The institutions of America, which were a subject only of curiosity to monarchical France, ought to be a subject of study for republican France.
Though it is no longer a question whether we shall have a monarchy or a
republic in France, we are yet to learn . . . whether it shall be . . . pacific or
warlike, liberal or oppressive, a republic that menaces the sacred rights of
property and family, or one that honors and protects them both. . . . Let us
look to America . . . less to find examples than instruction; let us borrow
from her principles, rather than the details, of her laws. The laws of the
French republic may be, and ought to be in many cases, different from
those which govern the United States; but the principles on which the
American constitutions rest, those principles of order, of the balance of
powers, of true liberty, of deep and sincere respect for right, are indispensable to all republics.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (12th ed., 1848)