The Governor in the Boarding House

The National Broadcasting Company in conjunction with the Fund for Adult Education presents Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. What you say, Mr. Governor, surprises me very much, and there are two things I still want to know.

Why do you in America not need soldiers on your streets? And why is the Governor of the State of New York calmly living in an ordinary boarding House without a trace of pomp or salmony.

The Governor in the Boarding House, a study in American equality, item two in the series Democracy in America, prepared by the Division of General Education of New York University, under the direction of George Probst, American historian.

A series designed to bring to life the America of 1831, as recorded by Alexis de Tocqueville, and so to illuminate the image of democracy itself. A study in American equality, the governor in the boarding house.

May 1831. Our first day in New York City, and to our surprise and delight, we were visited early in the morning by a gentleman we had come to know on the ship, an enthusiastic American gentleman named Mr. Shomer Horn.

Dr. Hill, here is Mr. Shomer Horn to see us. What a pleasant surprise. How kind of you to think of us? You too seem to be important. Then did you see the mercantile adventure? One of the morning papers?

No. We'll have a look right here. The mercantile adventure of New York, May 12, 1831. Two magistrates, Messers Dubuemore and the Tocqueville, have arrived here, sent by the Ministry of the Interior to examine the various prisons in our country and make a report and a return to France.