1 
 
 y 
 
 H 
 
 iiPi 
 
 
 
 iii 
 
 
 
 h 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 ttm 
 
 
 lull 
 
 
 1 
 'II 
 
 III 
 
 
 VU 
 
 in liiii' 'iiHo 
 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 mil imi"" 
 
 HDI 
 
 ffli 
 
 F 
 
 15 li 
 
 iiiiiiiij 
 
 
 iiwiiiiii!:''.!!;'! 
 
 1" 
 
 pilJi 
 
 
 
 
 
 Em 
 
 
 ■iiiiiif 
 
 If 
 
 ij|jpi{iiij 
 
 
 iiifi 
 
 iiii 
 
 
 m 
 
 II,: 
 
 liPl 
 
 "liil 
 
 H 
 
 DtJiini 
 
 1 .™ipi 
 
 m 
 
 mifiiynti 1 
 
 m 
 
 g_ 
 
 ■ 
 
 m 
 
 II 
 
 il|i 
 
 
 '''i Hi 
 
 illlillLJ|H 
 
 
 i 
 
 nip 
 
 B 
 III
 
 -/J 
 
 /' 
 
 ]f 
 
 / 
 
 
 ; 
 
 I
 
 £^3-^^-2^s^— 
 
 V 
 
 \-
 
 LETTERS TO A KING 
 
 BY 
 
 ALBION W. TOURGEE, LL. D., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "A FOOI^'S ERRAND,'' "AN APPEAL TO C^SAR," ETC. 
 
 Where the word of a king is, there is power. 
 
 — ECCL. VIII, 4. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 CRANSTON & STONAi^K. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 PHILLIPS & HUNT. 
 
 1888.
 
 Copyrighted, 18S7, 
 
 by 
 E. K. TOURGEE. 
 
 * *. 
 
 
 ^1 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 i 
 
 «. 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 •■ « 
 
 « 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 ft • 
 
 
 I t t 
 
 
 
 
 
 C 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 
 ft • 
 
 • ft •• 
 
 1 < i 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 C • 
 
 c 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 t , 
 
 
 
 
 » 
 
 • 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ft ft 
 
 • ft ft • 
 
 1 i 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 C 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 ' 
 
 4 
 
 lit 
 * 4 
 
 4 1 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • ft 
 
 • 
 
 * * * ft 
 
 « 4. 
 
 t 1 
 
 <■ 
 
 t. 
 
 
 [ *' 
 
 _' 
 
 
 ,' 
 
 4 
 
 
 .4 4 
 
 4 
 4 * 
 
 
 
 • • 
 
 ft 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 • • • 
 ft 
 
 ft 
 • • 
 
 t * 
 
 
 ^ * 
 
 
 * 4 
 
 t. 
 
 4. 
 
 1. 
 
 4 
 
 
 * 4 
 
 4 « 
 
 
 
 .* 
 
 • 
 
 ft 
 • 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 • • 
 
 l * 
 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^* » 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 ft 
 
 • • • 
 
 C 1 
 
 t. 
 
 4 4 
 
 4 
 
 tit* 
 
 1 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 4 « 
 
 
 • • 
 
 ft ft 
 
 
 ft 
 
 ft • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c 
 4. 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 
 * 
 1 ft 
 
 * *• 
 
 v." 
 
 « 
 
 « 
 « 
 
 « C 
 * ft 
 
 
 • 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 •i' 
 
 1. 
 
 
 « • 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 

 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 >• 
 
 EC 
 C33 
 
 CM 
 
 I 
 
 lit 
 
 
 lljose uv*!-)© JieJ iijai il^e l^epulalic n)i^\)l li^e, 
 
 YHTS volurrja is inscribed, 
 
 Ir) ll)ei eetpijesi l)ape iljat if rriaj aiJ il^err) 
 
 Y® etpppcoierte Jijeip i)epil0ae. 
 
 462391
 
 P^EF^^E. 
 
 A LETTER of congratulation addressed to the son 
 of an old comrade, on his twenty-first birthday, has 
 grown into a volume, the aim of which is twofold. 
 It is designed in the first place to impress upon young 
 men that they are the recipients, not only of a 
 priceless political inheritance, but of a commen- 
 surate responsibility, bequeathed to them by a 
 generation which did not hesitate to shed its blood 
 to perpetuate the idea of " a government of the 
 people, by the people, and for the people," on the 
 soil of America. The fact of individual responsi- 
 bility on the part of the citizen has been very little 
 considered, even by those who have dwelt upon the 
 ethical principles of our government. 
 
 The doctrine that politics is the broadest, richest, 
 and most important field of Christian endeavor, will 
 probably seem to many a startling proposition ; but 
 it is one on the truth of which the future, not 
 only of republican government, but of Christian civil- 
 ization depends. Neither of these can be regarded 
 
 5
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 as secure until it is accepted as a principle of Christian 
 ethics that a man can no more stand idly by and 
 see public evils prevail and expect to be held guilt- 
 less, than if he were a willing witness of his brother's 
 murder. 
 
 From this principle flows the other which this 
 is work designed to set forth, — to wit: that responsi- 
 bility for political evils can not be avoided by a mere 
 perfunctory exercise of the electoral franchise. A 
 soldier using arms of precision might as well claim 
 to have discharged his duty by merely pulling the 
 trigger in the hour of battle as a citizen console him- 
 self with the idea that nothing more is required of 
 him than merely to cast a ballot. The soldier who 
 fails to take aim, and thereby make his shot effective, 
 is a coward and a traitor to the flag he pretends to 
 serve. The citizen who casts a ballot at haphazard 
 is not a whit better. The soldier's eye is trained on 
 purpose that he may take aim ; the citizen's brain 
 and conscience are given him that he may use his 
 power to the best advantage — to secure the greatest 
 good of the greatest number. This work, therefore, 
 concerns itself very largely with political instrumen- 
 talities — the means by which the citizen's power may 
 be made effective. 
 
 There has been of late a curious tendency among
 
 PREFACE. 7 
 
 political thinkers to rely too much upon mere 
 mechanical reforms. Individual responsibility is too 
 often thought to end with the enactment of laws. 
 It is very generally assumed that political evils may 
 be cured by cunningly contrived devices which shall 
 trip the "heeler" at his finest work, and leave the 
 "boss" to gnash his teeth in impotent rage at his 
 inability to cheat the patent "automatic self-register- 
 ing" ballot-boxes, or evade the rigorous restraints of 
 the "new, warranted pure because imported" system 
 of State ballot-supply and ticket adjustment. Such 
 devices are in the main merely scarecrows, which 
 serve to lull the husbandman to slumber while the 
 fowls of the air despoil his crop. Good laws may 
 arm the citizen for the performance of his duty, but 
 no device will ever be invented that will permit him 
 to relax his vigilance or intermit his care. / 
 
 This work is not founded upon the idea that a 
 political millennium is imminent or even possible, but 
 is the outcome of an irresistible conviction that the 
 common sense, intelligence, and conscience of the 
 whole people is a surer guarantee of good govern- 
 ment than all the speculative wisdom of those who, 
 falsely claiming to be "the better classes," are not 
 un frequently the very worst and most dangerous 
 elements of our society. While partisanship is set
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 forth as the very foremost duty of the citizen, the 
 work is not in the least degree intended to subserve 
 the interests of any party. The principles it enun- 
 ciates are universal, applying to one party as well as 
 to another — party itself being regarded only as an 
 instrumentality by which popular purpose may be 
 carried into effect. 
 
 If this volume shall help to awaken those who 
 may peruse its pages to the fact that self-government 
 is not only a glorious privilege but a priceless trust, 
 which it is the highest duty of to-day to transmit, 
 not merely unimpaired, but greatly strengthened and 
 improved to-morrow; and if it shall serve to make 
 clear to any the fact that to exercise the power of 
 the citizen is a personal duty in the performance of 
 which the individual is subject always to the obliga- 
 tions of Christian morality, the author will count 
 himself well repaid for the labor of its preparation. 
 
 Thorheim, July 4, 1888.
 
 eoi^TEisiTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 "BE A MAN," 13 
 
 II. 
 
 " LONG LIVE THE KING," 24 
 
 III. 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE 35 
 
 IV. 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW, 45 
 
 V. 
 
 A JOINT AND' SEVERAL LIABILITY, 58 
 
 VI. 
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT, 7° 
 
 VII. 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS, 83 
 
 VIII. 
 
 "KING CAUCUS," 97 
 
 9
 
 lO CONTENTS. 
 
 IX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE, iir 
 
 X. 
 
 A SHEAF OF FIRST-FRUITS, 125 
 
 XI. 
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC i35 
 
 XII. 
 THE RANK AND FILE MS 
 
 XIII. 
 "THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS," 158 
 
 XIV. 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY 172 
 
 XV. 
 
 PARTY FEALTY, 183 
 
 XVI. 
 THE "INDEPENDENT VOTER," i95 
 
 XVII. 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT 207 
 
 XVIII. 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY 221
 
 CONTENTS. 1 1 
 
 XIX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING 233 
 
 XX; 
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE, 247 
 
 XXI. 
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES 263 
 
 XXII. 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT, 273 
 
 XXIII. 
 THE PENALTIES OF MALFEASANCE, 284 
 
 :cxiv. 
 
 "GOOD-BYE, JOHN," 289
 
 IlETTERS TO A I^ING. 
 
 "BE A MAN." 
 
 MV DEAR JOHN: — 
 
 This is your twenty-first birthday. Yesterday 
 you were an infant ; to-day you are a man. I should 
 content myself with formal congratulations upon this 
 most notable event of your life, were it not that the 
 relations I once sustained to your father may, perhaps, 
 be thought to entitle me to speak somewhat more 
 familiarly to a son whom he, alas! may no longer in- 
 struct save by the influence of a noble example. 
 
 We were not only contemporaries — your father 
 and I — but compatriots as well. Our entrances upon 
 the stage of life were so nearly simultaneous that we 
 may almost be said to have responded to the same 
 cue. In boyhood we were playmates ; in youth 
 companions. When we crossed the median line be- 
 tween youth and manhood by which you are stand- 
 ing to-day, the shadow of impending conflict hung 
 over the land. Side by side we received "the bap- 
 tism of fire " on the first great battle-field of the 
 mightiest struggle that history records. In its lurid 
 
 13
 
 14 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 light we learned how close is the bond that unites 
 each individual life to the common destiny — how the 
 great world-life rests evenly on every man's shoul- 
 ders ; how the atoms make up the mass and the 
 whole is colored by the life of each. In that hour 
 our friendship was cemented by the strange intimacy 
 which community of peril gives — the comradeship 
 that fuses the hearts of those who stand shoulder to 
 shoulder amid the red glare of battle — a sentiment 
 which no diversity of rank or station can ever after- 
 ward wholly destroy. Hardly a year had passed when 
 already bronzed and toughened veterans, standing by 
 his side on the crest of a hill, which that autumn 
 day made forever memorable, I heard most force- 
 fully expressed the injunction which I would might 
 first of all things fall upon the ears and impress itself 
 upon the soul of every young American as he crosses 
 the threshold of manhood : 
 
 It is no light thing to be a man. "Behold a 
 man-child is born," is the celestial greeting to those 
 into whose hands the destinies of unnumbered gen- 
 erations are committed. Crowns may crumble ; kings 
 may perish; dynasties may be forgotten; but in the 
 lives of those who are to come after him, each man 
 finds an immortality. It is no unusual injunction, 
 yet the One Divine did not esteem it unworthy of 
 obedience, and taught us by His example that it is
 
 ''BE A man:' 
 
 15 
 
 the golden door by which humanity may be ap- 
 proached. He who would faithfully serve, worthily 
 lead, or pleasantly consort with his fellows, must, first 
 of all things, be a man. It is strange how this sim- 
 ple phrase was stamped that day upon my mind. 
 No doubt the surroundings had much to do with the 
 vividness with which it stands out in my memory of 
 a scene which itself was one of those that leave a scar 
 upon the soul no after life can obliterate. 
 
 It was a fair October day. The Indian summer 
 haze hung on the distant hillsides. The elms were 
 already bare and brown. The red berries of the 
 holly showed through the prickly leaves where they 
 grew in clusters by the road-side. The hickories 
 made golden gashes in the wooded horizon. The 
 sumach flamed in the hedge-rows, and the persimmons 
 were Just changing their dull green for the duller 
 red that tells of the ripening touch of frost. The 
 fields were white with dry, feathery sedge-grass, or 
 dark with the rank growth of sere ragweed that 
 clothed the stubble lands. The walnut-trees had 
 strewn their pale leaves and green-coated fruit in 
 amber circles on the unfrequented roadway along 
 which we had marched that morning. Our feet had 
 slipped upon the acrid shells and crushed the nuts 
 into the dark red soil, filling the air with spicy aroma. 
 The oaks that crowned the Kentucky "knobs" 
 were showing russet tints, and the low-branching 
 chestnuts held up the velvet lining of their burrs in
 
 l6 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 mute protestation of the faithfulness with which they 
 had surrendered their treasures, keeping nothing back 
 to tempt the hand of the ravisher. 
 
 We met the dropping irregular fire of the skir- 
 mishers before the sun had climbed half-way to the 
 meridian, and pushed them backward over hill and 
 dale until the noon glared hotly down upon us, and 
 the angry roar of artillery began to mingle with their 
 scattering fire. Yet there was no hostile force in 
 sight. Our light skirmish line easily advanced, al- 
 most unhindered by the shots which they returned, 
 no doubt, with like harmlessness. The preparations 
 for conflict were deliberately, though foolishly, made. 
 The general in command was a soldier by education, 
 and a palterer by instinct. He had an overwhelming 
 dread of his opponent, was without confidence in 
 those he commanded, and had an invincible dis- 
 trust of himself. He was a scientific soldier, who 
 wanted to see all the enemy's powers before making 
 a move! 
 
 Marching through a cornfield, where the maize 
 stalks stood in serried rows of rankest growth, as the 
 rifle balls came whistling by, we learned to distinguish 
 by the sound whether they cut stalk or leaf or scattered 
 the golden grains from the ripe, drooping ear. Halt- 
 ing beneath the shadow of a grove of oaks, we 
 laughed, not altogether joyfully, as we felt the ripe 
 acorns, rattled down upon our heads by the shells 
 that came screeching through the heavy-laden
 
 ''BE A MAN." ly 
 
 branches. At length we reached an unprotected 
 crest where the stubble showed yellow in the midday 
 sunshine. Cannon to right and left, in front and 
 rear, made the earth tremble, and filled the palpi- 
 tating air with soft, fleecy clouds, that floated away 
 from the exploding shells. All were hidden from 
 our sight by the wooded "knobs" around, except 
 one battery to our left and rear that fired spitefully 
 into the silent woods, and one that with reckless au- 
 dacity was pushed forward in our very front. The 
 fire of the skirmishers had died away, and the stillness 
 of the hot noonday was only broken by this angry 
 duel waged over our heads. Not an enemy was to 
 be seen, and with all the clangor that filled the balmy 
 air, it was difficult to realize that we were standing 
 on a battle-field. The blue line halted. The align- 
 ment was corrected. Those who wore swords fell 
 back to their respective stations in the rear of the 
 steel-crowned ranks. We waited only for the order 
 to advance in line upon the unseen foe. 
 
 Just in front of me stood a lad whose great brown 
 eyes and dark waving locks were like those your 
 mirror reveals when you look into its silvery depths. 
 He Avas yet in his teens — the down of coming man- 
 hood scarce!}'- casting a shadow on his fine lip, which 
 quivered with excitement as he asked in a tense 
 whisper as I passed down the line, "Do you think 
 there will be a battle?" 
 
 It was the first time he had witnessed the pre-
 
 1 8 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 liminaries of such a conflict. Hardly more than a 
 month before he had left a peaceful home, despite a 
 brother's remonstrance and a sister's prayer, to un- 
 dertake a soldier's duty and encounter a soldier's 
 perils. Almost as he spoke, from a wooded crest 
 scarce a bowshot away, leaped flashing tongues of 
 flame that brought the message of death to hundreds 
 of our ill-fated left wing on that day so fecund of 
 the angry memories which fill the soldier's heart 
 when he feels himself balked of triumph, and knows 
 his comrade's blood to have been vainly shed through 
 a leader's gross incompetency. 
 
 A shudder ran along the line. Men moaned and 
 sunk into eternal silence. Others spun quickly round, 
 and with upstretched arms and rigid muscles fell stiff" 
 and prone to rearward, as if the thought of flight 
 had flashed in that last instant through the shattered 
 brain. Still others crept pallid and trembling to the 
 rear, pressing with bloody hands the pulsing fount- 
 ains through which their life-blood ebbed away. I 
 took little heed of those things at the time. They 
 were only incidents that photographed themselves 
 upon my memory. At such a moment a subaltern 
 has time and thought for nothing but the men 
 composing that part of the line for which he is re- 
 sponsible. His eyes are upon them ; his ears open 
 only to the commands that may be transmitted ; his 
 whole attention concentrated upon those few files 
 which he must encourage, assist, inspire.
 
 *^ BE A man:' 19 
 
 No one waited for orders after that deadly blast. 
 All knew that we were in the very vortex of battle. 
 Before any officer's lips could frame the command to 
 fire, the polished barrels had fallen to the poise; there 
 was the fateful click of back-drawn hammers; the 
 gleam of flashing eyes along the leveled steel and the 
 roar of the answering volley. Then came the inde- 
 scribable turmoil of battle. The air seemed full of 
 hissing metal. Men stood or knelt, but kept on 
 firing steadily. The files grew fewer. I paced back 
 and forth behind them, proud alike of the living and 
 the dead. The young lad bit his cartridge and rammed 
 home the ball, his fair face aglow with excitement, 
 but his hand as steady as a veteran's. As he fixed 
 the cap, his eye sought with quick, stolen glances the 
 flame-lit copse in which the foe lay hid. On either 
 hand his stricken comrades were falling thick and fast — 
 dropping where they stood or staggering backward 
 in that pallid swoon that tells the woeful tale of death 
 even more terribly than the silent heaps of clay that 
 fall unmoving at our feet. Ah me ! how swift the 
 blue line melted ! and still the unseen enemy poured 
 upon us the pitiless leaden hail, and still we loaded 
 and fired at the smoking thicket. 
 
 Then the weak line wavered, bending backward 
 here and there where it had grown thinnest in the 
 breath of the hot tornado. At that moment the 
 brother of this lad, a veteran to whom battle-scenes 
 had grown familiar, rushing for an instant from his
 
 20 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 post of duty, sought along the weakened line for the 
 boy who was to him as the apple of his ej'e. His 
 face was h"ghted with the glare of battle ; his lips shut 
 close and his eyes blazed with the fierce joy that 
 comes to the hero soul in the hour of supreme peril. 
 As his glance fell upon the youth he sought, the 
 half-anxious look faded from his face and a smile of 
 grim satisfaction took its place. He laid his hand 
 upon his brother's shoulder, and said in the even tone 
 that sounds so clear above the roar of battle: " Be a 
 man, John ! " 
 
 There was a look of proud reproachfulness on the 
 fair, powder-stained face that turned to meet his gaze, 
 and a smile of yet prouder approval curved the bearded 
 lip as the veteran's hand rested an instant on the boy's 
 shoulder, and he repeated tenderly his injunction, 
 "Be a man, John!" 
 
 The tide of battle ebbed and flowed, and when 
 the moon rose after that tumultuous day, it shone on 
 John's face, white and cold, lying where he had stood, 
 with the pallid ranks stretching away on either hand, 
 his feet the very foremost towards the foe. He sleeps 
 in peace under the giant oaks which seem to exult 
 even yet in the valorous fight that was waged in the 
 shadow of their branches. 
 
 You bear the name of that young hero. The 
 blood that swells your veins is akin to that which 
 stained the stubble on that fateful field. You, too, 
 are entering upon a mighty conflict. The battle field
 
 ''BE A man:' 21 
 
 of life stretches away before your feet. Every point 
 of vantage is held by an enemy open or concealed. 
 The world looks on, expectant of valorous deeds. 
 The country for which your honored namesake died 
 asks no less of you than it demanded of him. It 
 may not call you to the field of conflict. Your heart 
 may never throb with "that stern joy that warriors 
 feel." You may never know the intoxication of 
 triumph or the sickening woe of defeat. Yet all the 
 same, the country expects, and has a right to expect, 
 that you will protect her interests, conserve her liber- 
 ties, and devote yourself to her service with a courage, 
 devotion, self sacrifice, and intelligence not excelled 
 by him whose name you bear. The battles of liberty 
 and right are not all fought with the sword, and the 
 noblest victories are ofttimes peaceful and bloodless 
 ones ; but the same heroic attributes are required to 
 win them that sustain the soldier in the hour of 
 battle. It was the hero poet-king who put to rout 
 the enemies of Israel, but it was the son whose hands 
 knew not the stain of blood, who builded the temple 
 of the Most High. 
 
 " Peace hath her victories 
 No less renowned than war." 
 
 It is not for me to prescribe what you should 
 do. You hold in your hands the weapons of to- 
 day. You are in the fore-front of the battle. I am 
 of the past, lingering in the rear, once more a sub- 
 altern who seeks to inspire rather than direct. You
 
 22 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 are armed and equipped and on your courage and 
 skill the outcome of the conflict rests. Presumably, 
 you have been tauglit to use your weapons and 
 trained to perform the duties devolving upon you. 
 You have the right to ask the veteran, who has often 
 watched the signs of coming conflict, "Do you think 
 there will be a battle?" though the answer will not 
 come from his lips but from the foemen who ever 
 beset the pathway of progress and threaten the temple 
 of liberty. Yesterday can never fight the battles of 
 to-day, nor even point out how its victories shall be 
 won. It can only train the soldiers who shall join 
 battle with unseen foes, and fight, and fall perhaps, 
 in the never-ending conflict for the right. 
 
 As a part of the past which lays at once its behest 
 and benison upon the present, and, relying upon its 
 courage, fortitude, and devotion, bids defiance to the 
 ills of the future, I can but repeat the injunction your 
 honored father laid upon his young brother amid the 
 roar of battle, " Be a man, John!" 
 
 You and all those who will come with you into 
 the birthright of American citizenship in this year 
 of Grace, have a rich inheritance of example to in- 
 spire to patriotic endeavor. You were born at the 
 climax of an heroic epoch. You were the first-fruits 
 of peace. The cannon's triumphant echoes rocked 
 the cradles of the rescued nation's new-born sons. 
 The songs of the camp were your lullaby, and the story 
 of a father's heroism the food on which your young
 
 ''BE A man:\ 23 
 
 imagination fed. In all the world's history there has 
 never been a generation so splendidly equipped, so 
 proudly sired, and of whom the world has a right to 
 demand so high an ideal of duty, such complete 
 devotion to the right, and so grand a tale of noble 
 achievements. If blood tells, surely men begotten by 
 heroes in the first moments of peace, after a quadren- 
 niate of the most glorious warfare, should be braver, 
 stronger, and truer than the children of care or the 
 petted offspring of prosperous ease. 
 
 There is scarcely one in all the thousands whom 
 this year will usher into American citizenship, and 
 who will for the first time exercise the powers of a 
 citizen, who is not able to point to some spot in our 
 national domain, sanctified by the very blood that 
 flows in his veins undiluted by intervening lives. 
 Whether shed under the "Stars" or beneath the ill- 
 fated shadow of the "Bars," the lesson of hero-blood 
 is still the same matchless truth sanctified by the lips 
 of the noblest spirit of even that climacteric epoch — 
 "Devotion to the right as God gives us to see the 
 right ! " 
 
 The heroic past looks to its first-born for the per- 
 formance, not of specific testamentary injunctions, but 
 for the fulfillment of the one all-comprehending behest 
 which the heat of battle distilled from your father's 
 Hps, itself the very essence of liis own heroic life:
 
 II. 
 
 "LONG LIVE THE KING." 
 
 There is a story of the Tsar Nicholas, which 
 every American mother ought to tell to her children 
 when she would teach them " that country's a thing 
 men should die for at need," or, what is more diffi- 
 cult, live for, since 
 
 " Peace hath higher tests of manhood 
 Than battle ever knew," 
 
 It is said that when the first section of rail- 
 way ever built in Russia was completed, the great 
 Tsar made a tour of inspection over it, attended by 
 a numerous and brilliant suite. The American en- 
 gineer, under whose direction it had been constructed, 
 accompanied the party, and, naturally enough, was 
 called on by the sovereign to point out the difficulties 
 which had been overcome, explain how the work had 
 been accomplished, and unfold the advantages to be 
 derived by the Muscovite empire from the system of 
 railways which he had devised, and of which the line 
 they were testing was only the beginning. It was an 
 opportunity he had long desired; for he thought, not 
 without reason, that if he could once get the ear of 
 24 .
 
 ''LONG LIVE THE KING:' 2$ 
 
 the sagacious monarch he would be able to convince 
 him that the future strength and glory of the empire 
 depended on just such an adaptation of the great 
 force of modern civilization. 
 
 In anticipation of this occasion, therefore, the 
 engineer had prepared a map which showed how, 
 by lines which would require no protecting forces, 
 being beyond the reach of hostile attack, and ap- 
 proaching foreign borders only at what are strate- 
 gically termed "points of contact," every frontier 
 of the empire might be made more accessible from 
 within than by any hostile power from without. 
 By it he was able to demonstrate that England's 
 sovereignty of the seas might be set at naught; the 
 barricades of the Bosphorus be laughed at ; Persia 
 made a wall of defense rather than an obstacle to the 
 empire's enlargement; India threatened without ex- 
 posing Cronstadt ; the Turk's position attacked from 
 the rear, and Austria and Prussia left powerless to 
 intervene. The plan has since been carried out in 
 part, and the fact clearly established that the Amer- 
 ican engineer fully comprehended the military advan- 
 tages of the Muscovite empire, and fathomed the 
 necessity for constant aggression which underlies the 
 throne of the Tsar — a fate at once terrible and resist- 
 less, which impels the empire towards its destiny. 
 Even as these sheets are passing through the press, 
 the half-completed system he devised is one of the 
 most important elements of what is known as the 
 
 3
 
 26 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 "European situation." When it is perfected, and 
 the whole strength of the great empire can be readily 
 concentrated at any point on its borders, no adjoin- 
 ing nationahty will be able to resist its power, and 
 no allied forces able to punish it for aggression, 
 "Russia has but to wait and watch," said the great 
 Peter. More truly might it now be said that she 
 has but to wait, and build railroads diverging from 
 her great, unassailable center. 
 
 So interested did the American become in his 
 great project that unconsciously he took a seat beside 
 the emperor, and unfolding the map upon his knee, 
 began to point out to the autocrat of all the Russias 
 the capabilities of his vast dominion. Mile after 
 mile the train sped on, and still the two continued 
 their conversation. Sometimes it was the engineer- 
 ing difficulties of the line over which they were pass- 
 mg, and sometimes the future of the empire that 
 occupied their attention. In the suite of the autocrat 
 were cabinet ministers, generals, officers of his body- 
 guard, and many of the most illustrious nobles of the 
 realm. All of them remained standing ; only the 
 Tsar and the American, in his plain frock-coat, were 
 seated. The engineer was unconscious of this breach 
 of royal etiquette, and the Tsar had either been too 
 deeply absorbed to notice, or had chosen to overlook 
 it. To the courtiers, however, it was a most heinous 
 offense. Their eyes flashed, the black Muscovite 
 brows contracted, and their swarthy cheeks burned
 
 " LONG LIVE THE KING." 27 
 
 with rage, as they noted the unconscious impudence 
 of the American. At length their muttered indigna- 
 tion reached the ear of JSTicholas. He was not one 
 to allow inferiors to comment on wliat he chose to 
 permit. Turning towards them with that imperial 
 dignity which characterized him, he said: 
 
 " You are wrong, gentlemen. This man is a king! 
 You are only subjects. He may be the ruler of his 
 people to-morrow; you can never be more than the 
 servants of your sovereign !" 
 
 The Tsar was not only right, but in a sense which 
 he could hardly have understood, the man with whom 
 he conversed was not only a possible ruler, but an 
 actual sovereign, and, as such, entitled by royal eti- 
 quette to sit in the presence of kings. 
 
 You have no doubt come to accept the modern 
 notion which sneers at American political ideas as, in 
 the main, correct. You have, perhaps, been accus- 
 tomed to speak of our government as the "republican 
 experiment," and wagged your head in grave premo- 
 nition while discoursing of specific ills that seem to 
 impend. You may even have questioned whether citi- 
 zenship in the great Republic is a thing to be proud 
 of; though I trust you have not yet come to profess 
 yourself ashamed of the birthright hallowed by your 
 father's blood. Comparing our American life with spe- 
 cific phases of life in other lands, you may, however; 
 have become sufficiently " advanced " in your views to 
 coolly ask yourself whether there is any solid distinc-
 
 28 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 tion between the terms "citizen" and "subject," 
 and whether "republican institutions" really imply 
 an enlargement of human liberty and individual rights. 
 It is a curious fact, that among those claiming to rep- 
 resent the most highly cultivated and intelligent 
 classes, especially of the Eastern and Middle States, 
 the general trend of sentiment is in the direction of 
 admitting the failure of republican institutions, and the 
 acceptance of modifications and limitations thereof 
 which will restrict the privileges of the many and 
 enhance the power of the few. In other words, there 
 is to be found among those claiming to represent the 
 most advanced thought, the highest aspiration and 
 purest purpose, a distinct tendency to restrict the oper- 
 ation of the distinctive principle of American democ- 
 racy, — equality of right, privilege, and opportunity. 
 
 We are often told that the "experiment" of self- 
 government and unrestricted privilege has proved a 
 failure — as if it were a completed experiment, a system, 
 a form, and not 2l\\ evolution or condition of individual 
 and collective life. 
 
 The fact that kings have become tyrants, and 
 that misgovernment and revolution resulted, though 
 it has been repeated over and over again for centuries, 
 is not regarded as sufficient to establish the conclu- 
 sion that monarchy as a form of government is a 
 failure. Yet monarchy is an experiment which has 
 failed a hundred times for every instance in which 
 democracy has proved unsuccessful. In such cases,
 
 ^<LONG LIVE THE KING." 29 
 
 however, the world has very properly attributed the 
 failure, not so much to defects of the system, as to 
 the folly of the sovereign. It may be doubted if 
 there has thus far in the history of mankind been any 
 great popular movement which was at the outset 
 aimed specifically against \.\\q form of government, — 
 d^nanding the overthrow of monarchy and the estab- 
 Hshment of a republic as its prime object, — unless, 
 perhaps, it was the French Revolution of 1848. Even 
 then it was more the folly of the sovereign than the 
 form of government that provoked the uprising of 
 the people. Almost invariably the chief aiin of pop- 
 ular revolution has been the reform of abuses which 
 a sagacious ruler should have granted without com- 
 pulsion, and a really wise one would never have 
 permitted to exist. Good government rather than 
 selfgovernment has usually been the incentive to 
 revolution. 
 
