The Development of Democratic Institutions in
America.
[=The Religious Origin of Modern Democracy=]
Modern democracy is often looked upon as something peculiarly secular,
unreligious, or even irreligious in its origin. In truth, however, it
has its origin in religious aspirations quite as much as modern art or
architecture or literature. To the theology of Calvin, the founder of
the Republic of Geneva, grafted upon the sturdy independence of English
and Scotch middle classes, our American democracy owes its birth. James
I. well appreciated that the principles of uncompromising Protestantism
were as incompatible with monarchy as with the hierarchy which they
swept aside. Each man by his theology was brought into direct personal
responsibility to his God, without the intervention of priest, bishop,
or pope, and without any allegiance to his king except so far as it
agreed with his allegiance to the King of kings. Macaulay has struck
this note of Puritan republicanism when he says that the Puritans
regarded themselves as "Kings by the right of an earlier creation;
priests by the interposition of an Almighty hand." As John Fiske says,
James Stuart always treasured up in his memory the day when a Puritan
preacher caught him by the sleeve and called him "God's silly vassal."
"A Scotch Presbytery," cried the king, "agrees as well with monarchy as
God and the devil. Then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet, and
at their pleasure censure me and my council and all our proceedings!"
[=The Political Conceptions of the Puritans=]
But the democracy which was founded in New England as the logical
outcome of the religious principles for which the Puritans left Old
England was not democracy as we know it to-day. The Puritans, for
the most part, believed as much in divinely appointed rulers as the
monarchs against whom they rebelled; but these divinely appointed
rulers were to be the "elect of God"--those who believed as they
did, and joined with their organizations to establish His kingdom on
earth. For this reason we find the Massachusetts Colony as early as
1631 deciding that, "no man shall be admitted to the freedom of this
body politic but such as are members of some of the churches within
the limits of the same." The government, in short, was simply a
democratic theocracy, and, as the colony grew in numbers, the power
came to be lodged in the hands of the minority. There were, however,
among the clergy of Massachusetts men who believed in democracy as we
understand it to-day. Alexander Johnson, in his history of Connecticut,
says with truth that Thomas Hooker, who led from Massachusetts into
Connecticut the colony which established itself at Hartford, laid
down the principle upon which the American nation long generations
after was to be established. When Governor Winthrop, in a letter to
Hooker, defended the restriction of the suffrage on the ground that
"the best part is always the least, and of that best part the wiser
part is always the lesser," the learned and generous-hearted pastor
replied: "In matters which concern the common good, a general council,
chosen by all to transact business which concerns all, I conceive most
suitable to rule, and most safe for the relief of the whole." The
principles of our republicanism were never better stated until Lincoln
in his oration at Gettysburg made his appeal that this nation might be
consecrated anew in the fulfillment of its mission, and that government
"from the people, for the people, by the people" might not perish from
the earth. Both Hooker and Lincoln had a supreme belief in the wisdom
of the plain people in the matters which affect their own lives. The
rank and file of the people have the surest instinct as to what will
benefit or injure the rank and file of the people, and when upon them
is placed the responsibility of determining what their government shall
be, they are educated for self-government. In the colony which Thomas
Hooker founded upon these principles there was found at the time of the
Revolution more political wisdom, more genius for self-government, and
more devotion to the patriotic cause, than in any other of the thirteen
colonies.
