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selves of an opposition party. It was the great unconscious achievement of Thomas Jefferson to open constitutional channels of political agitation, to start the processes by which the development of our constitution is carried on.

It is remarkable how promptly the varied discontents, which might have converted politics into a strife of revolutionary groups, rushed into the outlet provided for them. Everywhere the state factions were gathered into relations with the Federal or Republican parties, and placed themselves under the guidance of their party chiefs. This was the salvation of the government. Change became possible without destruction. Anti-federalism lost its sullen temper, and entertained hopes of the government if only Jefferson and the Republicans should obtain control. The whiskey insurrectionists saw a way open by which they could attack the hated excise without rebellion, and their ablest spokesman, Gallatin, became a Republican party leader. The clubs of social revolutionists which had sprung up in the cities, blazing with incendiary ideas caught from the French Revolution, were converted into party workers, and their behavior was moderated by considerations of party interest. When the more violent factions among the Republicans showed a disposition to follow up their victory in the election of Jefferson by an assault upon the judiciary, their own party leaders held them in check. In

Pennsylvania, Governor McKean, whose election was one of the first triumphs of the Republican party, vetoed a bill reforming the judiciary system. Eminent Republicans, such as Alexander Dallas, Jared Ingersoll, and Hugh H. Brackenridge opposed the impeachment of three judges of the state supreme court, and the state senate gave a majority for acquittal. Even Jefferson's own influence could not procure the united support of his party in the U. S. Senate for the impeachment of Judge Chase. The reform of government which the Republican leaders had really sought was a change in the custody of the powers of government, and they would not support movements aimed directly at the authority of government. As their support was essential to party success, faction animosity had to defer to their ideas.

The distinction between party and faction seems to be this party aims at administrative control, while faction is the propaganda of a particular interest. Party, therefore, contains a principle of conservatism, inasmuch as it must always seek to keep faction within such bounds as will prevent it from jeoparding party interests. An important consequence of this party instinct of comprehension is the tendency of opposing party organizations to equalize each other in strength. The practical purpose of their formation causes each to compete for popular favor in ways that tend towards an approximately equal division of pop.

ular support.

Even in the greatest victories at the polls, the preponderance of the triumphant party is but a small percentage of the total vote. If a party becomes so hopelessly discredited that it has no chance of success, it disappears like the Federalists or the old National Republican party, and a new party takes its place based on contemporaneous divisions of public sentiment.

The conservative function of party is not duly appreciated, because its operation is negative. What is done is known, but how far the impulse which produced the act has been moderated cannot be known. It must, however, be apparent on reflection, that even in times of the most contagious excitement there must be some modification of individual opinions to secure an agreement of purpose among large bodies of citizens. It is reasonable to infer that the habitual calculation of consequences, essential to the training of every political leader, must affect his deference to the behests of his supporters. It may be stated as a fact, which acquaintance with the interior workings of politics will verify, that the influence of party leaders is chiefly exerted in soothing the prejudices and moderating the demands of their followers. If party action were an accurate reflection of the passions, animosities, and beliefs of the mass of individuals composing the party membership, politics would be as tremendous in their instability as ocean waves; but party action being

a social product is in organic connection with all the processes of thought and feeling which pertain to human nature, and is subject to the play of their influence. A typical result is that curious accumulation of traditions and tenets which give to party communion almost the sanctions of religious faith. On this point, with great sagacity, Macaulay has said: "Every political sect has its esoteric and its exoteric school, its abstract doctrines for the initiated, its visible symbols, its imposing forms, its mythological fables for the vulgar. It assists the devotion of those who are unable to raise themselves to the contemplation of pure truth by all the devices of . . . superstition. It has its altars and its deified heroes, its relics and its pilgrimages, its canonized martyrs and confessors, and its legendary miracles."

American party history conspicuously attests the truth of these observations. The mythic tendency has converted the choleric politicians of the early period of the republic into sages, philosophers, and even saints! If it were not so difficult to notice that which is familiar, it would be easy to see that this process of canonization is going on in our own time, idealizing and transfiguring men whose real personality is still well within the recollection of the living.

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CHAPTER X

DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES

THE overthrow of the Federalists was marked by an immediate change in the deportment of the administration. Jefferson substituted a written message for the speech to Congress at the opening of the session, giving as his reason that he thus avoided the contention that would have taken place in Congress over the character of the address in reply to the President. He also tried to introduce an easy and informal style of manners at the executive mansion. It is usually the case that those who set themselves against established forms have to give more attention to the subject than those who observe them, and in introducing what he called "the principle of pêle mêle," Jefferson troubled himself a great deal more about questions of etiquette than his predecessors had done.

The agencies of government devised by the Federalists were mostly left intact. The alien and sedition laws were by their terms only temporary measures, and they expired by limitation. The legislation by which the Federalists had packed the bench was rescinded, and thus "the midnight judges" were gotten rid of by extinguishing their

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