 Even in the case of the American Colonies, it may 
 be questioned whether the rebellion was not against 
 specific acts of Parliament and the traditional policy 
 of Great Britain, rather than against monarchical 
 government; or, rather, I might say, it is almost 
 impossible to doubt that such was the real fact. To 
 this may be added, no doubt, the personal unpopu- 
 larity of George III and the non-English character 
 of the royal family. In Great Britain the choice lay 
 between the House of Hanover and the Stuarts ; in 
 the Colonies, antipathy to the representative of sov-
 
 30 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 ereign authority intensified the feehng against a gov- 
 ernment which, despite all that may be said in 
 glorification of our fathers, had become irksome be- 
 cause of its character rather than its form. The 
 skill of Jefferson planted the seeds of democracy in 
 the Declaration of Independence, and made action 
 under it, of necessit}-, a movement in the direction of 
 popular government as an well as independent gov- 
 ernment. Even in this instance, therefore, it can not 
 be properly predicated of the monarchical form of 
 government, that it proved itself a failure ; but only 
 that the Parliamentary and ministerial policy of Great 
 Britain and the personal unpopularity of a foreign 
 dynasty drove the colonists to elect between their 
 hereditary sovereign and the only possible alterna- 
 tive, — the experiment of popular government. 
 
 But if repeated instances of failure and unnum- 
 bered revolutions are not enough logically to estab- 
 hsh the insufficiency of the monarchical form of 
 government, as such, what shall be said of the pes- 
 simistic inconsistency which, after less than a hundred 
 years of trial, begins anxiously to inquire whether 
 "the experiment" of republican government has not 
 proved a failure? Why in the case of a republic are 
 we inclined to leap at once to the conclusion that 
 the "form of government " is at fault, and in the 
 case of a monarchy attribute the "failure" to the 
 folly or incapacity of the particular sovereign who at 
 the time bears sway? If we admit that it was
 
 ''LONG LIVE THE KING:' 3 1 
 
 the policy of Great Britain and the character of the 
 Hanoverian dynasty that produced the evils which 
 resulted in our War of Revolution, why should we 
 not attribute our present ills and those prospective 
 ones to which we look forward with such universal 
 dread, not to the system of government, but to the 
 character of the sovereign and the policy of the 
 nation, which has become as fixed as the colonial 
 theory of England was when we revolted against her 
 dominion ? It is not alone the republican theory 
 of government that is on trial in our country, but 
 the American people — the sovereign power of the 
 land — as well. Indeed, the most important inquiry 
 presented for our consideration to-day, is not whether 
 a republican government is susceptible of success- 
 ful and permanent application to the affairs of a 
 great nation, nor even whether the American sys- 
 tem contains the proper checks and balances, but 
 whether the American people are fitted for the 
 successful administration of a democratic form of 
 government, and if not, why not. 
 
 In every experiment two things are tested — the 
 process and the material. A defect of either may 
 produce failure, and only a fool' will condemn the 
 process for lack of strength, purity, or fitness in the 
 material. The history of every nation is but the 
 record of an experiment, in which the wisdom and 
 capacity of the sovereign is the material, and the form 
 of government the process. As for the governed,
 
 32 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 they are a constant factor. They may be separated 
 by the whole distance between the lowest barbarism 
 and the highest civilization, but their relation to the 
 governing power remains always the same. That 
 government is the best for any people which produces 
 the highest average of happiness — "the greatest good 
 of the greatest number," as we are accustomed to 
 phrase it. This it is the function of the sovereign — 
 the government — to secure, and a failure to effect 
 this result demonstrates either that the form of gov- 
 ernment is unsuited to the needs of the people, or 
 that the sovereign is unfitted to administer it so as to 
 produce the best results The republican theory is, 
 that monarchy can never be conducive of "the 
 greatest good of the greatest number;" and the 
 American idea is, that a government ' ' by the people " 
 will always be productive of this result. 
 
 Both these statements are fallacies, because both 
 ignore the most important element of the mighty 
 problem — the capacity and fitness of the sovereign. 
 Undoubtedly an absolute monarch, possessing all the 
 qualities of an ideal sovereign, might advance the 
 welfare, secure the peace, promote .the prosperity, 
 and, generally, subserve the highest interests of the 
 greatest number of his subjects more effectually than 
 is possible by any other form of government; for 
 absolute power is able to cut many a Gordian knot 
 which a sovereignty hampered by conditions must 
 laboriously untie. In like manner, a people possess-
 
 ''LONG LIVE THE KING." 33 
 
 ing neither aptitude nor inclination for government 
 may very easily make a democracy the most corrupt 
 and debasing political organization the world has ever 
 known. The trouble in both cases is not so much in 
 the "form of government " as in the character of the 
 sovereign power. As tyranny hides forever in the 
 shadow of the throne, so anarchy lurks always within 
 the verge of popular government. "A wise ruler 
 maketh a glad people," is equally true whether the 
 scepter is wielded by one hand or many, and the 
 character of the sovereign is always the most impor- 
 tant element in every governmental experiment, 
 whether the sovereign be a unit or a multitude. 
 
 History gibbets the incapable or unjust king, 
 holding him up to future ages as an object of ever- 
 lasting infamy. Responsibility is not lessened by 
 partition. Even infinite subdivision can not relieve 
 or excuse the very least of the component factors. 
 Wisdom, courage, honest)^ and zeal are demanded 
 of every one on whom the burden of government 
 rests, whether separately or in conjunction with others. 
 To fail in either of these requirements is to fail in all. 
 Wisdom without courage makes the ruler the tool 
 of the ambitious ; without honesty he becomes an 
 oppressor ; without zeal, the victim of the unscru- 
 pulous. Courage without honesty is a consuming 
 flame; and zeal without wisdom the sure precursor 
 of destruction 
 
 Are YOU fitted to be a king ?
 
 34 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 This is the question which the country anxiously 
 propounds to those upon whose brows is placed 
 the crown of citizenship. Do you know the needs 
 of your fellows — how the happiness of the great- 
 est number may be best subserved? Are you brave 
 enough to stand by your convictions, and main- 
 tain the right as God gives you to see it, with brain 
 and with brawn, too, if need be? Can you. face 
 ridicule as well as power ; resist craft as well as 
 force ; and submit graciously to the popular will 
 when fairly outnumbered? Are you honest enough 
 to prefer the right and frugality, to the wrong and 
 profusion ; the comfort of the many to the luxury of 
 the few ; the right of your fellows to your own oppor- 
 tunity? Have you zeal to undertake whatever task 
 wisdom may prescribe, courage may demand, or 
 honesty impose? 
 
 This, and more than this, it is to be an American 
 citizen worthy of the name and of the sovereignty 
 it confers. The world, as it welcomes you to the 
 estate of manhood, calls upon you to " be a man!" 
 Tlie nation, as it places upon your brow the crown 
 of sovereignty and admits you to the plane of citizen- 
 ship, solemnly enjoins you to be a king! Religion 
 sanctions and confirms these behests as fundamental, 
 both to "the life that now is, and that which is to 
 come!"
 
 III. 
 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE. 
 
 No DOUBT you think, my young friend, that I 
 am 'inclined to magnify the importance of the legal 
 transition from youth to manhood which marks the 
 opening of your twenty-first year. You are }'ourself 
 unconscious of any change. No fitting ceremonial 
 marks the momentous event. No toga viiilis en- 
 cumbers the hitherto untrammeled limbs, and attests 
 the transformation from infancy to adultness. One 
 more birthday — that is all! You think you have 
 passed a mile-post on the path of life, not that you 
 have entered a new way or become a new creature. 
 
 In a sense this is true. Regarding yourself intro- 
 spectively, it is no wonder that you observe no trans- 
 formation. In your nature none has taken place, nor 
 even in your surroundings. The same faces meet 
 you on the streets ; the same friends greet you in the 
 same careless tones. John, the man, is nothing more 
 to them than John, the boy. If you are a king, they 
 do not see the m}'stic circlet on your brow. To them, 
 as well as to yourself, the change is imperceptible, 
 though to both it is of vital importance. 
 
 35
 
 36 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 This will seem less remarkable if we keep in mind 
 the fact that the change is one of relation purely, and 
 not of character or condition. What you were yester- 
 day morally and intellectually, that you are to-day to 
 yourself and to all the world. Potentially, however, 
 you are altogether transformed. Yesterday you were 
 a cipher; to-day you are a significant figure in the 
 world's notation. Yesterday you were a subject ; 
 to-day you are a sovereign. 
 
 From the window where I sit at my work I some- 
 times see a pile driver, sending home with mighty 
 strokes great quivering masts, on which some weighty 
 structure is to rest. 1 love to watch it and to think 
 of its similitude to life. The engine groans and puffs; 
 the great wheels creak as the strained cable is wound 
 about the drum ; the ponderous weight is slowly 
 raised to the very top of the supporting stanchions. 
 Thus labors the past, from whose life to-day is born. 
 Untold generations travail "and bite back the cry of 
 their pain in self scorn," to start a new soul in the 
 journey of life from the height they have slowly and 
 painfully attained. 
 
 One instant's pause ! A ratchet is loosed I A force 
 is generated ! Then there is silence ! Down the guid- 
 ing ways slides a dull, inert mass — doing nothing — 
 only falling without check ! The wind whistles past 
 it! The by-standers watch it carelessly. If it holds 
 its course, it will strike the mast beneath. If it es- 
 cape from the guiding grooves, it will fall useless to
 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE. 37 
 
 the earth, a wasted force ! Nay, it may even so strain 
 and rend the mechanism by which it was raised, that 
 it shall be unable to perform its work until repaired. 
 It falls swiftly, surely, with what accumulation of 
 power your studies have taught you to estimate. It 
 strikes ! The dust rises ! The earth shakes ! The 
 mast quivers and groans and shrinks ! The weight 
 lies dull and dead! Its force is spent. But it has 
 done its work ! 
 
 Such is life. A child is born, and grows to youth 
 an aimless force — a silent potentiality. It reaches 
 the verge of manhood, and suddenly it is transformed 
 into an effective agency, giving out its stored energy, 
 doing its work, and leaving the mechanism of society 
 undisturbed — ready to repeat the blow ! The trans- 
 mutation from latent to effective force is a perfect 
 type of the change by which the infant becomes an 
 adult. 
 
 I am sorry to be compelled to use these terms, 
 "infant" and "adult." To you they may be almost 
 meaningless. You have perhaps at best but a dim 
 idea of their significance. Your notions of infancy 
 are probably associated with the cradle, and your idea 
 of adultness with mustachios. I do not mean by this 
 to reflect on your intelligence. I am aware that you 
 have received that approved equipment for life's duties 
 which the public school gives to every young Ameri- 
 can, and have besides pursued with creditable success 
 the ordinary college curriculum. I do not mean to 
 
 4G2391
 
 38 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 imply that you have been unmindful of your oppor- 
 tunities or neglectful of your privileges, but simply 
 to call attention to the fact that our American system 
 of education permits the boy to grow to manhood 
 without any clear conception of the rights, privileges 
 and responsibilities of either station. I doubt if one 
 of a hundred of your fellow-graduates of this year of 
 grace could give an intelligible statement of the dif- 
 ference between the legal estate of the " infant" and 
 of the "adult." In nine cases out often, if required 
 to do so, they would probably aver that the distinc- 
 tion lay in the fact that an "adult" can vote and 
 hold office, while an "infant" can not. This, like 
 most definitions by negation, is hardly half true, since 
 these facts are merely results of the distinction, and 
 not the distinction itself A man must be an "adult" 
 to become a voter, but does not become a voter 
 simply because he is an "adult." 
 
 You would probably excuse j'ourself and your 
 fellows for such inaccuracy of definition on the ground 
 that "infant" and "adult" in the sense I seek to use 
 them are technical terms, which a general education, 
 however complete, is not expected to prepare one to 
 define with the nicety required by the professional 
 mind. If you had been asked to state the difference 
 between a "solid" and a "fluid," you would not 
 have thought of making any such excuse for failure. 
 Yet the terms "solid" and "fluid" are just as much 
 technical in character as "infant" and "adult." It
 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE. 39 
 
 is true that "solid" and "fluid" concern the funda- 
 mentals of physical science; but "infant" and "adult" 
 sustain a similar relation to the far more important 
 science of human rights. The only difference is, that 
 the study of physical science has come to be regarded 
 as an essential of liberal culture, along with many 
 other things of doubtful use or unquestionable use- 
 lessness, while the most important branch of human 
 knowledge, the relations of humanity as affected by 
 political convention, finds no place in our educational 
 system. 
 
 In your whole course of study you have only 
 lightly touched upon two branches of law, which is the 
 greatest of all sciences — the science of human right 
 and privilege, the principles of which condition every 
 man's existence from its inception until the last will 
 and testament is made and published. These two 
 branches, which you have cursorily glanced at, are the 
 most uncertain in their terms and most infrequent and 
 unsatisfactory in their application ; to wit, interna- 
 tional and constitutional law. As to all the rest of 
 the domain of legal right and privilege, wrong and 
 remedy, the well-educated American is sadly and 
 profoundly ignorant; and, as a rule, the better his 
 education the more dense will be found to be his 
 ignorance of the relations he sustains to his fellows, 
 collectively if not individually. 
 
 This is the more remarkable because our English 
 law — and by that term is meant the whole body of
 
 40 LETTERS TO A KING. . 
 
 Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence — rests, both in civil and 
 criminal matters, on the irrebuttable presumption 
 that every inhabitant of an English-speaking country 
 knows, not only the general principles of the law, but 
 even its utmost niceties. Yet the English-speaking 
 peoples are almost the only ones that take no pains 
 to teach their youth either what the law is or what 
 it ought to be. 
 
 The Jewish law was taught in the synagogue 
 and in the marketplace. We think of it as moral 
 philosophy, but it concerned itself far more with 
 individual relations than with the abstractions which 
 now constitute the domain of philosophy. The 
 Romans posted their laws at the cross-roads, and the 
 schoolmaster was required once a month to take his 
 pupils for a day to witness the proceedings of the 
 judicial tribunals. In the Continental countries of 
 Europe the code is read in every public school once each 
 year. In France special text-books have been pre- 
 pared and adopted in the schools, illustrating the 
 provisions of the law, so as not only to bring them to 
 the attention, but also to impress them upon the 
 memory of every learner. Knowledge of the con- 
 ditions which affect the estate of "infancy" is there 
 all but universal. 
 
 With us the reverse is true, and not a few of the 
 evils that afflict our political and economic life are 
 the result of a s}'stem of education which carefully 
 abstains from teaching what the whole body of our
 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE. 4 1 
 
 people most require to know. So that even you 
 who have been an "infant" ahnost all your life, 
 hardly know Avhen that relation ended, whether it 
 was seriously modified in character during its contin- 
 uance, what were the limitations it imposed, the 
 privileges it gave, the responsibilities it implied, or 
 the magnitude of the change attendant upon your ac- 
 cession to the estate of manhood. 
 
 Yet with all this lack of knowledge of its real 
 character, you have no doubt, in common with your 
 fellows, been inclined to consider the fact of legal 
 "infancy" a hardship. Now and then, it may be, 
 you have looked upon yourself as something of a 
 martyr to an effete and worthless system, which holds 
 its place only in the brains of narrow-minded sticklers 
 for legal form and antiquated custom. I am not sur- 
 prised that such should be the general feeling of your 
 associates. Representing, as it does to their minds, 
 only the deprivation of political privilege, and a 
 purely nominal subjection to parental authority, it is 
 hardly strange that you should conclude that the dis- 
 tinction might well be greatly restricted, and legal man- 
 hood be made to begin several years earlier or per- 
 haps be made dependent, as some have proposed, 
 upon intelligence and capacity to be ascertained by 
 specific tests. 
 
 Practically, you have no doubt been lord of your- 
 self for several years at least. You have deferred to 
 your parents' wishes in most things, probably, simply 
 
 4
 
 42 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 from a proper sense of duty, and not at all from a 
 feeling of legal obligation. At all times you have 
 been at liberty to leave the parental roof, go whither- 
 soever you might choose, and engage in any busi- 
 ness or calling you might elect, without apprehension 
 of any interference with your freedom of action or 
 the proceeds of your labor. Enjoying such privileges, 
 you have, perhaps, thought that no serious harm 
 would have been likely to ensue to the body politic, 
 if you had also been endowed with the rights usually 
 attending their exercise. You are accustomed to 
 think of parental control as a thing of the past. The 
 reins by which you have been guided have been of 
 such silken texture that you have hardly noted their 
 restraining influence. Subjection to parental author- 
 ity, as it was understood even a generation ago, is 
 now almost unknown. Obedience is no longer a 
 matter of compulsion. The child is treated as quite 
 the equal of his elders long before the estate of legal 
 subordination is ended. 
 
 All things considered, it is perhaps well that it is 
 so. The relation between parent and child has grown 
 more intunate and familiar as a consequence, and 
 reason has very largely usurped the functions of the 
 rod. Perhaps there is not so much readiness and 
 literalness of obedience. If Casabianca had been an 
 American lad of the present day, our language would 
 probably have lacked one poetic gem. 
 
 It is customary to bewail the laxity of parental
 
 THE ANTECHAMBER TO THE THRONE. 43 
 
 discipline manifested by the rising generation. For 
 one, I am inclined to think the apparent lack of obe- 
 dience quite compensated by the elimination of need- 
 less brutality from our domestic life, even if it were 
 not — as I believe it is — attended with a more general 
 observance of the parent's wishes than was attainable 
 under the old system. This feature of the legal es- 
 tate of "infancy" does not depend on force. Sub- 
 jection to the parent's will was never the object 
 sought by the law, but the continuance of parental 
 guidance — not for the parent's sake, but for the in- 
 fant's advantage. In a certain sense, the young man 
 of to-day is almost sure to be wiser than his father ; 
 but there is another sense in which the father's wis- 
 dom is not likely to be superseded by the acquire- 
 ments of the son. 
 
 You have no doubt compared yourself, also, with 
 many of those who exercise the elective franchise, per- 
 haps even with those who are the visible instruments 
 of collective power, and have sneered at the law which 
 barred you from the ballot-box, with your quick in- 
 telligence, your cultured judgment, and your pure 
 purpose, and admitted to that sanctuary of a people's 
 sovereignty the ignorant, the debased, and the corrupt. 
 It seemed to you a farce, and, in one sense, it is. 
 
 There can be no doubt that so far as the training 
 which the schools give is concerned, the great major- 
 ity of those who will cross the threshold of manhood 
 this year are much better prepared to perform the
 
 44 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 functions of citizenship than the majority of those 
 who have long exercised this crowning civic privilege. 
 There is one thing, however, which they presumably 
 and all but universally lack — one form of knowledge 
 that the law, which, despite all our cavilings, is "the 
 treasured wisdom of the ages," declares to be of more 
 importance to the ruler than all other wisdom, to wit: 
 
 A PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE OF LIFE. 
 
 This is a knowledge akin to the wisdom of God, 
 since it is dependent upon the study of his noblest 
 work in its most difificult and abstruse relations, and 
 is to be learned only in that school over which He 
 presides, where it is taught always according to Di- 
 vine method — the school of experience. It is in 
 order that the child may learn something in this 
 school that the law has created and defined the estate 
 and condition of "infancy." 
 
 It is a pretty conceit which finds expression in 
 the ritual of the most numerous and important of 
 modern secret benevolent organizations, that the 
 antechamber is the place of preparation for the 
 right-minded seeker after knowledge. The legal 
 estate of infancy is the antechamber in which the 
 citizen is, or ought to be, "duly and truly prepared" 
 for the duties of life, where the squire waits for the 
 accolade which is to make him a knight, the prince 
 for the crown and consecrating oil which is to mark 
 his accession to kingly privilege and kingly duty.
 
 IV. 
 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW. 
 
 The sense of humor which is all but universal in 
 mankind has transferred, with the entire approval of 
 every one who reads the story of his woes, the title 
 assumed by Job's fault-finding friends to the physical 
 ailment with which he was afflicted, as being by all 
 odds the more comforting of the twain. Such a con- 
 soler is that "Amicus," who has written to protest 
 against the course that has been adopted in these 
 letters, as likely to give the young American too ex- 
 alted an idea of the dignity, excellence, and power 
 of the position of the citizen. This protest might very 
 well be dismissed with the simple statement that no 
 man was ever yet injured by magnifying the dignity 
 of any position he might be called to occupy, if a 
 proper sense of his own responsibility attended such 
 exalted estimate of its importance. As a rule, it may 
 be said that the man who most fully appreciates the 
 dignity of any position is the one most likely to per- 
 form its duties with exactitude and faithfulness. But 
 "Amicus" is such a perfect example of that pessi- 
 mistic piety which esteems fault-finding an unfailing 
 
 45
 
 46 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 evidence of purity, which we shall have occasion to 
 consider more at length hereafter, that I am glad 
 indeed, my young friend, to call your attention to his 
 views, by laying his letter before you in ipsissimis 
 verbis : 
 
 THE WORDS OF A FRIEND. 
 
 "I suppose I am one of those for whom your 'Let- 
 ters to a King' are indited. At least I have 'come of 
 age,' to use the vernacular, and I suppose I am a 'citizen,' 
 though it is long since I have exercised any civic privi- 
 leges. It is true, this momentous event did not occur 
 yesterday, nor even this year. I presume, however, that 
 I have none tlie less right to count myself 'a man,' ac- 
 cording to the flattering injunction of your exordial epistle; 
 to feel myself 'a king,' according to the plain inference 
 of your second number; or regard myself as no longer an 
 'infiint, ' as defined by your third, because I passed the 
 boundary-line of minority some twenty years ago, have a 
 business and a home of my own, and some of my own 'in- 
 fants ' are approaching the age of 'adultness' as you 
 choose to term it (though why you sliould not use 'ma- 
 jority,' or 'manhood,' instead, I can not see). 
 
 " I do feel myself a man — what is termed a practical 
 man, too — one who has achieved some measure of suc- 
 cess in his undertakings, and has consequently very little 
 regard for what may be termed mere theorizing. I think 
 I have a right to speak for a section of our life which at 
 least has done no discredit to the name American, and I 
 wish to say plainly at the outset, that I believe I express 
 the real sentiments of a great majority of this class wlien 
 I declare that after twenty years of experience I do not
 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW. 47 
 
 feel myself a king, nor any thing like a king, but rather 
 a slave, fettered, helpless, hopeless, save for my faith in 
 God. To my mind American citizenship is a sham. 
 Our politics have become so corrupt that no decent, self- 
 respecting man can take any part in public affairs. We 
 are governed by bribe-takers and bribe-givers, by igno- 
 rance in unholy alliance with vice. 
 
 " I do not believe that any man holds a position of 
 honor or trust at the hands of the people, from the high- 
 est to the lowest, who is not the beneficiary, directly or 
 indirectly, of fraud or violence or some sort of crime 
 against another's civic rights. If he has not bought votes 
 himself, others have done it for him; if he has not clieated 
 the ignorant or deterred the weak, others have done it for 
 him. These things have been done, too, with his knowl- 
 edge and consent, for they are a part and parcel of the 
 common belief. A man may turn his back and shut his 
 eyes, and so avoid express knowledge of specific acts. 
 All the same he knows such acts were perpetrated to se- 
 cure his elevation, and both his lionor and his official 
 purity are stained thereby. As a consequence, not one in 
 a hundred, perhaps hardly one in a thousand, of those 
 holding official st-ations among us, fail to use their power 
 corruptly and basely to promote their own self-advantage 
 or the prospects of their party. This may seem a ' hard 
 saying,' but I sincerely believe it to be the truth, and that 
 the majority of your readers will avouch its verity. 
 
 "It is useless to argue with good men — Christian men, 
 who esteem the common good above their own gratifica- 
 tion, I mean — upon -this subject. When we see merit ig- 
 nored and fraud exalted; when monopoly grinds and 
 anarchy threatens; when poverty increases and fraud 
 triumphs; when law is grown too weak to protect the
 
 48 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 citizen or deter the criminal — at such a time it is folly 
 to talk about the citizen-king! 
 
 "Do you realize, sir, what tribute we pay to the rum 
 power? Do you know what a tax the Standard Oil 
 monopoly levies upon poverty? Have you noted how 
 the poor are multiplying, and how the wealth of the 
 rich increases while their numbers proportionately de- 
 crease? Have you noted the 'prisoners of poverty,' 
 herding and swarming in the great cities where one- 
 fifth of our population is found ? Have you observed 
 that even in the very journals where your articles are 
 published there is a standing advertisement calling upon 
 Christian men and women to contribute a fund to se- 
 cure the conviction of the murderer of a Christian 
 minister wlio dared oppose the rule of rum ? 
 
 "In the face of these results of self-government, I 
 submit that it is time to stop boasting of American citi- 
 zenship, or magnifying old-fogy notions of government 
 and life. For my part — and I believe I represent nine- 
 tenths of the honest, Godfearing men and women in the 
 land, the fathers and mothers who are really the ones 
 who will read your letters and feel something of the 
 vague old aspiration for the common welfare and trust 
 in the common honesty which so long delayed our pres- 
 ent sad condition — I say for my part, in view of all 
 these things, I would be quite willing to surrender my 
 'kingship' — the glory and dignity of self-government, as 
 you term it — to any form of government that would cure 
 these evils or even restrain their growth. The safety of the 
 future is worth more than the glorification of the past or 
 the gratification of the present. I would rather think that 
 my children will be saved from the anarchy and de- 
 moralization that impends than have my self-pride
 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW. 49 
 
 inflated by contemplation of my individual beatitude as 
 a citizen-king! I know this may seem like political 
 heresy; but I think that so far as justice, right, public 
 honor, and private morals are concerned, self-government 
 has proved a faikire. 
 
 "For myself, I have so long lost hope that I have not 
 even exercised the right of suffrage for many years; and 
 fur years before that time did not do so without feeling 
 myself a slave, chained to the chariot of an infamously 
 corrupt and debauched party system. I felt that though 
 I might be personally incorrupt, my vote was bought and 
 sold for another's benefit, and that I was powerless to 
 prevent such a result. 
 
 " Feeling as I do, I do not want to hear any thing more 
 about politics, political duty, or political privilege. The 
 Church still remains. God alone is the refuge of those who 
 have lost faith in human virtue and human devices. I 
 am willing to give up the task of government into His 
 hands, satisfied that only by divine direction and control 
 can it be well performed. I do not know how it will be 
 effected, but I look for some power to arise that shall do 
 the will of God — some form of government which shall do 
 away with the shams and falsehoods of our present polit- 
 ical system, and put power in the hands of good men and 
 wise men only, who will use it for the common benefit, 
 and leave the pure currents of our common life uncor- 
 rupted and undefiled by the contaminating and degrading 
 influences and unwholesome fevers of politics. 
 
 "The young men of today — ' the uncrowned kings of 
 to-morrow,' whom you address — understand these things 
 just as well as you and I. They know that there are but 
 three courses open before them. They must either be 
 slaves or dealers in slaves, or neuters who eschew politics. 
 
 5
 
 50 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 Party 'bosses' great and small, and party slaves more or 
 less abject — these are our political forces. Outside of 
 these classes are a few men, brave enough and strong 
 enough to stand alone. Some of them protest against 
 the shame and infamy of the situation, and some are 
 too proud or too weak, or perhaps too sorrowful, even 
 to protest. They only stand and wait — wait for nothing 
 it may be ; but they at least avoid, by so doing, personal 
 responsibility for the crime and dishonor that is destroy- 
 ing our life. 
 
 ** What is the sense in requiring an educated American 
 to wait twenty-one years before allowing him to vote, 
 while a foreigner who can not read or write, secures the 
 same privileges in five years, even if he is so unfortunate 
 as not to find his naturalization papers, and the pay for 
 his first vote, waiting for him when he lands at Castle 
 Garden ? 
 
 "Wherein lies the great advantage in being a citizen 
 without power rather than an infant without rights ? I con- 
 fess I can not see that the change from one condition to 
 the other is so very great. In the one case you are 
 without rights, and in the other without responsibility. 
 An infant is legally a slave by virtue of the lawj a citizen 
 is simply one enslaved without law. That is all the 
 difference. One is a child to whose crying nobody pays 
 attention; the other, one that is given a rattle to keep it 
 still. What is the use of gilding this bauble — theorizing 
 about this toy?" 
 
 So says " Amicus. *' He is very much in earnest. 
 He esteems himself a good man, and desires every 
 one to be informed of that fact. He believes that 
 all who do not agree with him in doctrine are " mere
 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW. 5 I 
 
 theorizers," and that all who do not concur with him 
 in practice are corrupt. The good people are with 
 him ; the bad people are on the other side. These 
 good people, he would have us understand, have 
 already determined that the only thing to be done to 
 cure the ills he delineates, is to do nothing — just leave 
 it to the Lord, and let him do as he sees fit. No 
 doubt the Lord will take his own course, whether 
 such as ^^ Amicus'' give him leave or not; but most 
 unfortunately for the consolation which he administers 
 to himself with such solemn unction, God works His 
 will in human affairs by human instrumentalities, and 
 the man who sitnply sits still and cries, " Hands ofif! 
 leave this matter to the Lord !" is merely the devil's 
 chosen instrument of evil. 
 
 The future " Amicjis" draws is a very dark one. 
 That it is altogether incorrect, few will care to aver. 
 If but half of what he implies be true, it establishes 
 beyond question a very bad state of affairs. Has he 
 ever paused in his denunciation of others to consider 
 who is responsible for this condition of affairs and this 
 state of public sentiment? 
 
 He says he is a "practical" man. He has been 
 successful. He has accumulated tangible assets. He 
 has little patience with "mere theorizing." He 
 would have us understand that he is a model, after 
 whom it would be well if others were patterned. He 
 is afraid. young men will be injured by being taught 
 that they are kings. Has he ever thought what must
 
 52 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 be the natural result of teaching them that they are 
 "hopeless and irresponsible slaves?" 
 
 He wishes to hear nothing more of "politics " and 
 political duty. Political affairs are so bad that nobody 
 but God can improve them, and he is almost angry that 
 any one should be willing to be God's instrument in 
 a task he apparently thinks almost beyond divine 
 power. He evidently deems himself a valiant Christian 
 soldier; and so he may be — on parade. He is a fierce 
 Ezekiel in his denunciation of political wrongs, and 
 no doubt thinks himself a faultless citizen. He neither 
 robs nor murders ; he neither bribes nor accepts a 
 bribe ; he is responsible neither for monopolj'' nor 
 anarchy, nor the resulting ills of either. Happy 
 " Amicus f He and such as he are the only pure 
 and brave men in the land ! 
 
 Let me be his Nathan and say to him: 
 
 " Thou art the man!" 
 
 Because such men as he have lived to scold, and 
 fume, and failed to do, proclaiming themselves all the 
 time the best and purest in the land — because such 
 as he have not earnestly and valoiously contended 
 for the right — all these evils he has depicted have 
 come to us. What he so bitterly denounces to day, 
 he and such as he might have prevented yesterday. 
 They had the power; the scepter was in their hands; 
 and the evil of to-day is but the natural fruit of their 
 negligence and apathy. The king who fails to govern 
 righteously leaves always an inheritance of woe to
 
 SHYING AT A SHADO W. 53 
 
 his successor. It is because such as he Hve and boast 
 and denounce the evils they will not help to cure, 
 but declare to be hopeless — it is because these are 
 so many, that I must strive to awaken and inspire 
 the rising generation to do rather than scold, to 
 fight rather than despair. If he had been a king in- 
 stead of a coward, a doer instead of a shirk, there 
 would have been no need to urge the young man of 
 today to devote himself to the cause of good 
 government, to become an active force in Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 There has never been a day nor an hour in the 
 history of any State or city of the land when those 
 claiming to be the especial representatives of its best 
 forces — its Christian citizens — might not have con- 
 trolled its politics. Instead of performing their plain 
 duty, such men as '^Amicus'' stood quietly by and let 
 evil intrench itself, not only in " high places," but even 
 in the hearts of the people. Nay, they are not con- 
 tent to see our social and political life imperiled by 
 their selfish apathy, but they even desire to destroy 
 all hope of its amendment. They would kill "not 
 only the life that now is, but that which is to come!" 
 Knowing the right, they prefer to see evil abound 
 rather than labor for its overthrow. Such men are 
 infinitely the worst of all the dangerous classes of 02ir 
 population, and shoidd be so held by all zvho believe 
 the will of God to mean the good of men. They are 
 cowards who seek to hide their cowardice by boasting
 
 54 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 of their purity ; the stragglers and shirks, who de- 
 nounce the battle others are fighting for their ad- 
 vantage. They constitute the greatest peril of repub- 
 lican government to-day! 
 