[=Democracy in the South=]
At the time of the Revolution, however, there was another democracy
besides that of New England which enabled the colonies successfully
to resist the Government of George III. This was the democracy of the
planters of the South. The democracy of the Southern colonies was not,
like that of New England, the democracy of collective self-government,
but the democracy of individual self-government, or, rather, of
individual self-assertion. In fact, it would hardly be too much to say
that many of the Virginia planters who espoused so warmly and fought
so bravely in the cause of liberty were not inspired by the spirit of
democracy at all, but rather by the spirit of an aristocracy which
could brook no control. These southern planters were the aristocrats
of the American Revolution. In New York City, and even in Boston and
Philadelphia, the wealthiest merchants were strongly Tory in their
sympathies. In New York it was affirmed by General Greene that
two-thirds of the land belonged to men in sympathy with the English
and out of sympathy with their fellow countrymen. In these cities it
was the plain people and the poorer classes who furnished most of the
uncompromising patriots, but in the South men of fortune risked their
fortunes in the cause of independence. These men were slave owners,
and the habit of mastery made them fiercely rebellious when George
III. attempted in any way to tyrannize over them. Many of them were
the descendants of the English nobility, and as such they acknowledged
no superiors. Naturally, then, in the struggle for liberty they
furnished the leaders of the colonists, both North and South; and the
agricultural classes, whether rich or poor, were naturally on the side
of self-government, for their isolation had from the first compelled
them to be self-governing.
[=What Was Thought of Democracy in the Federal
Convention=]
The first half century of the political history of the United States
consisted rather in the development of the political rights of the
individual citizen than of the loyalty which all owed to the American
nation. Nothing is so difficult as to keep in mind that the government
of the colonies at the close of the Revolution was not what it is
to-day, and that democracy as we know it was regarded as the dream
of theorists. Some of the members of the Federal Convention deeply
distrusted the common people. Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts,
declared that "The people do not want suffrage, but are the dupes
of pretended patriots;" and those who were at all in sympathy with
him prevented, as they imagined, the election of the President by
the people themselves, and did prevent the election of the United
States Senators by the people. Some of them were even opposed to the
election of the House of Representatives directly by the people; but,
fortunately, even Hamilton sided with Madison and Mason, when they
urged that our House of Commons ought to have at heart the rights and
interests of, and be bound, by the manner of their election, to be
the representatives of every class of people. But by "every class of
people" the framers of the Constitution from the more conservative of
the States meant simply every class of freeholders.
[=Property Qualifications for Suffrage=]
[=Chancellor Kent's Views on Universal Suffrage=]
In Virginia none could vote except those who owned fifty acres of land.
In New York, to vote for Governor or State Senator, a freehold worth
$250 clear of mortgage was necessary, and to vote for Assemblymen a
freehold of $50 or the payment of a yearly rent of $10 was necessary.
Even Thomas Jefferson, who was the Democratic philosopher of the
Revolutionary period, did not strenuously insist that the suffrage
must be universal, and it was not for a half century that it became
universal, even among white males. In the State of New York these
restrictions existed until the adoption of the Constitution of 1821,
and even this Constitution merely reduced the privileges of land
owners. Old Chancellor Kent, the author of "Kent's Commentaries,"
declared in this convention that he would not "bow before the idol of
universal suffrage," the theory which he said had "been regarded with
terror by the wise men of every age," and whenever tried had brought
"corruption, injustice, violence, and tyranny." "If universal suffrage
were adopted," he declared, "prosperity would deplore in sackcloth and
ashes the delusion of the day." The horrors of the French Revolution
were always held up by conservatives to show that the people could not
be trusted, and the learned author of the "Commentaries," which every
lawyer has pored over, maintained that, if universal suffrage should
be adopted, "The radicals of England, with the force of that mighty
engine, would sweep away the property, the laws, and the people of that
island like a deluge." Not until between 1840 and 1850 did universal
suffrage among the whites come to be accepted in the older States.
During the first half century of our history it was the Democratic
party, the party of Jefferson, which was on the side of these
extensions of popular rights. The principle of this party was that each
State ought to legislate for itself, with the least possible control
from the central government; that each locality ought to have its
freedom of local government extended; and that each individual should
be self-governing, with the same rights and privileges for all. As
regards foreign affairs, it was characterized by a "passion for peace,"
and an abiding hostility toward a costly army and navy. Jefferson
believed that the way to avoid wars, and the way to be strong, should
war become inevitable, was by the devotion of the people to productive
industry, and not by burdening them to rival the powers of Europe in
the strength of their armaments. In the year 1800, the party which
rallied to his support--then called the Republican party, but generally
spoken of as the Democratic party--triumphed over the Federalists.
