CHAPTER XXXV RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES 385. The first three years of Washington's administration saw no political parties. The adoption of the Constitution ended the first party contest. The Federalists were left, almost without opposition, to organize the government they had established; and, within a few months, party lines were wiped out. It is sometimes said that Washington tried to reconcile the two old parties and so appointed to his Cabinet two leaders from the Antifederalists, Jefferson and Randolph. This is absurd. Jefferson had criticized though less severely than Hamilton had, but be, too, had used his influence for its ratification. And, though Randolph refused to sign the final draft of the Constitution at Philadelphia, he had, afterward, in the Virginia convention, been one of the chief leaders for ratification. The Cabinet represented merely the different wings of the old Federalist party. the Constitution, 386. But elements were present for new divisions. Men soon found themselves for or against the plans of the government according as they favored (1) aristocracy or democracy, (2) commercial or agricultural interests, (3) a strong or a weak government, and (4) English or French sympathies. And these divergent views arranged themselves in two groups. The commercial interests wished a strong central government (§ 351), and favored England because our commerce was mainly with that country. Likewise, they were more impelled toward aristocracy to which they had always been inclined - because aristocratic England was now the - 1 After the Revolution almost as exclusively as before, - which suggests that the English navigation acts had not in great measure diverted colonial commerce from its natural channels. § 388] RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES 331 champion of the old order against democratic France, in the wars of the French Revolution. On the other hand, the democratic portion of society had its chief strength in agricultural districts. It kept its Revolutionary hatred for England, and was warmly attached to France (formerly our ally and now the European champion of democracy). And, according to universal democratic feeling in that day, it looked with distrust upon any strong government. 387. Hamilton stood for the aristocratic, pro-English tendency; Jefferson, for the democratic, pro-French view. Soon the two were contending in the Cabinet (in Jefferson's phrase) "like cocks in a pit." By 1792 these divergent views in the country had crystallized into new political parties under these leaders. Jefferson believed that Hamilton's policy, if not checked, would result in monarchy; and he called his own party "Republican." His opponents tried to discredit it by stigmatizing it "Democratic," and shrewdly took to themselves the old name "Federalist." Unhappily, the new party lines were largely sectional. Commercial New England was mainly Federalist; the agricultural South was Republican. 388. Jefferson first uses the term Republican as a party name in a letter to Washington in May, 1792: -"The Republican party among us, who wish to preserve the government in its present form. . . Years later he affirmed he had heard Hamilton call the Constitution "a shillyshally thing, of mere milk and water, which . . . was good only as a step to something better"; and later still he declared, "The contests of that day were contests of principle between the adherents of republican and of kingly government." But if Jefferson accused his opponents of plotting against the Republic, they, even more absurdly, accused him of plotting to overthrow all society, in the interest of bloody anarchy or at least of a general prescription of property (§ 426). It took a generation for men to learn that political difference did not mean moral viciousness. Many years afterward, Madison characterized the party divisions more fairly:- "Hamilton wished to administer the government into what he thought it ought to 1 By 1793, both men had resigned. be; while the Republicans wished to keep it as understood by the men who adopted it." 389. Washington was a Federalist; but his patriotism so exalted him that the Republicans were unwilling to oppose his reëlection. In 1793 he again received every electoral vote. Adams became Vice President again, by 77 votes to 50 for George Clinton. The Republicans were sadly handicapped in their canvass for Clinton by their lack of a candidate of their own for the presidency; but they secured a strong majority in the new House of Representatives. 390. Washington refused to be a candidate for a third term,1 and in 1796, came a true party contest. The Federalist members of Congress in caucus nominated Adams and Thomas Pinckney. Republican Congressmen nominated Jefferson. Adams won by three votes. Jefferson became Vice President. Before the Twelfth Amendment, each elector voted for two men without naming one for President, one for Vice President. If all Federalist electors had voted for both their candidates, there would have been no choice for first place. To prevent this result, several Federalist electors threw away their second votes, so that Pinckney, on the winning ticket, received fewer votes than Jefferson, on the other. The consequence was absurd, — President and Vice President from hostile parties. 391. Excursus.2 The nominating "caucus," originated in town government. John Adams has left the earliest account of it as it appeared in Boston (Diary for February, 1773): ... "This day I learned that the caucus club meets at certain times in the garret of Tom Dawes. He has a large house, and he has a movable partition in his garret, which he takes down, and the whole club meets in one room. There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one end of the room to the other. There they drink flip, suppose, and there they choose a moderator, who puts questions to vote regularly; and selectmen, assessors, collectors, firewards, and representatives are regularly 1 Washington's noble "Farewell Address" warned his countrymen against "entangling alliances" abroad and sectional divisions at home. It should be read by all students. 2 The rest of this chapter is a digression to explain party government. § 392] CONSERVATIVES AND PROGRESSIVES 333 chosen before they are chosen by the town." It was his control over this caucus which made Samuel Adams for so long the "boss" of Boston. By 1790, it had become customary in State legislatures for members of each party to "caucus" in order to nominate party candidates for State offices. This device was now seized upon by the parties in Congress for national party nominations. Of course it destroyed at once and completely the intention of the Constitution that the chosen electors should "deliberate" and make their own choice, and so "refine the popular will." It remained now only for them to follow the "recommendation" of the party caucus. This matter illustrates the fact that party government was a new thing. The men who made the Constitution did not foresee it. Those who dreamed of it at all thought of it only as a dreaded possibility. The Constitution makes no provision for the chief force which was to run it. 392. Government by party seems to be most wholesome when party lines correspond in fair degree to the natural differences between conservatives and progressives. One part of society sees most clearly the present good and the possible dangers in change, and feels that to maintain existing advantages is more important than to try for new ones. Another part sees most clearly the existing evils and the possible gain in change, and feels that to try to improve conditions, even at the risk of experiment, is more important than merely to preserve existing good. Each party draws its strength from some of the noblest and some of the basest of human qualities. The true reformer will find himself associated with reckless ad venturers and self-seeking demagogues. The thoughtful conservative, struggling to preserve society from harmful revolution, will find much of his support in the inertia, selfishness, and stupidity of comfortable respectability, and in the greed of 1 Said John Adams, in October, 1792: "There is nothing which I dread so much as the division of the Republic into two great parties, each under its leader.... This, in my humble apprehension, is to be feared as the greatest political evil under our Constitution." "special privilege." "Stupidity is naturally Tory"; but "Folly is naturally Liberal." 1 393 The term party government applies to countries where the people are divided into political parties, and the party with the most votes back of it controls the course of government. At present it is the mark of all free governments. One of its characteristics is moderation, because the shifting of only a small fraction of the total vote will usually displace the ruling party. In America the check of parties has replaced, for most useful purposes, the elaborate system of checks devised by the Philadelphia Convention. 1 This paragraph is condensed roughly from a much longer passage in Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century (I, 513–515). Colonel Higginson had the final quotation in mind probably, when he wrote of these first American political parties, "Some men became Federalists because they were high-minded, and some because they were narrow-minded; while the more far-sighted and also the less scrupulous became Republicans.” |