 This is how a "mere theorizer" esteems a 
 "practical" Pharisee like ''Amicus.'' 
 
 We are indebted to ''Amiens'' for one thing, how- 
 ever. He shows how well it is to be careful of the 
 foundations on which we build. He wonders why we 
 dwell on the transformation from "infant" to "adult," 
 and then defines the infant to be a person "without 
 any rights," and the citizen a being "without power 
 or responsibility." It is precisely because this view 
 is a common one that we have taken some pains to 
 elucidate the truth that the " infant" is 7ioi "without 
 rights," as we expect to show that the citizen is 7iever 
 "without responsibility." He wonders why we use 
 the terms "infant" and "adult," and "infancy" 
 and "adultness," instead of "minority" and "ma- 
 jority." Simply because they import the whole, 
 while those which he prefers define onl}' a part of the 
 contrasted relations. 
 
 If you have noted their Latin roots, my young 
 friend, you will see how perfectly these terms are 
 suited to the conditions they are used to describe. 
 "Infant" (from infari) implies an inability to make 
 known one's wants by speech, while "adult" (from 
 adolescere) signifies growth, maturity — the product of
 
 SHYING AT A SHADO W. 55 
 
 the state of adolescence. Neither is concerned with 
 the question of power, but merely describes the con- 
 ditions of a particular phase of existence. " Citizen- 
 ship" is but a part of "adultness;" "minority" is 
 only one of the disabilities of " infancy." 
 
 Instead of depriving the "infant" of his rights, 
 the law is especially careful of them. It is for this 
 reason that it counts him an infant, and refuses to 
 hear him speak. Only by the mouth of a "next 
 friend," one presumably older and wiser, will it listen 
 to his plea, except when charged with crime. Up 
 to a certain limit it will not even allow him to be 
 so charged ; then there follows an interval during 
 which the evil intent must be affirmatively shown; 
 after which he finally arrives at full responsibility, 
 with the law's presumption of malice lying always 
 against his wrongful acts. So, too, his business 
 development is gradual. He may be a witness 
 when he can not be an actor; an agent when he 
 can not be a principal. He can bind another in 
 whose employ he is, by his declarations, but the law 
 will not hear his words intended to bind himself. 
 The law makes him subordinate to the parent and 
 the teacher, but allows the parent to release him 
 from subjection by formal act or reasonable implica- 
 tion. The law permits him to contract marriage 
 under certain restrictions, but will only hear his plea 
 for dissolution of that bond by the mouth of another. 
 
 The absurdity which impresses ''Amicus'' as
 
 56 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 existing between the twenty-one years of infancy and 
 a lesser period for naturalization, disappears when we 
 thus see that " infancy " is not a mere condition pre- 
 cedent of citizenship, but a period of growth, develop- 
 ment, and preparation for manhood. You may think 
 such growth unnecessary, and say that "knowledge is 
 power." So it is, but science is not all of knowl- 
 edge; and fact is not power. There is a knowledge 
 which is hard to define. We term it sometimes 
 knowledge of life, sometimes knowledge of men. It 
 distinguishes between youth and manhood, between 
 immaturity and ripeness. It marks even more cer- 
 tainly than any physical condition the fact of incom- 
 pleteness. Thus far no method for acquiring this 
 has been found but by the lapse of time. It is 
 taught only in the school of experience. And it is 
 in order that you might not be tempted to forego 
 this education ; that you might easily and surely 
 acquire this knowledge ; that you might not be 
 inclined to undertake life's weightier matters until 
 the thews of mind and soul are toughened for the 
 strain ; that you might have full opportunity to learn 
 your privilege's, comprehend your duties, and under- 
 stand your powers, — because of these things, the law 
 mercifully regarded you as one mute to its demands, 
 irresponsible to your fellows, and powerless to shape 
 the course of public events. 
 
 It was deaf alike to your ambition and your greed. 
 It demanded of you only growth and preparation.
 
 SHYING AT A SHADOW. 57 
 
 When this was ended, or was presumed to have ended, 
 the door of opportunity swung wide before you. 
 You became a man. Was the probation any too 
 long? Curiously enough, you will find upon investi- 
 gation that almost all of those who have left great 
 names in history, who have colored the world's 
 life or flexed the world's thought, are those whose 
 period of probation, of silent, unnoted preparation, 
 have extended far beyond this limit. Especially in 
 this age, when the tendency to overaction and swift 
 decay is so great, let no young man bemoan the 
 delay of life's responsibilities. 
 
 But if this transition from infant to adult is of 
 vast importance in the ordinary relations of life, what 
 shall be said of it in that most responsible and most 
 comprehensive of all, your relations to the whole 
 body of your fellow-citizens — that relation on which 
 all other relations depend ? Yesterday you were 
 a subject ; to-day you are a king. Can you measure 
 the distance between?
 
 V. 
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABIIvlTY. 
 
 I SHALL not be surprised to learn that you, in 
 common with almost the whole body of your well- 
 educated compeers, are inclined to take issue with 
 me upon the concluding sentiment of my last letter. 
 It is a curious fact that of the little we are taught 
 about our civic relations, the greater portion is false 
 and misleading. It will be nothing strange, there- 
 fore, if the views which I shall formulate should be 
 somewhat at variance with those you have come to 
 entertain. Prosperity and opportunity are certain to 
 wean men from the consideration of public duty, and 
 the past twenty years have been more notable for 
 the invention of devices to avoid the responsibility 
 of self-government than the manifestation of a general 
 willingness to meet it. What the American people 
 seem now most anxious to discover is not how the 
 duty of the citizen may be best performed, but how 
 it may be safely neglected. 
 
 Though we have had more than a hundred years 
 of experience of republican institutions, so far as the 
 relations, duties, and responsibilities of the citizen 
 58
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 59 
 
 are concerned, we are still, as Madison phrased it, 
 "in the twihght of constitutional government." Our 
 government, in spirit even more than in form, was 
 just as much a discovery as that which Columbus 
 made when he first sighted the shores of the new 
 world. Nations had been called republics before ; 
 but in the sense which we have impressed upon the 
 word there had never been a republic of any con- 
 siderable extent. Indeed, it is clearly apparent to 
 one who will study with a discriminating mind the 
 history of the first quarter of a century of our na- 
 tional life, that our forefathers themselves had no 
 very clear perceptions of a republic in the modern 
 sense of the term. In what Randolph so aptly 
 aptly termed " the infancy of the science of constitu- 
 tions," it was yet believed that the ancient lines 
 might be followed in the creation of the new republic. 
 It was supposed that the column of American liberty' 
 would be a mere composite. The English plinth 
 was to be surmounted by a Graeco Roman shaft, 
 having a capital embracing something of the elements 
 of all ancient democracies, intermingled with a i^w 
 indigenous notions which were expected always to 
 remain subordinate to the imported ideas. 
 
 In pursuance of this principle we have, in theory 
 *at least, and so far as mere sciolists could determine 
 our tendencies, ever since been trying to import im- 
 provements of our original plan, instead of encourag- 
 ing its healthful growth and natural development.
 
 6o LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 We have studiously imparted to each new generation 
 the notion that all that is of value in our American 
 system of government is borrowed from some foreign 
 source. The Anglomaniac in politics has been as 
 disgusting in his slavish subjection to an imported 
 ideal as the "dude" in fashion, and infinitely more 
 harmful than the counterfeit cockney could possibly 
 be. In truth, we borrowed from our English history 
 only a few names and forms. Even these we en- 
 dowed with new significance, just as we established 
 our government on an absolutely new basis wliile 
 classing it under the ancient name of a republic. 
 
 The fundamental idea of British government is a 
 careful avoidance of the principle of equal civic 
 right. It is true there has been a constant progres- 
 sion toward it, as there must be with all enlightened 
 peoples; but all the mechanism of the English 
 government, under every change of policy, has been 
 designed to hinder rather than to promote this tend- 
 ency. This very idea which has been the bete noire 
 of Whig and Tory alike, and is now the "unclean 
 beast" which even the Liberals are afraid to mount, 
 is the basis principle of our government. We 
 builded upon the rights of men rather than the rights 
 of things — not private rights, but public privileges. 
 Instead of seeking to avoid the popular will, we 
 sought to devise machinery for its clear and unmis- 
 takable expression. The English principle of j^ov- 
 ernment is based upon a careful adjustment of class
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 6 1 
 
 interests; ours upon the joint and several re- 
 sponsibility and equal power and privilege of indi- 
 viduals. The two ideas are utterly inharmonious, 
 and the nearer we approach the model our mod- 
 ern political abstractionists have attempted to set 
 up for us, the farther we are going away from the 
 true principles which have underlain our century of 
 progress. The safety of the future does not depend 
 upon the approximation of our government to foreign 
 ideals, but in effectual appeal to its fundamental 
 principles, and in faithful and logical expansion of 
 its distinctive ideas. 
 
 Of this fact those who claim to rank as authorita- 
 tive expounders of our political philosophy have been 
 curiously unconscious. It is notable that nearly all 
 of them have been mere theorists — men who have 
 looked at our political life from the outside, and 
 have sought to devise remedies for ills they but 
 half understood, or to adjust mechanism, the motive 
 power of which they seem unable to apprehend. 
 When we fully realize this fact we shall not be sur- 
 prised to learn that almost every grave political evil 
 which has confronted us in the past has arisen, not 
 from the natural and unobstructed working of the 
 American system, but from foolish attempts to graft 
 upon it alien ideas. The truth is, that in our polit- 
 ical history new principles have so completely 
 dwarfed and overshadowed old theories and borrowed 
 forms, and so clothed old terms with new signifi-
 
 62 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 cance, that the whole fabric has become unique ; so 
 that analogies drawn from the experience of other 
 countries become for us the most dangerous of all 
 political speculations. 
 
 The first duty of one who would truly compre- 
 hend our national life, therefore, is to clear away 
 this mass of false speculation and foolish theory. 
 Instead of trying to fit our new-world life with the 
 cast-off clothing of old-world relations, we must begin 
 to realize the fact that we are teachers, and not 
 learners, in the science of self-government; that we 
 are the torch-bearers, and not groping followers along 
 the path of political progress. It becomes us to de- 
 velop theories and demonstrate truths, and not to 
 borrow half developed notions and try to fetter our 
 new life with their limitations. By so doing we have 
 already clouded our political thought with assump- 
 tions based on forms of expression so imperfectly 
 apprehended as to make the conclusions drawn from 
 them, in the main, absolutely unreliable. Among 
 the least understood of political terms is the word 
 "citizen," in its strictly American signification. 
 Thus it happens that you no doubt deem both 
 phases of my statement — that you were yesterday a 
 subject and are to-day a king — if not actually incor- 
 rect, at least only metaphorically true. 
 
 Yet I had no intention of resorting to verbal sub- 
 terfuge. I meant deliberately and positively to assert 
 that your relation to the United States and to the
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 63 
 
 State in which you live was but recently that of a 
 subject, and is to-day that of a ruler. You will, 
 perhaps, be inclined to tell me that this is impos- 
 sible. You have been carefully taught that "the 
 people of a republic are citizens, and the inhabitants 
 of a monarchy, subjects." As you have not changed 
 your residence it is evident, therefore, that you can 
 not have figured in both rdles. This is the general 
 view, and one by no means without recognized au- 
 thority. Yet when we come to investigate the ques- 
 tion, we shall find that the real distinction between 
 "subject " and " citizen " does not lie in the fact of 
 domicile nor depend on allegiance being due to a 
 monarchy in the one case, and a republic in the other, 
 but on the relation which the individual sustains to 
 the sovereign power. 
 
 There is a singular defect in the definition of 
 these terms by authorities, both legal and etymo- 
 logical. This is probably due, in part, to the fact 
 that the specific difference between "citizen" and 
 "subject" has never yet been made a matter of 
 sharp contention in any national or international 
 tribunal, and in part to the generally unrecogtu'zed 
 fact that our political history has impressed upon one 
 at least of these terms a new and peculiar signifi- 
 cance. "Subject" is defined as "one brought 
 under authority," "one owing allegiance." or "one 
 owing permanent allegiance." This latter definition 
 Great Britain insisted upon as the basis of her right
 
 64 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 to search American vessels for British subjects, which 
 gave rise to the War of 1812, It has been practically 
 abandoned. It will be observed, however, that 
 neither of these fully defines the relation of the sub- 
 ject to the sovereign, which is a mutual one. The 
 "subject" is one not only owing allegiance to a 
 sovereign, but one entitled to protection by the sov- 
 ereign. This is the entire relation — obedience and 
 allegiance on the part of the individual, and protec- 
 tion on the part of the sovereign. This is exactly 
 identical with the relation which women and infants 
 sustain to the government of the United States and 
 its constituent commonwealths. They owe obedience 
 and allegiance, and are entitled to protection in their 
 private rights — that is all. They have none of the 
 public rights which go to make what we call citizen- 
 ship in the strictly American sense. Some would 
 perhaps include in this category " Indians not taxed," 
 but it is a matter of grave doubt whether tliey are 
 even "subjects." To a certain extent we claim the 
 right to exercise restrictive power over them, but have 
 never recognized any right to protection on their part. 
 Unnaturalized foreigners — resident aliens, as they 
 are legally termed — owe obedience, but not alle- 
 giance. They are neither citizens nor subjects. 
 They can claim the protection of our laws only while 
 within the national limits, and then only in a re- 
 stricted sense. They must obey the law, but are not 
 required to enforce or maintain its authority. As to
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 65 
 
 native-born women and infants, however, and the 
 wives and children of naturalized foreigners, they 
 sustain precisely the same relations to our govern- 
 ment, whether at home or abroad, that the subjects 
 of a monarchical government sustain to the throne. 
 So you will see that it was neither in jest nor meta- 
 phor that I declared you, although a native of the 
 great republic, to have been but recently a "sub- 
 ject" — an American subject, if you will. 
 
 It may be a matter of interest — perhaps of sur- 
 prise — to you to know, also, that our American 
 "subjects" greatly outnumber our American "citi- 
 zens." In 1880, out of 50,150,000 people, the 
 males of all classes, twenty-one years old and up- 
 ward, numbered 12,830,000. Of these it would prob- 
 ably not be an overestimate to regard the 830,000 as 
 representing the unnaturalized adult males of the 
 7,000,000 of foreign-born and Indians included in 
 the enumeration. So that we may safely say that 
 three-fourths of the population of the United States 
 are simply "subjects," owing obedience to its laws 
 and allegiance to its power and entitled to the pro- 
 tection of its authority, but having no more right or 
 power to shape or modify its character or control 
 the exercise of its authority than if dwellers on 
 another planet. They are not "citizens" in the 
 more restricted sense of the term, having no particle 
 of civic power or privilege beyond that pertaining to 
 the subjects of every civilized monarchy.
 
 66 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 But what of the other one-fourth of our popula- 
 tion ? Was it a flattering metaphor to term them 
 kings? Let us see. The term citizen has been used 
 with a great variety of meaning. It originally in- 
 dicated the possessor of peculiar municipal privilege 
 or power. On account of this, having no distinctive 
 term to represent the specific status of tliat fourth 
 part of our population who exercise political power, 
 we call them, in contradistinction to the others, 
 citizens. The broadest use of this term that is sanc- 
 tioned by our law is the definition found in the first 
 section of the fourteenth article of the Constitution 
 of the United States. It is as follows: 
 
 "All persons born or naturalized in the United 
 States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citi- 
 zens of the United States and of the States wherein 
 they reside." 
 
 In this sense it is precisely equivalent to the 
 term "subject," the term "jurisdiction" being used 
 in international law in the sense of owing alle- 
 giance to and being entitled to protection from a par- 
 ticular nationality. It has a like significance in the 
 second section of the fourth article of the same in- 
 strument. The term was no doubt first used in this 
 sense in order to emphasize the separation from the 
 mother country. It was intended to differentiate be- 
 tween the "subjects of Great Britain," which was 
 the previous condition of the people of the Colonies, 
 and the equivalent relation they had assumed to the
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 6y 
 
 new nationality. From this sprang the ordinary dis- 
 tinction that the people of a republic are "citizens" 
 and those of a monarchy "subjects," on which is 
 based the idea that there is of necessity some spe- 
 cific difference in the two relations. The continued 
 use of the term with this significance became a polit- 
 ical necessity, because we had among us a class who 
 were denied even the ordinary rights of subjects. 
 The very purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment 
 was to secure to the negro the rights of a subject. 
 Tins is at once apparent when we note the fact 
 that it especially provides for his exclusion from the 
 rights and privileges of "citizenship" in the more 
 restricted sense of that term. 
 
 In this restricted and peculiarly American sense, 
 the word citizen has been very tersely and exactly 
 defined in the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 to be 
 
 " One of the sovereign people, a constituent member of 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNTY."* 
 
 Every young American should impress these two 
 definitions of a term so apt to be used in different 
 senses upon his memory with the utmost care. In 
 the one sense it is used to distinguish the American 
 people from the allegiants of a foreign power; in the 
 other to distinguish the class in which sovereignty 
 inheres from the rest of the American people. 
 
 *i9th Howard, 404.
 
 68 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 This is the basic distinction of our American 
 political system. It is not, therefore, by any figure 
 of speech, nor from any desire to appeal to your 
 vanity, that I have addressed you as a king ; but 
 simply because you are, in serious truth, one of those 
 in whom the sovet'eignty of the nation resides ! The 
 very thing that distinguishes the monarch from his 
 subjects distinguishes you from three-fourths of the 
 American people — the power to make and unmake, 
 to bind and loose, without review or modification by 
 any other power ! In you resides one aliquot part of 
 the supreme will of the nation, from whose decision 
 there is no appeal ! The fate of sixty millions of 
 people and the destiny of their descendants are in your 
 hands! As an individual, even now you are a "sub- 
 ject of the law." You labor, enjoy, hold, possess, 
 and exist, as a ^'subject." As a ''citizen,'' you rule, 
 govern, and decree. The emblem of sovereignty is 
 upon your brow ! The scepter is in your hands, 
 the responsibility upon your soul! The American 
 citizen is not merely a potential, but an actual king. 
 He is the ruler and controller of a people's destiny. 
 
 Your responsibility as such is not in any degree 
 lessened by the fact that the sovereign is not a single 
 individual, but twelve millions. Your thought, your 
 will, your conviction, and your honesty constitute an 
 essential increment of the aggregated sovereignty. 
 " We, the People," is the royal style by which your 
 acts are affirmed ! They who legislate speak with
 
 A JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY. 6g 
 
 your voice ! Those who execute the law, perform 
 your will. " By the grace of God," the wisdom of 
 the fathers, and, above all, by that gradual and un- 
 noted growth by which the American nation has been 
 unconsciously shaped into a singular distinctiveness 
 of political character, you have become jointly and 
 severally liable, with every other of the class to which 
 you belong, not for a specific part, but for the char- 
 acter of the whole indivisible sovereign power. 
 There is, however, one great difference between you 
 and the hereditary monarch — the Citizen-king can 
 
 NOT ABDICATE,
 
 VI. 
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 
 
 I FANCY that I hear you ask, with some asperity 
 of manner, if by the statement, "The citi7en-king can 
 not abdicate," I mean that you are required to "go 
 into pohtics" whether you desire to do so or not. 
 You wish to know whether I mean to intimate that, 
 if you do not care to undertake the task of govern- 
 ment, you can not step aside and leave it to others 
 who have a taste for it. You may even assert with 
 some heat that, if this be true, instead of being a free 
 government, our American RepubUc is the most 
 atrocious tyranny ever invented. 
 
 Softly, softly, my young friend. Liberty is not 
 the mere indulgence of inclination. In a certain 
 sense a man is free to do or not to do the duty of 
 the citizen as he pleases; just as he is free to do or 
 not to do any other duty — ^just as he may be said to 
 be at liberty to be a good or a bad man. He can no 
 more neglect his political duties and be a good citi- 
 zen, however, than he can live a life of crime and 
 be a good Christian. One of the evil inheritances 
 we have received from the Old World is this idea, 
 70
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 7 1 
 
 that political responsibility is like a coat that may be 
 put on or taken off at will. And this evil has been 
 intensified, rather than lessened, by the zeal with 
 which some of our Anglomaniac theorists, especially 
 at the East, have lately urged upon educated young 
 Americans the duty of "going into politics" — using 
 that phrase in the Anglican sense, and meaning 
 thereby offering themselves as candidates for office. 
 That merciless satirist of Boston life, who paints its 
 pettiness and self-sufficiency so deftly that his victims 
 take his ridicule for praise — that universal pessimist, 
 Mr. Howells — has no finer bit of satire than when he 
 puts into the mouth of the typical Boston matron the 
 delicious bit of taffy she addresses to the Harvard 
 undergraduate : 
 
 " How splendid to- have them going into politics 
 the way they are !" 
 
 Adding, in justification of her exultant approval: 
 
 "So many of the young university men do — in 
 England." 
 
 It is this idea that politics is a trade, a profession, 
 or a calling inseparably connected with office holding, 
 and not a part of the every-day business of every 
 American life, which in one form or another has 
 wrought such serious ills as to make it questionable 
 whether self-government has not more difficult prob- 
 lems and more serious obstacles yet to overcome 
 than those it has already encountered. From this 
 point of view, the revival of interest in political
 
 72 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 thought which has recently characterized the college 
 life and general culture of the East has been, in many 
 instances, exceedingly harmful. It has strengthened 
 two false impressions; the first, that politics is a dis- 
 tinct calling, instead of a universal duty ; and the 
 second, that the educated man, so called, is by that 
 very fact entitled to leadership. It is of the utmost 
 importance that the very opposite of both these ideas 
 should be inculcated in the minds of the young men 
 of to-day. It is the duty of every citizen, no matter 
 what his station, rank, intelligence, or calling, to "go 
 into politics." It is the duty of the "educated 
 man " to lead or to follow — just as he may be able — 
 just as the will of his co-ordinate sovereigns may 
 determine. 
 
 In a republic the political leader is rarely formed 
 by education, especially such false and faulty educa- 
 tion as is given in our schools and colleges to-day. 
 In fact, it is a curious truth, but one which you will 
 find abundantly sustained by the course of history, 
 that progress in government very rarely, if ever, 
 springs from the upper classes, or those known as 
 the best people. It is not the rich, the wise, the 
 refined and cultured elements of the world's life who 
 have pushed forward the cause of humanity and right, 
 and established the principles of justice and equality. 
 The governmental shoe has always pinched the poor 
 man's foot worse than that of the rich, and it has 
 been the hopeless agony of the weak, or the despera-
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 73 
 
 tion it inspired, that has loosened tlie clutch of 
 tyranny and opened the door of opportunity. It is 
 the need of the common people that calls forth leaders 
 and prepares men to become exponents of political 
 thought, not the study of specific theories. It is 
 the man who feels the popular want, understands the 
 aspiration and voices the demands of the popular 
 heart, who becomes the political leader in a republic. 
 He may do it rudely and ungracefully. He may not 
 be absolutely faultless in the use of the auxiliary 
 verbs, nor addicted to classical quotations ; but he 
 has an instinctive knowledge of the most pressing 
 evil of his time, and a more or less practicable remedy 
 therefor ; and these things make him the true expo- 
 nent of the sovereign will. 
 
 It is this fact that has made the common life of 
 the world the matrix in which its great leaders have 
 been shaped, and constituted instinctive sympathy 
 with the people the prime pj-erequisite of political 
 preferment in a republic. That culture which teaches 
 us to wisely note the general need, and adapt the 
 forms, conditions, and character of our institutions 
 thereto — that is true political education, and its very 
 fundamental principle is the universality of the duty 
 and the unavoidable character of the responsibility 
 that rests on the citizen king. 
 
 As I have said, you can not abdicate. You can 
 not cease to govern, either for good or ill. Self gov- 
 ernment — a republic in our modern sense of the word, 
 
 7
 
 74 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 which is most properly defined "a government by 
 the people " — is based upon certain distinct postulates, 
 to wit : 
 
 1. The equal power of each one of the governing 
 class — the citizen, in the restricted sense of that term. 
 
 2. That a majority of the citizenship will always 
 be wise enough to understand what is for the general 
 good — the greatest good of the greatest number. 
 
 3. That a majority will always be honest and patri- 
 otic enough to demand what is for the general good. 
 
 4. That a majority will always be vigilant and 
 brave enough to prevent any material subversion of 
 the popular will. 
 
 These are the four great principles on which the 
 fabric of our government rests — the mudsills of 
 the Republic. Whenever any one of them .shall prove 
 for any considerable period to be an incorrect hy- 
 pothesis, the experiment of self-government in the 
 United States will have proved a failure. Our fore- 
 fathers built upon this rock. Our fathers extended 
 and deepened the foundation. It is perhaps, as much 
 the result of unconscious development as design, 
 but it has been a development working logically 
 and naturally along the lines our forefathers doubt- 
 full)' and hesitantly marked out in the new field of 
 governmental science in which they were the first 
 explorers. 
 
 What do these principles demand of the individual 
 citizen ?
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 75 
 
 '.'Equality of right." This, fortunately, is already 
 theoretically attained. It is the result of almost a cent- 
 ury of sharp conflict. In but two of the States of the 
 Union is there now any legal distinction in the power 
 or the privilege of the citizen. In some the legal 
 limitations are somewhat more restricted than in 
 others. In one or two the right to v^ote depends on 
 ability to read and write ; in several the privileges 
 of citizenship are conditioned upon the payment 
 of taxes ; and in one there is a requirement, long 
 since obsolete, that the individual be of good char- 
 acter. The absurdity of making the right to rule 
 depend on such fortuitous conditions is now so gen- 
 erally recognized, and the legalized exceptions are so 
 insignificant in number that it ma}^ be said that every 
 native-born or naturalized male of twenty-one years 
 old and upward has legally an equal right with every 
 other in the direction and control of the government, 
 both State and national. To the decision of a ma- 
 jority of these legal sovereigns all political questions 
 are ultimately referred. If, by any means, a portion 
 of this constituent sovereignty is debarred from the 
 free expression of its will, the result becomes, to that 
 extent, not the popular will nor a government by the 
 people, but by some force or power which thwarts 
 or corrupts the popular will. It is needful, there- 
 fore, that every man should steadily and actively 
 assert his equal right, in order to secure the equal 
 rights of every other.
 
 "^e LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 It is also necessary for the success of republican 
 institutions that the majority should be generally, and 
 in the long run, right in their decision of public 
 questions. This can only be secured by the careful 
 anxiety of each individual to be himself right. There 
 is no luck nor necromancy about it. Ignorance or 
 passion or greed or negligence may corrupt the ver- 
 dict of the masses, just as well as the judgment of 
 the individual. It is only when men honestly seek 
 to know the right, to understand their individual 
 political duty, that there is any reason to suppose 
 that the majority will be wise enough to determine 
 what constitutes the highest good of the greatest 
 number, and so be fitted to promote the public weal 
 by their political action. Individual action becomes, 
 therefore, the sole guarantee of the second funda- 
 mental postulate on which our government is based. 
 
 But even equal opportunity and abundant knowl- 
 edge are not enough, of themselves, to secure the 
 public welfare. Right ?s valueless if not exercised, and 
 knowledge useless if it does not crystallize into action. 
 It is not enough, therefore, that every citizen should 
 be legally entitled to equal privilege with every other ; 
 but he must faithfully exercise the same, or the 
 popular verdict, made up without his assent, will be 
 to that extent defective, and for that very reason may 
 be wrong. It is his duty to see to it, not only that 
 he is qualified and prepared for the intelligent exercise 
 of his kingly prerogative, but that no harm befall the
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. yy 
 
 commonwealth from his neglect of duty. It is better 
 that he should be wrong than fail to act, as an error 
 of judgment is always less heinous than gross and 
 inexcusable neglect. Apathy is the worst of all evils. 
 A torrent may be easily turned, but a mere dripping 
 rill offers no opportunity for guidance. 
 
 But equality, right, knowledge, and zeal in the 
 performance of individual duty, all combined, are not 
 enough to secure the popular will from error and 
 guarantee the safety of the republic. A iiiajority of 
 the people, at least, must be vigilant and brave 
 enough to prevent any extended or continued sup- 
 pression, distortion, or corruption of the popular will. 
 It is just here that the crowning duty and responsi- 
 bility of the citizen arises. He is responsible not 
 only for his own action, but also for his fellow's 
 opportunity. He must not only stubbornly assert and 
 maintain his own privilege, earnestly strive to know 
 his own duty, and faithfully endeavor to give effect to 
 his own conviction, but he must see to it that neither 
 fraud, violence, bribery, terror, nor any other malign 
 influence, shall be allowed to neutralize the con- 
 viction, bias the judgment, or thwart the will of 
 his fellows. 
 
 If all this is required of every citizen in order to 
 secure good government in a republic, you will prob- 
 ably declare such a result to be hopeless. Do not 
 be over-hasty in your conclusions, my young friend. 
 All this is indeed necessary to insure good govern-
 
 78 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 ment "by the people." Yet what is it? Not so 
 very much after all. Only equal opportunity, vigi- 
 lance, and zeal — the very things of which we boast 
 as the chiefest glory of our land. Where else does 
 the gate of opportunity stand open to all ? Who so 
 intelligent, so alert, so keen as the American ? What 
 does it demand oi you ? Only that you should know 
 your own duty, assert your own privilege, use your 
 own judgment, and see that / am permitted to do 
 likewise. It is only what is required under every 
 form of government — of every constituent unit of the 
 sovereignty. Whether the king be one or a million, 
 he is responsible for the. same attributes. Justice, 
 wisdom, and honesty ; courage, zeal, and vigilance, 
 are required, not only of every one who aspires to 
 rule his fellows, but of every one on whom rests the 
 right and privilege of rulership. A king may abdi- 
 cate his throne ; but there is no method by which 
 the citizen can relieve himself from responsibility for 
 the character of the government he has it in his 
 power to control or modify. 
 
 Our government is but a partnership in which 
 there are twelve millions of co-partners, each having 
 equal privilege, equal power, and equal responsibility. 
 Of each is demanded intelligence, honesty, faithful- 
 ness, and courage. If any fail in either respect, it 
 endangers the rights, liberties, and prosperity, not 
 only of himself, but of each and every one of his fel- 
 lows, and of all who may come after them. "Gov-
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. Jg 
 
 ernment by the people " is a universal pact, a perpetual 
 covenant, by which every citizen is bound to every 
 other citizen for the faithful performance of his 
 part of the common duty. No one can invalidate 
 this covenant or avoid its penalty. He can not ab- 
 dicate his right, alienate his privilege, shift his bur- 
 den to other shoulders, or evade the penalty of this 
 joint and several bond. You are in duty bound not 
 only to see to it that the republic receives no detri- 
 ment from your own inability or neglect, but also to 
 prevent its being imperiled by the activity of any 
 one else. 
 
