On January 3-4, 1832 Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, and Gustave de Beaumont travelled through Mobile on their way around the U.S. An excerpt from de Tocqueville’s journal on that day and the next:

Bad choices in little republics are partly accounted for by the fact that men of distinction do not canvass for honors or enter on a political career; this disadvantage seems to me more than compensated for by the absence of great excitement and the upheavals brought about by lust for power.

Is it true then that the ways of the people of Alabama are as violent as is said? Yes. There is no one here but carries arms under his clothes. At the slightest quarrel, knife or pistol comes to hand. These things happen continually; it is a semibarbarous state of society.

Southerners have perhaps more natural advantages than those of the North, but we are much less energetic and, especially, less persevering. Our education is much neglected. We have no regular school system; a third of our population cannot read. One sees non of the same care given to the needs of society, or the same thought for the future.

 CSPAN Video of U.S.A. Professor Georgette Middaugh discussing de Tocqueville’s visit & French influence in Mobile: http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/130615