[=Federalism and Democracy in New England=]
In New England alone did Federalism remain strong at the close of
Jefferson's first administration. In that section the calvinistic
clergy, who had done so much for the establishment of American
democracy, fought fiercely against its extension. Jefferson's followers
demanded the separation of Church and State and the abolition of the
religious qualifications for office holding, which were then almost as
general as property qualifications. He was known to be in sympathy
with the French revolution, and was therefore denounced as a Jacobin,
both in religion and in politics. We cannot wonder, therefore, that
in the section in which the clergy were the real rulers, Jeffersonian
democracy was regarded with hatred and contempt. Vermont alone, among
the New England States, was from the first thoroughly democratic, and
this was because in Vermont there was no established aristocracy,
either of education or of wealth. In Connecticut, which under clerical
leadership had once been the stronghold of advanced democracy, we find
President Dwight expressing a sentiment common not only to the clergy
but to the educated classes generally, when he declared that "the great
object of Jacobinism, both in its political and moral revolution, is
to destroy every race of civilization in the world." "In the triumph
of Jeffersonianism," he said, "we have now reached a consummation of
democratic blessings; we have a country governed by blockheads and
knaves."
[=New Ideas in the New West=]
But the ideas which in New England were at first received only by the
poor and the ignorant, were in the very air which Americans breathed.
The new States which were organized at the West were aggressively
democratic from the outset. In the Northwest Territory the inequalities
against which Jeffersonian democracy protested never gained a foothold.
Here, where the State of Ohio was organized during Jefferson's first
administration, the union of Church and State was not thought of, and
no religious qualifications whatever for the office of Governor were
exacted. Property qualifications were almost as completely set aside.
While in some of the older States the Governor had to possess £5,000,
and even £10,000, Ohio's Governor was simply required to be a resident
and an owner of land. As regards inheritances, the English law of
primogeniture which remained unaltered in some of the older States,
and in New England generally took the form of a double portion to the
oldest son, was completely set aside, and all children of the same
parents became entitled to the same rights. That Ohio thus led the way
in the democratic advance was due to the fact that its constitution
was framed when these ideas had already become ascendant in the hearts
of the people, and the failure of the clergy of New England was due to
their trying to keep alive institutions which were the offspring of
another age, and could not long survive it.
[=The Decay and Disappearance of Federalism=]
For its distrust of the new democracy New England Federalism paid
heavily in the isolation, defeat, and destruction which shortly awaited
it. When the new democratic administration had fully reduced Federal
taxation and shown its capacity for government, the more liberal-minded
of the Federalists went over to the Democrats. Even Massachusetts gave
a majority for Jefferson in 1804, and when the extreme Federalists
became more extreme through the loss of their Liberal contingent, and
called the Hartford Convention, in 1814, Federalism died of its own
excesses. The policy of the democratic administration toward England
may not have been wise, but the proposal of secession in order to
resist it made Federalism almost synonymous with toryism and disloyalty.
[=A Period Without a Party=]
For a number of years after the close of the war of 1812 there was
really only one political party in the United States. In 1824, when the
contest was so close between Jackson, Adams and Clay, each of these
contestants was a "Democratic Republican," and it would have been
hard to tell what questions of policy divided their followers; though
Jackson's followers, as a rule, cared most for the extension of the
political rights of the poorer classes, and least for that policy of
protection which the war had made an important issue, by cutting off
commerce and thus calling into being extensive manufacturing interests.
That the followers of Clay finally voted for Adams may have been due
to sympathy upon this question of the tariff. In 1828 something akin
to party lines were drawn upon the question of the national bank, and
the victory of Jackson provoked the hostility of the masses toward
that institution, which certainly enriched its stockholders to such
an extent as to make them a favored class. The Tariff Act, passed in
1828, made the tariff question thenceforth the dividing question in our
national politics until slavery took its place.