 I may be a bad man and you a very good one ; 
 I may be a weak man and you a very strong one ; I 
 may be a foolish man and you a very wise one ; I 
 may be a timid man and you a brave one. If, now, 
 you take away your courage, your wisdom, your 
 strength, and your integrity, and leave the burden 
 of government — the weight of sovereignty, the act 
 of legislation, the task of administration, and the 
 duty of protecting and maintaining the national life — 
 to my weakness, my folly, my cowardice, or my 
 greed, and evil result, as of course it must, on whom 
 will the responsibility rest? 
 
 Who will be called to answer in the last great 
 day for the injustice, oppression, anarchy, and woe 
 that may ensue ? Surely not I alone who did the 
 ^vrong, but you who weakly permitted. It is your 
 duty to save me from myself — my children from my
 
 So LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 harmful assault. If you fail to do so, your rights must 
 suffer, and your children will feel the scath of my 
 wrong-doing as well as mine. 
 
 " But," you ask, "how shall I perform this task? 
 How shall I learn my duty ? How discharge my re- 
 sponsibility ? Are there not some millions of my fel- 
 low-sovereigns who are ignorant of their duties? Are 
 there not many thousands who are neglectful of them? 
 Are not votes bought and sold, like meat in the 
 shambles ? Do not bribery and intimidation vitiate 
 the public verdict, and paralyze individual effort? Do 
 not * practical politics ' and party spirit and the ' ma- 
 chine ' render it impossible for an honest and patriotic 
 man to act up to his convictions, and exercise the 
 power vested in him for the public welfare? Surely," 
 you say, "I can not be held responsible for failing 
 to do what so many of our wisest and best men de- 
 clare it is impossible to effect." 
 
 In public affairs as in private morals, there falls 
 to each one a modicum of duty. One can not do all, 
 and is not required or expected to do all, that is to 
 be done. Neither will all that needs to be done be 
 accomplished at once. But it is only by the unre- 
 mitting performance of individual duty that any pub- 
 lic evil will be remedied, or any public good accom- 
 plished. It is true there are many obstacles to be 
 overcome. They are, however, by no means insuper- 
 able. Ignorance and vice are enemies that must be 
 met and vanquished. "The machine" is a gnome
 
 A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 8l 
 
 which serves many good people as an excuse for 
 inaction. Party spirit is, perhaps, as often a whole- 
 some as a harmful force. The greatest of all 
 obstacles you will have to encounter is that public 
 sentiment which depreciates the citizen's privileges, 
 makes light of individual responsibility, winks at 
 the employment of evil methods, and generally 
 seeks to divorce political conduct from moral re- 
 sponsibility. "Practical politics" may be either 
 of a good or a bad sort. The most "practical" 
 of all is that which carries Christian principle into 
 political action, and drives out evil methods and 
 evil influences. Practical politics is not that which 
 snivels and sneaks, and seeks foi- some specific by 
 which ignorance may be temporarily disarmed and 
 fraud for a time circumvented. Practical politics is 
 that which achieves practical results. If directed to 
 a good purpose and controlled by wise men, it con- 
 fronts ignorance with intelligence, fraud with honest 
 vigilance, crime with courage, zeal with zeal. 
 
 The struggle for good government is not an easy 
 nor an intermittent one. You must not expect, my 
 young friend, that the duties of the citizen will be 
 always light and pleasant. The head that wears a 
 crown must be always burdened with anxiety. The 
 political "machine" is not one that can be set right 
 and then left to run itself Your duties are not many 
 nor of especial difficulty, but they require close, care- 
 ful, and unremitting attention. You can not hire a
 
 82 , LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 substitute to do service for you in the conflict for 
 liberty, nor leave what should be done to-day until 
 to-morrow. In the performance of the duties of the 
 citizen the first and most important step is to deter- 
 mine your relations to party, and your rights, privi- 
 leges, and responsibilities as a partisan. This subject 
 will, therefore, next claim our attention.
 
 VII. 
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 
 
 It is customary to speak of party as a political 
 evil, and to bewail the fact that such a thing as party 
 spirit exists. No little ingenuity has been wasted by 
 closet politicians in devising some sort of mechanical 
 substitute whereby the advantages of party organiza- 
 tion may be retained, and the evils of party manage- 
 ment avoided. Thus far no successful substitute has 
 been found, and the paper reformers who seek for 
 one have proved themselves of no more value to the 
 country than the mourners who pathetically whine 
 about the "good old days " when party was unknown. 
 The truth is, that like every other mere instru- 
 mentality, party is potent either for good or ill. It 
 may not be the best agency that can be devised for 
 the control of popular government, but it is the only 
 one that has ever proved itself effective ; and we may 
 be sure that if a better is ever found it will still be 
 liable to abuse, and only better because of increased 
 potency. The country is ruled by party government, 
 and is likely to be so ruled for many generations. 
 The part of the wise man and good citizen, therefore, 
 
 83
 
 84 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 is not to stand off and scold about what he is power- 
 less to remedy simply because he fancies it is not 
 absolutely perfect. One might as well attempt to 
 batter down the rock of Gibraltar with green peas as 
 to cure a political evil by mere fault-finding. Power 
 yields only to force, and the true reformer is not he 
 who merely points out a hypothetically better plan, 
 but he who also develops a practical means for its 
 accomplishment. The part of the patriotic citizen is 
 not merely to bewail the ills that beset him, but 
 stoutly to face them, and to study earnestl}- how to 
 amend them. Especially is this true of men who are 
 the first-born of heroes, like the thousands who will 
 this year step for the first time into the arena of 
 American citizenship. The prime duty of such is to 
 study the nature of party government, and ascertain 
 its true relation to the citizen, to the government, and 
 to Christian civilization. 
 
 Party, in our American sense of the term, is the 
 most remarkable governmental agency ever devised. 
 It is not the invention of any man, or set of men, but 
 a natural outgrowth of our free institutions, or rather 
 of the spirit from which they sprung. The term is 
 .said to mean "a number of persons united in opinion 
 as opposed to the rest of the community ;" and this 
 has been generally accepted as a sufficient definition. 
 It fails, however, to draw the line between party and 
 faction, to which it equally well applies, but from 
 which party is clearly distinguished by American
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 85 
 
 usage. The truth is, that the marked distinctiveness 
 of the American people — a distinctiveness stoutly 
 denied by Anglomaniacs and other superficial ob- 
 servers of our life, and by nothing more clearly proved 
 than by the frequent need of new definitions for old 
 words — has impressed upon the term party a meaning 
 not merely new, but thus far apparently impossible 
 of comprehension by the political thinkers of the Old 
 World. This distinction, so far as I am aware, has 
 never been fairly set forth, so that even by ourselves 
 the idea of party is rather instinctively apprehended 
 than clearly understood. We shall, perhaps, best 
 arrive at a just comprehension of this singular insti- 
 tution by a brief consideration of its history. 
 
 At the organization of our government, the only 
 parties of which its founders had any conception, the 
 only voluntary organizations which they supposed 
 would ever develop into political forces, were what 
 we would now term factions. It was believed that 
 men prominent in public affairs would have adherents 
 who would perhaps band themselves together to 
 secure the advancement of their respective favorites. 
 This was the view on which the electoral s}'stem of 
 the Federal Constitution was based, and which it 
 was designed to utilize and regulate It was sup- 
 posed that men of prominence in the several States 
 would be competitors for the honor of determining 
 the choice of President and Vice-President, and that 
 the followers of these local celebrities would be pitted
 
 86 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 against each other in each State, not as mere repre- 
 sentatives of some general interest, but as individuals 
 whose action would be a matter of personal discre- 
 tion with each. It was believed, also, that the same 
 theory of a personal following and individual popu- 
 larity would prevail in the action of the several 
 " Electoral Colleges," as the people soon named the 
 undefined bodies provided for by the Constitution, 
 the members of which it was supposed would act 
 according to their individual preferences, and being 
 men of eminent character, would look more closely 
 and discriminatingly to the personal qualities of the 
 men they might name than the body of the voters 
 were believed to be capable of doing. In other 
 words, it was intended to interpose between the 
 popular will and the national Executive, the wisdom 
 and discretion of a specially selected body, who 
 should determine, not who was the popular choice, 
 but whom they deemed best fitted for the place. 
 
 This idyllic theory was doomed to early and com- 
 plete eradication. The pre eminent regard in which 
 Washington was held by all. and the apparent neces- 
 sit)' that the man of most commanding influence 
 in the newly organized republic should be at the 
 head of its affairs, at least until the governmental 
 machinery was in running order, made the successful 
 application of a principle, which would now be re- 
 garded as absurd, for a time, not only possible, but 
 almost unavoidable. The Electors chosen at the first
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 87 
 
 election in the various States were men of the highest 
 distinction, and the result was undoubtedly a fair 
 expression of the first and second choice of a vast 
 majority of the individual voters. You will recollect 
 that at that time, and until 1804, the Electors did 
 not vote for President and Vice-President, but each 
 Elector voted for two persons, the one having the 
 highest number of votes being declared President, 
 and the next highest Vice-President, making those 
 selected really the first and second choice of a 
 majority of the Electors, for President. 
 
 At the first election, in 1788, there was no trace 
 of a national party. Before the second election, in 
 1792, however, the seed had been sown and the 
 transformation from faction to party had begun. 
 The re-election of Washington and Adams partook 
 in a great degree of the character of a party victory. 
 The abstract theories of the framers of the Constitu- 
 tion had come in collision with the instincts of the 
 people. They did not rebel against the forms im- 
 posed, but simply nullified them by making them 
 mere empty forms. From that hour the Elector 
 began to lose the character of a discretionary official, 
 and became more and more the mouth piece of pop- 
 ular preference, until he has at length ceased to be 
 an official of anj^ importance whatever — the place 
 being now accounted merely a training-school for 
 the unpracticed politician, or a solace for the super- 
 annuated one. The work of the various Electoral
 
 88 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 Colleges to-day is simply a puerile farce, of no more 
 real importance than the payment of a barley-corn 
 rental. 
 
 The seed of our present party system was, how- 
 ever, hidden in the Constitution itself With its 
 adoption, and even before its adoption, there sprang- 
 up a wonderful difference of opinion as to the re- 
 lation of the new government to the constituent 
 States, those advocating enlarged powers for the 
 national government being termed Federalists, and 
 those insisting upon the most extended view of 
 the sovereignty of the respective States, Republicans. 
 These terms from time to time varied somewhat in 
 their respective significations until 1816, when the 
 former disappeared from our political annals and has 
 never been revived. The term Democrat was pop- 
 ularly applied almost interchangeably with Repub- 
 lican to the opponents of Federalism, until 1824, 
 when the Republican party divided, the Jackson 
 wing taking the name of Democrat, while the 
 anti-Jackson Republicans merged with the remnant 
 of the Federalists under the name National Republi- 
 cans. It was a shrewd attempt by a dissatisfied mi- 
 nority to deprive the party they were deserting of 
 the prestige of the part}' name. The stroke was 
 promptly met by those at which it was aimed, by 
 the renunciation of the old name and the adoption 
 of a more radical and popular designation. The at- 
 tempt has more than once been made to repeat this
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 89 
 
 strategy, and capture a favorite party name for a 
 seceding faction, but it has never been successful. 
 Prefixes and suffixes have never proved attractive 
 lures to the American voter. 
 
 In 1836 the Whig party first appeared in our 
 national politics, and continued the chief opponent 
 of the Democratic party until 1852. In 1840 the 
 Liberty party first offered a national candidate, and 
 under various aliases, such as Free-soil and Free- 
 Democrat, continued until after the election of 1852. 
 United with the great body of the Whig party, and 
 a considerable contingent of Northern Democratic 
 leaders, they formed in 1856 the Republican party, 
 which has been the chief opponent of the Demo- 
 cratic party ever since. There have been Anti- 
 mason, American, Temperance, Greenback, and 
 other so-called parties from time to time, but those 
 we have considered are the only ones that have 
 ever controlled the national Administration. 
 
 It will be well for you to keep in mind this brief 
 resume of party names and their succession, not that 
 the names themselves are of much significance, 
 but they will enable you to fix with certainty the 
 various steps in the development of the American 
 idea of party. It may be interesting, however, to 
 note one or two facts in relation to them. The 
 Federal party, to which Washington belonged, be- 
 came at an early day so odious to the people that 
 
 no party has dared to assume its name since its final 
 
 8
 
 go LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 collapse in 1796. Republican, which succeeded it in 
 popular favor after twenty years of undisputed sway, 
 was adopted by a faction, with the prefix ' ' Na- 
 tional," and thereafter abandoned by the most ultra 
 branch, who adopted the term Democrat, which had 
 been derisively applied to the Republicans by their 
 opponents, the Federalists, for many years. The 
 name Whig was borrowed from English politics, 
 both because of its association with our Revolu- 
 tionary da)s and the triumphs which just at that 
 time were being won by English Whigs, as well as 
 the fact that it impUed opposition to autocratic 
 power, being aimed in this sense at the personal 
 government inaugurated by Jackson. The Liberty, 
 Free-soil, and Free Democrat appellations of the 
 anti-slavery party are each expressive of some 
 peculiar phase of the struggle out of which it sprung. 
 Throughout the entire century of constitutional 
 government of which this year marks the close, how- 
 ever, there has been a general harmony of relation 
 between the two leading parties that is very striking, 
 and which it is essential for him who would under- 
 stand American politics to keep steadily in view. 
 From first to last, the chief difference has been in 
 regard to the extension or limitation of federal 
 power. The distinction has not always been appar- 
 ent, frequently seeming to have been supplanted by 
 some more obvious issue; but careful analysis will 
 show that in some form it has constantly underlain
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 9 1 
 
 the issue which, for the time being, seemed to be 
 the sole cause of difference. The RepubHcans at 
 the first, and since 1824 the Democrats, have been 
 the avowed champions of the rights and privileges of 
 the individual States as sovereign communities, in 
 contradistinction to the national or confederated 
 power of the whole. Not only the exclusive control 
 of their internal affairs, but also the absolute au- 
 tonomy of the States — the right to withdraw from 
 the Union, into which they had entered as sovereign 
 States by federal compact, a mere formal treaty 
 which ex vi termini might be rescinded by the power 
 that made it — was for three-quarters of a century a 
 distinctive principle of this party. 
 
 Its opponent, under various appellations, has more 
 or less rigorously upheld the theory of national pre- 
 dominance, the insolubility and individual rather than 
 statal character of the federal pact. They have in- 
 sisted that the Constitution was a pact between " we, 
 the people," as constituent atoms, rather than be- 
 tween the States as political corporations. This 
 contest has been varied in name and form by spe- 
 cific tendencies at various epochs. Under the im- 
 pulse derived in no small degree from the term 
 Whig, it advocated the employment of national 
 power for the collective economic advantage of the 
 people, and was characterized by the advocacy of 
 internal improvements and the taxation of imports, 
 with the view of increasing domestic manufacture.
 
 92 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 These questions were not then dependent merely 
 upon conflicting views as to the policy or impolicy 
 of free trade or internal improvement, but, to a 
 far greater extent than your training and experience 
 will enable you to realize, upon the right of the fed- 
 eral government to exercise its power in such direc- 
 tions and for such purposes. The federalistic idea 
 underlying the economic doctrines of the Whig party 
 inclined it to uphold almost any exercise of the na- 
 tional authority that would, promote the prosperity 
 of the people — whatever seemed to make for the gen- 
 eral aggregate advantage. 
 
 This idea, instead of being merged, as so many 
 have supposed, in the new questions raised by the 
 anti-slavery agitation at the time of the organization 
 of the present Republican party, was in fact empha- 
 sized and extended by it. The real issue between 
 the parties at that time was not, as you may have 
 supposed, my young friend, so much a difference of 
 opinion as to the right or wrong, policy or impolicy, 
 of slavery as a social institution or an economic 
 agency, but almost entirely a disagreement as to the 
 power of the federal government to restrain its 
 extension. The Democrats, in brief, held that 
 this question, being within the domain of statal 
 authority, and subject entirely to State regulation 
 and control, the general government could not 
 limit or restrict the privileges of a citizen of any 
 particular State in regard to any specific form of
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 93 
 
 property, nor permit it to be. done by any other 
 State. Tills was the philosophic basis on which 
 rested the Fugitive-Slave Law, the repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise, and the opposition to the prohi- 
 bition of slavery in the District of Columbia. This, 
 too, was the theoretical basis of the Rebellion, among 
 the most important results of which has been the de- 
 velopment of issues apparently new, yet based, in 
 fact, upon the old familiar controversy as to the 
 character of the federal compact, and the limitation 
 of federal power. These questions involve chiefly 
 the definition of federal citizenship, and must ulti- 
 mately lead to further consideration and determina- 
 tion of the limits of State control over the exercise 
 of civic privilege by citizens of the United States. 
 
 You will perceive, therefore, that for a hundred 
 years the great fundamental distinction between the 
 parties which have controlled the national destiny 
 has been a difference, not merely as to the correct 
 construction of the Federal Constitution, but as to 
 the true principles which should control the exercise 
 of the federal power. The one has held with more 
 or less latitude that the national power can only be 
 exercised to sustain the national authority, provide 
 for the national defense, and raise money for the cur- 
 rent expenses of the government. The other has 
 maintained, under various names and with various 
 immediate purposes in view, that the real scope of 
 national power is the general good of the whole
 
 94 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 people, limited only by the express restrictions of the 
 Constitution. They have consequently advocated 
 the use of the public lands and the public credit in 
 promoting works of internal improvement ; have 
 opened the public lands to the actual settler without 
 purchase, or at a nominal value ; defined the limits 
 of national citizenship, and maintained the principle 
 of a restrictive and discriminating tax on imports, 
 not only as a means of obtaining revenue, but also 
 as a method of encouraging domestic manufacture, 
 and promoting the general welfare of the people. 
 
 The real question at issue between the two parties 
 which in turn dominate our destiny has changed in 
 this hundred years of experience and under uncon- 
 scious modifying influences, chiefly in one aspect. 
 At first, it was almost solely a matter of construction. 
 What did the Constitution mean — what was the pur- 
 pose of the fathers? This was the question upper- 
 most in political discussion during the first half cen- 
 tury of our national life. Gradually it became com- 
 plicated with questions of policy — of necessity even. 
 Yet still it entered into and colored all political con- 
 troversy. It drew from Webster the argument, made 
 necessary by the strength of his opponent's position, 
 that the federal Union was a permanent pact between 
 individuals, rather than a terminable treaty between 
 sovereign communities, giving thereby of necessity 
 the right to consider and promote the general
 
 A CHOICE OF WEAPONS. 95 
 
 advantage in all methods not expressly prohibited by 
 the fundamental law. 
 
 From the enunciation of this doctrine until the 
 present time the color of our political discussion has 
 been constantly changing. The question of intent on 
 the part of the framers of the Constitution has grad- 
 ually given way to the question of public policy and 
 general interest. This is not only true of political 
 theories and legislative action, but the tendency of 
 judicial construction has also been in the same direc- 
 tion. Rivers and harbors, national highways, educa- 
 tion and the agricultural interests of the country, 
 have been subjects of especial national care, while 
 the courts have asserted its power not only to control 
 and regulate citizenship and the exercise of its privi- 
 leges, but also to see that the power of the State is 
 not exercised to the detriment of individual interests, 
 the impairment of domestic commerce, or to imperil 
 the general prosperity. So that national policy, 
 rather than constitutional power, has at length be- 
 come the chief ingredient of political disquisition ; 
 and the question now is, not so much how far the na- 
 tional prerogative may be extended, but rather how 
 far it ought to be carried. 
 
 This fundamental difference between the leading 
 parties of the country will no doubt continue. It 
 takes the place, to a considerable degree, of the dis- 
 tinction between the government and the opposition
 
 96 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 which prevails in other parliamentary governments, 
 and is the key to the peculiar significance of the 
 term party in our political thought. Of course a 
 thousand considerations, aside from the two great 
 tendencies we have considered, may incline the indi- 
 vidual to affiliate with the one or the other of these 
 great parties. Indeed, it is quite possible that the 
 mass of adherents of both are unconscious of the 
 great underlying principles that divide them, and 
 but dimly know why they incHne to the one and 
 not to the other. 
 
 While it is important that you should make no 
 mistake in determining what shall be your party 
 affiliations, it is of infinitely more importance that you 
 should clearly understand what are your rights, privi- 
 leges, and responsibilities as a member of any party. 
 We are accustomed to speak of the ballot as the 
 great instrument of political power. It is a mistake. 
 The ballot-box only registers the triumph of one 
 party over another. It is as a partisan alone that 
 the citizen exercises power, and the party organiza- 
 tion is the only weapon by which political good may 
 be accomplished or political evil averted. This wea- 
 pon you must learn to test, to shape, to temper, 
 and to wield, if you would wisely rule or effectually 
 serve your country.
 
 VIII. 
 
 "KING CAUCUS." 
 
 I DO not doubt that if you have carefully followed 
 the preceding papers of this series, you will note with 
 especial pleasure the caption of the present number. 
 We have been so accustomed to attribute all our polit- 
 ical ills to malign'abstractions rather than to individual 
 deficiencies, that it is not at all strange that you 
 should be somewhat tired of being addressed in the 
 second person singular and held accountable for 
 public evils just the same as for other personal sins 
 of omission and commission. You will no doubt 
 rejoice, therefore, in the thought that instead of 
 applying the rod still farther to the back of the in- 
 dividual citizen, I am about to turn my attention to 
 the much belabored abstraction whose name appears 
 at the head of this article. I am aware that "party" 
 and the "caucus" are regarded as the twin devils of 
 our political life, on whose devoted heads the profes- 
 sional reformer — the man to whom whatever is, is 
 always wrong — bestows his most vigorous whacks 
 and choicest maledictions. You will perceive that I 
 have inclosed the caption in quotation marks. This 
 
 9 97
 
 98 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 is not done for the purpose of implying doubt as to 
 its existence or the propriety of the cognomen, but 
 as you will perceive before you reach the close of this 
 letter, to suggest whether the evil thing we so lustily 
 curse is really entitled to bear the name we use to 
 barb our anathemas. Having already briefly sketched 
 the succession of parties, the various changes of name 
 and curious identity of character which have charac- 
 terized our leading political agencies from the foun- 
 dation of our government until the present time, the 
 purpose of this letter is to trace the evolution of the 
 organic form and note the distinctive elements of the 
 modern party. We must perforce go over much of 
 the same ground, and pass the same political events in 
 a like hasty review, but we shall regard them now in 
 an entirely different aspect. Our inquiry is no longer 
 under what name, or for what purpose, but in what 
 form and bj' what methods, political results have been 
 achieved. 
 
 In considering this question, we should keep 
 steadily in mind the fact that party is otily an agency. 
 The American party organization is simply the in- 
 strumentality, by which the American people have 
 chosen to govern themselves. As an instrument, it 
 is not to be held accountable for the results of its 
 use, any more than any piece of mechanism for the 
 consequences of its application. The workman, not 
 the chisel, is to be judged by the chips. The question 
 is whether a party, as at present organized and
 
 ''KING caucus:' 
 
 99 
 
 administered in this country, is an effective method 
 for accompHshing the ends which those who move the 
 springs and levers have in view ; whether it is an effi- 
 cient instrument for accomplishing good in the hands 
 of good men, and bad in the hands of bad men ; and 
 whether it lends itself with equal facility to the aims 
 of each. If so, it is a good political agency ; if not, 
 it is a bad one. There has not yet been invented any 
 substitute for honesty, patriotism, and intelligence, 
 on the part of the ruler; nor is any political mechan- 
 ism likely to be devised that in the hands of bad men 
 will yield good results, or enable good men to cir- 
 cumvent evil without exertion. 
 
 For forty years after the organization of the fed- 
 eral government, parties partook very largely of the 
 character of parties and factions in other countries. 
 Especially did they resemble in constitution and 
 operation the political forces bearing the same desig- 
 nation, which had grown up under that curiously 
 indefinite force known us the British Constitution. 
 The English party has always closely resembled the 
 fundamental law of which it is a result. Certainty 
 and uncertainty are strangely combined in its char- 
 acter. Of late, it has taken something of form from 
 our political system. At that time, however, it was 
 too vague to deserve the name of part)'. Harmony 
 of action was curiously blended with freedom of 
 opinion in its ranks. The line that separated the con- 
 flicting forces was so vague as to be almost indefinable.
 
 lOO LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 The bond that united allied factions was very often 
 one of contrast rather than of accord. Each individual 
 leader formulated his own dogmas and negotiated his 
 own alliances. The English party of that day was 
 merely a confederation of cliques — a group of mobs 
 rather than an organization. There was nothing rep- 
 resentative, fixed, or determinate in its form or char- 
 acter. It had a head but no body, and even its 
 head was of indeterminate form and uncertain com- 
 position. It might be a club or only a cabal. It 
 might be constituted, destroyed, or recreated, without 
 reference to, or consent of, the electors — the suffra- 
 gans on whom its strength depended. Its leaders 
 were merely allies, who fought together under a com- 
 mon flag as long as they saw fit, or as long as they 
 could command the support of their constituencies 
 by so doing, and no longer. 
 
 Except in the choice of members of the House 
 of Commons, the English constituencies had, until 
 very recently no voice in the constitution of the 
 party, or the formulation of its distinctive ideas. The 
 mass-meeting and the self-constituted cabal were its 
 only organic features, if these can be called organic. 
 A few men, representing no one, and accountable to 
 no one, met and agreed vaguely upon a certain line 
 of conduct. It was rarely if ever formulated into 
 abstract propositions binding upon all. Tliere was 
 none of the careful study of phraseology and delicate 
 balancing of words, which characterize the American
 
 *'KiNG caucus:' ioi 
 
 platform. ' ' Certainty to a common intent in general, " 
 was all that was required even of the parties to the 
 conference themselves. Smith might state the com- 
 mon purpose with emphatic precision, and Jones 
 clothe it in the most dubious hypothesis; while 
 another might cover the whole ground of variance 
 from doubt to certainty, and add to the same an 
 infinite variety of individual notions, without being 
 thought to exceed the privilege of the partisan. 
 This was precisely the character of the Federal and 
 Republican parties in the early period of our history; 
 and such our statesmen of that day, no doubt, ex- 
 pected them to continue. Indeed, it is not unusual 
 to find political teachers at the present time who have 
 quite overlooked the fact of organic changes in our 
 political agencies, as well as the causes from which 
 they have arisen. 
 
 No doubt one of the chief influences in effecting 
 such changes was the adoption of written constitu- 
 tions, together with the judicial rule of strict con- 
 struction of the same, except in regard to indi- 
 vidual rights. The grant of powers was viewed 
 with the utmost jealousy ; the guarantee of rights 
 construed with the utmost liberality. This cultivated 
 a habit of certaint)'^ and precision in the statement 
 of political questions, which is quite unknown in 
 other countries, except those whose political habit 
 has been largely molded by our experience. The 
 conventions which framed these constitutions were,
 
 102 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 in a sense, representative, though by no means 
 strictly and impartially so. The doctrine of equal 
 power and privilege in the control of government 
 had made but little progress at that time, and it is a 
 curious fact that representative government preceded 
 by nearly half a century the institution of repre- 
 sentative party organizations. Little groups of 
 prominent men in each State were, at first, the shap- 
 ing forces of the respective parties. They devised 
 and formulated the party policy, and performed the 
 functions of the English party club or conference of 
 leaders. The only method in which the rank and 
 file of the party could give expression to their views 
 was by public meetings and the adoption of pre- 
 pared resolutions. These mass conventions con- 
 tinued to grow in importance, and the voluntary 
 cabals to be looked upon with increasing suspicion 
 and distrust, as the new government came to be 
 more fully apprehended by the people. 
 
 Before the second decade of our constitutional 
 history had elapsed, such mass conventions in the 
 several States had become the real law makers of the 
 respective parties. They formulated with the utmost 
 precision the tenets to which their adherents were 
 required to accede as a condition of party recogni- 
 tion and support. They rarely touched, however, 
 the field of party administration and control and it 
 was nearly half a century before the two functions 
 were united in the same body.
 
 *'KING CAUCUS." 103 
 
 From the voluntary or mass convention, marked 
 by State limits, to the delegated convention with 
 prescribed constituencies, seems to us now but a 
 step, yet it was at least a quarter of a century before 
 it was fully taken. Like almost all the successive 
 steps in the evolution of our governmental forms 
 and agencies, this was not the result of the political 
 sagacity or philosophical foresight of any man or set 
 of men, but of the popular jealousy of self-consti- 
 tuted leaders. It would seem that in a few of the 
 States the delegate part}- convention had been es- 
 tablished as early as 1820. Its powers and functions, 
 however, were very loosely defined. The representa- 
 tion, except in some of the New England States, was 
 by counties, and in them by towns. The delegates 
 were chosen b)- public mass conventions. Even this 
 skeleton part\- organization was only half com- 
 plete, in most of the States, and as }'et there had 
 been no attempt to extend its operation to the do- 
 main of national politics. 
 
 The exercise of delegated authority in party 
 councils had, however, become familiar to the pop- 
 ular mind through the action of congressional and 
 legislative caucuses. These were the first successors 
 of the vicious system of voluntary cabals. Their 
 right to act for their respective parties was based 
 solely on the fact that they had been chosen by them 
 to perform other political functions. The hostility 
 to I'ederalism which dex'eloped even during Wash-
 
 I04 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 ington's first term, was no doubt a popular rebellion 
 against the idea of a central controlling power, in the 
 party as well as in the nation. The self-constituted 
 Federal caucuses of Virginia, New York, and Mas- 
 sachusetts were exact equivalents of their English 
 model. They were composed of the ablest, most 
 patriotic and cultivated of the supporters of the 
 Presidential policy. They represented, however, an 
 idea inherently obnoxious to the American spirit; 
 they assumed to rule rather than to serve; they dic- 
 tated the party policy without having been author- 
 ized by the voters of the party to speak for them. 
 
 The first formal rebellion against the authority 
 of these unauthorized cabals was the legislative cau- 
 cus. When or where the first of these remarkable 
 gatherings was held it is impossible now to deter- 
 mine ; nor, indeed, is it important. The association 
 of members of a legislative body having a general 
 political affinity, to secure harmony of action in 
 matters of general interest, is not only natural but 
 absolutely essential. It was, perhaps, equally nat- 
 ural that these chosen representatives of the people 
 should look with jealousy upon the self-constituted 
 cliques which assumed to direct the course of na- 
 tional affairs. Almost from the first, therefore, we 
 find the legislative caucuses performing the organic 
 functions of the State conventions of the present 
 time, and assuming to speak for their constituents, 
 not only in regard to State, but also upon national
 
 ''KING CAUCUS." 105 
 
 affairs. Of these, the legislative caucuses of Virginia 
 and New York became especially notable. 
 
 The congressional caucus was the natural out- 
 growth of the legislative organizations already exist- 
 ing. It was instituted under the direct supervision 
 of Mr. Jefferson, who was the discoverer of most of 
 the popular forces of the new government. He 
 alone seems to have understood something of the 
 meaning of government by the people, while the 
 bulk of his compeers thought only of a government 
 for tlie people, by their leaders. The first congres- 
 sional caucus — that is, the first organized meeting of 
 the members of a political party who were also 
 members of the two houses of Congress, assuming to 
 act on behalf of their party, in the selection of a 
 Presidential candidate — was held toward the close 
 of Mr. Jefferson's second term, in 1808. It will be 
 well for you to note the character of this caucus with 
 some care, in order to distinguish it from the joint 
 caucus of each party in the two houses of Congress, 
 which still exists, but confines its attention to mat- 
 ters of legislation. The two bodies are entirely dis- 
 similar in function, though designated by the same 
 terms. 
 
