CHAPTER VIII

THE RULING CLASS DIVIDED

JEFFERSON and his colleagues believed themselves to be the genuine conservatives. "The Republican party wish to preserve the government in its present form," wrote Jefferson to Washington in justification of their course. What they did do was to give a powerful impetus to democratic tendencies which were destined to transform the government. Men who in the constitutional convention had descanted upon the evils of democracy, and had tried to leave as little room as possible for popular control over the government, cast aside. their scruples when the only practicable way of maintaining their influence was to stir up the people against the government. Politicians employ their logic to defend the positions they feel impelled to take; their action is the result of circumstances operating upon their endowment of character and habits of thought. Their personal relation to the events of their times has much more to do with shaping their policy than any abstract theory of government which they may profess. English history notes that some of the greatest changes in government, some of the most radical

principles of reform, have been introduced by conservative parties acting from new considerations of interest on special occasions. Political structure grows like coral rock, the product of multitudinous activities incited by individual needs.

The Republican leaders were very much in the position of the Rockingham Whigs in 1763, when, unable to make an effective resistance in Parliament, they subsidized the demagogue John Wilkes and abetted a pamphlet and newspaper war on the administration. It was not possible for Jefferson to emulate the example of the wealthy nobles who gave Wilkes an annuity of £1000, but he assisted Callender by presents of money, and he gave Freneau, an office in the state department, keeping him there despite Washington's complaint that the publications in Freneau's paper were "outrages on common decency." When men like Hamilton or Madison took a hand in the fray, they addressed themselves to people of their own class. On setting about a reply to Hamilton's defence of the foreign policy of the administration, Madison wrote to Jefferson: "None but intelligent readers will enter into such a controversy, and to their minds it ought principally to be accommodated." The ephemeral journalism of the day, however, addressed a different public. Its object was to excite the passions. Lampoon and invective were preferred to serious argument. Current events afforded plenty of material. The whole

world was convulsed by the throes of the French Revolution, and in America the shocks produced waves of democratic excitement. The position of the administration was one of great perplexity, requiring caution and reserve, so that misrepresentation of its acts and purposes was easy.

The distinct assumption of political functions by the newspaper press took place during the eighteenth century. Originally, newspapers were simply handy mediums of announcement. They were an improvement on the town crier. For them to engage in political discussion was out of harmony with traditional ideas of government. The criticism of politics, which now addresses itself to journalism, formerly found its outlet in pamphleteering. In England, every political tempest brought a shower of ballads, tracts, and pamphlets, falling as thickly as autumn leaves. The artillery of the law was as ineffectual against such fugitive writings as it would be against a swarm of mosquitoes. The ministers of the crown found that the most practical course was to have their own corps of pamphleteers to wage war for them. The great mass of such publications was ephemeral rubbish, soon swept away; but English literature reckons among its classics writings which originally had a party purpose. Addison's famous poem Blenheim" was written to order for the Whig ministry of the day, who wanted some verses on Marlborough's victory for popular circulation.

Most of Swift's writings are Tory pamphlets. His "Gulliver's Travels" continues to be a popular story-book, although the political satire, which originally gave it piquancy, is no longer noticed. Some of the best works of Edmund Burke, which for all time will never cease to be profitable to men who give serious thought to problems of government, we owe to his activity as a Whig pamphleteer.

It was inevitable that this species of writing would seek so convenient a medium of publication as the newspaper press as soon as possible; but the combination of newsgathering and political criticism had to encounter a formidable prejudice. Reports of the debates of Parliament, or comment on its proceedings, assailed a historic guarantee of public liberty. The character of institutions is really an attribute from the service which they render; but the disposition to regard that character as inherent, causes them to be valued for their own sake when they have lost the use which made them valuable. Thoroughly honest and patriotic statesmen insisted upon the secrecy of parliamentary proceedings long after it had ceased to be necessary as a protection of freedom of debate, and had become the shield of corruption. The intrusion of journalism into the field of politics was attended by violent struggles, but the public demand was so imperious that Parliament was literally beaten into submission.

In the American colonies the censorship of the

press had been very strict. Benjamin Franklin, in his autobiography, gives some amusing instances of his collisions with the authorities because of his audacity in venturing an occasional remark on public affairs. The Revolutionary movement freed the press. The practical convenience of such a medium for the expression of colonial opinion outweighed any theoretical objections. A stream of articles poured into the columns of the newspapers of the day. The celebrated "Farmer's Letters" of John Dickinson appeared in the Pennsylvania Chronicle. The pens of other leaders of the Revolution were busily employed in like manner. The practice continued after the Revolution, and to a series of newspaper articles over the signature "Publius," written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, to influence the action of the New York convention, we owe that great commentary on the constitution, commonly known as "The Federalist." Communications on public affairs from Cato, Camillus, Decius, Senex, Agricola, and such like, frequently appeared in the newspapers, until gradually political comment was recognized as an ordinary function of the newspaper press, and the editorial article became an established institution. In our own time, the transformation of public sentiment has become so complete that there is a disposition to regard the press as being in some way responsible for the conduct of public affairs, and blame for defects of government is laid at its door.