understood without some knowledge of the party system as it exists in the United States. That system is, as has been well observed by H. J. Ford,[1] a sort of link between the executive and the legislative departments of government, and thus the policy and action of the party for the time being in power forms a sort of second and unofficial government of the country, directing the legal government created by the Constitution. In no country have political parties been so carefully and thoroughly organized. In no country does the spirit of party so completely pervade every department of political life; Influence of the Party System upon the Working of the Government. not that party spirit is any more bitter than it is in Europe, for in some respects it is usually less bitter and less passionate than in France, the United Kingdom or Austria, but that it penetrates farther into the body of the people, and exerts a more constant influence upon their minds. Party organizations have in the United States a wide range of action, for they exist to accomplish five purposes. Three of these are pursued in other countries also. These three are: first, to influence governmental policy; secondly, to form opinion; and thirdly, to win elections. But the two others are almost (if now not quite) peculiar to the United States, viz. to select candidates for office and to procure places of emolument for party workers. The selecting by a party of its candidates, instead of allowing candidates to start on their own account, is a universal practice in the United States, and rests upon the notion that the supreme authority and incessant activity of the people must extend not only to the choice of officials by vote, but even to the selection of those for whom votes shall be cast. So the practice of securing places for persons who have served the party, in however humble a capacity, has sprung from the maxim that in the strife of politics “the spoils belong to the victors,” and has furnished a motive of incomparable and ever-present activity ever since the administration (1829-1837) of President Andrew Jackson. It is chiefly through these two practices that the party organizations have grown so powerful, and have been developed into an extremely complicated system of machinery, firm yet flexible, delicate yet quickly set up, and capable of working efficiently in the newest and roughest communities.
§ 31. The contests over the adoption of the Federal Constitution by the several states in 1787-1790 brought to the surface Origin and History of the Parties. two opposite tendencies, which may be called the centrifugal and centripetal forces, a tendency to maintain both the freedom of the individual and the independence, in legislation, in administration and in jurisdiction, of the several states, and an opposite tendency to subordinate the states to the nation, and to vest large powers in the central Federal authority. These tendencies soon arranged themselves in concrete bodies, and thus two great parties were formed. One, which took the name of Republican, became the champion of states' rights, and claimed to be also the champion of freedom. It was led by Thomas Jefferson. The other, the Federalist party, led by Alexander Hamilton, stood for an energetic exercise of the powers of the central government, and for a liberal interpretation of the powers granted that government by the Federal Constitution. The Jeffersonian party has had an unbroken continuity of life, though it has been known since about 1830 as the Democratic party. The, Federalist party slowly decayed, and ultimately vanished between 1820 and 1830, but out of its ruins a new party arose, practically its heir, which continued powerful, under the name of Whigs, till 1854, when it broke up over questions connected with the extension of slavery. Very soon thereafter a party, nominally new, but largely formed out of the Whigs, and maintaining many of its traditions, sprang up, and took the name of Republicans. Since 1856 these two great parties, Democrats and Republicans, have confronted one another, including between them the vast majority of the people. After the Civil War, when the questions attending Reconstruction had become less acute, economic discontents gave rise to other smaller parties, such as Greenbackers, Labor party and Populists, and the sense of the harm done by the licensed sale of alcohol evoked a party which became known as the Prohibitionists. Still later the growth of Collectivist views, especially among the immigrants from Continental Europe, led to the formation of a Socialist Labor party and a Socialist party, some of those who had belonged to the Populists associating themselves with these new groups.
The Democratic party began to form for itself a regular organization in the presidency (1829-1837) of Andrew Jackson, and the process seems to have been first seriously undertaken in New York state. The Whigs did the same; and when the Republicans organized themselves, shortly after the fall of the Whigs, they created a party machinery on lines resembling those which their predecessors had struck out. The establishment of the system in its general form may be dated from before the Civil War, but it has since been perfected in its details.
§ 32. The machinery of an American party consists of two distinct but intimately connected sets of bodies, the one Outline of the System of Party Organization. permanent, the other temporary, or rather intermittent. The function of the former is to manage the general business of the party from month to month and year to year. That of the latter is to nominate candidates for the next ensuing elections and to make declarations of party opinion intended to indicate the broad lines of party policy.
The permanent organization consists of a system of committees, one for each of the more important election areas. Party Committees. There is a committee for every city, every county, and every congressional district, and in some states even for every township and every state legislature district. There is, of course, a committee for every state, and at the head of the whole stands a national committee for the whole Union, whose special function it is to make arrangements for the conduct of party work at a presidential election. Thus the country from ocean to ocean is covered by a network of committees, each having a sphere of action corresponding to some election area, whether a Federal area or a state area. Each committee is independent and responsible so far as regards the local work to be done in connexion with the election in its own area, but is subordinate to the party committees above it as respects work to be done in its own locality for the general purposes of the party. The ordinary duties of these committees are to raise and spend money for electioneering and otherwise in the interests of the party, to organize meetings, to “look after the press,” to attend to the admission of immigrants or new-comers as voters, and generally to attract and enrol recruits in the party forces. At election times they also direct and superintend the work of bringing up voters to the polls and of watching the taking and counting of the votes; but in this work they are often aided or superseded by specially appointed temporary bodies called “campaign committees.” These party committees are permanent, and though the membership is renewed every year, the same men usually continue to serve. The chairman in particular is generally reappointed, and is often, in a populous area, a person of great and perhaps autocratic power, who has large funds at his disposal and a regular army of “workers” under his orders.
The other and parallel branch of the party organization consists of the bodies whose function it is to nominate party Party Nominating Conventions. candidates for elective posts, whether legislative or executive. (It must be remembered that many executive state, county and city officers are chosen by direct popular vote.) These bodies are meetings of the members of the party resident in each election area. In the smallest areas, such as the township or city ward, the meeting is composed of all the recognized members of the party who are entitled to vote, and it is then called a primary. In the larger election areas, such as a county or city, the number of voters who would be entitled to be present
- ↑ Rise and Growth of American Politics.
