in the course of the doubtful struggle when President Lincoln and his supporters felt that the "fire in the rear" was not less deadly than the "fire in the front." Nevertheless the record is not wholly of mischief. Under stress of public danger the Republicans often disregarded the limitations of the Constitution. In resisting such illegal acts the Democratic party vindicated democratic principles, and at the same time met an urgent public need. But this service, considerable as it was, did not atone for the lukewarmness of the party in support of the war, for its colossal blunder of 1864 in declaring the war a failure and demanding a cessation of hostilities, for its steady and at times embittered opposition to those measures which looked to the destruction of slavery, and for its compromising entanglements with the disloyal elements of the North.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IN THE PERIOD

OF RECONSTRUCTION

Lincoln's plan of reconstruction was not followed by the Republican party; instead of seeking as he had purposed to re store everything except slavery to the ante-bellum States, to reconcile North and South, and to maintain the friendly re, lations existing at the close of the war between the whites and the colored people of the South, the Republican party, under great provocation it must be confessed, took the control of government in the South out of the hands of the whites and placed it in the incapable hands of the ex-slaves. On its face. the policy was monstrous and monstrous were its fruits. The old alienation between North and South was deepened, embittered, and given a long lease in which to work evil; an alienation unknown before was established between the Southern white man and the negro; and this is the source of that race issue, which more than all things else retards Southern progress.

In resisting the Republican reconstruction policy the Democratic party began to recover its moral tone and the confidence of the public; in advocating reform during the second adminis

tration of General Grant it made a further advance; in 1876 the rehabilitation had progressed so far that it seemed for a time to have won the election.

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SINCE THE CLOSE

OF RECONSTRUCTION

Since the close of reconstruction the Democratic party has passed through two phases of experience, the first lasting into the second Cleveland administration, the other from then until now. The former phase, which covers some eighteen years, is marked by a return of the party to earlier ideas and policy; its greatest leaders, Tilden and Cleveland, may be characterized as conservative Democrats of the Jeffersonian school. In firmness and courage, as well as in his conception of the presidential office, Mr. Cleveland reminds us of Jackson. But before the close of his second administration, many signs began to appear of a party change of considerable magnitude; its nature and extent were made evident at the Chicago Convention of 1896, which declared for free silver, censured the judiciary and refused the complimentary vote of approval that is usually given by a party to a retiring President of its own political faith. The course of the party in the campaign of 1896, the speeches of Mr. Bryan, the re-issue in 1900 of the platform of 1896, the alliance with the Populists and with some of the labor organizations made it clear that the conservative party of Mr. Cleveland has become a radical one. To-day quite as in the days of Jackson the Democratic party is the party of the masses.

Turning now from the historical sketch let us ask how the Democratic party stands related to American politics in their entirety. The American people constitute one of the great democracies of the world. The Democratic party is the political champion of those elements of the democracy which are most democratic. It stands nearest to the people; through its agency the people have entered politics. The functions of every great party are three: teaching, giving shape to public

policy, and administration. In the discharge of the first the party has rendered inestimable service; it has gone out into the hedges and byways, and given instructions to multitudes that otherwise would have remained untaught; it is safe to say that the Democratic party has done more to Americanize the foreigner, to transform the alien into a citizen than all other parties. Corresponding with the importance of this function of the party, is the excellence of the teachers it has produced. The Democratic party has taught its pupils self-respect and love of freedom; it has kindled their ambition and introduced them to the opportunities and responsibilities of political life. The errors it has taught, and they are many, are of small account when compared with the lifting influence it has exerted.

In giving shape to public policy, the Democratic party has had only a qualified success; in political construction the greatest builders have not been Democrats. As a rule Democrats have succeeded better in tearing down than in building up. During the early period they were too afraid of strong government; in framing constitutions they were more intent to guard against the possible encroachments of government than to make it efficient. The Articles of Confederation illustrate well the early democratic idea of a general government. The chief contributions of the party to the fundamental law, state and national, are the provisions collectively described as bills of rights, which are restraints upon governments rather than sources of power. In that second field of public policy where the task is to deal wisely with the issues of the hour, what is the record of the Democratic party? Here, too, we find only a qualified success, and in periods of greatest peril and difficulty almost unqualified failure.

In the administrative function, the Democratic party has shown the characteristic merits and defects of its changing constituency. In periods when the party has included a large conservative element, it has succeeded well, but in the one period when its radical elements were in control, namely, that of Jackson, there was, to say the least, a degree of failure.

On the whole it seems fair to conclude that the greater services of the Democratic party have been in the line of political education; for the framework of our political institutions and for the wise conduct of government, especially in critical times, we owe more to other parties. But this does not justify the conclusion that the Democratic party should never be entrusted with office. To exclude the party of the people permanently from office is to destroy its usefulness as their teacher and to bring to an untimely end American democracy.

O

XII

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY1

F THE three important American parties which have called themselves Republican this article deals only with that one which was organized during the years 1854 to 1856 and has been in control of the government of the United States during the larger portion of the half-century since the Presidential election of 1860.

ORIGIN AND CHARACTER

Sectionalism, the movement which tended to break the Union into two separate republics, one based on free labor, the other on that of slaves, had gained before the middle of the nineteenth century such headway as to compel a reconstruction of the party system. The beginning of this reconstruction was heralded by the rise of the Liberty party, in 1840, its completion by the disruption in 1860 of the Democratic party along sectional lines, and the election of Abraham Lincoln by a sectional vote.

The event which determined the date of the birth of the Republican party was the repeal by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 of that provision of the Compromise of 1820 which excluded slavery from national territory north of the geographical line 36° 30' and the formal substitution in that bill of "squatter" for national sovereignty, in deciding the question of slavery in the Territories. The enactment of this bill introduced a new and highly critical stage in the relations between North and South. Down to 1850 the differences of the

1 Encyclopedia Britannica, eleventh edition, Vol. XXIII, p. 177, 1910-1911. 2 The party organized by Thomas Jefferson; the National Republicans, 1824-1834; and the Republican party of the present.