PARTY ORGANIZATION.
The difference of opinion on national questions is the cause of a
number of political parties in the United States.
As long as men and women think for themselves we shall have political
parties.
It is really the product of a government by public opinion. Without
political organizations it would be almost impossible to govern the
policy and character of the country and control the affairs of the
nation.
The political parties are the agents through which organizations are
made.
As a test of one's love of his country and its government is shown by
his work and aggressiveness.
Every citizen should study the ethics of his government, think for
himself, and form his own opinion.
A person with no opinion on public affairs is a coward and
unpatriotic.
Our nation depends largely upon moral and cultured people who will
study the issues of the day and express themselves in positive terms
on what they deem best for the nation and its government.
Organization is a number of people systematically united for some end.
It is through organization that political parties become effective.
Political parties arose after the adoption of the Constitution. They
are organized for national, state and local campaigns, and not
originally a part of the government, but as we grew and the population
became greater there arose different political parties. Every
district, village, town and city has its permanent local campaign
committees in elections, beside the state and national committees,
which make a very complete organization.
The duty of the permanent committees is to keep the machinery of the
party working. Really the permanent committees do the hard work in
politics. They organize political clubs, solicit funds, issue calls
for conventions, urge people to register and vote and in many other
ways keep up the interest of the party.
Since the adoption of the Constitution there have been two principal
parties advocating different principles.
The first parties were known as the Federalist and anti-Federalist.
The two great dominant parties now in the United States--the
Democratic and Republican parties.
Our Constitution did not provide us with laws as to the way of
selecting candidates for office, but just as soon as political parties
came into existence, nominations followed.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
The Democratic party is the oldest. It goes back to the days of
Jefferson. It advocated "state rights," limiting the power of national
government, tariff for revenue only. These were some of the issues
discussed before the recent war, but other important issues in these
days of reconstruction have taken their place.
REPUBLICAN PARTY.
The Republican party was formed before the Civil War, when Abraham
Lincoln was elected President of the United States. It was originally
called the Federalist party.
The Republican party remained in control of the national government
until 1884 Grover Cleveland was elected for two terms, four years
each.
This party originally advocated a high tariff.
The recent platforms of the two parties now in power will give the
issues of the present day.