The typical American democrat described by De Tocqueville corresponded very well with the vision of the pioneer; and he did not disappear during the succeeding generation.

For many years millions of Americans of much the same pattern were rewarded for their democratic virtue in an approximately similar manner.

Of course some people were poor, and some people were rich; but there was no class of the very rich, and the poverty of the poor was generally their own fault.

Opportunity knocked at the door of every man, and the poor man of to-day was the prosperous householder of to-morrow.

For a long time American social and economic conditions were not merely fluid, but consistent and homogeneous, and the vision of the pioneer was fulfilled.
Nevertheless, this condition was essentially transient.