 From this time until 1824 the congressional cau- 
 cuses assumed to nominate the national candidates, 
 and their action was in every instance confirmed by the 
 popular acquiescence and approval of their respective 
 parties. This result was not secured, however, with-
 
 I06 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 out certain indications of ultimate revolt. The jeal- 
 ousy of the various legislative caucuses, whose action 
 was really open to the very same objection, fostered 
 the idea already prevalent among the people, that 
 such course on tiie part of members of Congress was 
 a dangerous usurpation — an unauthorized extension 
 of the powers delegated to them by their constitu- 
 ents. The term which became the slogan of the 
 famous scrub race of 1824 showed how ineradicable 
 is the antipathy of the American people to the exer- 
 cise of any political power which is not clearly and 
 unmistakably conferred by express popular authoriza- 
 tion. It was, in fact, a rebellion against the action 
 of the congressional caucus, which was stigmatized 
 as " King Caucus!" 
 
 The attempt has been made to perpetuate the 
 odium attaching to this name by an indiscriminate 
 application of the term to all forms of voluntary 
 political organization. Even yet the English polit- 
 ical writers, and some careless observers among our 
 own political theorists, labor under the impression 
 that the "caucus" is the most reprehensible feature 
 of our party organization. Within a very brief 
 period a distinguished novelist, whose ideas of 
 American politics, when not purely fanciful, are de- 
 rived by infiltration from English authorities, has 
 represented the United States as still under the do- 
 minion and control of that terrible tyrant, old " King 
 Caucus!"
 
 "KJNG caucus:' 107 
 
 The truth is, that the "caucus" in the sense in 
 which the word had been used up to that time, 
 received its death-blow in 1824. Almost, if not the 
 sole instances of its survival, are to be found in the 
 political organizations of the city of New York, 
 which despite its arrogant claim to teach political 
 purity, remains, as it always has been, the Gibraltar 
 of political depravity. At that time the legislative 
 caucuses of the several States, as if by mutual under- 
 standing, attempted to revive their lapsed privilege 
 of nominating the national candidates, and four aspir- 
 ants, all belonging to the same party, were thus 
 brought into the field, with the result that there was 
 no choice of President or Vice-President by the elec- 
 toral colleges of that year. 
 
 This fact and the controversies resulting therefrom 
 made a profound impression on the public mind, and 
 prepared the way for the institution, in 1830, of the 
 delegate national convention, which is the keystone 
 of the American theory of party government. The 
 result has been the establishment of a system of 
 voluntary republics within the boundaries, and adapt- 
 ing themselves to the civil divisions, of the federal 
 Union. These voluntary republics we call parties. 
 They are composed of (i) primaries, or voluntary 
 meetings of the members of the party in the smallest 
 subdivisions of the various States, and (2) delegate 
 conventions, composed of representatives from the 
 primaries or subordinate delegate conventions. Thus
 
 I08 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 the city, district, county, State, and national conven- 
 tions are duly constituted, all dependent on the will 
 of the individual members of the party as expressed 
 at the primaries, or, as they are sometimes termed, 
 caucuses. 
 
 This magnificent system is a gradual but nat- 
 outgrowth of the geniuS of the American people 
 for self government. It is the natural enemy of 
 the "caucus" and all forms of individual usurpa- 
 tion or assumption. It is the freeman's chosen 
 weapon for the achievemertt of individual equality, 
 which only fails to accomplish its purpose when the 
 hand of the citizen relaxes its grasp and the free- 
 man yields its control to the hireling. In detail and 
 organization it is by no means perfect. It is fair to 
 presume that neither its merits nor its imperfections 
 are yet fully apprehended. Fifty years of trial can 
 hardly be expected to develop more than the most 
 apparent excellencies, or reveal the most evident 
 defects of a system at once so pliant, so potent, and 
 so unique. 
 
 Thus far the evils which have developed under 
 it have generally, if not always, been the result, not 
 of the system itself, but of the s'urvival of some of 
 the vicious and undemocratic dements of the systems 
 it superseded. 
 
 These in many cases have distorted its character 
 and greatly impaired its efficiency ; but reviewing its 
 entire history, judging its efficiency by its aggregated
 
 "KING CAUCUS." 109 
 
 results, it is not too much to say that the American 
 party system is the simplest, surest, and, all things 
 considered, the most effectual method of ascertaining 
 the popular will and carrying into effect the common 
 purpose, that has ever been devised. Being a natural 
 evolution, it adapts itself with readiness to the most 
 diverse conditions, not serving to render the bad 
 good, nor the good bad, but registering with the 
 utmost exactitude the intelligence, virtue, strength, 
 and manhood of every community to which it is 
 applied. If it points to "deals" in New York and 
 "bull-dozing" in the South, it is not the fault of the 
 system, but only a natural result of the predominance 
 of corruptibility and weakness in the respective local- 
 ities. A reliable barometer will not point to "fair" 
 in the face of a storm, nor has any plan been yet 
 devised that will enable a people to gather the grapes 
 of good government from the thorns of neglect, 
 venality, and ignorance. Our party system does not 
 guarantee protection against usurpative intelligence ; 
 it affords no safeguard against intimidation or cor- 
 ruption; it only provides, and only professes to pro- 
 vide, a way by which virtue and intelligence, united 
 with courage and zeal, may secure prosperity and 
 good government in a republic. 
 
 The creation of this magnificent instrumentality is 
 due to the instinct of self-control that characterizes 
 our people. It is this which especially distinguishes 
 the American Republic^from all other attempts in the
 
 no LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 direction of self-government, and is the most unique 
 and valuable of all our political institutions. In- 
 stead of regarding it with apprehension or contempt, 
 every good citizen should look upon it with peculiar 
 reverence. You can not possibly, my young friend, 
 devote your time to a more profitable study than the 
 constitution and character, the capabilities and defects, 
 of this most remarkable political agency which the 
 history of the world has developed.
 
 IX. 
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. 
 
 I HAD intended in this number to call your atten- 
 tion to the organic character and distinctive elements 
 of our party system as it at present exists, pointing 
 out some of its excellencies and considering its 
 proved defects. Upon carefully reviewing the ground 
 already covered, however, it has seemed to me desir- 
 able that you should first consider with some care 
 the events immediately leading to the adoption — per- 
 haps I ought to say the discovery — by the people of 
 the United States of the national convention, com- 
 posed of a specific number of delegates from the 
 various political subdivisions apportioned according to 
 a fixed rule, chosen by a regularly ascertained ma- 
 jority in the party primaries, representing the collec- 
 tive will, and constituting the supreme legislative, 
 judicial, and administrative head of a voluntary polit- 
 ical organization, which every member has — or is 
 supposed to have — equal power and privilege in 
 shaping and controlling. This body is the key-stone 
 of the American party system, and you can not 
 
 properly appreciate its character and importance 
 
 III
 
 112 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 without giving special attention to the circumstances 
 attending its adoption. If our political history up to 
 that point showed a tendency to popularize party 
 management, the setting of this key-stone was so 
 unmistakable an assertion of the public will as to 
 leave no doubt that our party system, instead of 
 being a carefully planned instrumentality for depriving 
 the citizen of his equal share in the government, as 
 some would have us believe, is in reality the very 
 weapon which the people forged to secure parity of 
 power and privilege to all. 
 
 We have already seen that the history of party 
 organization in the United States reveals four succes- 
 sive stages, each marked by its own distinctive method 
 of ascertaining and directing popular sentiment, in 
 order to secure effective co operation among those 
 of similar political views. To each of these may be 
 assigned the following respective periods: (i) That 
 of the individual faction, or irresponsible voluntary 
 cabal, from the foundation of the government until 
 1796; (2) The State Legislative Caucus period, from 
 1792 until 1812; (3) The Congressional Caucus era, 
 from 1808 until 1824; (4) The Delegate Convention 
 period, from 1830 until the present time. We have 
 seen that each one of these successive changes was 
 a natural outgrowth of the irrepressible tendency of 
 the American people towards self government, acting 
 through existing agencies, and moved by specific
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. 113 
 
 popular impulses. You will note that the periods 
 assigned to each are not exclusive. Like all popular 
 movements, it can not be said that these changes of 
 form were instantaneous, or that the one at a precise 
 moment superseded the other. Each may be said 
 to have been the prevailing or dominant force during 
 the period assigned to it. Each marked a revolution 
 more or less distinct in public thought, by which it 
 was brought about, and, like all such changes, was 
 more or less gradual in character. The Legislative 
 Caucus continued, even after the organization of the 
 Congressional Caucus, as the determinative body, 
 only losing something of its independent and conclu- 
 sive character ; while between the downfall of the 
 Congressional Caucus and the adoption of the Rep- 
 resentative Convention, a considerable period elapsed, 
 during which parties were without any recognized or 
 authoritative headship. This was the germinal period 
 of the present system. 
 
 It is most essential that you keep the facts of the 
 growth and evolution of our party forms constantly 
 in mind. As a result of popular progress, party be- 
 comes not only an interesting study, but a govern- 
 mental agency worthy of serious and even reverent 
 consideration. It has been too much the custom to 
 regard all party organizations as necessarily malign 
 and dangerous influences. The philosophic ideal of 
 the perfect citizen is no doubt builded on the model 
 
 of a political Cincinnatus, following peacefully the 
 
 10
 
 314 LETTERS TO A KING, 
 
 plow until a public exigency arises; then going quietly 
 to the ballot-box, and, without previous consultation 
 or any concert of action with others, expressing by 
 his simple ballot, his judgment as to the fittest man 
 to be assigned to any specific duty. Perhaps, to 
 make it entirely harmonious with our latest Anglo- 
 American ideal, this modern Cincinnatus ought to be 
 endowed with a vigorous Catonian inclination to find 
 fault, and thoroughly convinced that he is one of the 
 few honest and patriotic citizens of the Republic, if 
 not, indeed, the only one, on whose integrity and 
 disinterestedness absolute reliance can always be 
 placed. 
 
 Very fortunately this ideal is no longer capable 
 of realization. The changes of party form have al- 
 ways been indicative of far more important changes 
 in public thought — a constant emphasizing of the 
 tendency towards popular government. At first it 
 was supposed that the people would be content 
 merel}' to choose those whom they preferred, in 
 whose probity and wisdom they had the highest con- 
 fidence, and that these men would be, for the time 
 being, their rulers. Under these earlier conditions 
 the persons chosen to executive or legislative ofifices 
 were regarded as having been vested with discretion- 
 ary power, rather than charged with specific obliga- 
 tions by the popular preference. The fact that they 
 were the candidates of any particular party carried 
 with it little, if any, restriction of this discretion.
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. II5 
 
 While party lines — that is, the sentiment which 
 separates one party from another — were, no doubt, 
 drawn as sharply then as now, the limits of party 
 doctrine were very indistinct. There existed no such 
 clear and positive guides to the specific principles 
 which the different factions of those early days 
 professed, as the party platforms of the past fifty 
 years. Not that these are always intended to speak 
 the truth, or meant wholly to reveal the party 
 preference, but read with the gloss of current 
 events, they constitute an infallible index to the party 
 purpose. 
 
 As party forms developed, popular government 
 became a more and more distinct and tangible fact. 
 The candidate of a party to-day, within the limits 
 of his part)''s principles and declarations, is bound 
 as firmly as if sworn upon the altar. His claim to 
 support is based solely upon a pledge of loyalty to 
 the instructions of his party followers. So far as 
 their declared will and purpose extends he is the 
 servant, the agent of the party which nominates him. 
 Every vote that is cast for him is given under the 
 express or implied pledge on his part, that in the 
 position he is chosen to fill, he will act according 
 to their instructions and preferences, so far as the 
 same shall have been expressed previous to his election. 
 
 In other words, the official of to-day is the legis- 
 lative or executive representative of the will of his 
 party, and takes the office to which he is chosen
 
 Il6 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 under the most solemn pledges to act according to 
 the known, established, and formulated principles of 
 those by whom he is chosen. He is their attorney, 
 governing in their name, by their authority, and ac- 
 cording to their direction. Outside of their pre- 
 expressed will, however, he is not bound to consider 
 or consult their preferences. Upon a new question he 
 may properly and honorably take his own course, even 
 though it should be in direct hostility to the will of 
 those by whom he is chosen, expressed subsequently to 
 his election. 
 
 This is government hy the people. It is the en- 
 forcement of the express will of a majority, by their 
 pledged and chosen representatives — the exponents 
 of their beliefs and the agents of their predetermined 
 purposes. This may not be so good a plan of gov- 
 ernment as that which simply selects the wisest and 
 best — or those whom the majority may deem the 
 wisest and best — leaving them to act as they may 
 judge the public good to require. It is the result, 
 however, of an irresistible tendency of our people 
 toward self-government — to the determination of all 
 important questions, not by arbitrators chosen to de- 
 cide the same, but by the people themselves acting 
 individually and directly upon the subject. Our 
 party organization of the present is calculated and 
 intended to give expression to this impulse, and is 
 impregnably intrenched in the popular preference 
 because of its actual or supposed efficiency in secur-
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. WJ 
 
 ing that result. It was this tendency on the part of 
 the American people that thrust aside first the indi- 
 vidual cabals, then the separate State Legislative Cau- 
 cus, and finally the Congressional Caucus itself — each 
 because it was not sufficiently representative of the 
 popular will — substituting each time a broader, more 
 perfect and harmonious system in place of the one 
 thus discarded ; making these successive changes, 
 not instantaneously and simultaneously in all parts 
 of the country, but gradually and at different times 
 in different States, as the necessity for them forced 
 itself upon the public conviction. It was this same 
 impulse, too, that finally threw them all aside and 
 adopted the present party organization in order to 
 secure a better expression of the popular will and 
 more certain accomplishment of its purposes. 
 
 The history of the first national delegate conven- 
 tion and the circumstances out of which it grew, 
 affords a singular confirmation of the view we have 
 taken. As we have seen, there v.as but one party 
 in the nation from 1816 until 1824. Even then, the 
 so-called National Republican party did not formu- 
 late any express declaration of principles, but merely 
 separated from the other wing of the party, claiming 
 to be its true exponent instead of the more radical 
 faction which they opposed. Practically, the same 
 conditions, slightly emphasized, continued in 1828. 
 That contest was purely factional. It was a fight 
 between the personal followers of men who did not
 
 Il8 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 even claim any material difference of political faith. 
 At this time, however, one of the most remarkable 
 and instructive movements of our poHtical history- 
 was begun, which eventually became one of the most 
 romantic episodes in the progress of self-government. 
 
 It is doubtful if such important results ever before 
 sprung from apparently so insignificant a cause, as 
 those which followed the disappearance of William 
 Morgan, of Batavia, N. Y., in 1826. Indeed, the 
 political history of that time reads to-day like a page 
 out of some highly colored romance. It is almost 
 impossible to believe that the actors in that curious 
 extravaganza were our fathers, sober, earnest, God- 
 fearing men. Yet your own grandfather was snatched 
 from obscurity and raised to fame by the intensity 
 of his patriotic anger at the crime done to one citi- 
 zen, and the peril which he thought it indicated to 
 the rights of all. Even after her eightieth year I re- 
 member to have heard my grandmother tell, in tones 
 tremulous with excitement, the story of what she 
 still believed to be a conspiracy of unparalleled atro- 
 city against the liberty of the citizen and the safety 
 of the Republic. She only represented the senti- 
 ment of hundreds of thousands to whose minds even 
 the fame of Washington was, for a time, clouded 
 with doubt because of his relations with a mystic, 
 oath-bound body, whom they believed" to be inim- 
 ical to a government based on equality of right. 
 
 What was the cause of this popular ferment? It
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. II9 
 
 has almost been forgotten. Perhaps you will hardly 
 find the name I have cited in your encyclopedia. 
 There is more than one such work that does not 
 deem it worthy of preservation even for the student 
 of American politics. I doubt if you have ever given 
 the movement inseparably connected with it an 
 hour's thought. Yet I have seen your grandfather's 
 eyes flash under his white knotted brows, and heard 
 his voice tremble with emotion, as, even amid the ex- 
 citement of our great Civil War, he told the story of 
 that wonderful popular uprising. Even your father, 
 until the last hour of his life, acknowledged its in- 
 fluence upon his own political preferences. 
 
 William Morgan was a Freemason. He was re- 
 ported to have written an exposition of the mysteries 
 of that ancient fraternity for publication. This report 
 awakened great consternation among the members of 
 that organization throughout the country. Pending 
 its publication, Morgan was imprisoned at Canandai- 
 gua, New York, on a charge of debt; taken out 
 of the jail at night, placed in a carriage, and driven 
 away in the direction of Niagara Falls. He was 
 never seen afterwards. The popular belief was that 
 he was murdered and his body thrown into the river, 
 and that this was done by Freemasons to prevent the 
 revelation he was about to make. It is probable that 
 both suppositions were correct. Yet why should 
 such a crime be of special moment to the people of 
 the United States ? What was William Morgan that
 
 120 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 they should take any interest in his death ? Nothing. 
 As a man he was utterly insignificant, and, by his 
 own confession, dishonored and forsworn. The dis- 
 closures he professed to be about to make seem to 
 have been intended simply to raise money. It is more 
 than probable that instead of desiring to reveal the 
 secrets of Freemasonry, his purpose was merely to 
 blackmail its initiates through fear of exposure. He 
 does not seem to have had any valid claim to the name 
 of patriot or reformer, and certainly was in no sense a 
 man fit to be made a popular idol in his life, or likely 
 to be revered as a martyr after his death. 
 
 Nor was he so revered. The people cared noth' 
 ing for William Morgan as a man, alive or dead. It 
 was only the idea that a society, extending through- 
 out the whole country, and embracing among its 
 members a vast majority of the most wealthy, cul- 
 tured, and refined citizens, including nearly all the 
 prominent political leaders, had a hold upon its 
 members which they regarded as paramount to the 
 sanction of the law of the land, that made his death a 
 matter of general concern. It was the apprehension 
 of peril to popular liberty, free government, and equal 
 rights, that roused the masses of the people to a frenzy 
 of fanaticism that has never been equaled in our his- 
 tory. It was not so much the apprehension of crime, 
 or the fear that justice would be corrupted, but th5i 
 idea that there existed in the Republic an oath bound 
 body of men, who were pledged to aid and favor
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. 121 
 
 each other in all things. It was against them as a 
 privileged class — as unduly favored citizens — that the 
 .public wrath burned hot. 
 
 The fiercest of popular frenzies was that Anti- 
 masonic movement which followed hard upon the dis- 
 appearance of Morgan in 1826. I wish I could 
 ' give you some idea of its lurid intensity as I have 
 gathered it from the study of the public prints of 
 that day, as well as from the lips of ancient crafts- 
 men and their most active opponents. It was a 
 political difference that impugned the personal char- 
 acter of every man who ventured to uphold one side 
 of the controversy. To the Antimason every Mason 
 was, of necessity, a criminal. If not actually a 
 murderer, he was solemnly pledged to commit mur- 
 der, should the interests of the craft or the peril of a 
 fellow-craftsman demand it. He was unfit to be a 
 freeman, because he was a member of a great con- 
 spiracy to destroy equality of right and privilege. The 
 Churches took cognizance of membership of the lodge 
 as an act of immorality, and expelled all who did not 
 publicly renounce their obligations. To be a Mason 
 was everywhere held an act requiring excuse. Thou- 
 sands of members publicly withdrew, or rather, as 
 withdrawal from the order is a thing unknown and 
 impossible, formally renounced Masonry. Lodges 
 were disbanded and charters surrendered, until there, 
 remained in some States hardl}' a skeleton of the 
 organization. Members were often afraid to ackiiowl- 
 
 II
 
 122 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 edge themselves such from actual fear of per- 
 sonal violence. Men even refused to recognize 
 the hailing signs of the craft from fear of betrayal. 
 A century before — perhaps at any previous time — 
 such fierce fanaticism could only have been allayed 
 by the shedding of blood. 
 
 Thanks to the freedom and flexibility of our 
 political system, it found a peaceful outlet. In 1828 
 four States elected Antimasonic governors. In every 
 State the charge of Masonic affiliation was a serious 
 imputation against any public man. At least two 
 candidates for the Presidency publicly disavowed all 
 active relation with the institution, or personal recog- 
 nition of its obligations. Whether another had or 
 had not been initiated is perhaps hardly yet deter- 
 mined. Few men were chosen to any office for a 
 decade who did not openly declare their non-affilia- 
 tion or publicly renounce their vows, such was the 
 fierceness of the popular clamor. 
 
 Aside from its peculiar character and purpose, 
 this was a notable uprising of the people — an asser- 
 tion of the public will that took no account of 
 party lines, trampled popular leaders in the dust, and 
 mocked at existing political methods. It was a re- 
 volt afjainst self-constituted leaders and self-declared 
 representation. It may have been right or it may 
 have been wrong in its estimate of the peril that 
 threatened. That is a matter of little moment now. 
 Probably it was not entirely right nor altogether
 
 SETTING THE KEY-STONE. 1 23 
 
 wrong. Certainly very few believe that there is any 
 danger now to be apprehended from the institution 
 then so greatly dreaded. What remains to us of 
 value from this lurid conflict of half a century ago 
 is the fact that it marks the first institution of a 
 plan of organization expressly designed to im- 
 press upon the government the convictions, of a 
 distinct body of the American people. Out of 
 Antimasonry was born our present party system. 
 Throwing aside as insufficient the existing political 
 agencies, the Antimasons held the first national dele- 
 gate convention, formulated a platform, prescribed a 
 ratio of representation, and subordinated every part 
 of the new organization, from the lovvest to the 
 highest, to popular control. From this first delegate 
 national convention in 1830, until the present time, 
 no party has dared take any important step except 
 in the name of, and with the claim of express author- 
 ity from, the individuals of which it is composed. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that every step in the evolu- 
 tion of our party system has been but a natural re- 
 sult of the impulse of self-government which is 
 inherent in the American people. At first non- 
 representative control was discarded ; then pseudo- 
 representation was set aside ; and, finally, the simple 
 yet effective system which has now become so familiar 
 to us, that we find it hard to realize that it has not 
 always existed, was inaugurated. From first to last, 
 the movement has been a persistent, at times even a
 
 124 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 passionate, revolt against what we should now term 
 "ring-rule" and "bossism." 
 
 To say that it has not always served the purpose 
 for which it was designed, is simply to assert its 
 human origin. That it has more nearly accomplished 
 this purpose than any other known instrumentality 
 is an incontestable fact. It is only when organized 
 ambition coexists with general and culpable neglect, 
 on the part of its members, however, that the Amer- 
 ican system of party organization can be made to lend 
 itself to any other purpose than the due enforcement 
 of the popular will. How this is sometimes done, and 
 how it may be prevented, we shall presently inquire.
 
 X. 
 
 A SHEAF OF FIRST-FRUITS. 
 
 We have seen that our present part}' sj-stem is 
 an outgrowth of the popular tendency towards the 
 direct control of public affairs by the people them- 
 selves. It may be interesting to note the fact that 
 simultaneous with this movement there has been a 
 remarkable popularization of our government itself, 
 showing a constant and irresistible tendency of power 
 to the hands of the people, and a growing disap- 
 proval of those methods which interpose an inter- 
 mediary between the source of power and its appli- 
 cation. Of this tendency there are two very notable 
 evidences. 
 
 We have already seen how the Presidential Elec- 
 tors were transformed from independent self-directing 
 entities into mere passive instruments of the majority 
 by which they are chosen. The framers of the Con- 
 stitution no doubt intended that the Electors should 
 choose a President and a Vice-President in the man- 
 ner prescribed, and according to their own convic- 
 tions of fitness and capacity. Before the third Presi- 
 dential election, however, the Electors had become 
 
 125
 
 126 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 mere agents of the popular will ; that is, they were 
 expected to vote only for those whom the popular 
 majority preferred. This was at first accomplished 
 without changing the method of choosing these 
 officials. The Federal Constitution directs that 
 "each State shall appoint'' Electors "in such manner 
 as the Legislatures thereof shall direct." It was no 
 doubt intended that the several Legislatures ///««- 
 .y^/z^^5 should "appoint" the Electors, the qualifying 
 phrase, "in such manner as they shall direct," being 
 designed to apply merely to the method of proce- 
 dure, whether viva voce, by joint ballot, or the two 
 houses acting separately. In accordance with this 
 idea, the Electors were appointed by the Legislatures 
 of all the States until 1812, by all but two in 1 8 16, 
 and even in 1824 the)^ were still chosen by the Leg- 
 islatures of Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, 
 South Carolina, and Vermont. 
 
 As the people began to break away from the 
 idea of personal leadership and individual followings 
 and learn the real significance of popular power, they 
 begfan to clamor for a more direct control of what 
 had already been popularly named the "Electoral 
 College." It is a curious fact that for nearly a score 
 of )'ears, this meeting of the official Electors had no 
 name or specified form of organization under our 
 laws, but was popularly known almost from the first 
 as the "Electoral College." It was insisted when 
 the popular demand for specific control of this
 
 A SHEAF OF FIRST-FRUITS. 1 2/ 
 
 peculiar feature of our national government began to 
 assume positive shape, that, as the Legislature had 
 the power to "direct" how the "State" should 
 "appoint " Electors, they had the discretion to remit 
 that duty to the people. Another view of the sub- 
 ject was that since the people constituted the 
 "State," the power to appoint Electors inhered in 
 them, and the Legislature were only clothed with 
 power to regulate the method of appointment. This 
 was no doubt a strained construction of the constitu- 
 tional intent ; but the people so willed it, and it was 
 done — done, too, in many instances, without serious 
 opposition, so natural and almost insensible was the 
 transition of power from the few to the many, from 
 the center to the circumference. Almost contempo- 
 raneously with the birth of the modern party, there- 
 fore, the people assumed direct control of the choice 
 of Electors in all the States except South Carohna, 
 where they continued to be appointed by the Legisla- 
 ture until 1868. 
 
 Another notable indication of the popularization 
 of our government, attendant upon or resulting from, 
 the evolution of our present party system, is the in- 
 crease in the number of elective offices — especially at 
 the North. Previous to 1820, by far the greater part 
 of the administrative and judicial officers of the States 
 were appointed, either by the executive alone or by 
 the executive acting in conjunction with one or both 
 branches of the Legislature. Coincident with the
 
 128 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 assertion of popular power in the direction and control 
 of the party came the demand for popular control of 
 these offices. So that at the present time the county 
 offices in all the Northern States, all township officers 
 except justices of the peace in three of them, munici- 
 pal officers in all except one, all judges of courts of 
 record, except the judges of the Supreme Court in two, 
 and of the inferior courts in one, are elective. In short, 
 it may be said that all the legislative, executive, judi- 
 cial, and administrative functionaries of the Northern 
 States are now chosen directly by the people. The 
 .same system of complete local self-government was 
 generally introduced into the States of the South by 
 the constitutions of 1868, which were formed on North- 
 ern models and represented Northern ideas. With the 
 overthrow of these governments in 1876, there came, 
 however, a return to the appointive system that had 
 prevailed before the War of Rebellion. So that the 
 governor of a single Southern State now appoints 
 more officials than those of half a dozen of the more 
 populous States of the North. Thus it will be seen 
 that the popular control of the party — the voluntary 
 republic wliich exists within the national organism — 
 has always been indicative of a tendency to direct 
 popular control of the functions of government. 
 
 Another indication of the tendency which has 
 grown up under the present party system is the in- 
 clination to what IS termed "centralization" in our 
 national government. Curiou-sly enough, in an indi-
 
 A SHEAF OF FIRST-FRUITS. 1 29 
 
 vidual sense, it is not centralization at all, but simply 
 an inclination to transfer power from the States, acting 
 as such, to the people of all the States, acting indi- 
 vidually. This has manifested itself in the assertion of 
 the rights of citizens of the United States to equality 
 before the law in all the States; the national super- 
 vision of elections for members of Congress and 
 Presidential Electors ; the extension of the jurisdiction 
 of the United States courts ; the regulation of inter- 
 state commerce ; the assertion of congressional control 
 over the electoral count and in many other ways, 
 which, though they may not seem significant to the 
 casual observer, to the student of our political history 
 are indicative of a most remarkable change in the 
 character and tendency of our institutions. It is a 
 singular fact, and one that should not be lost sight 
 of, ill estimating the value of our present party 
 system, that every modification of our governmental 
 organism which has resulted from its adoption, has 
 been an extension of individual right — an enhance- 
 ment of individual power as contradistinguished from 
 the claim of power by artificial groups. Tlie domain 
 of national citizenship has been greatly enlarged and 
 that of statal citizenship correspondingly restricted by 
 its operation. 
 
 This change to direct from indirect control of affairs, 
 is looked upon with apprehension by many who 
 regard as peculiarly sacred the ideas of those who 
 are reverently referred to as "the founders of our
 
 I30 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 government;" meaning, by that phrase, the men who 
 devised our constitutional system. Such are apt to 
 consider what are often termed the "safeguards" of 
 the Federal Constitution with peculiar veneration. 
 They look upon our national prosperity in all its 
 phases, as chiefly the result of constitutional restric- 
 tions, forgetful of the fact that its greatest peril, 
 the "War of Rebellion," was a direct and unmis- 
 takable result of the existence of two of these vaunted 
 "safeguards." To such, the "intention of the 
 fathers " and the wisdom ' ' of the founders of our gov- 
 ernment " are far more important than the popular 
 tendencies which inspired their conduct or have since 
 so greatly modified its results. They regard the glory 
 of the American republic as due rather to the ' ' checks 
 and balances of the Constitution" than to the inherent 
 character of our people. 
 
 On the other hand, there are those who look upon 
 the restriction of State authority to local and muni- 
 cipal affairs alone, and the extension of direct popular 
 control of the national government, as a healthful and 
 desirable tendency. These regard our government 
 as not so much an invention as a growth, an evolu- 
 tion — the result of antecedent conditions and continu- 
 ing forces. The American RcpubHc seems to their 
 apprehension indebted for strength, prosperit)-, and 
 freedom, less to the form of its written Constitution 
 than to the instinct for self government, the intelli- 
 gence, the moderation, and self-control of its people.
 
 A SHEAF OF FIRST-FRUITS. 131 
 
 It is not the wise devices of the fathers, but the inborn 
 kingliness of her sons, making them always ready to 
 accept responsibiUty and ever cautious in the exercise 
 of power, which has saved the nation from the ills 
 that have overborne other democracies. The fathers 
 were fearful of the extension of individual power. 
 They dreaded the popular will. Even the Capital City, 
 named after the "Father of his Country," was laid 
 out under his immediate supervision with the express 
 purpose of being easily defensible in the event of 
 popular uprisings which he feared. With little clamor, 
 and almost without stain of blood, the people whom 
 the fathers of the Republic distrusted, have seized the 
 power that was so carefully guarded against their 
 expected assaults, and have made the restrictive forms 
 that were intended to baffle their dangerous inclina- 
 tions, mere instruments for carrying into effect their 
 imperial will. To the voluntary instrumentalities 
 devised and shaped to enable the popular will to be 
 more readily, clearly, and certainly ascertained and 
 enforced, we no doubt owe our national integrity and 
 the sense of imperial grandeur that is beginning to 
 attach to our national renown. 
 
