letters for political scientists and for interpreters of a political thinker?
I was once in a Liberty Fund colloquium and somebody raised the objection that the critical edition only serves to diminish an author, an edition of correspondence is more damaging still. What we look for in a political philosophy is how the author operates a change in the apprehension of the world; on the opposite correspondence is often anecdotal and diminishes the singularity of the genius. Some examples: Tocqueville asked Dufaure his friend, a prominent politician, to send him a cask of wine for his health very interesting for the history of wine! Another time he asks his British friends to send some English cattle as they are the best in Europe Even if a letter appears to be related to the theoretical work, the use of letters in political science is to be very cautious-: 1. Correspondence can lead to lower a thought, it increases the importance of family environment and social determination; on the contrary the work seems more profound

Melonio PTW 10/25/10 when it seems timeless 2. Not less dangerous is the reverse attitude when the interpreter considers the letters as if they were part of a theoretical discourse; for example Aurelian craiutu spoke of letters sent by Tocqueville about America after the publication of Tocqueville Democracy in America as of a third democracy in America. The work is very thin, of course we're happy to extend it but letters are always linked with circumstances.

My hypothesis is that the reading of letters can develop another form of intellectual history. The historical dimension of letters (even the anecdotes and trifles) is
not an obstacle or a disadvantage provided that the nature of these documents is kept in mind.
Example: file of the letters of 1839

988

Salvandy

[dbut 1839]

Brouillon autographe. Arch. Tocq. V A. Dap. un brouillon de T.

1014

Mol

[fvrier 1839]

Appuie la demande de M. S., jeune mdecin qui demande stablir dans le dpartement de Seine-et-Oise do sa famille est originaire. On lui propose la candidature de lopposition Cherbourg. Compte cependant rester Valognes, mme si la situation est prilleuse. Ne veut pas du soutien du gouvernement : veut arriver libre la Chambre. La seule manire de laider est de prouver que Le Marois sest adress au gouvernement pour tre soutenu lors des dernires lections, ce quil nie.

132

rdacteur du Valognes, Constitutionnel Balzac (Dr) Valognes,

ce10 fvrier 1839 16 fvrier 1839

133

134 135

Stoffels (Eugne) Mnant (J.)

Valognes, Tocqueville

7 mars 1839 ce 9 mars [1839]

136

Faucher (Lon)

Tocqueville,

10 mars 1839

Lettre de Voir lettre de Mignet du 14 protestation fvrier et du 18 fvrier parue dans le Constitutionnel Extraits - l.a.s. lp 1/2 in 8 Catalogue de la librairie lAbbaye n 257 Ed. Beaumont, t. , p. 436438 Bibl. de lInstitut. Corresp. de J. Mnant V 4176 - pice 265 Daprs une copie de G. de

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Beaumont Publi dans le marquis de Blosseville p. 177 Arch. Tocq. Copie Rdier 1p 1/2 in 12 Catalogue Demarest, vente n 41, Drouot, septembre 1999 Extrait dune lettre 1 p in 8 adresse vente drouot 14-15 dec 2009, Piasa 198

137

Blosseville (de) Journal des dbats Le Peletier de Rosambo Nol-Agns

11 mars 1839 12 mars 1839 13 mars 1839 l.a.s. Alexis de Tocqueville du 6 avril 1839 18 avril 1839

138 139 140

Valognes,

Larivire Lemoigne

. 1

Letters illuminate the genesis: social determination, circumstances

a social situation: Tocqueville is a member of an aristocratic family; in his social class, people know that they were presumably condemned by history (as they experienced the revolutionary violence). Aristocracy was not so interested in philosophy and in literature as in the XVIII th century, and as was Tocquevilles great grandfather Malesherbes. Among his family, he said : "^ I was considered as a strange man, that wrote to kill time, all things considered worthy occupation since then, it is better that going to a brothel see girls "(letter to Kergorlay September 4, 1837) But at the same time the aristocracy was still obsessed with public service: ancestors of Tocqueville were on one side members of robe nobility and on the other side members of military nobility and he never forgot his ancestors: the military aristocracy: At last I am in Tocqueville, in my family's dilapidated old house. One league from here lies the port where William embarked for his conquest of England. I am surrounded by Normans whose names figure in the list of conquerors. I must confess that all this tickles my heart in its vulnerable pride. (Letter to Gustave de Beaumont, October 5, 1828) The robe nobility:

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Similarity of manners made Tocqueville feel comfortable when going to Boston; and he seeks an equivalent value of aristocratic honor in democracy; hence we can say that Tocqueville found his theoretical problem that is how to adapt aristocratic values in democracies in his aristocratic cradle. Letters here play an irreplaceable role, showing how identity is socially constructed. This does not mean reductionism or social determinism (Tocqueville had two brothers, neither of them became great thinkers); but his genius is to elaborate a theoretical interpretation of his historical and social situation

