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Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who came to America in the 1830’s “To learn what we have to hope or to fear from its progress,” wrote:  “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there.  I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there.  I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her public school system and her institutions of learning, and it was not there.  I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her democratic congress and her matchless constitution, and it was not there.  Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power.  America is great because America is food, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

The American Crisis, Jimmy Allen, page 23