JK 2249 C47f A Ai ■ i 0[ 5 I 5 i 8 i i 5 1 9 i ■ 52 • o • J3 ! 3) r -< CHURCH FEUDALISM IN AMERICAN POLinCS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Feudalism In American Politics. An Address by SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH before The Western University of Pennsylvania at Carnegie Music Hall Pittsburgh, Pa. Commencement, June 20th, 1901, ADDRESS. Feudalism in American Politics. BY SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH. '■'■■■ vM-' CA^ ... . Ju, i i MunooCH-Kcnn pnctt*. PtTT»OURaH, •.,* ... .,1 ..1 •• ••• • •*• ■•• -•• • c " m .'5v'4jJ8.^> Acting Chancellor Brashear, in introducing Mr. Church, said: "We all love him for the work he has done. His great ' Life of Cromwell,' his beautiful historical novel, 'John Marmaduke,' his busy life in the Pennsylvania Railroad ser^'ice, make up only a part of his useful activities. He will speak to-night on ' Feudalism in American Politics,' and I am sure we shall all be wiser men and women after listening to his address." Feudalism in American Politics. It is a thing pleasing to every patriotic man that the young men of this nation are displaying an increasing activity in poli- tics. As the country grows richer and the people become more settled in habits and customs, a larger share of popular attention is naturally given to public affairs. Colleges and universities, through their courses of study in the political and social sciences, are forming an educated public opinion in men trained to reason and to think ; and the participation of such men in the discussion of present day problems will add tremendously to their right so- lution. Under the general subject. "Feudalism in American Politics," certain baneful and dangerous tendencies will be con- sidered, not because the evil situation is a hopeless one, but be- cause its efficacious remedy can be so easily applied. It is not intended to present a pessimistic or unwholesome view of politic- al conditions in America. On the contrary, the purpose is to arouse in capable hearts an aspiration for the destruction of pub- lic abuses through a saving sense of civic obligation. Politics is government. The right to govern in America is not placed in one man, as in a monarchy, nor in a few men, as in an oligarchy, but it is the heritage which every citizen receives from the fathers. The fatal neglect of that heritage invites its decay. Its preservation requires that every American should be in politics, — not for office, for that is the last thing a young man should seek, — but to guard the State. While some progress has been made in establishing a civil service in this country, there is no permanent tenure, and no assured promotion in public life. With every change of government, thousands of experienced men arc dismissed without due cause, only to find themselves un- fitted for the exacting requirements of private business life. In England it is not so. Take a single department there — the Col- onial office of Great I'ritain. There are twenty-four clerks in that office, every one a graduate of either Oxford or Cambridge, with a degree as high at least as M.A. These men are retained at good salaries until superannuatetl, and thoy handle and direct all the potent colonial enerrjies of that niis^hty empire. The Col- onial Secretary may or may not be an able statesman; in either case he knows but little of the details of his own administration. In Eng'land when a youno* man aspires to a public career, he is graduated from the university, and duly enters Parliament. If he displays siqnal ability he becomes a permanent fic^ure in po- litical life. When one is invited to dinner to meet the public servants of England, he knows that he will come in contact with men trained to great afifairs; the empire can offer him no more stimulating intercourse. Here it is different. Our public men rise to view for a moment, and then disappear. We have no diplomatic service, and the great embassies and missions are be- stowed as the spoils of victory, frequently on men who are over- weighted by their honors. There is but one exception, for cus- tom now demands that our ambassador to Great Britain must be the most eminent available man in this Republic. The greatest evil in American public life is feudalism. Feu- dalism in the modern sense is the exaction by irresponsible po- litical dictators of immoral obedience from public servants and others who fear to incur their displeasure. This institution has grown up wholly through disregard of Washington's pre- cedents in the beginning, whereby he sought to establish a sound civil service. His fundamental idea of an ef^cient executive force is repeated in the Farewell Address, through that solemn adju- ration against the tendency of an inflamed party spirit to substi- tute faction for nation. The old feudalism was introduced into England by William the Conqueror, who brought his followers to seize the richest spoil in Europe. These knights placed their hands in his and swore to be his men, in return for the promised feud, or fee, or fief, meaning the spoil of victory. And so came military service, socage, lords paramount, vassals, liegemen, the mighty barons, special privilege, hereditary aristocracy, and all the other re- straints upon the natural expansion of human liberty, which pro- duced the tyranny of absolute kings. This false system grew until the conscience and the intellect of Europe revolted; and then Cromwell overwhelmed it at Marston Moor and Naseby, 6 and when it flourished anew, Washington crushed it at York- town. And now feudahsm has crept into