Melonio PTW 10/25/10 portrait of the young Tocqueville with his father, prfet (To

( Family Portrait, anonymous; private collection AD Manche/Poirier 2. Generational solidarity French critic Sainte Beuve assessed that Tocqueville is part of a group, birds of the same flight, of aristocratic origin, and all facing the consequences of the French Revolution. See the role of friendships in the intellectual history: Engels / / Marx, Tocqueville / Beaumont. In the history of liberalism, the generations were as important as doctrinal affiliations, because liberalism is inseparable from political involvement during the 19th century Between Constant and Tocqueville, the political world has changed and therefore the theoretical concerns have changed although they have similarities: fear for a new despotism, fear for individualism 3. In the correspondence we can study the language of a time, and the TOPOI, and clichs particularly common in the 19th century due to the development of the press. For example the expression "equality of conditions" or "social state" is not invented by Tocqueville and he did not use them in a specific meaning. Equality of conditions is the title of a poem by Voltaire and is part of everyday vocabulary before Tocqueville: the word recurs in his letters to his friend Stoffels. The same is true for self-government although

Melonio PTW 10/25/10 Tocqueville seems to be the very origin of the large use of the term. See the entry "self-government" Dictionary of Received Ideas by Flaubert' "AMERICA: A fine example of injustice: It is Columbus who discovered it and it is named after Amerigo Vespucci. Without the discovery of America, we would not have syphilis and phylloxera. Make a tirade against the self-government. " All this avoids the illusion that a genius can think alone and replaces any work in debate and historical conditions; Are we disparaging Tocquevilles work? No, the correspondence is a tool for a renewed history of political concepts,

1. Anthropological approach: correspondence allows us to understand the uniqueness of a temperament. The singularity of the person is one of the discoveries of literary criticism 19th century, the importance of the individual, his moods, and his illnesses. In all the letters of the 19th century one can be surprised of the importance of weather considerations, and of moments of discouragement (especially during the cloudy months). See letter in October 1829, he was 25 years old:" I'm afraid of being afraid ... I'm scared of the place that my stomach held in my imagination ... " But the spleen is also a modern illness: evoking his melancholy, Tocqueville acknowledged the "passionate desire I have, every moment, to be the best and eternal despair not to be. I fall too low because I reached too high. . Hence the 19th century dreams of Don Quixote (illustration by Daumier)

ss

2. Sociological approach: the role of academic sociability and scholarly dialogue. Kant has
emphasized the role of publicity and academic debates in Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784) Nothing is required for this enlightenment, however, except freedom; and the freedom in question is the least harmful of all, namely, the freedom to use reason publicly in all matters. By the public use of one's own reason I understand the use that anyone as a scholar makes of reason before the entire literate world.

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Habermas has demonstrated that during the 19th century publicity was the very core of the political trend to democracy. Tocqueville offers a good example of sociability and academic life facing the direction of universal smallness, I like to train alongside the great society, a little ideal city, populated by people I love and I respect and to live there. (To Royer Collard August 20, 1837). Conversation as it was practiced in the ancient regime society is surviving in the salons of the 19th century. And in the country life in the castles

Hence the importance of publishing all the letters even those who seem pure trifles. The full publication alone can let us perceive the complexity of social networks and the exchange of ideas. On example of an insignificant letter on transatlantic relations: The letter is to Alfred Mercier. From an old French family based in New Orleans, Alfred Charles Mercier (18161894), medical doctor, had moved to Europe in 1842 and attended in Paris the romantic and progressive circles. Poet, playwright, novelist, he was also the Paris correspondent of the Courrier de la Louisiane, a bilingual newspaper that gave Louisiana international news and especially news from France. The Courrier was conservative, hence the interest in the report of the Duke de Broglie: Report submitted to the Minister of State Secretary of the Navy and the Colonies on behalf of the Commission established ... for the consideration of issues relating to slavery and the political constitution of the colonies, 1843. The report resulted from the work of a commission appointed 26 May 1840 of which Tocqueville was a member. Victor de Broglie concluded in favor of a gradual abolition of slavery. French antislavery politics was thus part of the Louisiana debate.

