PART I. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.' It is not only convenient, but even necessary, to clear the way to our main topics, by discussing certain matters directly, rather than incidentally. To many this discussion may seem wholly or in a great part unnecessary. To others it will appear indispensable to a proper comprehension of the subject. DEFINITIONS. The term British is applied to the aggregate population of Great Britain and Ireland. The term Anglo-Saxon is rejected, as not being sufficiently descriptive. The term British American is applied to the aggregate population of the United States of America, which is assumed to be such either by origin or by political affiliation. The general term American is rejected as not being specific. The term British American, as above defined, is inaccurate, because it excludes other British races in North America; but, restricted by definition, must serve the present purpose. The thirty-eight million citizens of the United States do not yet possess a collective adjective which expresses their nationality. POLITICS is the science of human government. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS concern the relations and conduct of nations towards each other. MUNICIPAL POLITICS is the relation and conduct of a particular state towards its citizens or subjects, and their relation and conduct towards it. In a lower and restricted sense, the term politics is often applied to parties existing in a particular state, representing diversity of opinions upon political questions. The term will be here generally employed in its larger senses; if in the other, the fact will be sufficiently obvious. WHAT IS GOVERNMENT? Government is both a science and an art. It is a science, because the moral and economical principles upon which it ought to be administered are capable of being easily ascertained, and precisely stated. But in their practical application these propositions become complicated with various conditions, so that they lose their abstract character, and become concrete; and then government becomes an art. These conditions are various: such as those of geography, climate, race, traditional habits, education, and the like. It will not be doubted, at this time, that the climate of Greece had much to do with the development of her peculiar institutions; nor that the political character of England has been in a great measure the result of her insular position; nor that the political necessities of France have for the last hundred years been greatly determined by populations outside of her borders. THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. In the United States we are republicans, and we prefer that form of government. It is suited to our habits, for we have been republicans from the beginning. We were first planted there two hundred and fifty years ago, as a few scattered settlements or towns along the Atlantic coast, having no connection, and but little communication with each other. These THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES 3 towns came to unite for purposes of defence against savages; to form colonial legislatures, the germ of states, and then states to form the Federal Union. The general existing condition may be thus expressed: the lowest political division is the school district, whose inhabitants meet in general assembly, elect trustees, determine the questions of building school-houses, supplies for the schools, and similar matters, and levy taxes for these purposes. All these are executive and legislative acts. Several school districts combined form the town. This also has its annual legislative assembly, at which the town officers are elected, and other questions determined, such as the repair of the public roads, and the support of the poor. Several towns form the county, which has also its legislature, either elected by the whole body of the county, or composed of delegates from the several towns. To this body is confided the laying out of public roads, the first construction of public bridges, the charge and support of the county court-house, jail, workhouse, insane asylum, poor-house, and other kindred local matters. Above them all rises the State, whose legislature, of two separate bodies, is composed of delegates from towns, counties, divisions of coun ties, or from several counties united; with a general power of municipal legislation, and a governor elected by universal suffrage. And above them all the FEDERAL UNION of the several States; in which we present to the world the only national character we possess, and which has a national executive, judiciary and legislature, of two separate bodies, the Senate and House of Representatives; and these are the only authorities through which we collect customs, coin money, make treaties, sustain an army and navy, declare war, and have international intercourse with other peoples. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES NOT DEMOCRATIC. But our national government is not democratic. Many of the States are democratic, but the national government is arranged upon a more complicated basis. The representatives, in the House of Representatives in Congress, are elected in districts upon a basis of population, so that States of large population like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, have each between thirty and forty members, while States of small population, like Delaware, Rhode Island, and Oregon, have each but one member. But each State, however great or small its population, has two members of the Senate, so that the vote of the states of NewYork, Pennsylvania and Ohio, with a population exceeding ten millions, may be neutralized in the Senate by the vote of the states of Delaware, Rhode Island and Oregon, which have not altogether a population of even a million. And these Senators are not chosen directly by the people by primary election, but by the Legislatures of their respective States, and there fore by secondary election. Nor is the President chosen directly by the people, nor does his election necessarily represent a majority of the votes cast directly by the people. The people of each State choose by universal suffrage a number of electors of President and VicePresident, equal to the number of its members of the House of Representatives in Congress and of its Senators. If the State of New York has thirty-four members of the House of Representatives, and two members of the Senate, it would therefore have thirty-six members of the Electoral College; while the State of Delaware, with one representative and two senators, has three electors. The State of New York has therefore less influence in the Electoral College than it would be entitled to on the basis of population; while the State of Delaware has three times as much influence as its population would entitle it to. And again, the President, it is obvious, may be elected by a minority of the popular votes. He may win enough electoral votes to secure his election in various States, each carried by small majorities in his favour, while other States may cast their votes against him by majorities thrice or four times as large. So that the only department of our government, based upon a direct democratic basis, is the House of Representatives. The Senate is not democratic, nor elected by primary election, but elected by secondary election on a purely artificial basis. The President is not elected by primary election, nor on a democratic basis, nor does his election necessarily express a majority of the popular vote. This short statement will possess no readers with an THE GOVERNMENT NOT DEMOCRATIC adequate conception of the theory and frame of our government, but it will impress them all with an idea of its wonderful complexity. They will wonder that it could ever be set agoing, and, that being once set into operation, it did not stop of itself, or fly to pieces. But it has worked well for more than eighty years, and by reason of this very complexity. For this complexity is nothing more than a series of contrivances to protect the minority against a hasty or passionate exercise of its power by a preponderating majority. This proposition will bear some enlargement by way of illustration. We all know what atrocities were perpetrated by the democracies of Greece, where the absolute power was vested in a single popular body. We remember what sweeping, imprudent, passionate, violent acts of legislation were perpetrated by the legislatures of France when composed of only one body, which wielded the supreme executive and legislative power of the nation, and practically the judicial also, as it could enact retrospective as well as prospective laws. Montesquieu, a hundred years ago, gave this condition as the very definition of a despotism. Many of the most successful business men in the world have found it necessary to adopt fixed and arbitrary rules for their own conduct, in order to ensure a calm and deliberate judgment. Legislative bodies are like individuals in this, that under the impulse of fear, passion, and resentment, they lose their discretion, and act hastily and without judgment. Hence the necessity for a system of checks and balances which shall retard, if it does not prevent such a result. In some of the United States there was originally but one Legislative Body, but the experience of hasty legislation has uniformly led to the creation of a second house, based upon electoral districts different from the other. During our late civil war, and for some time afterwards, the whole legislative power of the nation was in the hands of a political party possessed of one but political sentiment, and some things were enacted which were wholly illegal, and others which are more the result of sentimentalism than of justice. The British House of Lords has been denounced as a most absurd and illogical institution, and no one has more keenly satirised its theoretical constitution than British writers, especially Thackeray. And yet all writers on |