 Our party system has lifted the will of the majority 
 to a place of more than royal dignity. The sovereign 
 will of the Republic has become something more than 
 a mere fanciful hypothesis. The right to rule depends 
 no longer on exploded theories or dubious specula- 
 tion. The will of the majority fully expressed, care-
 
 132 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 fully ascertained, and faithfully recorded, — this is the 
 sovereign power of the Republic, Every life is pledged 
 to the maintenance of its supremacy, not merely by 
 the formal obligation of allegiance, but by the instinct 
 of justice and the impulse of self-interest. The people 
 are kings, and the concurrent will of the majority is 
 "the lord paramount" of the realm. Party is simply 
 a method which the people have devised and elabo- 
 rated for ascertaining what this concurrent will may 
 be, and for carrying it into effect when ascertained. 
 With this instrumentality the civic triumphs of our 
 past have been won, and to it more than to any other 
 influence, the peace, prosperity, and glory of the 
 Republic are due. It has not always worked without 
 friction, nor have its results been always of an un- 
 objectionable character. It is sometimes foolishly 
 claimed to have been the cause of war, while it is 
 unquestionably entitled to credit for inculcating that 
 reverence for the popular will which enabled the 
 nation to surmount every obstacle and defend the 
 citadel of liberty from every assault. 
 
 It is very well, my young friend, that you 
 should be always awake to perils that may impend 
 from a too blind devotion to party, but do not ever 
 forget that to this wonderful outgrowth of the pop- 
 ular instinct for self direction, which the conditions 
 of our American life alone seem able to have gen- 
 erated, we owe our deliverance from the perils of 
 that half-chaotic epoch when factional strife - and
 
 A SHEAF OF THE FIRST-FRUITS. 1 33 
 
 individual ambition had not yet been wholly sub- 
 ordinated to the popular will. Other republics have 
 been overthrown by the conflict of leaders and the 
 clash of personal ambitions. Thanks to our American 
 party system, we have thoroughly learned two great 
 lessons, — that no man is so wise, so great, or so re- 
 liable as a party, and that no party has any claim to 
 supremacy save by the express will and approval of a 
 majority of its members. By the invention of this sim- 
 ple yet mighty mechanism, the people of the United 
 States have shown themselves wiser than those wise 
 and patriotic men who sought to control their action 
 and protect them even from themselves. They have 
 dethroned and disarmed the popular leader, and taken 
 from the struggle for supremacy the supremely dan- 
 gerous factor of personal ambition. The political 
 leader has become the mere agent and creature of his 
 party. He can be an aspirant for favor only by its 
 permission ; he triumphs only through its indorse- 
 ment, and is cast aside at its pleasure. It pulls down 
 the proudest and lifts up the lowliest. It is only when 
 its power is weakened that rebellion occurs; and only 
 when it shall be destroyed that usurpation will be- 
 come possible. Thus far it remains the most valuable 
 element of America's contribution to the science of 
 human government. 
 
 Whatever may be the tendency of power in the 
 future, whether towards the extension of federal con- 
 trol and the enhancement of the privilege of national
 
 134 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 citizenship or not, you will readily perceive how 
 essential it becomes to the future safety of the Re- 
 public that this strange agency which has grown up 
 Avilhin its linnits should be fully apprehended and 
 wisely administered by the people, whose chosen 
 weapon it is. As it has been designed and forged 
 by the popular will of the past, so it must be pol- 
 ished and tempered by the patience, steadfastness, 
 and patriotism of the present and the future.
 
 XI. 
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC. 
 
 I HAVE called our modern party a voluntary re- 
 public. Did you ever think how perfect and com- 
 plete a democracy it is in theory, and how simple 
 and effective in its unrestricted operation? Let us 
 resolve it into its elements, and see what they are. 
 Let us examine the laws by which its action is reg- 
 ulated, and see how little machinery is necessary to 
 control such mighty combinations. Let us consider 
 its legislative methods, its administrative mechanism, 
 and determine, if we can, where and how and why 
 it has proved itself deficient or harmful, how the 
 various evils may be remedied, and what duty is in- 
 cumbent upon you as a citizen of the Republic, in 
 connection with its operation and amendment. 
 
 First, then, you Avill keep in mind that each of 
 the great parties of to-day is composed of more than 
 twenty thousand primitive democracies, which are 
 properly termed primaries. They are sometimes, but 
 improperly, designated caucuses. As we have already 
 seen, the term caucus is properly applied onlj' to a 
 self-constituted and unauthorized body. The term, 
 
 135
 
 136 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 probably, had its origin in the clandestine meetings 
 of patriots just before the outbreak of the Revolu- 
 tionary War, So far as known, the word is of Boston 
 origin, and meant, at the outset, a secret meeting for 
 the purpose of determining upon a common course 
 of action in regard to some public matter. After- 
 wards it was applied to any sort of secret political 
 consultation. As we have alread)' seen, the Legis- 
 lative Caucus was a secret consultation of all the 
 members of a specific party in the State Legisla- 
 ture as the self-constituted organ of that party. At 
 one time it assumed to prescribe rules and make 
 nominations for the party. The same was true, as 
 we have seen, of the Congressional Caucus. Both 
 of these were secret, or rather exclusive, meetings of 
 members of a party belonging to such legislative 
 bodies. 
 
 Such organizations as these still remain, and bear 
 the same designation ; but they no longer assume to 
 perform anj' such function. The Legislative or Con- 
 gressional Caucus of to-day is simply a meeting of 
 the members of a party, who are also members of a 
 legislative body, to determine what action shall be 
 taken in regard to measures pending or to be intro- 
 duced before the body to which they belong. The 
 careless use of this term is probably responsible for 
 more political nonsense than any other one thing con- 
 nected with our politics. The voluntary cabal, the 
 legislative party council, and the party primary, — all
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC. 1 37 
 
 these are bunched together and held up to public 
 opprobrium as "caucuses," and we are then treated 
 to long and labored disquisitions on the terrible 
 enormities of that mysteriously compounded monster 
 " King Caucus!" 
 
 The truth is, that there never was a political 
 movement among the people of any country in which 
 there were not secret consultations among the leaders. 
 Concert of action is a necessity, and effective concert 
 demands secrecy. Before a public meeting can be 
 held, there must always be private consultation. 
 This is a "caucus," in its primary sense — nothing 
 more and nothing less. In every legislative body, of 
 whatever sort or character since the world began, there 
 has always been the legislative caucus or some equiv- 
 alent of it. In the British Parliament the ' ' whip " and 
 the "conference of leaders" take the place of the 
 vote of the caucus. These forms, or their equiva- 
 lents, are essential to popular government and par- 
 liamentary legislation. But the primary — so often 
 misnamed the "caucus" — is peculiar to the Amer- 
 ican party system, and is the first distinctive feature 
 that demands your attention. It consists — except in 
 the case of a few great cities, which exception will 
 be considered at length hereafter — of a public meet- 
 ing, open to all who are in effective sympathy with 
 the party it represents, regularly organized with a 
 duly elected president and secretaries, governed by 
 regular parliamentary rules, in which all the voters 
 
 12
 
 138 LETTERS TO A ICING. 
 
 of the township or precinct in which it is held, who 
 belong to a specific political party, have an equal 
 right to participate — to speak and to vote. 
 
 This miniature republic has three specific func- 
 tions: I. To legislate for itself; that is, to prescribe 
 rules for the government of the party within that 
 precinct, which, however, must not be inconsistent 
 with the general laws governing the party at large 
 and prescribed by its higher tribunals. 2. To choose 
 its own leaders ; that is, to elect its own officers, to 
 nominate candidates for local offices and to appoint 
 an executive committee to organize and direct party 
 action in the precinct. 3. To exercise its due share 
 of influence in the government and control of the 
 whole party; that is, to elect delegates to represent 
 it in the next higher council of the party, according 
 to a previously prescribed ratio of representation, 
 which is usually determined by the number of votes 
 cast for the party's candidate at the last preceding 
 general election. 
 
 The county convention, which is the second step 
 in the nice gradation of party government, exercises 
 in like manner legislative, executive, and judicial 
 power. Composed entirely of regularly elected dele- 
 gates from the various primaries within its jurisdiction, 
 it determines the ratio of representation by which the 
 number from each is to be ascertained ; prescribes 
 rules for the government of the party in the county ; 
 nominates county candidates; names a county execu-
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC. \ 39 
 
 tive committee, and chooses delegates to the State 
 and congressional district conventions. 
 
 The congressional district convention prescribes 
 the ratio of representation from the various counties 
 of which the district is composed, and the time and 
 manner of their selection; nominates the congres- 
 sional candidate of the party for that district, and 
 quadrennially selects delegates to the national con- 
 vention and names a candidate for Presidential elector. 
 
 The State convention, made up of delegates from 
 the various counties, legislates for the party in the 
 State ; prescribes the ratio of representation from the 
 counties; nominates candidates for State offices; 
 names a State executive committee ; selects delegates 
 from the State at large to the national convention ; 
 names candidates for Presidential electors for the 
 State at large, and defines the party policy as regards 
 State affairs. 
 
 The national convention is made up of delegates 
 (i) from the various congressional districts of the 
 country, and (2) from the several States, the whole 
 being based upon, and following very closely, the 
 model of the federal government, the delegates from 
 the districts being the equivalent of the members of 
 the House of Representatives, and the delegates at 
 large representing the senatorial power of the State. 
 It prescribes the ratio of representation ; decides 
 contests from the different States and districts ; nom 
 inates candidates for President and Vice President ;
 
 I40 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 names a National Executive Committee; formulates 
 the party policy on national questions, and authori- 
 tatively defines its purpose and traditions. 
 
 I have not recapitulated these things, my young 
 friend, because of any doubt that you are already 
 familiar with each of them as independent facts, but 
 lest you might not have noted their mutual interde- 
 pendence, and the chain of relation that extends 
 from the lowest to the highest, and so have failed to 
 appreciate the harmony between the various parts of 
 the voluntary republics that have grown up Avithin 
 the nation, and are at constant warfare with each 
 other for its political control — a warfare that is in 
 itself the evidence of peace and stability, as well as 
 the guarantee of liberty and progress. 
 
 No doubt it would seem to an observer not fa- 
 miliar with the spirit of our institutions that this vol- 
 untary republic was but a servile imitation of the 
 political forms and institutions with which it is con- 
 nected. A glance will assure you that it is a far 
 simpler system than that embodied in the Federal 
 Constitution. The reason of this is, no doubt, that 
 the government was framed by speculative statesmen, 
 versed in the accepted tenets of political philosophy, 
 while the party is the product of popular instinct, 
 and is yet almost entirely unmodified by legal en- 
 actment. 
 
 The first difference you will note between these 
 voluntary republics and the conventional ones to
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC. 141 
 
 whose subdivisions and convolutions they have so 
 readily adapted themselves, is the absence of restrict- 
 ive or corrective agencies. If the individual member 
 of a party is denied his right, or debarred of his 
 privilege as a citizen of the voluntary republic, he has 
 before him two remedies, exile or retaliation ; that 
 is, he may either abandon his party and deprive it 
 of his support, or actively seek to compass its defeat 
 and overthrow. Which of these courses it is his 
 duty to adopt depends on circumstances we shall 
 consider hereafter. 
 
 It will be noted, also, that the balance between 
 national and statal power — or rather between popular 
 and statal control — which is so carefully maintained 
 in the Federal Constitution, is almost discarded in 
 the voluntary republic or party. Though there is a 
 double representation in the national convention — 
 from the States as well as from the districts — this is 
 always a joint, instead of a separate representation. 
 The delegates from the States and districts sit to- 
 gether in the same body, voting and acting conjointly, 
 so that the one can hardly be termed a check upon 
 the other. By this means the State representation 
 becomes merely an added increment of the popular 
 power. The analogy of two houses constituting one 
 legislative body, which prevails not only in the fed- 
 eral government, but in each one of the States, is 
 discarded in the party. 
 
 This has been regarded by some of the most careful
 
 142 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 students of our political history as a serious defect. 
 There is no doubt but the tendency of all popular 
 assemblies is to be carried away by the feeling of the 
 moment. Whether this is a defect in an organiza- 
 tion of this character, however, may well be ques- 
 tioned. ' 
 
 One thing is certain, that the tendency has been 
 from the first decidedly against restriction. This has 
 been especially notable in the Republican party, 
 which, as we have seen, is in a modified sense the 
 representative of the federalistic idea ; that is, it rep- 
 resents and maintains the idea of the supremacy of 
 the nation as against the paramount sovereignty of 
 the individual States. This view is, however, modi- 
 fied by an express inclination to the popularization 
 of the federal government itself, which has been 
 manifested not less in its party organization than in 
 the legislation it has inspired. Previous to the con- 
 vention of 1880, State representation was secured in 
 that party by allowing a majority of delegates from 
 each State to control the entire number of its votes. 
 This rule was at that time discarded, and the major- 
 ity required to control its action is now made up by 
 the votes of delegates irrespective of State major- 
 ities. The two-thirds rule which obtains in Dem- 
 ocratic national conventions is a notable instance of 
 a self-restricting provision, enforced with the most 
 rigorous and inflexible faithfulness. Its results in 
 1844 and i860, however, have led many to doubt
 
 THE INVISIBLE REPUBLIC. 1 43 
 
 its wisdom. A shrewd political observer has said 
 that the War of Rebellion was the direct result of its 
 enforcement. 
 
 Another difference that will strike the thoughtful 
 observer is, that in the voluntary republic all the 
 functions of government are united in one body. 
 You may, perhaps, think that this attribution of leg- 
 islative, judicial, and executive functions to these 
 bodies is somewhat fanciful, but you will soon learn 
 that the control of a party requires not less, but 
 rather more, skill and sagacity than the government 
 of a nation. You will no doubt be surprised on your 
 first admission to the councils of a party to learn how 
 largely the judicial function is developed, and what a 
 mass of common law peculiar to each party has grown 
 up in our fifty years of government under this system. 
 In one of our late national conventions a delegate 
 cited in support of a position he had assumed the 
 action of a national convention of 1844, of whose 
 proceedings there is no detailed record, he having 
 received his information from his father, who was a 
 prominent member of that body. No one thought 
 of questioning it, and there is no doubt but the 
 action of the convention was sensibly influenced by 
 this precedent. So, too, the legislative function — 
 the formulation of new principles and effective enun- 
 ciation of accepted doctrines and traditions — is a 
 work requiring the very highest statesmanship, the 
 ripest experience, and broadest knowledge both of
 
 144 LETTERS TO A KING.- 
 
 political history and the popular tendency, as well as 
 the highest literary skill. 
 
 To these voluntary republics of ours, you Avill see 
 that the individual may sustain four distinct relations, 
 to wit: (i) That of the private citizen — the simple 
 voter in the primary ; (2) that of the delegate — the 
 representative exponent of the collective will and 
 purpose of a group of citizens in an assembly made 
 up of representatives from constituent bodies; (3) 
 that of a candidate or leader selected to represent 
 the principles and carry the standard of his party; 
 and (4) that of the executive agent or committee, 
 having in charge its financial matters and generally 
 vested with the judicial and executive functions nec- 
 essary to the administration of its affairs. 
 
 The duties of the citizen in a government by 
 parties in the American sense come, therefore, 
 naturally to be considered under these heads: (i) 
 The primary — its organization, conduct, and the 
 rights, privileges, and duties of its members ; (2) the 
 delegate — his duties and obligations ; (3) the candi- 
 date — his duties and relations ; and (4) the executive 
 committee — their functions and privileges. You will 
 find the discussion of these, I trust, not only inter- 
 esting and profitable, but touching perhaps some 
 questions more vital to our liberties than j^ou have 
 hitherto supposed to be dependent on this phase of 
 our political life.
 
 XII. 
 THE RANK AND FILE. 
 
 It has been been demonstrated over and over 
 again, in the history of warfare, that success de- 
 pends not so much upon a knowledge of grand strat- 
 egy, tactical skill, excellence of organization or per- 
 fectness of equipment, as on the personal qualities 
 of the individuals of whom an army is composed. 
 While leadership and strategy can by no means be 
 dispensed with, it is the fortitude, courage, and reso- 
 lution of the individual soldier on which the hope 
 of victory must ultimately rest. The raw levies 
 which your father led to victory in the early days 
 of our great conflict were, no doubt, inspired to the 
 performance of immortal deeds by the force of his 
 heroic example; but of far more consequence, as 
 affecting the grand result, than the skill or even 
 the example of their leaders, was the earnest convic- 
 tion shared by every one of the rank and file of 
 the importance of the conflict in which they were 
 engaged, and the sacredness of the cause for which 
 they fought. 
 
 A soldier, after all that has been said about the 
 
 13 145
 
 146 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 value of subordination in an army, is not a mere 
 machine. Simple obedience to the command of a 
 superior does not make a man a hero. The German 
 battalion who set their backs against the wall of a 
 cemetery in the Franco-Prussian war and held their 
 position until every man had fallen, were kept in 
 place not so much by the habit of obedience as by 
 the sentiment of "Fatherland" that animated them. 
 It was not the discipline on board of Nelson's ships, 
 nor the gallantry and skill of the stern old sea-dogs 
 who commanded under him, that made the French 
 admiral exclaim to those who stood about him 
 on his quarter-deck, "Now all is lost;" but the 
 shouts that went up from the lips of the British 
 sailors when they saw flying from the flag-ship 
 that stern challenge to individual patriotism and 
 devotion, "England expects every man to do his 
 duty." Discipline may, indeed, do much to secure 
 the soldier's efficiency. A thorough knowledge of 
 all that may be required of him, and an established 
 habit of prompt obedience to the directing will of 
 his superior, are unquestionably essential to his very 
 highest effectiveness, but these are comparatively 
 valueless without that readiness to do and dare which 
 springs only from an intelligent conviction — a press- 
 ing individual sense of duty or necessity. 
 
 In a party — which is only an army by which the 
 bloodless, but very often more important, victories 
 of peace are won in a republic — the same principle
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. 147 
 
 holds good and even applies with far greater force, be- 
 cause to the rank and file of a party is intrusted, not 
 merely the task of maintaining a united front against 
 the assaults of the enemy, but also, the duty of 
 naming the leaders who must direct the conflict, and 
 of marking out the strategical lines on which the bat- 
 tle must be fought. In fact, the American citizen 
 serving in the ranks of a party, instead of being a 
 mere insignificant atom, whose only duty is to stand 
 up and be counted at each November Ides, is like 
 the Greek soldier of the olden time, leader at once 
 and servitor, since, as was eloquently said of his 
 prototype, "In one day he may be called upon to 
 stand in the council of the chiefs and serve in the 
 front rank of the squadron." As a citizen, he rules 
 through the ascendency of the party he helps both 
 to shape and direct ; as a partisan, he> serves with 
 ready but intelligent subordination under the leaders 
 he has helped to name, and who control and direct 
 only by virtue of his authorization. What are the 
 duties, rights, and privileges attaching to a citizen as a 
 member of a political party ? This is among the most 
 important questions which one standing on the verge 
 of active manhood can possibly ask himself, and one 
 which he should by all means seek intelligently and 
 properly to answer. 
 
 The relations which the citizen may sustain to 
 the party to which he belongs are of a threefold 
 character, each of which brings with it peculiar obli-
 
 148 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 gations and entails peculiar duties. Each confers 
 certain rights and is affected by specific limitations. 
 These three relations may be defined as follows: 
 
 1. That of a voter who believes in the party's 
 principles, accepts its polic}', and votes for its can- 
 didates — the simple private in the ranks of the great 
 army which fights for the supremacy of a specific 
 principle, policy, or purpose. 
 
 2. That of a delegate — the representative of the 
 will and power of a subordinate body of the party 
 by virtue of which he becomes a member of another 
 body of higher power or more extended jurisdiction. 
 
 3. That of a candidate seeking the favor of his 
 party in the form of a nomination, and its support 
 in order to secure his election. 
 
 In these several relations the obligations resting 
 on the party and the individual are mutual, perform- 
 ance on the part of the one constituting the sole 
 basis of obligation on the part of the other. 
 
 The rights attaching to mere individual member- 
 ship in a party are based, not on the favor of other 
 individuals, but on the fact of mutual interest. They 
 rest upon the common obligation which devolves 
 upon every member of such a body to treat with 
 equal consideration and to offer equal opportunity 
 to each and every one who supports its policy, 
 maintains its power, and promotes its aims. It is a 
 basis of mutual, voluntary, and natural obligation. 
 The party, as a whole, is indebted to the individual
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. 149 
 
 for maintaining its policy ; the individual is beholden 
 to the party for carrying into effect the views he en-, 
 tertains. The relations of the individual to his party 
 are, therefore, those naturally growing out of an 
 equal partnership among many, intended to secure a 
 common purpose for the equal advantage of all. 
 The ngJits of the individual thus become obligations 
 of the party, and the duties of the individual rights 
 of the party. The rights of the individual member 
 of any party may be classed as follows : 
 
 1. Every voter who supports a party's policy and 
 votes for its nominees, is of right entitled to a voice 
 and vote in the part}' primary of the precinct in 
 which he resides. 
 
 2. He is entitled to receive due and ample notice 
 of each and every meeting of the same. 
 
 3. He is entitled to an equal voice with every 
 other member, in the organization and control of the 
 primary ; and also, 
 
 4. To demand that there shall always be a fair 
 vote, fairly counted and rnade effectual in the election 
 of its officers, the choice of delegates, and the selec- 
 tion of candidates. 
 
 These rights, though of the utmost importance 
 to the country as a whole and to the citizen as an 
 individual, are none of them guaranteed by law, 
 except in some States, or parts of States, a specific 
 statutory notice of the holding of a caucus or primary 
 is required, and in a very few there are statutory
 
 I50 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 provisions regulating the election of delegates. Tlie 
 definition and protection of these rights is as yet a 
 fresh field for legislation, but one in which the neces- 
 sity for intelligent regulation has become apparent and 
 which requires only a more general appreciation of 
 its feasibility and advantage in order to secure the 
 attention it deserves. Just as long as our people 
 regard "practical politics" as synonymous with 
 fraud and trickery, and Christian men who would 
 scorn to lie or steal or bribe for profit, insist that the 
 good of the country demands that men should lie 
 and steal and bribe in order to secure political su- 
 premacy — so long as it is deemed respectable to buy 
 votes or buy delegates, it will not be thought neces- 
 sary or desirable to define or protect the rights of a 
 citizen as a member of a party. Until that time 
 arrives, these rights can only be secured by unre- 
 mitting vigilance and rugged determination on the 
 part of every one entitled to the benefits thereby 
 secured. 
 
 The duties which the individual member owes to 
 his party are : 
 
 1. A faithful attendance upon the meetings of 
 the primary. 
 
 2. An earnest and candid consideration of all 
 subjects coming before it for determination. 
 
 3. The faithful and upright performance of all 
 duties imposed upon him by it. 
 
 If these duties were faithfully performed by the
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. I5I 
 
 honest and reliable members of all parties, the need 
 of statutory regulation of the primary would be very 
 greatly reduced ; for, after all, the neglect of political 
 duty by good men is the chief source of all suffering 
 from misgovernment by bad men ! 
 
 The duties of a delegate, chosen to represent the 
 power of a constituent body, are those of an ordinary 
 aeent vested with more or less of discretion, accord- 
 ing to the peculiar circumstances attending his selec- 
 tion. He is bound in honor to act for those he 
 represents, and not for himself, and to act as his judg- 
 ment may decide would be for the interest of those 
 he represents, or of the associated body of which 
 they are a part. These duties are simple and easily 
 defined. They are : 
 
 1. Faithfully and honestly to use the authority 
 vested in him for the purposes for which it was in- 
 tended, according to the best of his ability. 
 
 2. Faithfully to perform the duties of any position 
 to which he may be chosen in the convention of 
 which he is a member by virtue of the authority 
 delegated to him. 
 
 Bribery and "log-rolling" are the besetting sins 
 of delegates. It has become customary for men to 
 seek these positions for the sake of direct or indirect 
 advantage to themselves, and to use the power con- 
 ferred upon them, not with any regard for the wishes 
 of their constituents, but for their own personal emol- 
 ument or advancement. It is a form of dishonesty
 
 152 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 that is neither punished by law nor frowned upon 
 by good society. A man who would not dream of 
 committing a crime will betray the trust reposed in 
 him by his neighbors, "swap" a vote which he 
 holds by reason of their confidence, for his own ad- 
 vantage, and go home and address the Sunday- 
 school on the duty of honesty, without a blush. 
 You will help to form public opinion on this subject, 
 especially in your own party. If you wish to be 
 esteemed an honest man, and be fairly dealt with 
 by your fellows, you will see to it that your in- 
 fluence and example are given always in favor of 
 honest delegates. To betray such a trust ought to 
 be a sin so infamous as forever to exclude the man 
 committing it from respectable society. 
 
 It may seem to you absurd to speak of the rights 
 and duties of a candidate seeking nomination at the 
 hands of his party, especially in view of two con- 
 flicting theories in regard to this relation, one or the 
 other of which may be said to prevail almost univer- 
 sally. One of these theories is, that a man has no 
 right to make a canvass or seek preferment at all; 
 the other, that he may do any thing not expressly 
 interdicted by the law, in furtherance of such a de- 
 sign. The former doctrine is utterly untenable as a 
 proposition of political ethics; because, however 
 commendable it may be thought as a rule of indi- 
 vidual action to refrain from seeking preferment,
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. 1 53 
 
 it can not be regarded as at all improper to seek 
 political support, since the maintenance of important 
 political principles may render such a course absolutely 
 necessary. If done in a proper manner, the canvass 
 for a nomination or an election must be considered 
 an honorable thing to be done, however repugnant 
 to the feelings of the individual it may sometimes be. 
 The rights and duties reciprocally attaching to this 
 relation are : 
 
 1. Such aspirant has a right to receive due notice 
 of the meeting of the nominating body and of all 
 bodies sending delegates thereto ; that the same shall 
 be fairly organized, and due opportunity be given for 
 all to be heard ; that the vote be honestly taken and 
 truly canvassed. 
 
 2. His duty is to refrain from the use of dishonest 
 methods to advance his own interests, such as appeals 
 to the self interest of delegates rather than the general 
 interest they were chosen to represent. 
 
 I do not wish to weary you with unnecessar}'^ detail, 
 my young friend, nor ask you to speculate in regard 
 to a state of affairs not likely to be realized or even 
 approximated while human nature remains what it is. 
 A glance at the category of rights and duties above 
 given will enable you to perceive at once the defects 
 in our present party system, where it is liable to abuse 
 and how its deficiencies may be remedied You will 
 observe that it is possible for the will of the majority
 
 154 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 to be subverted and the party machinery employed 
 to defeat rather than to express the will of the party 
 by any of the following acts: 
 
 1. By failure to admit and recognize all members 
 of the party as members of the primaries or caucuses, 
 or by wrongfully admitting those not entitled, so as 
 to overwhelm the honest majority, thereby giving 
 effect to the will of a minority instead. 
 
 2. By failing to give due and sufficient notice of 
 the time and place of meeting of primaries or other 
 constituent bodies. 
 
 3. By the neglect of individual members to attend 
 the party primaries, assert their rights, and make 
 effective their convictions. 
 
 4. By the bribery of persons entitled to vote at 
 the primaries. 
 
 5. By false canvass or return of the votes cast. 
 
 6. By the betraj'al of the trust reposed in them 
 by delegates to representative conventions. 
 
 It is believed that this classification embraces all 
 the methods by which the legitimate functions of party 
 organizations have hitherto been perverted to the 
 detriment of the public welfare. It will be seen that 
 all but three of them imply actual, intended, and delib- 
 erate fraud on the part of the perpetrators. No man 
 can take part in or be privy to one of them and claim 
 thereafter to be an honest or an honorable man. 
 One of them is the result of a negligence hardly 
 less criminal than premeditated fraud, and one only
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. I 5 5 
 
 may sometimes be accounted the result of faulty 
 organization. 
 
 This latter is the case alluded to in a former letter 
 in which the original plan and idea of our system of 
 party organization had been departed from in some 
 great cities — notably in New York. This departure 
 briefly stated, consists in packing the primaries by 
 excluding from them all who are not regularly elected 
 and approved by certain organizations existing in each 
 ward and precinct, and claiming to be the party, 
 within the limits to which their organization extends. 
 By this means one-half and in some instances three- 
 fourths of the rightful members of a party have been 
 not only disfranchised in the party councils, but their 
 votes and strength have been used to give weight to 
 the plans of the usurpers in delegate conventions, 
 affecting the action of a party in State, and sometimes 
 even in national affairs. 
 
 This is a fault of organization for which the 
 parties in the States, where it exists, are directly 
 and unmistakably responsible. That it justifies open 
 and effective revolt there is no question, and that 
 It will be amended just so soon as that revolt is 
 made persistent and effectual, there can be no doubt. 
 Such a system is in itself a suggestion of evil, and 
 a standing temptation to the perpetration of fraud. 
 It destroys confidence in all political agencies, and 
 is a fruitful cause of that state of society in which 
 the citizen ceases to be a governing factor, and
 
 156 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 becomes the mere tool of the "boss." Except in 
 these instances, the fundamental right of the voter 
 to a voice and a vote in the primary of the party to 
 wliich he belongs has never been openly denied in 
 theory, however often it may have been defeated 
 in fact. 
 
 The power of the individual voter as a member 
 of a party — which is really the key-stone of all 
 political power in the Republic — has often been 
 rendered nugatory by the neglect of the voter to 
 assert and exercise this right, and by the use of 
 fraudulent methods to control the action of the pri- 
 m,f».ries. The former evil is curable only by increased 
 diligence and faithfulness on the part of the voters 
 themselves. The others, too, while they may be 
 restricted somewhat by statute, must look for a per- 
 manent cure to the forum of public opinion and the 
 vigilance of awakened political conscience. 
 
 The prevalence of neglect in political duties of 
 this sort is usually as little realized as its danger is 
 rarely understood. A careful comparison of the 
 opinions of a large number of men having the best 
 of opportunities to make reliable estimates upon the 
 subject, shows that in the States of the North at least, 
 no*: more tJian one fifth of the voters of ajiy party habit- 
 ually attend its primaries ! This neglect not only 
 affords opportunity for fraud, but is in itself an actual 
 fraud of the gravest character upon every other voter, 
 who has an express right to demand that such mem-
 
 THE RANK AND FILE. 1 57 
 
 ber of the voluntary republic to which he belongs 
 shall do his full duty. 
 
 Another branch of this subject, the prevalence 
 and extent of intended fraud in party councils, or in 
 other words, dishonesty as an element of party 
 politics — its extent, causes, and curability, will be the 
 subject of our next letter.
 
 XIII. 
 
 "THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS!" 
 
 I APPROACH the subject of personal dishonesty as 
 an element of political action with a peculiar feeling^ 
 of diffidence, almost I may say, of irritation. It 
 is a subject in regard to which more has been said 
 and less has been done than any other phase of polit- 
 ical life. Perhaps I may also say that its relation 
 to the individual citizen seems to be less clearly un- 
 derstood than almost any other phase of his duty. 
 To suggest such a thing as honor or honesty in the 
 exercise of the kingly power devolved upon the citi- 
 zen, is generally deemed an absurdity so great as to 
 insure the man who ventures to do so, the opprobri- 
 ous epithet of "crank." Upon no other subject has 
 there been so much impractical, absurd, and conse- 
 quently useless speculation and so little practical 
 effort for amendment or reform. Let us see, even 
 at the risk of being termed a "crank," if a little 
 sharp anah'sis will not help us to a clearer under- 
 standing of the subject — whether it is really essential 
 that the citizen king should be a liar and a rogue, in 
 order to be a patriot. 
 158
 
 ''THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS?" 1 59 
 
 In the first place it may be well to inquire what 
 constitutes personal dishonesty in politics. In order 
 to institute such an inquiry upon a fair and compre- 
 hensive basis, let us consider first what would consti- 
 tute an absolute, fair, and honest political status. 
 Reverting to the analysis already given of our poHt- 
 ical system, we shall see that the following specific 
 elements are indispensably necessary to such a con- 
 dition of affairs : 
 
 1. That every member of each party should have 
 due and ample notice of the meeting of the party 
 primaries. 
 
 2. That he should have an indefeasible right to 
 an equal voice in the management and control of 
 the same. 
 
 3. That he should act freely and without the bias 
 of corrupt intent, compulsion, or deception in all his 
 party relations. 
 