American poHtics. How well the old terms fit the case! — lords paramount, mighty- barons, vassals, socage, special privilege, and all the rest of it. In theory, our present methods of choosing public servants furn- ish the ideal machinery of a Republican form of government. The people go to the polls at the primary elections and choose their delegates, and the delegates meet in convention and after canvassing the comparative merits of candidates decide upon their nomination by ballot, after which the nominees of all the parties are voted upon by all the people, and the one having the highest number of votes is declared elected to the office. Noth- ing could be better than this. The primary election is supposed to bring out the wishes of the whole mass of each party; the con- vention furnishes a stage for the play of oratorical power, for combination, and for the exercise of the highest human talents; and the final nomination is the result of the unrestrained wisdom and conscience of the delegates chosen by the people. How far away from the present practice this theory is need hardly be de- scribed to this audience. In some of the States political conven- tions are made up almost wholly of public servants, not truly elected by the people, but in cfTect appointed by the lords para- mount; and those delegates who are not office holders usually hope to be such, not through the winning force of high character and deserving attainments, but by favor of the liege. The pro- ceedings of such an assembly, instead of being the free expres- sions of the people, are really the lucubrations of the lord para- mount, and when sincere at all are the more dangerous to liber- ty because of the care that is taken to make them conform out- wardly to a shifting pul)lic opinion. In the Republican National convention at Philadelphia, in 1900, the three largest States had but one voice each, — that of the lord paramount. The delegates from those States represented no opinion, and the service could win them no distinction, because they were merely the creatures of the suzerain. Most of the other States sent free men who up- set the feudalities anrl spoke for public opinion. Not long ago a convention was lu-ld in another State where a candidate for a State office, who was not the clioice of the lord paramount, own- eil a majority of the tlelegates; owned them in the feudal way because he had chosen them to be elected to this convention and ]\nid all their expenses. The lord paramount demanded his with- clrawal; the candidate pointed to his delegates and refused to yield. Tlie lord paramount thereupon sent his liege-men among the delegates, and on the same afternoon, when the balloting was about to begin, the once defiant candidate announced his re- tirement, for the reason that his friends had suddenly deserted him. They had not been bought. They had simply yielded to an autocratic authority imrecognized in the laws of the country, but sometimes exercised above the law. In another case the aspirant for a high office in the State — an able man — had worked long and hard for delegates, and for two ballots their votes were held together under the lead of a man who was his neighbor and sworn friend: but when the third ballot began, the lord para- mount in his library two hundred miles away telegraphed to this friend: "I think you had better go to Smith on this ballot." The whole delegation, including the bosom friend, obeyed, and Smith was nominated. This was not leadership; it was feudal- ism ; and the candidate was beaten at the election. Again, when a prominent member of a legislature died, there was a large hope, born of the fact that the suzerain had just been deserted by some of his venal followers, that he would learn wisdom and choose able and honest men henceforth; and the names of suit- able men were canvassed among the people and in the news- papers. But the lord paramount settled the matter disdainfully, as becomes a lord paramount, by choosing a wholly unknown man and directing his liege-men to make the nomination and afterwards the election. New York City is in the hands of an aggregation of feudal lords, and we have a judicial declaration from Judge Jerome that the police captains in the crime districts pay the Tammany leaders $18,000 for each appointment, and receive $25,000 a year thereafter from the protected criminals. I have seen a letter from an over-lord to a member of a legisla- ture, reading thus: "I do not want you to vote for that bill, or any bill on that subject." Whenever a feudal candidate claims that a certain ofifice is his by vested right, it will usually follow 8 that he is not the choice of the electoral body, and that he will endeavor to attain his election by methods which ought, by their very nature, to discredit him. In Kentucky, a lord paramount who stole the governorship was assassinated by feudal men on the other side; — robbery and murder go often together. In one State a bill, a perfectly honest and proper measure, was sent to the lord paramount with the request that it be presented for the consideration of the legislature. The fact that it concerned a corporation led the suzerain to say that it could be got through the house for $40,000, the senate for $40,000 more, and it would require $20,000 for the men near the Governor. He was told to withdraw it, when he sent word that it could pass both houses for $40,000, but it must take its chances with the Gover- nor. He received no reply. Now, in that case, the lord para- mount clearly transcended the ancient feudal law which re- strains the over-lord from demanding