With the coming of the inauguration of President Obama, Tocqueville's predictions that Americans have " three prejudices would have to be destroyed - prejudice of the master, the prejudice of the race, and finally the prejudice of the white" has come true.
Tocqueville was writing (in the years preceding the civil war) that even with the end of slavery, Americans would still have to deal with these prejudices, which he felt would be more difficult than the ending of that institution.
Interesting question, don't know how widely distributed Tocquevilles 2 books (one written in the 1830's and the other 1850's). Lincoln's speeches/pamphlets weren't widely published till after Tocquevilles books. If they (Tocquevilles) were available in the US during that period I would venture to quess that Lincoln would have read them given his voracious appetite for books.