 4. That he have ample opportunity to give ex- 
 pression to his wishes at the ballot-box ; that neither 
 deception, force, nor the desire for personal advan- 
 tage be allowed to overpower his conviction as to the 
 public interest ; and that the result of his action be 
 in all cases rendered effectual by due and proper 
 returns. 
 
 5. That the agents selected to represent the will 
 of the majority, both in the constituent councils of 
 the party and at the polls, shall honestly and faith- 
 fully perform their duties as such.
 
 l6o LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 Whatever is done, directly or indirectly, for the 
 purpose of preventing an}' of these results is an act 
 of personal dishonesty in politics. 
 
 If you will turn back a few pages, my young 
 friend, and read again the category of individual rights 
 and duties, you may find it to include acts you never 
 dreamed of reprobating. You will see that whoever, 
 by force or fraud, by false representation, or by cor- 
 rupt procurement, obstructs, hinders, or misleads a 
 voter in the exercise of his rights or privileges as a 
 member of a party or as a part of the collective 
 sovereignty, or renders such action inoperative by 
 the corrupt exercise of power conferred on him by 
 the favor of others, is guilty of an act of personal 
 dishonesty, and is an enem)' of good government. 
 
 This may seem to you a very sweeping accusa- 
 tion , yet it is true in all its parts. The man who 
 corrupts, diverts, or renders inoperative any portion 
 of the collective intelligence, which we call the will 
 of the majority, and which constitutes the sovereign 
 power of the nation, is better only in degree than the 
 foulest traitor that ever organized rebellion, and is 
 morally on the level of the thief and the liar, it mat- 
 ters not how good a motive he may profess, or how 
 exalted a sense of patriotism he may claim to have 
 inspired his action. The man who buys votes at a 
 primary is no whit better than the man who corrupts 
 a judge of election or falsifies a return. The man 
 who knowingl)' deceives a voter is precisely on a par
 
 •« THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS r l6l 
 
 with the man who deters one from the performance 
 of his duty by threats of bodily harm. The briber 
 and the "bull-dozer" are precisely equal in moral 
 delinquency. The former is somewhat more despi- 
 cable because his act has not even the semblance of 
 boldness, or the flavor of courage about it. The 
 man who, by any sort of trick, by any form of force 
 or fraud, by bribery or "bull-whacking," by mis- 
 direction of the ignorant or by the proscription of 
 the timid — any man who, by any of these acts, de- 
 bases the ballotorial power of a single citizen, en- 
 dangers the fabric of free government and adds just 
 so much to the mass of personal dishonesty in our 
 politics. Morally he is just as nefarious, and per- 
 sonally he ought to become just as infamous, be- 
 cause of such an act, as if he had stolen your money, 
 assailed your life, or conspired to overthrow the Re- 
 public by force of arms. 
 
 "Well," I hear you say, with the air of one 
 whose wisdom settles in a breath the whole question, 
 "the time will never come when these things will be 
 unknown in politics." 
 
 In this you are undoubtedly correct, my young 
 friend ; yet upon no other subject would you ever 
 think of advancing an argument so absurd as an ex- 
 cuse for inaction or a reason for failure to condemn an 
 admitted wrong. It is, however, the stock argument, 
 the excuse apparently deemed unanswerable by many * 
 who treat of this evil. One might say with equal 
 
 14
 
 1 62 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 verity, that the time will not come, at least in any cal- 
 culable period, when murder and rape and robbeiy and 
 larceny will be unknown in any community; but you 
 would never think of alleging that fact as an excuse 
 for failure to reprobate or even a failure to punish 
 these crimes. Why the distinction ? Simply because 
 the time has already come when such crimes are 
 accounted despicable, opprobrious, and dangerous to 
 community. A murderer is regarded with horror ; 
 a thief is branded with infamy; even a liar, whom 
 the law can not touch, is looked upon with aversion 
 and shut out of society by his offense. But to He 
 and steal and bribe at a primary ; to corrupt the bal- 
 lot ; to falsif}- the popular verdict ; to mislead the 
 ignorant or deter the timid, — these things are not 
 regarded, even by the respectable and moral element 
 of our society, as in any appreciable sense derogatory 
 to the character or standing of the person engaged 
 in them. 
 
 These very things it is believed and expected that 
 every candidate and every party manager will do 
 or furnish the means for doing; and the fact that 
 one has openly confessed or is universally believed 
 to have done so, does not injuriously affect his 
 standing in his party, in society, or even to any 
 considerable extent, in the Church. If politics be, 
 as has been said, "a traffic in putrid things," it is 
 simply because the public shows itself not offended 
 by the stench. The politician is an exact index of
 
 ' ' THE HONOR OF TH Y L ORDLINESS! " 1 63 
 
 the moral sentiment and sense of public duty of his 
 constituents. If you take the moral average of any 
 community, throwing in the idlers and evaders of 
 political duty, who are the greatest of all political 
 offenders, you will find that it exactly reaches the 
 moral altitude of the local "boss." 
 
 An indubitable proof of this is found in the fact 
 that men boast of such exploits in good society, and 
 people laugh at the shrewdness displayed but never 
 dream of showing anger or disgust at the wrong 
 committed. Men may commit murder, burglary, 
 or rape; but they do not go into refined Christian 
 society to boast of it ! We cultivate and encourage 
 the political trickster, and then scold at his exploits ! 
 
 "How did I make the riffle?" said a congress- 
 man, referring to his election in a district confessedly 
 opposed to him in political sentiment. ' ' Weil, I 
 found out just what sort of paper and type were 
 being used for printing my opponent's tickets, and 
 got a few thousand out with my own name on them, 
 and had them put in the hands of voters who could 
 not read, or did not stop to see what they were 
 doing. Before the thing was found out, there were 
 enough of them in the boxes to .settle the matter. " 
 "What was said when it was discovered?" 
 "Every body thought it was a pretty sharp 
 trick. Of course the fellow who got left tore around 
 some, and cut up a good deal of turf; but what could
 
 1 64 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 he do ? I had a right to print my tickets just as I 
 chose, and they could not show that the voters did 
 not mean to vote them." 
 
 The man who made this declaration stands higrh 
 in the councils of his party, is well received in 
 society, is an eminent member of a Christian Church, 
 and was recently cited by name in a leading Church 
 paper as a notable example of political morality! 
 
 / "Our opponents sent about three hundred coal- 
 burners into my district three months before the 
 election, and we hired five hundred wood-choppers 
 to help them !" said another in explanation of a like 
 
 ^ success. 
 
 " I was offered ten thousand dollars to help A 
 
 in that contest," said a man who prides himself on 
 representing a high ideal of political purity; "but 
 
 being a personal friend of B , of course I could 
 
 not take it!" 
 
 Both the matter-of fact tone and the reason given 
 were very suggestive. The inference was unavoid- 
 able, that he would have taken the bribe if he had not 
 been a personal friend of the other candidate. This 
 conversation was held in the public sitting-room of 
 a hotel, and was a part of a reminiscent soliloquy 
 addressed to the delegates to a State convention. 
 
 "That was a lively time," said a party worker in 
 a country county, referring to a recent election.
 
 ^^THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS!" 165 
 
 "Our candidate was a little squeamish about such 
 things, but he gave me a thousand dollars and said : 
 '/ do n't want to know zvhat you do with it/' Of 
 course," said the narrator, with a suave accent of 
 unneeded explanation — ''of course, I put every cent 
 of it where it would do the most good.'' Just where 
 that was he did not explain. 
 
 "Do you know how A was defeated for 
 
 senator?" asked one public man of another in the 
 smoking compartment of a railway-train. "You 
 see we knew a messenger was on the way from the 
 governor, announcing a vacancy. If a vote was 
 
 taken then, we knew A would be elected. The 
 
 presiding officer was on our side, but timid, you 
 know — had n't nerve. We wanted him to declare 
 an adjournment before the messenger arrived. He 
 said he would if a majority voted for it. We knew 
 
 they wouldn't, but Senator B said: 'Just put 
 
 me in the chair and I will adjourn the thing, no 
 matter how they vote.' No sooner said than done. 
 
 B took the chair ; I made the motion, and in 
 
 two minutes we were adjourned. That 's what saved 
 
 us. B received a great deal of praise from the 
 
 'reform' papers for his promptness and courage." 
 
 So blunted has become our public sense that 
 this was done in the much-abused name of " reform," 
 and commended by recognized professional "re- 
 formers," because it rid them of a man they feared.
 
 1 66 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 The end may have been good ; but alas for the path 
 \>y whicli it was reached, and the sentiment that jus- 
 tifies wrong. doing for the sake of a desired result! 
 
 " I paid more for the votes of the delegates from 
 
 the town of N , for three years in succession, 
 
 than the whole State and county tax of the town 
 during that time," said a local politician, boastfully, 
 to a group of his admirers. The town he referred 
 to is one of the most moral and intelligent communi- 
 ties in the State of New York, and the delegates 
 Avho systematically sold themselves and their fellows 
 were among its most honored and respected citizens. 
 
 " I find it the best plan to do my own work, and 
 do it between midnight and morning, too. A man 
 will take money when you see him alone after mid- 
 night who would not touch it before that time; and 
 every man Avill take from thirty to fifty per cent less 
 then than earlier in the day." Such was the candid 
 confession of an active country politician to a group 
 who were giving similar experiences on the crowded 
 porch of a hotel at one of our great summer resorts. 
 
 It is a well-known and universally admitted fact 
 that many men who claim to be too high-minded to 
 corrupt voters or buy delegates, do not hesitate to 
 employ strikers or middlemen — brokers in political 
 dishonor and corruption — to do their work for them. 
 
 The result of this state of affairs and its open
 
 '*THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS!" 1 6/ 
 
 indorsement or covert approval, is an almost univer- 
 sal belief in the corrupt character of all political 
 transactions. 
 
 "Tell you what," said an enthusiastic supporter 
 of a candidate for one of the highest offices in a State, 
 "F ve been in politics a long time, and seen a deal 
 
 of sharp management, but B (his favorite) will 
 
 make a httle money go further, and do more good, 
 than any man I ever saw." 
 
 "I will tell you what I think," said an intelligent, 
 moral young man at a town primary not long since, 
 as he scrutinized the printed ticket for delegates to 
 a county convention, "this thing isn't fair. There 
 are A and B and C," pointing to names on the ticket; 
 "they go to the convention every year and make 
 from one hundred to three hundred dollars apiece out 
 of it! Now, I think there ought to be a change. 
 They ought to stand aside — and give some of the rest 
 of 7is a chance I ' ' 
 
 He may have been mistaken in the amount of the 
 profits, but there can be no doubt that he wanted 
 a change. 
 
 A few years ago I rode from the depot into a 
 country village with an omnibus load of delegates to 
 a party convention. They talked freely, and made 
 hardly any concealment of their intention to dispose 
 of their votes for their individual advantage.
 
 1 68 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 "I don't care what they say about it," said one 
 of them. "I think that the men who get good fat 
 offices ought to share with us who give them such 
 places, and, so far as I am concerned, / am in favor 
 of a divvy!'* 
 
 I learned afterwards that this man was not only 
 politically prominent, but was a business man of high 
 standing, and an active member of the Church in his 
 town. It is a common rumor in the county where he 
 lives, that no man has been nominated to an office by 
 the dominant party in a score of years without paying 
 the "bosses" and their henchmen. 
 
 An intelligent farmer, worth several thousand 
 dollars, said to a candidate, in my hearing, a few 
 years since on election-day: 
 
 "Of course, I and my sons calculate to vote 
 right, but we think we ought to be paid for our day's 
 work!'' 
 
 Three dollars was raised and three votes secured. 
 This man would feel seriously affronted to learn that 
 any one regarded his action as at all reprehensible. 
 He simply has the general impression that it is 
 perfectly legitimate to make money by politics. 
 
 Two years ago a man sent a communication to 
 a reputable newspaper in one of our Eastern cities, 
 asserting that he had sold his vote at a recent elect
 
 ''THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS!" 1 69 
 
 tion for a certain sum, showing what he had done 
 with the money, and advocating the right and duty 
 of every poor man to do hkewise. I was impressed 
 with the tone of the letter, and, getting the man's ad- 
 dress, took occasion soon afterwards to hunt him up, 
 and ascertain his condition and character. I found 
 him to be a shoemaker, earning fair wages, of tem- 
 perate habits, having a good common-school educa- 
 tion, and of exemplary life. The right to vote he 
 considered simply a man's stock in trade — a privilege 
 that it was entirely proper to make the subject of 
 traffic. 
 
 Such things are not unusual enough to require 
 verification, though day and place can be given for 
 every one of the incidents above related. The belief 
 that poHtical success is a mere matter of bargain and 
 sale, trickery and corruption, is all but universal 
 among all classes throughout the North. At the 
 South, this form of corruption of the popular will is 
 probably less frequent. The debasement of the ballot 
 is there more generally effected by other methods 
 more obnoxious to Northern ideas, but not by any 
 means more obnoxious to morality or hardly more 
 dangerous to popular government. It is no worse 
 to corrupt a voter through his fear than through his 
 greed ; with a pistol than with a pocket-book. 
 
 What is the reason of this prevalence of corrupt 
 practices of politicians of all parties? 
 
 15
 
 y 
 
 \ 
 
 170 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 Simply the fact that it is 7tot cotisidered immoral or 
 repreliensible to lie or cheats to steal a ballot, buy a 
 vote, or corrupt a delegate, in order to secure political 
 success ! 
 
 We have so thoroughly divorced religion from 
 politics that we do not regard ethical principles as 
 applying to political action. The very bulwark of 
 political jobbery and corruption is this public senti- 
 ment that holds such conduct excusable, and in a 
 majority of cases honorable. Now and then we hold 
 officials responsible for maladministration. In the 
 city of New York, men are sometimes tried for 
 official corruption. Yet the nominations to the 
 offices of the city are put up for sale almost as openly 
 as grain or stocks, and the very judges who are to try 
 men for official malfeasance are as candidates required 
 to furnish enormous sums for the express purpose 
 of corrupting party agencies or electoral power. It 
 is because men believe it to be necessary to buy the 
 favor of others in order to insure success; because re- 
 spectable men are willing to buy, and respectable men 
 are willing to sell, the political power they hold, either 
 by virtue of their inherent kingship, or by the favor 
 of their fellows, that we hear so often the excuse that 
 "in politics it is necessary to fight the devil with 
 fire." As a moral principle this assertion is on a 
 par with the idea that trickery is business, and that 
 fraud is essential to financial success. If honest men
 
 ''THE HONOR OF THY LORDLINESS!" 171 
 
 will carry their honor into politics, and Christian men 
 will carry their religion into their partisan relations, 
 and both will hold personal dishonesty as reprehen- 
 sible in politics as in private business, the charge 
 will soon cease to be made, because it will soon 
 cease to be true.
 
 XIV. 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. 
 
 The remedy for the universal distrust of political 
 methods and aims, discussed in our last, consists of 
 two elements, each of which is dependent to some 
 extent upon the other for its own efficacy. 
 
 The one is that general sense of responsibility 
 and rectitude of purpose on the part of the majority 
 of voters which has already been so frequently al- 
 luded to in these letters. A willingness to perform 
 the voluntary duties of the citizen, and a determina- 
 tion to do their duty thoroughly and efficiently, on the 
 part of all right-minded citizens, is the prime pre- 
 requisite and the only solid basis of any real reform 
 in political methods. 
 
 The man of education, means, culture, and Chris- 
 tian character must, first of all things, care enough 
 about his duty as a citizen, esteem sufficiently his 
 own privileges, the rights of his fellows, and the per- 
 petuity of republican institutions, to take the trouble 
 to learn when the caucus of his party meets, where it 
 meets, and arrange his business so as to attend its 
 meeting ; and when there he must be brave enough 
 172
 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. 1 73 
 
 to take an active and interested part in its proceed- 
 ings. Until this is done no real reform is possible. 
 If the Christian sentiment and Christian conscience of 
 the land are awake to this duty, any needful reform 
 is not only feasible but certain to be achieved. It is 
 the units that must first be vivified, however, and 
 individual minds and consciences that must first be 
 stirred up to the performance of duty. You must 
 act for yourself — for me — for all whose rights, privi- 
 leges, prosperity, every form of temporal good and 
 no small chance of eternal salvation, are dependent 
 in a greater or less degree on your conduct as a 
 citizen. 
 
 The Church itself is feeling the need of this very 
 awakening of personal conscience. You can not 
 draw the temper from one edge of the sword and 
 leave the other as keen and true as before. If you 
 dull one side of a man's conscience the rest is easily 
 broken down. If individual Christians adopt, ap- 
 prove, or even tolerate, political methods based on 
 falsehood, corruption, the violation of private right 
 and perversion of public trusts, they must of neces- 
 sity lose, to some extent, the power to distinguish 
 between right and wrong in other respects, and the 
 Church suffers contamination thereby. Bad politics 
 tend to make weak Churches. The disregard of 
 public rights leads to laxity of private morals. As 
 the sense of individual responsibility for the public 
 welfare is relaxed, care for the welfare of common
 
 174 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 souls grows dull. The contribution-box takes the 
 place of the prayer-meeting; the Churches go up- 
 town, and missionaries and the devil go down- 
 town. A few learn the way to heaven in gorgeous 
 temples; the many travel the road to hell, the de- 
 scent to which is made easy by misgovernment and 
 oppression, until the editor of a great religious jour- 
 nal was recently able to say with bitter verity: 
 "Protestantism is the rehgion of respectable people, 
 and rather glories in it. In all civilized lands it is 
 getting further and further from the poorest and 
 worst classes every year. It courts the rich and 
 powerful, and does little for the rabble. We are led 
 to believe, indeed, that it has little pity for those 
 whose possessions are only rags and grime, and that 
 its feeling towards them is rather one of scorn or cen- 
 sure than of commiseration." 
 
 A man can not be a good Christian in a republic 
 unless he performs faithfully his public duties, for 
 these, even more than his private acts, may be made 
 effectual for the fulfillment of the Christian idea of 
 universal beneficence. 
 
 The poorest Christian is able to do more good to 
 humanity by faithfully performing the duties of the 
 citizen than the alms of the richest can accomplish. 
 One who neglects such opportunities for doing good 
 is a most unprofitable servant of the Master whose 
 livery he wears. In a republic, bad government is 
 the unfailing index of a low moral development — a
 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. 1 75 
 
 rotten State points to a debased Christian sentiment. 
 When the Church courts the rich and shuns the 
 poor, the State becomes debauched, the poor de- 
 spised, and the rich "consume the land." First of 
 all things, therefore, if we would remedy these evils 
 and cure the public demoralization which has resulted 
 from them, we must magnify the duty of the citizen- 
 king, and cultivate a sentiment which will regard the 
 neglect of public duty as a disgrace, and corrupt po- 
 litical methods not as mere venial offenses against an 
 impracticable code of ethics, but as crimes of the 
 most dangerous character. As long as political of- 
 fenses are respectable, they will be frequent ; when 
 they become infamous, they will be rare. When 
 Christians cease to wink at them, scoundrels will be 
 careful how they commit them. 
 
 Whenever the necessity of personal attention to 
 the duties of the citizen is recognized, the day of 
 "strikers" and "heelers" will be at an end. Then, 
 instead of the caucus or primary being a den of pol- 
 lution, and the ballot-box a nest of infamy, the for- 
 mer will become a dignified and reputable assembly, 
 and the latter, watched by keen eyes and guarded by 
 honest hearts and strong hands, will be indeed the 
 sacred ark in which the fiat of the people, which is 
 to us the will of God, shall be reverently deposited 
 and safely kept. It is not enough to boast of this 
 institution as the palladium of our liberties while we 
 leave the approaches to it unguarded, and invite
 
 176 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 thieves to break in and steal the kingly power it 
 represents. 
 
 The State of New York has an unfinished capital 
 building which has cost nearly a score of millions of 
 dollars. It exceeds in tawdry inconvenience, and 
 magnificent unfitness for its professed purposes, any 
 building ever erected. It is an architectural deform- 
 ity of incredible weakness and unimpressive ugliness. 
 Already it is tottering, crumbling, threatening to fall, 
 as if some blinded Samson in his wrath at the enor- 
 mous depravity it represents, had "bowed himself 
 between the pillars." One of the grandest works of 
 American genius — about the only honest thing about 
 the whole structure — is cracked and seamed and 
 blurred by the dripping, shrinking insincerity of its sur- 
 roundings. It is a fit temple for the orgies of political 
 depravity — a fair type of what is done within its confines 
 in ' ' the much-abused name of liberty. " It is an index 
 of the tendency which has become almost universal in 
 our land. What is the cause ? The honest, reputable, 
 moral people of the State, either believe in political 
 dishonesty and corruption as an essential prerequi- 
 site of partisan success or regard it as an unavoida- 
 ble concomitant of free government. They not only 
 excuse the corruption of the popular will and misuse 
 of sovereign power, but count it a thing altogether 
 necessary, if not commendable. While this senti- 
 ment exists, what change is possible ? 
 
 But you say we must have laws to prevent such
 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. 1/7 
 
 things ! It is one of the fallacies of our day that 
 every thing may be done by law; that a bare "thus 
 it is written" is enough to cure any evil. Whatever 
 Avrong is called to our attention, we say at once, "Let 
 us have a law to cure it!" We are constantly setting 
 traps for the devil, then going to sleep and wondering 
 why he is not caught in them. We shirk in every 
 conceivable way individual responsibility and the 
 personal performance of public duty. A man will 
 howl himself hoarse by the year at a time, to secure 
 the enactment of a statute, and then sit down and see 
 it violated every day without making complaint. It 
 is not his business, he says. He declares that he 
 helps to pay men to enforce the law, and by that 
 means has shifted responsibility from his own shoul- 
 ders to theirs. The very best citizens will gleefully 
 relate the shrewd devices by which they have evaded 
 the performance of public duty. They avoid the jury- 
 box as studiously as they neglect the caucus and 
 ignore the ballot-box. They leave to unoccupied 
 loungers and irresponsible officials the performance 
 of the most important corrective functions of govern- 
 ment, and then wonder that crime grows so enor- 
 mously, that the prison population of the country is 
 equal to the entire population of the thirtieth city in 
 the land, Avhile our actual criminal population is esti- 
 mated to be equal to that of the city which stands 
 fifth in rank. A sovereign without law is bad enough, 
 but infinitely better than mere law without a sovereign.
 
 178 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 The lesson that meets us at every step is, that the 
 work of government in a republic can not safely be 
 done by proxy. The citizen may be a king if he 
 will ; he is a king de jure ; and the moment he ceases 
 to be a king de facto, he ceases to be a good citizen — 
 becomes in very truth a criminal. 
 
 That "the hireling fleeth because he is a hireling," 
 has never been more forcibly illustrated than by the 
 results of our attempts to shift the responsibility of 
 government upon our officials, or pack the burdens 
 of our neglect upon the shoulders of political buc- 
 caneers. Side by side with the general belief in 
 universal political corruptibility has grown up a want 
 of confidence in the administration of the law until 
 justice is as often spoken of as an article of mer- 
 chandise as otherwise. It is no doubt a fact that 
 the courts of the United States have been freer 
 from venality than those of any other nation known 
 to history. After more than a hundred years, hardly 
 a single case of provable corruption has been found 
 in the hundred and forty odd judges of the various 
 State courts of final jurisdiction, not one in the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, and but one in 
 the inferior national tribunals. Actual crime of this 
 sort has attached in very few instances to the judges 
 of the higher State courts, and the instances of 
 probable venality are hardly more numerous. Un- 
 fortunately, the same can not be said of municipal and 
 inferior tribunals. Though there have been few cases
 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. 1 79 
 
 of Impeachment for malfeasance, the general estimate 
 of the integrity of such officers of the law is very low 
 indeed. But however low the general opinion of even 
 the most suspected class of judicial officers may be, 
 it is infinitely above the popular estimate of the 
 average juror. It is not so much the idea that he is 
 purchasable — though in some of our cities it is claimed 
 that jury-fixing has become not only an art, but a 
 profession, and in very many there is a popular idea 
 that jury duty is only a somewhat "shady" method 
 of obtaining a rather precarious livelihood — as it is 
 belief in a general lack of moral fiber in the perform- 
 ance of public duty, that destroys confidence in the 
 jury, and has resulted, during the last few years, in 
 an astonishing increase of mob violence. Lynching, 
 which was formerly confined to the States of the South 
 and the unsettled society of the frontier, is now almost 
 as frequent at the North and East. But very few of 
 these States have of late been free from mob violence, 
 springing from a conviction, well or ill founded, of 
 the unreliablility of the popular branch of our judicial 
 system. Indeed, it is not seldom true that men who 
 would assiduously seek to avoid the performance of 
 the duty of the juror, at the demand of the State, are 
 the readiest to assume the r61e of Judge Lynch, and, 
 under cover of night and disguise, administer a justice 
 they would not trust themselves to mete out in open 
 day, and under the sanction of an oath in the jurj'-box. 
 These facts, taken in connection with a hundred
 
 l80 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 others equally significant, show that in our country 
 it is not enough to have laws to protect the ballot- 
 box and the primary. A statute without an earnest, 
 active, vital public sentiment behind it, is worse than 
 a dead letter. Law, indeed, is but the weapon with 
 which the faithful and earnest citizen is armed, not 
 merely for the enforcement of his own rights, but for 
 the security of the public. The remedy you suggest, 
 therefore, is a good and effectual one, only when you 
 have courage and manliness and zeal enough to 
 stand behind the law, and render its behests effective. 
 Will the American citizen-king stand this test ? That 
 is the question. 
 
 Legal enactments, it is true, would be very help- 
 ful. Indeed, they are in some instances absolutely 
 necessary, to enable the citizen fully and certainly to 
 perform his political duty, and guard against the per- 
 version of the public will. In most of the States the 
 ballot-box is alreadj' guarded by adequate enactments, 
 and the national government has provided machinery 
 of a very clear and practical character for the regu- 
 lation of elections for members of Congress and 
 Presidential Electors. It has but one serious defect, 
 but that is well nigh fatal — it is not compulsory nor 
 universal in its application. The party primary — which 
 is the key to the ballot-box — the decisions of which 
 the election merely affirms or denies, is practically 
 unregulated by statute. In a few cities an attempt 
 has been made to do so, but not always with success;
 
 THE WILL AND THE WAY. i8l 
 
 and never has such legislation been of a thorough or 
 exhaustive character. The time has come when such 
 legal regulation can not be long delayed. The 
 elements of such legislation are not many, and its 
 provisions need not be intricate or difficult of appli- 
 cation. It should contain the following provisions: 
 
 1. It should define party membership and make 
 participation in the caucus or primary a recognized 
 and enforceable legal right. 
 
 2. It should regulate the method by which meet- 
 ings of the primary should be called, and provide for 
 due advertisement of time and place. It would be 
 in the interests of honest methods if the time itself 
 was fixed by statute, and was made the same through- 
 out the State. 
 
 3. The officers of the primary should be made 
 public officials, charged with defined functions, and 
 made amenable to punishment in case of malfeasance. 
 
 4. Provision should be made for the organization 
 of new parties, whose officials should be liable to the 
 same penalties. 
 
 This is not the place to discuss the details of such 
 legislation; but the citizen-king who desires to per- 
 form his duty as such will see how simple are the 
 elements of such legislation, and will not fail to give 
 his influence in favor of such enactments. Armed 
 with such laws, backed by a healthy public opinion, 
 political jobbery and corruption become just as man- 
 ageable offenses as highway robber)^ The question
 
 1 82 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 comes home, then, to every one of our twelve mill- 
 ions of CO ordinate sovereigns, Do you want honest 
 politics? 
 
 This question, my young friend, you will have to 
 answer for yourself. It is the general belief that you 
 do not ; and on this opinion of your patriotism, 
 morality, and manhood, the "boss" and the poHtical 
 manipulator expressly base their chances of future 
 domination and control. By the success or failure 
 of their designs the world will learn the nature of 
 your decision.
 
 XV. 
 PARTY FEALTY. 
 
 A WELL-KNOWN politician, who is courteously 
 designated "an eminent political manager," though 
 he ought more properly to be termed a notorious 
 political trickster, whose name is associated with 
 many a notable "deal" by which unexpected mir- 
 acles have been wrought at the ballot-box — a man 
 who regards the voter as a subject of legitimate mer- 
 chandise, the legislator as simply an instrument on 
 which the lobbyist may display his skill, and the 
 party as a mere agency by which this sort of traffic 
 may be more easily carried on — such a man said to 
 me the other day, alluding to the letters I have 
 addressed to you: 
 
 "It is all bosh ! When a man goes into politics 
 he must leave his religion at home! A politician's 
 business is to win, and if he stops to look too care- 
 fully at the means employed he never will win ; 
 that is all there is of it. Your letters will have just 
 this effect: they will weaken party discipline, promote 
 strife in the ranks, and complicate party organization. 
 In short," he added, with a tone of supreme disgust, 
 
 183
 
 1 84 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 " they will encourage bolts, multiply 'independents,' 
 and swell the ranks of the 'mugwumps!'" 
 
 You may well imagine that my blood ran cold at 
 this terrible arraignment. My friend — for he has 
 proved himself my friend on more than one occa- 
 sion — is a man whose opinion upon any political 
 matter is not lightly to be called in question. He 
 has devoted the major part of a life, now verging to 
 the shady slope, in winning political conflicts. In 
 detecting the plans of the enemy, and in "laying 
 pipes" to forestall them, he is almost unequaled in a 
 State notable for the boldness and success of its polit- 
 ical buccaneers. More than once he has snatched 
 victory from the jaws of defeat by some scheme, fair 
 or questionable, by which the results of an election 
 have been determined. Every one knows that he is 
 not at all scrupulous about the means he employs; 
 in fact, he does not claim to be. If he has ever gone 
 beyond the limits of legal right in these contests, he 
 has never been detected; or, at least, the fact has 
 never been ascertained by a jury charged to inquire 
 into such violations, beyond a reasonable doubt. * In 
 private life he is regarded as reputable and trust- 
 worthy. He is a man of ample fortune, of which he 
 is the undoubted architect, though his professional 
 income has never been enough to meet his apparent 
 expenses. He does not deny that he has "taken 
 advantage of his opportunities," and he counts every 
 man a fool who does not. It is well known that he
 
 PARTY FEALTY. 185 
 
 would not hesitate to buy a voter, a delegate, or a 
 legislator, if he could not get him otherwise. It is 
 universally believed that he has done all these things 
 over and over again ; yet he is deemed an honorable 
 man. His standing in the Church and society is not 
 at all affected by this prevailing belief. He is merely 
 a successful politician, and in the popular eye is ex- 
 :used for all the sins which he may have deemed 
 necessary to insure success. 
 