money without the con- sent of the barons and council except for three causes; and his eldest son was not being knighted, his eldest daughter was not being married, and he himself was not in prison. The country has not forgotten that one senator from the far west was proved to have expended more than a million dol- lars in the direct purchase of his election. After being once driven from his seat, he has returned, and Senator Cushman K Davis, of Minnesota, said of him; "They say tliat one of our latest accessions is worth seventy-five millions. We need to offset him a man who is worth more than that in a better currency." When we examine the character of the feudal vassals we find that they are generally men who fail at everything they un- dertake on their own account and are then invested with the sacred office of government because, in the parlance of the ma- chine, they will "take orders.'' A young woman was heard to say: "Father has been a great shame to us, but as soon as he gets out of the workhouse this time, we have a good political position for him where he wont have anything to do." This incident is scarcely an exaggeration. If one should take a glance at the personnel of almost any large political office, and then, for the sake of comj)arison, a look at a similar number of employes, say, in one of our large steel works, he would i)erceive that under the feudal system the political standard of efficiency is inevitably lower than that which is niaintaini-il in the l)usiness world. There is a wide differencehetween aStateorganization main- taineil for party supremacy and a State machine maintained for spoils. In New York the Republican party has a powerful or- jjanization. It is not above reproach; its leadership has not al- ways been the best; but it has had the advantage of tradition and of association with families distinguished for genius and valor; and it has therefore been a source of strength in our na- tional development. Whenever New York is called upon to supply a man to a high office in the nation or the State, she usu- ally cliooses her ablest man. — and strangely enough, her ablest men are often found outside the party organization. Look at her record for only the shore period of President McKinley's administration: Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph H. Choate, the leader of the American bar; Secretary of War, Elihu Root, a distinguished lawyer; Secretary of the Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss; Ambassador to France, General Horace Porter; Ambas- sador to Germany, Andrew D. White, her foremost educator; Minister to Turkey, Oscar S. Straus; member of the Spanish Peace Commission, Whitelaw Reid; Secretary of the Spanish Peace Commission, Prof. John Bassett Moore, the highest au- thority on international law; members of the Hague Peace Commission, Scth Low, President of Columbia University, and Frederick W^. Holls; Assistant Secretary of War, Colonel Wil- liam Cary Sanger; L^nited States Senator, Chauncey M. Depew; Commissioner of patents, Charles H. Duell; Governor of the State, Theodore Roosevelt; Vice-President of the United States, the same Theodore Roosevelt; Governor of the State again, Benjamin P>. Odell, Jr. Most of these men have not only not been identified with the party organization, but they have stren- uously antagonized it, notably Mr. Choate, Mr. Reid, Mr. Roose- velt, and Mr. Low. They are all leaders in intellectual and pub- lic life, and beyond criticism on the score of character or capac- ity; and the Republican organization assented — perhaps reluct- antly sometimes — to their appointment, to the lasting glory of the commonwealth. The strongest organization man on the list. Governor Odell, has made the lord paramount stand aghast, 10 while the State applauds and the nation wonders at the revela- tion that practical politics, able administration, and honest man- hood fearlessly exercised against dictation, are the true quali- ties of good government. This is the admirable practice in New York. In Pennsylvania — and one who has never voted, and probably never shall vote, any but the Republican ticket has the right to draw the contrast — a man who left President Lincoln's cabinet by request, organized a machine for spoils only, and neither the standard of leadership nor the principles of the or- ganization have since been greatly elevated beyond the first pat- terns. In ten years with a normal Republican majority of nearly three hundred thousand, the State ticket has twice been deserv- edly beaten. Few eminent men are chosen to high office from Pennsylvania, and feware trained to attain eminence. A man who is bold enough to antagonise the party organization can expect no political preferment in this State. Where two men aspire to a distinguished position it has occurred that he who gives the largest check to the mysterious, potent, and unaudited campaign fund will tower above the other like Charlemagne above King OfTa. It is a matter of public record that our feudal lords, call- ing all men to know by these presents, have executed contracts in solemn phrase construing government to mean the private business profit of the parties thereto. In a recent great schism within the party, one revolted faction might have won against the entrenched remainder — they would have been backed by the whole moral power of the State — had they but dared to stand for principles and true men, forsaking spoils. We must remem- ber that government, being a matter of form, is. in the best sense, a machine, and it can never be a perfect machine until it shall preserve