Most of the absolute free-traders were supporters of Jackson, but
when South Carolina passed its Nullification Act as a protest against
the "tariff of abominations," as it was called, President Jackson
promptly declared that "the Union must and shall be preserved," and
forced the recalcitrant State to renew its allegiance to the National
Government. By the end of Jackson's administration there were again
two distinct parties in the United States; the one advocating a high
tariff and extensive national improvements by the Federal Government,
and the other advocating a low tariff and the restriction of national
expenditures to the lowest possible limit. The former party--the
Whig--was, of course, in favor of a liberal construction of the
Constitution and the extension of powers to the National Government,
while the latter advocated "strict construction" and "State rights."
[=Rise of the Democratic and Whig Parties=]
Jackson belonged to the latter party, and in 1836 was able to transfer
the succession to Van Buren. But in 1840 the Whigs swept the country,
electing Harrison and Tyler, after the most picturesque Presidential
campaign ever known in America. All the financial ills from which the
country was suffering were for the time attributed to Van Buren's
economic policy, and his alleged extravagance at the White House
enabled the Whigs to arouse the enthusiasm of the poor for their
candidate, who was claimed to live in a log cabin and drink hard cider.
During the next four years, however, there was a reaction, and in 1844
Polk was elected upon the platform on which Van Buren had stood. It
is true that in Pennsylvania the Democratic campaign cry was, "Polk,
Dallas and the tariff of '42," which was a high tariff; but in most of
the country Democracy meant "free trade and sailors' rights."
[=The Origin and Character of the Republican Party=]
From this time on, the Whig party grew weaker and the Democratic
party stronger. It is true that the Whigs elected General Taylor in
1848. The revenue tariff law passed by the Democrats in 1846 was not
changed until the still lower tariff of 1857 was enacted. By 1852 the
Whig party had so declined that it was hardly stronger than the old
Federalist party at the close of Jefferson's first term. But just as
the Democratic party became able to boast of its strength, a new party
came into being which adopted the principles of the free-soil wing of
the old Democratic party, chose the name of "Republican Party," swept
into its ranks the remnants of various political organizations of the
past, and in its second national campaign elected Abraham Lincoln to
the presidency. In this readjustment of parties the pro-slavery Whigs
went over to the Democrats and the anti-slavery Democrats went over to
the Republicans. The bolting Democrats claimed, with truth, to maintain
the principles held by their party from the time of Jefferson down,
but the party as a whole followed the interests of its most powerful
element instead of the principles of its founder. In the States from
Ohio west, where upon economic questions the Democratic party had swept
everything by increasing majorities since 1840, the bolting element was
so great that all of these States were landed in the Republican column.
One great Church--the Methodist--which before had been, as a rule,
Democratic in politics, now became solidly Republican.
[=The People's Party and Its Principles=]
From time to time, in the succeeding years, a variety of political
organizations, of minor importance, rose and declined. But none of
national significance were added to the two great parties until the
Presidential campaigns of 1892 and 1896, when a new organization,
known as the People's party, came into prominence. The principles
distinguishing it from the old Democratic and Republican parties
were its demand for a currency issued by the general Government
only, without the intervention of banks of issue, and the free and
unrestricted coinage of silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1,
regardless of foreign nations. It demanded further that the Government,
in payment of its obligations, should use its option as to the kind
of lawful money in which they were to be paid; should establish
and collect a graduated income tax; and should own and operate the
railroads and telegraph lines in the interests of the people. Its
general tendency was to favor what is known as "Paternalism in
government," the existing form in America of what is known as Socialism
in Europe. This party found its chief strength among the farmers, who
believed it possible and right for the Government to pass laws to
suppress "trusts" and monopolies, and also to favor the agricultural
and laboring classes.
The history of American politics up to the time of the introduction
of the new economic questions by the labor unions in the East, and
the farmer's unions in the West and South, has been the history of
the gradual extension of political rights. The Federalist party gave
us the Constitution; the old Democratic party gave us white manhood
suffrage; the Republican party gave us universal suffrage. What the
People's party may give us remains for the future to demonstrate. The
glory of America's past is that she has been continually progressing;
that she has proven to the world the capacity of the whole people for
self-government.