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3 Controversies and debates: a map of controversies

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The letters here are useful to understand how the concepts were reworked in relation to the issues and controversies. Tocqueville on this point is misleading: he wrote to his friend Prosper Duvergier Hauranne of September 1, 1856 "When I have any kind of subject to discuss, It is almost impossible for me to read any of the books which have Been written about the same topics; contact with Other people's ideas agitate me and disturb me. However, He read the most influent newspapers and reviews of his time, and very often is polemical although today we are not aware of it. Also misleading are his letters about his favorite readings: for example a very famous letter to Kergorlay: "There are three men with whom I live every day a little, Pascal, Montesquieu and Rousseau ..." 10 novembre 1836. A lot of commentaries take this letter as if it was the final truth on Tocquevilles readings; but in 1836 he was writing the part of Democracy in America on the intellectual and moral features of democracies. Although Pascal, Montesquieu and Rousseau are very important in Tocquevilles thought, we can find plenty of other references, American sources, law studies, historical works, and so onHaving a large number of letters prevent us from reducing sources to very famous great books. Most of us, most of the time read contemporary debates, and not classical great books especially in matters relating to politics. 4. The vivid picture of a work in progress: The correspondence does not offer to the reader the perfect death mask of the published work but the workshop of the theory: hence the contradictions, which let us perceive the complexity of the theory: for example on Algeria. As you know, although a democrat, Tocqueville supports colonization and even military violence on women and children. (See Jennifer Pitts book). He has some very harsh comments on the Koran: Letter to Arthur de Gobineau, October 22, 1843 You seem to be questioning even the political utility of religions . . . I studied the Koran a great deal, mainly because of our position vis--vis the Muslim population of Algeria and throughout the Near East. I must tell you that I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large, there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Mohammed. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world, and, though it is less absurd than the polytheism of ancient times, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion infinitely more to be feared, and l therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself. This is what 1 think I would be able to show you clearly, should the bad idea of getting circumcised ever occur to you. But this letter is contemporary to the French conquest and tries to demonstrate the superiority of Christianity, Gobineau being very critical on all religions. In fact Tocqueville himself read the Koran, and some of his friends were so interested in Muslim civilization that they were said to be Muslims (Kergorlay); Beaumonts son married a Muslim. The letter shows how much the political and military circumstances influence Tocqueville, who here is clearly in line with Montesquieu in The Spirit of Laws. It also reveals the side tracks which are then removed in the published work, and the answer to the objections. Democracy in America is not so clear about the political utility of religions, because of pragmatic and political concerns. Letters can also reveal missing chapters: Tocqueville did not deal with education in

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Democracy in America, but after the publication he actively participated in major debates on the freedom of education (that is the role France can concede to catholic schools). Also fascinating is the evolution of Tocqueville ideas on the America after 1840 with the progress of corruption in politics, the growing antagonism between the North and the Southern United States -5 Rhetorical approach Constant, Stael, Guizot, Tocqueville, Stuart Mill, Marx were not philosophers in the academic sense of the term. For them to write is to act, political ideas are a sort of praxis. Therefore the rhetorical dimension of their works is essential. Tocqueville did not try to be original but to integrate common places in a new intellectual architecture. So did Stuart Mill writing On the Subject of Women. Tocqueville writing on the Old Regime and the Revolution as well as Marx aimed to change society. The letters they received illustrate the effects of political texts. For example, we know from correspondence that Tocqueville was trying not to discourage French people who felt they were doomed to despotism during the second Empire. So, when he wrote the Old Regime and the Revolution, he searched to enhance the few liberal in the history of France (in Languedoc) although he did not imagine they had had great importance. The letters he received demonstrate how few people were really reluctant to the imperial despotism. Ex to Mme Swetchine January 7, 1856 Do not imagine, Madame, that my book is even remotely connected to current events or personalities. But you know as well as I do that even the book most foreign to the particular circumstances of a period reveals in all its parts a frame of mind either favourable or unfavourable to ones contemporaries. Whatever the book, that is its soul and the reason for attracting or repelling the reader.

Conclusion:
-Letters are material to be used with caution, they can not be interpreted without taking into account the date, the recipient. Reading correspondence can avoid anachronisms and prevent us from questioning the author on issues that are not those of his time. They highlight the pragmatic dimension of language, the strategies of argumentation and writing. They can reinstate the work in controversies and permit us to establish a map of controversies. They also evaluate the efficacy of language. Edward Said advocated the "impure literature", i.e. a literature which does not feel isolated in the world, which does not flee on an Aventine, but agrees to plead and to enter into debate with the contemporary world. Political literature is a literature unclean, impure. Letters highlight the complexity of a work, remorse, hesitation, abandoned tracks, and put in light the back and forth between observation and theory. Reading letters is to take into account the historical experience of the writer and his readers, without eliminating the fact that the work also speaks to us today. Tocqueville's work is surviving beyond his time, as all the great works of thought or classics do. That is why when reading Tocqueville we do not only project our imagination in the time of Tocqueville, but we try to see what it allows us to think today. The historical approach is a legitimate approach but not exclusive, and I would not say as Quentin Skinner that good interpretation is one in which Tocqueville's contemporaries could identify.