the laws and register the decrees of the people. In a city in this worst of the feudal States recently there were 27,000 fraudulent votes deposited at one election. The outraged com- monwealth derives but meagre satisfaction from seeing two ob- scure men sent to the penitentiary who had no possible interest in the effect of their crime save their hire. A few weeks ago sixty- four election officers in the same city were indicted for receiving fraudulent votes. it is no nitemperate or extravagant use of language to declare that in a Republic, the very life-blood where- 11 of llows from a free aiul pure ballot, the man who instigates the illegal casting of a single vote, or the false record of one legally cast, is a political anarchist who ought to be put to death. A single vote corrupted may strike down free government. Both parties in Pennsylvania have pledged themselves emphatically to enact a secure ballot law. With such complete agreement its passage should be prompt antl unanimous. But the tergiversa- tion of the leaders in these past few weeks has clearly shown that it is not the imperative design of either party to recpiire that the vote shall be lawfully cast and honestly counted. Hence some people are saying that that tremendous majority will again roll backward like a wave of retribution. If it do. the calamity will not be without its palliation if it will finally overwhelm those feud- al lords of both parties who in these years of spoil have sought their own aggrandizement against the public good; given us a civil service without distinction; violated every solemn public promise; impaired the high honor of the State; and intro- duced faction and disorder, and mutually the persuasion of legislative votes, as legitimate principles of government. These examples of modern feudalism are chosen from a great many preserved for reference, that have filled the hearts of honest men with a sense of wrong. But it would be an in- iquitous perversion of fact to attempt to persuade you that our whole political fabric is blighted by these corrupt practises. Our national government is nearly free from stain in all its parts. Why? Because the laws place the executive powers in re- sponsible hands and leave no opportunity for the feudal lord to usurp control. So it is likewise in many States and cities. In our own city of Pittsburgh, while there are many feudal evils to redress, and some feudal men to dispossess, yet in the protection of life, the safeguard of property, the preservation of public order, and the restraint of active criminal vice, Pittsburgh is now, as she has long been, the best governed city in the world. There are thousands of good men in political positions, many of them in this city, many of them in this State, and all through this coun- try, and they are learning more and more that public approba- tion and ultimate success are sure to be their rewards when they resent dictation, cultivate individuality, and initiate for them- 12 selves. Best of all the most arrogant lord paramount in Ameri- ca has never dared to put his hand on the bench, and no breath of suspicion has ever touched the pure administration of our laws. You have recently read in your histories how nations rise like ships at sea, and go forward in power and majesty, and then, like a ship at sea. they go down below the horizon, and are seen no more. What is the cause of that? The nation is not a herd, moving with the merely stupid instinct of animal life to the des- tiny of brutes; but it is a highly sensitive mass, which makes a quick response always to the spur of individual thought and ac- tion; and as the predominant individuality is bigoted and cruel, or enlightened and humane, so will the nation be accordingly. Every man, every woman, is a unit in this sensitive mass. You may think your station is an insignificant one. It is not. What- ever you do that is good adds to the sum of light. Whatever you do that is ill adds to the sum of darkness. If you do noth- ing you add to the waste of energy. And with the good and the ill of the units in the mass, the mass itself is good or ill, and the sum total brings the nation to life or to death. That is what those pages in your history mean. It has been the fortune of these perished nations to spread their good qualities among other peoples, while they themselves chose to die in their own vices. And then other nations rise on their discarded virtues. It was so with Egypt and Assyria. Greece achieved her imperishable glories in art and literature and war while her men held the hon- or of the state dearest in their hearts; and when they forgot that, Sparta fell, and Athens, and Sparta again, and then Greece her- self. Imperial Rome held dominion over nearly the whole world while she steadfastly cherished the teachings of Lucius that true manhood was the best jewel of Rome; but when she succumbed to luxury and vice, the Pretorian Guard snatched away her au- thority, degenerated into professional politicians, and sold the government to the highest bidder. And Emerson declares that the northern barbarians who overran her territory arrived not a day too soon. In our times, England, with the best civil ser- vice, has done more to si)rcad liberty over the uttermost world thin any other nation. Mankind could not look with cquanim- 13 ity upon her ilccay, and it that sliould be threatened, we would bcholil the daughter spreading her mantle over the drooping mother, to bid the frowning world pass on. In the natural ex- pansion of this country it is highly probably that we shall ac(iuire Canada, Central