I follow the course marked out by my principles and, what is more, enjoy a deep and noble pleasure in following it. You deeply despise the human race, at least our part of it; you think it not only fallen but incapable of ever rising again... For my part, as I feel neither the right nor the wish to entertain such opinions of my species and my country, I think it is not necessary to despair of them. In my opinion, human societies, like individuals, amount to something only in liberty...And God forbid that my mind should ever be crossed by the thought that it is necessary to despair of success... You will allow me to have less confidence in your teaching than in the goodness and justice of God.

In the case of Algeria the Port of Algiers and the control over the Strait of Gibraltar were considered by Tocqueville to be particular valuable. Even though in his 1841 report on Algeria Tocqueville admitted that Bugeaud succeeded in implementing a technique of war that enabled him to defeat Abd al-Qadir's resistance and applauded him on one hand he opposed on the other hand the conquest of Kabylie in his first Letter about Algeria (1837). A career in politics is closed to him for he has offended the only power that holds the keys.

He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution Volume I. Democracy in America (1835) his major work publiAlexis de Tocquevilled after his travels in the United States is today considered an early work of sociology and political science. Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (French: [alɛksi(s) ʃaʁl ɑ̃ʁi kleʁɛl də tɔkvil]; 29 July 1805 – 16 April 1859) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856).