POLITICAL PARTIES, AND PARTY PROBLEMS IN THE A SKETCH OF AMERICAN PARTY HISTORY AND OF THE DEVEL- IN THEIR RELATIONS TO POLITICAL MORALITY BY JAMES ALBERT WOODBURN PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND POLITICS TY OF NEW YORK. ω PREFACE HIS book, as indicated in its table of contents, has to THIS do, not with forms of government and the duties and functions of public officers, but with the party spirit and forces that underlie and operate our Government. The book is a study of parties in America,-of party history, party machinery, party morality, party problems. Party has always been the agency by which America has been governed, and therefore party politics is pre-eminently a subject that demands the constant attention of intelligent and patriotic citizens. The book is published in the hope that it may aid in promoting, in school and home, the study of American Politics. Politics is the science and art of government, the study of the state, its life, and its conduct. Whether looked to as a field of study or as a field of practical endeavor, Politics is a noble sphere of manly thought, energy, and enterprise. It has been said of History that while it is not a valuable study for the education of men it is invaluable for educated men. In keeping with this half-truth it may be thought that while Politics is a fit subject for the attention of mature and educated men, and while educated men are invaluable in political life, yet as a subject for the education of youth Politics may not be looked to with any assurance of profit. This view of political education, if it ever had any serious hold on public thought, is rapidly disappearing. It is quite certain that the study of Politics in American schools and colleges has received a notable increase of attention within the last decade. Other educational agencies, the home, the press, the pulpit, the literary club, the civic federation, have all been emphasizing the need of civic training. All education by the State has the education of its citizenship for its primary purpose. While it is to be fully recognized that all subjects in the schools-the mathematics, the languages, science, history, literature-may be equally useful in producing an educated citizenship, and while all education has this largely for its aim, yet there is a widespread and natural public demand for the special study of those subjects that relate directly and especially to our political life. All educational agencies in America are recognizing this demand, and consequently the study of "Civics"-Politics is a better term-is being very widely cultivated and promoted. No effort that may still further promote this educational tendency can come amiss. The true student of Politics will understand that the only firm foundation for his science rests on History. To study Politics in any serious sense is but to make a large use of History, to learn the lessons of experience for future guidance. With this thought in mind I have devoted nearly half of my volume to a sketch of party history, in the attempt to reduce within a narrow compass, not what may be claimed as a history, but what may be offered merely as an outline sketch of American parties under the Constitution. The sketch may serve to introduce the reader to further inquiry and study, and this study will surely lead him to appreciate the truth for which the late Professor Seeley so ably contended, that the chief purpose in the study of History is to study Politics, to study the life and progress of the state, the motives, means, and processes by which men have built and conducted their commonwealths. When we come to reflect on the political spirit of man, and the wonderful part it has played in the history of the world, especially in the Anglo-Saxon state, it will be conceded that no part of man's being is more worthy of attention and cultivation. It is a field which a great teacher, Thomas Arnold, has called the most important for the ripened human mind,—that one may become a factor in the greatest problem in human history, the problem of governing men. In all possible ways history should be used for political education and for the cultivation of the true political spirit that is so important in popular government. This relation of Politics to History it has been my aim to emphasize. In my sketch of party history I have sought also to have the reader appreciate more fully and more highly than is usually done certain positive and aggressive forces in third-party agitations that have effectually modified the course of national party history, that he may be led to see that even party history, after all, is not entirely machine made. The cultivation of the political spirit suggests another phase of Politics which I have sought to emphasize,—the political morality of the state. Education in Politics is not chiefly a question of knowledge: it is a question of character. As the wit and wisdom of Sidney Smith long since observed, "the only foundation of political liberty is the spirit of the people." It is not forms of government, nor the machinery of parties, but civic character on which the state relies. As President Hadley has very well said, "Better the worst form of government with character and righteousness in the rulers and the ruled than the best form of government with the rulers and the ruled indifferent to moral principles." Because of this close and vital relation of politics to ethics, and because of the direct dependence of national character on political conduct we may well conclude that De Toqueville was right when he said that "politics is the end and aim of American education." If the life of the Republic depends upon the moral character of its citizenship all |