America, and Mexico. But no burden will be too heavy so long as America guards the State. When she hands the govenmient over to her Pretorian Ciuard, decay must come swift and sure. When Cromwell was Protector, he directed the learned pro- fessors of the universities to mark the rising youth of England and conmiend to his attention such as they deemed apt for pub- lic station; and one of his contemporaries said: "If there was a man in England who excelled in any faculty or science, the Pro- tector would find him out, and reward him according to his mer- it." One hundred and fifty years after the great Puritan's death Yale College was founded in this country by Cromwell's polit- ical descendants in order that youth, instructed in the arts and sciences, "through the blessing of Almighty God, may be fitted for public employment in Church and civil state." Thus, our highest and oldest traditions demand an educated and conscien- tious civil service. The feudal system in America must be destroyed before good government can be secured; for feudalism and good gov- ernment are essentially antagonistic. This cannot be attained by spasmodic and hysterical flocking to inexperienced "reform" candidates. It is the system itself that has grown to be bad, — not necessarily the men. The present material is good enough if constitutional checks can be devised to restrain those who are in control. The true way of reform would be to develop an en- lightened and intelligent public conscience that would quicken all political deliberations; to amend municipal charters, not by persuading the votes of venal legislators, but as a response to a just public demand upon the legislature, so that full respon- sibility will rest in official hands; to destroy the lords paramount by putting the powers which they illegally exercise in the hands of an elected public servant; to choose such capal)lc men to do the public business as are now chosen for the discharge of pri- vate interests; to exhort men in commerce and men in corpora- ls tions to cease effacing their rights as citizens in the fear of of- fending the feudal barons, and overcome their present dread that active participation in pubHc affairs is inimical to their pri- vate prosperity; to encourage an independent and fearless news- paper press to continue without malice to expose public wrongs and discomfit unfit men; and to impress upon the entire body of citizens the obligation to take part in all elections, holding delegates and others enjoying ofifice to a strict recognition that they are not the masters but the representatives of the people. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves that we are underlings." One fearless man has more power to stir the public conscience to civic duty than a whole machine to stifle it by clamor and usurpation. The way to accomplish essential reforms is to join that party which is most congenial to your own political ideals, and then work within its organization until your voice is heard and your influence is felt. Independent move- ments are usually nothing more than a colossal waste of energy. You cannot always have your way, or your platform, or your candidate; and in that case you must compromise. Com- promise is the very essence of politics, but it must be based upon honesty and expediency, and that is what you are in the organi- zation to demand. If there is no organization, no club, near you, organize one among your neighbors. You are a sovereign if you will but exercise your prerogatives. What the bosses most dread is activity in the mass. Therefore, be active. Then, when you see signs of dishonesty or corruption, denounce it publicly, but don't leave the party. The party is like a grand army. At its head is the National Committee, having charge of the Presi- dential campaign and the maintenance of the organization per- manently. Then there is a State Committee in each common- wealth, and under that the county and city and township com- mittees. To fight against such a machine would be hopeless. All rcf(jrms must be sought within party lines. If there are evil men in control, their first wish is to get you out. Stay in, and get them out. Aim to secure a civil service, as Washington de- signed it, based upon character and efficiency, covering the whole personnel of the subordinate places, regardless of party affiliations, to be undisturbed by any election; and tlic cruelty 16 and corruption of the spoils system will tlisappear. llie exec- utive forces of government in State and city would then, like those of the National oovernmcnt, he representative of the peo- ple. When the lord paramount g'oes, all will p^o; for brihery, usurpation, false ballots, vassal conventions, corruption, venal- ity, brutality, violence, even assassination, are the sure fruits of political feudalism. Politics is government. Politics deprived of its spoils would very nearly meet the highest aspirations of man- kind. Then we shall see in place of bosses, leaders, whom we can follow with fidelity and honor, who will have no hungry army to feed, who will work for the glory of the Republic, and not for its spoils. There is a victory greater than Marston Moor or Yorktown for that man who will smite this feudalism to death. [Prolonged Applause.] 16 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. ^OV 3 m4 OEC 171966 SEP 24^^ FormL9-25m-8,'46(9852)444 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIi^ AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY yC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY "" 'I li imIIiii II AA 000 558 059 2 ;fe:, ^^^Ij^s^^p;;