necessary as school-houses and churches.

Great cities are

crowded with the vicious and the unfortunate, whose children are endangered by evil associations and whose training is accidental or immoral.

Morality is fostered by industry, sobriety, righteousness and self-government. There is something within me that tells me of higher relations than those of earth. I have aspirations for eternal life. I know that God is; that right makes might; that morality conduces to my welfare, to the welfare of society and to the peace of the whole world. My moral relations are the loftiest which I can possibly sustain, because by them I stand a brother to my fellows and a child of God.

The chief duty of a citizen of the United States is to use his influence, and if he is an elector to deposit his vote, for purity in politics and for the education of the people, industrially, politically and morally.

10

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PEOPLE IN POLITICS.

249. Distrust of the People.-The only experiment in human history of popular government on a grand scale is the Government of the people of the United States. At the time of its organization the people of Europe disagreed as to the probable result of the experiment. Few believed that the new Republic would long survive the shocks incident to so novel an undertaking. Could a Government so constituted long endure? Would it not fall a prey to party greed, to factions, to political conspiracies or to the riot of the mob? Were the masses capable of self-government? Could the people be trusted to secure and to maintain their own substantial happiness? Could the governing and the governed become the same without the overthrow of all government? These questions, and many others like them, were asked a hundred years ago when the Government of the people of the United States began. In ancient times there were republics, such as Greece, and during the Middle Ages, such as those in Italy; but these republics decayed, and their very names are almost forgotten.

250. Influence of Traditions.-What has prevented the decay of the Government of the people of the United States?

Perhaps the first answer is, We did not break away entirely from our traditions when we organized a government for ourselves. An enduring government is composed of many elements, all of which may be arranged in two classes those which are institutional, and those which are constitutional. The institutional elements are those

which enter into the way of life habitual to the peopletheir manner of thinking, their social institutions, their schools and their churches, their books and their papers, their industries and their amusements. The constitutional elements are political: they are such elements as gather about great public questions, methods of governing men, of repressing or of removing crimes and evils, of protecting interests and rights, and of securing these rights for the general welfare. Our traditions as a people aided us in developing our institutions from the past without a serious break; Europe instructed us in art and science, but we were obliged to form our constitutions chiefly by our own political experience. Fortunately for us, the men who were prominent in organizing our Government were conservative men. They were influenced by two systems of government at that time attracting the attention of the world: the English system of a constitutional monarchy, and the French system of a mixed democracy then advocated by French political writers. They adopted a system of representative democracy, which embodied the best elements of both; and to this day the chief executive and the Senate, by the system of indirect election by the people, and the judiciary of the United States, by Federal appointment, continue the conservative elements peculiar to the English Government to which our fathers had been accustomed for many years. In the choice of our local officers, our State officers, and members of the national House of Representatives we approach closer to a democracy, but the approach is by the system of representation. Thus our Government, whether State or national, is a representative democracy.

251. Political Experience.-During the century mistakes have doubtless been made, but the general tendency of political affairs has been to promote the welfare of the people.

During the earlier years of our history the Constitution

of the United States was the sole guide of our political leaders. It was then unincumbered by party interpretations and collateral growths. It was the text of an instrument awaiting interpretation by the will of the people. That interpretation has slowly grown with our national growth, and as we enter upon the second century of our history we possess a political experience which will aid us in avoiding many possible dangers of the future.

252. Equality Before the Law.-In a popular government, if one citizen suffers unjustly the rights of all are endangered. Equality before the law is the inborn right of every American citizen. Any element in our national life which endangers that fundamental right endangers our whole frame of government. The principal object of any organized government is to secure to the citizen his rights, to protect them, and so to constitute the public mind that nothing less than complete security and perfect protection will satisfy the conscience of the nation. All political combinations, all rings and monopolies, all corporations and social arrangements, which endanger the equal rights of each citizen before the law, must be torn up by the roots and cast away.

253. Origin of Political Parties.-On public questions, however, all men do not and cannot think alike. The very function of government is always in dispute. Shall the Federal Government be extended so as to include practically all local government under the excuse of promoting the general welfare? Shall the Federal Government limit itself wholly to administrative duties, attempting nothing for the individual citizen, but leaving his interests entirely to the care of the State? Shall the Federal Government be made paternal in its relations to the people? On these fundamental questions the people have widely differed. Political parties have sprung up among them, and have at last become so characteristic of popular government in this country that it is practically impossible

to conduct our Government without the intervention of them. A political party is an organized body of men acting together to accomplish certain results in matters of government.*

254. Contrasts and Comparisons.-When Washington was first chosen President political parties did not exist in the country, but they began during his second term. Then, and for nearly a quarter of a century after, political parties were local rather than national in character. The means for intercommunication were so imperfect that it was impossible for men living in distant parts of the country to organize and to transact political business with harmony and dispatch. Political parties have become organized forces in this country just as the means for communication between different parts of the country have been perfected. The age of post-horses gave way to the age of coaches; coaches were displaced by canals, and canals by railroads and telegraphs. When Hamilton was the leader of the Federal party in 1800, it took three months to carry his views to men of the same mind in distant Georgia, so difficult was the journey from New York to Savannah. To-day, the views of a national committee in New York are known in a few minutes in Galveston or in San Francisco. In Hamilton's day only the leaders participated in politics; the majority of men were disqualified by poverty or deterred by lack of interest from voting. The electors then voted viva voce, except in a few States which, like Massachusetts, had introduced the ballot. Now the use of the ballot is universal, religious and property qualifications have disappeared, and a man has the right to vote because he is a man.

255. The Organization of Political Parties.—With the more perfect means of communication of ideas in the land, political parties have become more perfectly organ

*See ¶ 73, p. 44.