beginning, a new issue, which neither of the old parties has the courage to face resolutely, leads a certain number of persons to separate themselves from the organization with which they have previously acted and to form a new party. The movement originates with the people and not with the politicians, and the candidates nominated by the new party are new men. As soon as the movement has developed enough strength to make the votes it can command an object of envy to the weaker of the old parties a period of coquetry begins. At first there is trading for positions on a fusion ticket by two independent parties, then there is a gradual drawing together of the two parties with nearly identical platforms [principles] and a common ticket, and in the end a complete absorption of the third party by its more powerful ally."1 When the absorption of a new issue by an old party results in success, as it frequently has resulted, the people attain their object much more quickly than they would by the tedious process of building a new party.

Political Parties and the Individual. Political parties are voluntary associations formed outside of the pale of government. They are not recognized as agencies of government, and until quite recently they have had no legal existence whatever. Nevertheless ours is a government by party: no important policy of government, whether federal, State, or local, can be adopted without the sanction of a party, and no one can be elected to an important office who has not first received the endorsement of a party. Thus far no one has been able to show how popular government on a large scale can be conducted without the aid of parties.

Since we must have parties and must accomplish our political purposes through them, the relation of the individual to his party presents itself as a serious problem of citizenship. For reasons known to himself a man has been acting with a certain party: under what circumstances

'Stanwood, "History of the Tariff,” Vol. II, p. 361.

may he as a good citizen leave his party? His entrance into the party was a matter of choice, and he is as free to withdraw from it as he was to enter it. He is under no legal obligations to remain in his party, but is he not under a moral obligation to withdraw from it when his judgment and his conscience tell him that its course is wrong and that the course of another party is right? When party loyalty leads a man into voting for dangerous measures and dishonest candidates he is not a free citizen, but is the victim of a despotism. Party loyalty is a good thing, but loyalty to the interests of one's country is an infinitely better thing; and when a man is convinced that his party is pursuing an unpatriotic course he should break away from it, despite the cracking of the party lash.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What is the origin of political parties?

2. Describe the centrifugal and centripetal forces of politics. 3. What were the political views of Alexander Hamilton? of Thomas Jefferson?

4. Sketch the history of parties in the United States.

5. Name the minor political parties and state the principles held by each.

6. How are new issues absorbed by the great parties?

7. In what relation do the parties stand to government?

8. In what relation does the individual stand to his party? When should this relation be severed?

SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. State whether a Democrat who was guided solely by the traditions and principles of his party would favor or oppose: (a) the control of railroads by the federal government; (b) the issue of money by State banks; (c) the management of elections by the federal government; (d) the control of telegraph lines by the State government; (e) the planting of colonies by the federal government; (f) the support of the public schools by the federal government; (g) the ownership of mines by the State government; (h) the control of cities by the federal government; (i) the coöperation of the federal government with local government in road-building.

2. What influences besides party principles lead one to vote for this or that party?

3. Give reasons why it is best that the party in power should have opposition even though its principles are right.

4. Compare the last National Democratic platform with the last National Republican platform, and point out the chief difference in the principles of the two parties.

5. How many people voted for the Democratic party in the last presidential election? How many for the Republican party? If the Republican vote for that year should be represented by a line one yard in length, how long would be the line which should represent the Democratic vote? How long the line representing the Prohibition vote? the Populist vote? the Socialist vote?

6. Name a few of the great politicians who have figured in the history of this country. Who are the great politicians of the present time?

7. What is a statesman? a partizan? a trimmer? a mugwump? an independent? a henchman?

8. Distinguish between a 'boss' and a leader.

9. Define faction, cabal, junto, "ring," clique.

10. Under what circumstances is a man justified in deserting his party?

A Hint on Reading.-Johnston's "American Politics."'

BH&

XII

CIVIL LIBERTY

Civil Liberty Defined. We have now described the several devices by which our political system is operated, and have described the nature of the power which has been assigned to each of the three grades of government. For what purpose have these ingenious devices been invented? Why have these nice adjustments of power been made? In order that we may be secure in our civil liberty. And what is civil liberty? It is the liberty which a man enjoys in civil society; it is liberty under law. The desire for freedom is implanted in every human breast. History is largely an account of man's struggle for freedom, and the greatest lesson which history has for us teaches that man ought to be free. But there must be limits to his freedom. Where there is government there must be restraints upon the will and upon the desires. The only liberty that is possible in society is civil liberty, which has been defined as natural liberty so far restrained (and so far only) as is necessary and expedient for public good. The checks regarded as necessary and expedient for the public good are not the same in all countries. Civil liberty, therefore, is not everywhere the same: in Germany it is one thing; in France it is another thing; and in the United States it is still another thing.

The Growth of American Civil Liberty. The rights of our citizenship seem to come to us, like the air and the sunshine, as a matter of course, but it seemed otherwise to those an

cestors of ours who secured these rights. To them civil liberty came as the result of hard-fought battles. When we read the bill of rights in one of our constitutions, where our liberties are itemized, our hearts would throb with gratitude did we know the suffering and the sacrifice which each item has cost. The history of American liberty cannot be given here in full, but we must find room for its outlines:

I. The Great Charter. The story of our civil liberty may conveniently begin with an account of the Great Charter. King John of England had been acting in a tyrannical and unpatriotic way, and the leading men of England, in order to protect themselves from his cruelty and oppression, met (1215 A.D.) at Runnymede, near London, and declared the rights of Englishmen in a formal document which they compelled the king to sign. This document was the famous Magna Carta. "One copy of it," says Green, "still remains in the British Museum, injured by age and fire, but with the royal seal still hanging from the brown shrivelled parchment. It is impossible to gaze without reverence on the earliest monument of English freedom, which we can see with our own eyes and touch with our hands, the Great Charter, to which, from age to age, patriots have looked back as the basis of English liberty.'

Since the Great Charter is the basis of English liberty, it is the basis also of American liberty. It consists of a preamble and sixty-three clauses. The clauses of lasting interest are the following:

1. "Common Pleas shall not follow the king's court, but shall be held in some certain place." (John had been dragging suitors for justice about from post to pillar, causing them great inconvenience and expense.)

2. "A freeman shall be fined for a small offense after the manner of the offense; for a great crime after the heinousness of it." (Making the punishment suit the crime.)

3. "No scutage (land tax) or aid (contribution) shall be imposed except by the common council of the nation." (No taxation without representation.)