ernment by the Republican Party," by GEO. F. HOAR, The International Monthly, October, 1900. 28. On the decline of the old Congressional Caucus, see Niles's Register, vol. iii., p. 17, for address in support of the candidacy of DeWitt C. Clinton and against the Caucus system. Also Niles's Register, vol. xxi., p. 338, for the editor's expressions of opposition to “that dirty thing called a caucus.” 29. On party history the student should consult Schouler, Adams, McMaster, and Rhodes, in their Histories of the United States; the Statesmen Series; Gordy's History of Political Parties; Stanwood's History of the Presidency: McKee's Party Platforms; McClure's Our Presidents and How We Make Them; Official Proceedings of the National Conventions, and Party Campaign Text-Books; Hay and Nicolay's Life of Lincoln; Greeley's American Conflict; Benton's Thirty Years' View; Blaine's Twenty Years of Congress; Burgess's Middle Period, Civil War and Constitution, Reconstruction; Hart's Formation of the Union; Wilson's Division and Reunion, and History of the American People; Channing's Students' History of the United States; McLaughlin's History of the American Nation; McMaster, Thomas, Fiske, Montgomery, Adams and Trent, in their School Histories of the United States. CHAPTER XIV OUR POLITICAL MORALITY another volume, in discussing the " In chiefly with the rights IN Political Duties and Political Rights. principles of the fathers," we had to do chiefly with the rights of the citizen.' In the present chapter we consider his duties. It is well to do as our fathers did, to "know our rights and dare maintain them. But duties are co-ordinate with rights. Men will not fight for their civic rights who have no sense of their civic duties. Rights cannot be maintained if duties are neglected. They go together, and in our political life of to-day it is essential that emphasis be laid upon our duties rather than upon our rights. When a man, for instance, looks upon voting as a "right" instead of a duty, he is apt to regard his vote as his property, to be used as something of his own, to do with as he chooses, without public responsibility. A man's vote is not his own; it is his country's,- -a sovereign weapon entrusted to him, not merely for the protection of his own rights, but to be used for the defence of his country's interests. He is in duty bound to use it for the defence of the weak and for the protection of the highest public welfare. It is so with all his rights; they all involve corresponding duties to the state. In a democratic state political rights cannot be secure unless they have their foundations in the righteousness 1 The American Republic and Its Government, chapter i. of political life. In a republic under universal suffrage, -under "government by the people,”—there are certain requirements essential and fundamental to the continued safety of the national life. If the people are to rule the state, they should understand the conditions on which alone this can be done. Fundamental Popular Gov ernment. 1. The people must be intelligent. "If a people expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never can be," says JefferConditions in son. Jefferson, "the founder of the University of Virginia," sought, for the American democ1. Intelligence. racy that he gave his life to establish, an education as universal as the liberty which he held to be the heritage of all men. The people may be ignorant and depraved under a despotism where they have no power or responsibility, but a democratic state with universal suffrage must provide for universal education. “Popular government without popular education is but a prologue to a farce, or to a tragedy, or to both," says Madison. If the designs of the false leader and the pleas of the wily demagogue are to be recognized and exposed, it must be by educated intelligence. Every true citizen will, therefore, do all he can to promote the general intelligence of his community. It is for this reason that the state provides schools and colleges and universities. It must do so in its own defence, that its citizens, its sovereign rulers, may be intelligent. Virtue. 2. The people must be virtuous. Moral character is the foundation of the state. If the people's political 2. Political rectitude and integrity are sapped and undermined, the foundation is gone. No government can live when the sources of its power have become corrupted. As long as the hearts of the people are right, the nation is safe. But when the springs of our national life are poisoned, the inevitable result is decay and dissolution, and the outcome is the man on horseback with the |