 This man intended that his words should fall upon 
 me with crushing effect. There is none who under- 
 stands quite as well as one of this class the value of 
 contempt. More than once we have been associated 
 in momentous conflicts, and I have often noted his 
 tact and subtlety with no little admiration. No one 
 knows better than he the power of skillfully applied 
 epithets, and he no doubt supposed my heart would 
 quail before the scornful emphasis he threw into the 
 terms "independents" and " mugwumps ;" for he 
 knows full well that to my mind the one is the un- 
 failing symptom of "structural weakness," and the 
 other an evidence of unconscious arrogance. He "~ 
 knows that I believe as strongly as he, that party — 
 party organization, party discipline, and party suc- 
 cess — are absolutely essential to good government 
 and healthy progress in a republic, and that, as a 
 rule, I do not believe any more than he in the right, 
 duty, or manliness of alliance with an enemy because 
 
 one can not altogether agree with the course adopted-^ 
 
 16
 
 1 86 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 by his friends. But with this our concord ends. 
 Thenceforth we differ radically as to every phase of 
 party relations. 
 
 To the one, a party is a means for the accom- 
 plishment of worthy ends. When it fails to attempt 
 that, it is worthy neither of allegiance nor honor. It 
 is fit only to be cast aside like a broken tool. To 
 the other, party is merely a means of power. Its 
 policy, methods, and the character of the men whom 
 it intrusts with power — all these are nothing in the 
 game of politics which he plays with the votes, the 
 interests, the moral sentiments, and the dearest rights 
 of the masses, as the pawns by which the more im- 
 portant pieces on the board are to be supported and 
 advanced. To the one, party is an instrument of 
 public good — a means by which popular opinion 
 may be more easily and certainly expressed. To 
 the other, party is only a means by which certain 
 individuals are to be foisted into positions of power 
 and emolument for the joint personal benefit of 
 themselves and their most active supporters. To 
 the one, party is an instrument to be used by the 
 people for the good of the people ; to the other, an 
 instrument by which the people are made to con- 
 tribute to the personal interests of a few active, 
 zealous, and able manipulators, who manage the game 
 of politics for the careless and neglectful masses. 
 Standing on such different planes, agreement was 
 impossible, because words meant different things to
 
 PARTY FEAL TV: I %>J 
 
 each. So I could only say to him that if such as he 
 had not left their scruples at home when they went 
 into politics, as he averred that all men must, " inde- 
 pendents" would be rare and "mugwumps" un- 
 heard of. Without disregarding the opinions of such 
 men, without being deterred by their assumed con- 
 tempt or troubled about the epithets they may 
 bestow, let us proceed, my young friend, to examine 
 the much mooted question of party allegiance in the 
 light of what has already been ascertained as regards 
 our party system and individual obligation. 
 
 And first let me assure you that party allegiance 
 is no myth ; neither is it merely a shrewd device of 
 the party leader intended to secure the fealty of luke- 
 warm followers. On the contrary, it is a very worthy 
 sentiment, based on the most scrupulous regard for 
 individual conviction, and controlled by the most 
 delicate sense of personal honor. As we have seen, 
 a party is a voluntary association — an equal partner- 
 ship of individuals — banded together to attain a com- 
 mon political end, to establish certain specific prin- 
 ciples, or maintain a particular form or method of 
 administration. It may differ from another in gen- 
 eral spirit and intent, in prevailing tone and under- 
 lying tendency, or only in matters of detail and in 
 regard to specific questions. Such is the nature of 
 humanity that there must always be at least two great 
 parties in a republic organized as ours is, with a 
 constitution of definite and restricted powers. The
 
 1 88 ' LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 one will always be composed of strict or limited con- 
 structionists, while the other will be composed of 
 broad or liberal interpreters of the constitutional 
 limitations. Underlying all other distinctions, these 
 two fundamental ideas will ever remain in our gov- 
 ernment, and parties will divide along the line that 
 separates them as long as the Constitution remains and 
 the nation is made up of constituent but independent 
 States. 
 
 Of course the germ of party allegiance lies in the 
 duty one owes to himself and his fellows faithfully to 
 voice his own convictions as to public policy, and do 
 all that he reasonably may to secure the adoption 
 and maintenance of the principles he believes to be 
 essential to the general good. As it is the bounden 
 duty of the citizen to affiliate with that party organ- 
 ization which in spirit, in principles, and in practice, 
 most nearly approaches his own personal view of 
 what constitutes sound policy, so it is likewise his 
 duty actively and loyally to support that party in 
 the promulgation of such views and the carrying into 
 effect of such policy. 
 
 Loyalty to party rests also on the basis of personal 
 honor. A party being an equal voluntary associa- 
 tion or partnership intended to effect a common 
 purpose, it is the plain duty of every one interested 
 in such common aim to support and maintain the 
 measures that may be decided upon by a majority 
 of the members as likely to promote the common
 
 PARTY FEAL TV. 1 89 
 
 purpose, so far as it is possible to do so tvithout the 
 sacrifice of convictions, wJiicJi he deems of para^noiint 
 importance to those his party represents. 
 
 This obligation, however, is subject to certain 
 important modifications. The relation between the 
 individual citizen and the party to which he belongs, 
 ©ut of which the obligation of party allegiance arises, 
 though not expressly formulated in all cases, is by 
 necessary implication both a mutual and a condi- 
 tional one. The party and the individual are both 
 pledged to active and faithful exertion for a common 
 end. In becoming a member of such organization 
 the individual tacitly engages to forego his private 
 judgment as to the best method of effecting the 
 common purpose, and accept instead the decision 
 of the majority, in order that unity of aim and har- 
 mony of method may unite for the promotion of the 
 common design ; and the party in like manner con- 
 tracts that the will of the majority shall be fairly 
 ascertained. This reciprocal obligation, like the re- 
 public itself, is based on the presumption that the 
 will of the majority represents the highest good of 
 the greatest number; that the common purpose is 
 more likely to be obtained by submission to the 
 general will than by stubborn insistence on individual 
 judgment as to men and methods. As in all recip- 
 rocal obligations, however, a strict performance of the 
 duty assumed by the one is an essential prerequi- 
 site to any claim of default on the part of the other.
 
 1 90 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 Pn becoming a member of a political party, a 
 citizen does not surrender his right of private judg- 
 ment, except to a certain degree and under plain 
 conditions. To claim that he does otherwise is to 
 make him an enforced conspirator, who, by reason 
 of the relations he has assumed in order to promote 
 a certain end, may be compelled to remain an un- 
 willing instrument of the overthrow of the very pur- 
 pose he sought to accomplish thereby. 
 
 The reciprocal obligation from which the bond of 
 party allegiance derives its force, if fairly analyzed, 
 will be found to be a contract which imposes these 
 conditions on the respective parties thereto: 
 
 1. The party, collectively considered, tacitly en- 
 gages with each individual that the will of a majority 
 of its members upon all questions affecting the com- 
 mon purpose, shall be fairly taken and honestly car- 
 ried into effect. 
 
 2. The party, in like manner, engages to promote 
 the common purpose which constitutes the moving 
 cause or consideration that induced the individual to 
 give it his support, and not give preference to any 
 other aim to the prejudice of this dominant design. 
 A change of purpose, therefore, without his express 
 assent thereto, releases the citizen from any implied 
 claim of support. 
 
 3. The party also tacitly engages that the meas- 
 ures it adopts to secure success shall be lawful and 
 proper ones.
 
 PARTY FEALTY. I9I 
 
 4. It is also implied in this mutual contract that 
 the individuals chosen to represent the party as can- 
 didates shall be (i) capable of filling worthily the po- 
 sitions for which they are named, (2) of good char- 
 acter, and (3) loyal to the principles of the party. 
 
 These conditions being complied with, the party 
 has a right to require of every individual member 
 that his personal preference be subordinated, and the 
 will of the majority be heartily accepted and loyally 
 maintained. 
 
 Upon these grounds alone can the claim of any 
 thing worthy the name of party allegiance be main- 
 tained without debasement of the voter's manhood 
 and demoralization of the public conscience. Un- 
 lawful or unfair methods of organization or procedure, 
 incapable or unworthy nominees — either of these 
 things releases the individual from any claim based 
 upon his previous support or affiliation. By either 
 of these acts a party loses the right to demand the 
 support of its followers, and of those professedly fa- 
 vorable to its organic principles. To acknowledge 
 any party allegiance not based on these grounds is 
 to give up the right of private judgment, and surren- 
 der the kingship of the citizen for the subserviency 
 of the slave — to bid for the domination of the "boss" 
 and invite the demoralization of corrupt methods. 
 
 It is just here that we encounter the fallacy which 
 underlies the most specious claim of the professional 
 party manipulator. "The man who enters a party
 
 192 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 caucus or convention," he says, "engages in its dis- 
 cussions, and seeks to influence its actions, is in 
 honor bound by its decisions." So far as personal 
 preferences or the mere comparative merits of candi- 
 dates are concerned, this is true. If the methods 
 are fair, so as to make the decision a real expression 
 of the will of the majority, and the candidates se- 
 lected are worthy and capable, no personal preference 
 for another aspirant, no conviction of his superior fit- 
 ness, should stand in the way of a hearty support of 
 a nominee of the party to which you belong. The 
 party has fulfilled its obligations, and has a right to 
 require you in all honor and sincerity to indorse and 
 maintain its action. Your judgment as to which of 
 two aspirants it is best for the party to name as a 
 candidate out of several of admitted worth and ability 
 should always yield to the voice of the majority. 
 
 A chief purpose of party organization is to take 
 beforehand the judgment of a majority upon such 
 questions of policy. No man can have any nght to 
 an office or a nomination. The interest of the coun- 
 try and the advancement of the common purpose of 
 the organization should always control the action of 
 any party in the selection of candidates, and it is the 
 duty of the individual to bow to the decision of the 
 majority upon such questions when fairly made. The 
 fact that the so-called "claims" of a favorite have 
 been ignored, can never give an honorable man rea- 
 sonable excuse for withholding the support tacitly
 
 PAR T V FEAL TY. 1 93 
 
 pledged to the party's nominee, if the decision is 
 honestly made, and the nominee a man of fair moral 
 character and reasonable capacity. Thus far the claim 
 of party allegiance may fairly extend. Beyond that 
 li-mit it can never rightfully go. The fact that a 
 man fights within a party against improper methods 
 or improper men, does not bind him in reason and 
 honor to their support, even though a majority may 
 decide in their favor. The party, by its own action, 
 has released him from obedience to its behests. It 
 has abrogated one of the fundamental and essential con. 
 ditions on which his allegiance was originally based. 
 
 Of what constitutes improper methods, or inca- 
 pacity, or unworthiness on the part of a candidate, 
 every man must of necessity be his own judge. He 
 can not, as a good citizen, depute another, or many 
 others, to determine these questions for him. Neither 
 can he smother his own convictions, or act contrary 
 to them, and be held blameless of resulting evil. The 
 king must judge; the king must rule; and the king 
 must bear the blame of his own weakness and error, 
 as well as expect commendation for his justice and 
 wisdom. 
 
 That this is not the ordinary view of the relations 
 of the individual to the party is freely admitted. It 
 is the only one, however, consistent with the honor, 
 intelligence, and integrity of the citizen-king. It is 
 the only theory of party allegiance consistent with 
 either morality or patriotism, and when the Christian 
 
 17
 
 194 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 citizen ceases to "leave his religion at home when he 
 goes into politics," it will be accounted neither 
 strained nor unusual. To say that its practical adop- 
 tion is a matter of difficulty is merely to assert that 
 the performance of duty is not always easy. That 
 such freedom of individual action is entirely consist- 
 ent with party loyalty, we shall see hereafter.
 
 XVI. 
 
 THE "INDEPENDENT VOTER." 
 
 The one hundred and eleventh anniversary of our 
 national birth has occurred since I last addressed you. 
 This fact of itself makes it peculiarly fitting that the 
 subject of independent political action should occupy 
 our attention at this time. Government, as the act 
 and duty of the many rather than the privilege of 
 the few, is so new a thing in the world's history that 
 no incident connected with its development can 
 properly be passed over without notice. Our Decla- 
 ration of Independence, to which I hope you listened 
 reverently on the anniversary of its promulgation, is 
 remarkable, not so much for the nationality of which 
 it was the index and precursor, as for the epoch of 
 individualism which it inaugurated. It is the gospel 
 of equality of right, founded on that other gospel in 
 whose ideal the great apostle tells us " there is neither 
 barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free." 
 
 Self-government, which was then an experiment, 
 has been growing constantly in the direction of 
 greater independence of individual action. Then a 
 few leaders shaped and controlled all political action. 
 
 195
 
 196 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 They were independent of each other, it is true, but 
 their adherents followed their individual lead with al- 
 most servile faithfulness. What were termed parties 
 were little more than factions — mere personal follow- 
 ings. Men were for or against a particular man, or a 
 particular idea which some man or set of men had 
 enunciated. Now the people make the platforms and 
 name the leaders. Our history shows that a fuller 
 knowledge of the principles of self-government, has 
 been especially favorable to independence of thought 
 and freedom of political action. Under the early sys- 
 tem the individual was compelled to elect between op- 
 posing factions. Rival chiefs drummed the country 
 for recruits. 
 
 Under the banner of some one of these the 
 patriot was required to serve, or become himself a 
 leader and undertake the task of overthrowing all 
 competitors, in order to attain a desired result. 
 Under the party system the individual is not only 
 enabled, but is constantly invited, to impress his 
 thought upon the policy of the party to which he 
 belongs. An idea that promises success is always 
 welcomed. It may be difficult to demonstrate its 
 importance and effectiveness or availability; but as 
 soon as they are clearly shown, the new thought 
 has at once the aid of all the established agencies of 
 party organization to promote its triumph. To the 
 political thinker, the advocate of new ideas and 
 champion of untried measures, this system offers
 
 THE ^'INDEPENDENT VOTER:' 1 9/ 
 
 opportunities which he would rarely be able to create 
 for himself. 
 
 The result is that political recreancy is becoming 
 a familiar thing. A few years ago it was a serious 
 matter for a public man to disagree with his party 
 upon any question of policy. Few dared to defy 
 the power of those tyrannic organizations which the 
 half-developed party system permitted and encour- 
 aged. For more than a decade Jackson wielded as 
 absolute and despotic power within the Democratic 
 party as a sultan exercises in his harem. To doubt 
 was death. He was the last and greatest of our poHt- 
 ical despots. Greater men than he have often tried 
 to enact the role of party dictator since that time, 
 but none have so successfully wielded the scepter of 
 absolute authority, because the enginery which the 
 party leader then controlled has since become avail- 
 able to all. The man who attempts to control its 
 action now is morally sure of being "hoist with his 
 own petard." Such is the fate that has overtaken 
 every imitator of "Old Hickory" who has forgotten 
 that the conditions of successful leadership have rad- 
 ically changed since his day. The question is not 
 now who can most effectually coerce popular endur- 
 ance and approval, but who can most readily note 
 the trend of public sentiment, and most certainly 
 foretell the course it is likely to assume. 
 
 When Buchanan, in 1858, told Stephen A. Doug- 
 las that "no Democrat had differed from an adminis-
 
 1^8 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 tration of his own choice without being crushed," the 
 "Little Giant" was only half right in his sneering 
 reply: "I wish you to remember, Mr. President, 
 that General Jackson is dead!" His great rival, the 
 shadow of whose destiny already overhung his fame, 
 understood much better the tendency of his time 
 when he laid the foundations of his own success broad 
 and deep in the convictions of the people. He 
 realized the fact to which all his contemporaries 
 were blind, and which to-day so many are trying to 
 ignore, that the recently perfected enginery of our 
 party system had taken the ultimate power from the 
 leader and the caucus and placed it in the hands of 
 the rank and file. Thenceforward he perceived that 
 the popular chief would not be the man who could 
 most successfully rule, but he who should most faith- 
 fully serve. 
 
 "Do not do it," said the venerable Thad Stevens, 
 in his last days, to an enthusiastic young man who 
 talked of rebelling against his party's behest. "No 
 man can afford to put himself outside the pale of the 
 party with which he is in substantial accord on most 
 questions, because of difference with it in one." 
 
 "Yet you once did it," was the reply. 
 
 "Yes — once; and it took me ten years to regain 
 the position I lost thereby, and the power to be use- 
 ful to the country which it gave." 
 
 "But that was forty years ago," persisted the re- 
 bellious spirit.
 
 THE ^'INDEPENDENT VOTERS 1 99 
 
 "So it was — so it was," assented the veteran pol- 
 itician, thoughtfully; "and the conditions of party 
 service have materially changed since then. The 
 force which moves a party now is centripetal; then 
 it was centrifugal. Then a party was judged by its 
 leaders; now the leaders are to be judged by the 
 party. The politician of to-day is an exponent rather 
 than a force. He is an exact reflex of the morality 
 and patriotism of those he represents." 
 
 It was a bold and notable statement, which no 
 man could better afford to make, and to which no 
 name could give greater weight. The system of 
 party politics has magnified the rank and file — the 
 individual — and relatively reduced in the same pro- 
 portion the leader's consequence. 
 
 The general observance of the national birthday 
 this year, being as it is in striking contrast in this 
 respect with the years that have recently elapsed, 
 shows that a new epoch of national sentiment is at 
 hand. The sons of those who saved the nation from 
 dissolution are awakening to the fact that all that 
 is to be achieved by the Republic — her ultimate des- 
 tiny — was not accomplished when the national domain 
 was preserved intact, and the stain of slavery wiped 
 from her soil. The glory of the past has ceased to 
 overpower the activities of the present, while year by 
 year its achievements shine the brighter as the nation- 
 ality it redeemed grows more and more distinctive and 
 pronounced in character. Hitherto our political
 
 200 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 thouglit has been chiefly concerned with the legal 
 definition of the rights of man in relation to the sov- 
 ereign power. Hereafter it will, for a season at 
 least, be largely occupied with the problems arising 
 out of the relations of the individual to the mass — of 
 the unit to the segregation of units which we call so- 
 ciety. We have ceased to invite the world to unload 
 its failures, its poverty, and its crime upon our shores, 
 and have begun to ask ourselves in all seriousness, 
 even upon the Fourth of July, what is needful to be 
 done to render our civilization all that it should be — 
 in what way the general betterment of the American 
 citizen may be best accomplished. The question is a 
 myriad-sided one, which is likely to develop many 
 new and startling phases; but its feet are at the 
 threshold, and because of this, our American life is 
 waking to an interest in political questions and meth- 
 ods altogether unprecedented. On the eve of such 
 an awakening it is well to pause and consider what 
 the true theory of independent political action is. 
 
 In order that we may make no mistake through 
 the use of terms that mean one thing to one mind and 
 quite a different thing to another, it will be neces.sary 
 to define the phrase "independent political action " 
 with some care. In its broadest sense it means, of 
 course, that the individual acts according to his own 
 inclination in political affairs, without coercion or 
 compulsion on the part of any man or set of men. 
 In this sense, the strongest partisan in the land may
 
 THE ^'INDEPENDENT VOTER." 201 
 
 well claim to be an "independent voter." Indeed, 
 he unquestionably is such, in a vast majority of cases. 
 He does the very thing he most earnestly wishes to 
 do. He is entirely free from any conscious bias or 
 unwelcome restraint. His action is a deliberate exer- 
 cise of the power vested in him as a part of the mul- 
 titudinous sovereignty. He is independent, although 
 he obeys the behest of a party, because he has confi- 
 dence in the collective wisdom and patriotism of the 
 organization to which he belongs. To speak of one 
 who thus freely exercises his own volition as any 
 thing else than an "independent voter" is thoroughly 
 absurd; yet, as the phrase has come to be used in 
 our politics, this class of active, earnest political 
 thinkers and workers is excluded, and those only de- 
 nominated "independents" who, to a greater or less 
 extent, ignore the duty of the partisan, and content 
 themselves with drifting back and forth in the eddies 
 of the great political current. 
 
 The form of political action which is ordinarily 
 intended by the term "independent," is that of the 
 man who recognizes no political affiliation or party 
 obligation whatever ; who votes first with this party, 
 and then with that, as the whim of the moment may 
 incline. This class is the great uncertain element in 
 politics. In all its forms it is purchasable, and always 
 in the market — waiting to be bid for. It is usually 
 known as the "floating vote" — an unstable element, 
 the support of which is to be secured by one party
 
 202 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 or another, either through favor or subserviency. 
 Sometimes a mere notion, sometimes a preference for 
 a particular candidate, sometimes an indefinite yearn- 
 ing wiiich is mistaken for patriotism, and not unfre- 
 quently the most base and mercenary motives, con- 
 trol the movements of the shifting tide of so-called 
 "independent voters." 
 
 It is customary for self styled "independents" 
 to arrogate to themselves and others unaffiliated with 
 any party, and consequently ready to coquette with all, 
 a virtue not to be found in the simple citizen who seeks 
 to do his duty as a sovereign by faithfully performing 
 his duty as a partisan. As a whole, however, they are 
 distinguished neither for courage, sincerity, devotion 
 to principle, fidelity to pledges, nor worthy achieve- 
 ment of any sort. Malcontents, intractables, weak 
 and vacillating natures, form a large portion of this 
 class. They are most frequently useful as a spur to 
 partisan activity. Of themselves they accomphsh 
 nothing and mean nothing, save as the dust of the 
 balance which barely inclines the wavering scale this 
 way or that when it is trembling on the poise. They 
 represent collectively the element of luck in the game 
 of politics. 
 
 Do not be deceived, my young friend, by any 
 clamorous pretense of fairness and virtue which may 
 be made for this state of political incertitude. It is 
 merely the coward's plea to escape the responsibility 
 a man is always willing to share. The man who
 
 **THE INDEPENDENT VOTER." 203 
 
 has not positiveiiess of character enough to have 
 party affiliations, strong and earnest — who is half the 
 time on one side of the political fence and half on the 
 otlier — may be a good enough man in some respects, 
 and may think himself the very climax of perfection 
 in all, but he will never be of much value to the 
 Republic, and is likely to do it positive injury. Even 
 the good he does will be so nearly a matter of chance 
 that he will deserve little credit for it. It is better to 
 be wrong with earnest men who do not shrink from 
 the dust and heat of conflict, than be right with such 
 happy-go-lucky weaklings, whose ideal of supreme 
 Avisdom is an inexhaustible capacity for finding fault. 
 But, you will say, Is my political action to be always 
 controlled and directed by the will of my fellows — the 
 decision of my party? By no means. There is a 
 political independence not of the tepid sort we have 
 been considering, but having its basis in the most 
 positive and manly conviction. The very sense of 
 duty to the country which requires the citizen-king 
 to use his influence to prevent the adoption of false 
 doctrine, the indorsement of unwise policy, the prac- 
 tice of dishonest methods, or the putting forward of 
 unfit candidates by his party, — this same sense of 
 patriotic duty requires him to oppose more or less 
 vigorously, any such action of the party with which he 
 is otherwise in substantial accord. This is real polit- 
 ical independe)ice. It is the assertion of the funda- 
 mental truth that party is merely an agency designed
 
 204 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 for the use and advantage of the citizen, and that the 
 citizen is not a mere appanage of the party. In a 
 sense, the political axiom that "no man is as wise 
 or as strong as the party to which he belongs," is 
 true ; in another false. But it is never true when the 
 party is in the wrong and the individual in the right ; 
 for every man's right is worth more than any party's 
 success. 
 
 This conflict between the action of a party and 
 the individual conscience most frequently arises 
 under some of the following conditions: (i) When a 
 party puts forward an unfit candidate, or (2) a de- 
 serving candidate is nominated by improper means. 
 This is in express violation of the contract between 
 the citizen and the party. By such course he is in 
 honor and morals released from all obligation to sup- 
 port its candidates or defend its policy. Of course 
 this may involve the defeat of the party, to the prin- 
 ciples, policy, and traditions of which he may be 
 devotedly attached ; but if he has done his duty be- 
 forehand, and warned his associates of the result of 
 their conduct, the responsibility will not rest with 
 him. It is better that any party should suffer defeat 
 than that any man should smother his scruples or 
 drown the voice of his conscience. The king may 
 delegate his power, but he can not evade responsi- 
 bility; and the man \\\\o supports a candidate he 
 believes to have been nominated by fraud, or whom 
 he deems morally or intellectually unfit for the place
 
 THE ''INDEPENDENT VOTERS 205 
 
 for which he is named, commits a crime against the 
 sovereignty of which he is a part, which is infinitely 
 more injurious to the nation than the defeat of his 
 party can possibly be. 
 
 This is genuine political independence ; not the 
 weak, unmanly, sniveling thing that passes by that 
 name. It is entirely consistent with the duty of the 
 citizen and a proper allegiance to party. It may not 
 always be a pleasant task to assert such independence; 
 but if it were the rule of personal conduct and not 
 the exception, there would be little need for its exer- 
 cise. The lesson that is taught by this branch of 
 our subject is tiie same to which every other phase 
 has steadily pointed — the absolute necessity that 
 every man should do his duty as a partisan in order 
 that his duty as a citizen may be the more easily 
 and certainly performed. In a republic all ethical 
 disquisition but emphasizes the injunction to indi- 
 vidual duty on the part of the citizen, just as in a 
 monarchy policy and philosophy enjoin virtue and 
 assiduity upon the ruler. 
 
 The right and duty of the citizen to protest against 
 unwise or improper action of his party does not admit 
 of question, and can not be met by any argument 
 worthy of the consideration of an honest man or con- 
 scientious citizen. Only the code of honor which 
 prevails among thieves makes it the duty of a man 
 to defend what he believes to be wrong because it is 
 done by those to whom he is bound by the tie of a
 
 206 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 common purpose. Honor hinds no one to uphold dis- 
 honor. This is the prime distinction between lawful 
 and commendable association and unlawful conspir- 
 acy. How this protest shall be made, and to what 
 limit dissent from your party's action shall be carried, 
 you will find among the most difficult questions you 
 will be called upon, as a citizen and a patriot, to de- 
 cide. Whether you shall merely protest against a 
 specific action of your party, withhold your support 
 entirely from it because of the one fault, engage in 
 organizing a specific opposition, or join with its tradi- 
 tional opponents to compass its defeat, — these are 
 questions depending in a great degree upon the cir- 
 cumstances of each particular case, yet affected by 
 certain fundamental principles, which will be the sub- 
 ject of further consideration.
 
 XVII. 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 
 
 Twenty-three years ago an army lay encamped 
 among the hills of Northern Georgia. A year before, 
 it had seized the gateway of the Confederacy, and now 
 the Queen City of the South was in its hands. It 
 only waited for another conflict to be decided, to start 
 upon that "march to the sea" which was to result 
 in finally bringing the combined power of the nation 
 to bear upon the forces of the Rebellion, who had 
 thus far been indebted for escape from overthrow, not 
 less to the mountains in their rear than to their own 
 splendid courage and amazing fortitude. All through 
 the sultry summer months, while Sherman had fought 
 his way from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and Grant had 
 held the wily commander of the Army of Virginia 
 within his works in front of Petersburg, awaiting the 
 blow he was powerless to avert, and probably did not 
 fully foresee, a conflict not less important to the 
 destiny of the Republic had been going on in the cities 
 and towns, the fields and factories of the North. 
 
 The question to be decided by that conflict em- 
 braced all that was at issue between the contending 
 
 207
 
 208 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 forces. Whether there should be peace or war, one 
 country or two, slavery or freedom, — all these things 
 were to be determined by the tenor of a people's in- 
 structions to their executive head, as gathered from 
 the ballot-boxes on the Ides of November, then near at 
 hand. These questions were all embraced in the one 
 simple inquiry, which, thanks to our intelligible and 
 effective American party system, every voter was 
 called upon to answer by his ballot — whether Abraham 
 Lincoln and the party under whose auspices the war 
 had thus far been carried on, should be re-elected, or 
 the administration of the government be intrusted to 
 the weakness and indecision of that young soldier 
 whose inability to forget himself had already prevented 
 him from writing his name in the highest place upon 
 the roll of fame, backed by a party whose battle-cry 
 declared that the war was already a failure. It was 
 an anxious moment. The Confederates consoled 
 themselves for the misfortunes of the battle-field by 
 predicting the success of their allies at the polls. They 
 recognized the fact that the election of General McClel- 
 lan as President was worth more to them than the defeat 
 of General Sherman. Just as great interests are no 
 doubt really at stake in every Presidential contest, 
 but they are rarely so sharply defined and clearly 
 perceptible to all. 
 
 The anxiety which was felt by those who were 
 in the army was much greater than that of those at 
 home. The soldiers saw and felt the importance of the
 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 20g 
 
 decision which was to be made, and naturally feared 
 that the absence of some hundreds of thousands of 
 voters who had volunteered to fight the country's 
 battles might be a greater drain upon the patriotism 
 of the North than it would be able to bear. It is true 
 that provision was made by most of the States for 
 holding an election in the army, but it was appre- 
 hended that many would be unable to comply with 
 the requirements of the acts passed for the occasion, 
 and they knew that hopelessness and discontent pre- 
 vailed to a greater or less extent throughout the 
 North. This was the subject of conversation be- 
 tween two officers, whose quarters overlooked the 
 captured city. 
 
 One of them was a grave, earnest man, who did 
 not need the emblems of authority to mark the habit 
 and the right to command. The other, younger and 
 slighter, was yet a bronzed veteran, and his flashing 
 eye and quivering nostril showed the intensity of his 
 feelings. 
 
 "So you wish to be assigned to out post duty on 
 election-day instead of acting as a commissioner to 
 hold the election for the troops from your State ?" 
 said the superior, evidently in response to a request 
 of the subordinate. 
 
 "Yes, sir," was the reply, 
 
 "May I ask why you wish to avoid this duty, 
 
 Colonel?" asked the other, gravely. 
 
 The younger man hesitated a moment, and then 
 
 i8
 
 2IO LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 said : "The fact is, General, I do not wish to vote, and 
 would like to take some one's place who is not scru- 
 pulous about such things." 
 
 " What do you mean by not being scrupulous?" 
 
 "Well," said the younger, with some signs of 
 confusion, "I have adopted it as an inflexible rule, 
 that I will never vote for a man for any position whom 
 I have reason to believe to be addicted to the excess- 
 ive use of spirituous liquors." 
 
 "And in this case?" asked the other, inquiringly, 
 
 "I spent the winter of 1862-3 in Nashville, you 
 know, and saw the candidate for Vice-President on 
 the Republican ticket very often." 
 
 "Yes," said the elder man thoughtfully; "and 
 because Mr. Johnson is sometimes intoxicated, you 
 will not vote for Mr. Lincoln and the prosecution of 
 the war. I am not much of a politician, as you know, 
 but this seems to me a curious sort of reasoning." 
 
 " Perhaps it may be," said the younger man, and 
 his lips shut close as he spoke, "but I am not going 
 to be a party, directly or indirectly, to making a 
 drunken man a possible President." 
 
 " I do not like that idea any more than you do," 
 responded the other, "but I can not help looking at 
 the alternative. If I do not vote for Abraham 
 Lincoln, I give at least half a vote for George B. 
 McClcllan. Now I think that the most important 
 question ever asked of an American citizen is, ' Shall 
 this war continue ?' I believe the only way to insure
 
 THE PERILS OF RE VOL T. 211 
 
 its continuance and success is to vote for Mr. Lincoln, 
 and the best way to secure its failure is to vote for 
 General McClellan. I have the same objection to the 
 nominee for Vice-President that you urge, and I am 
 very sorry the nomination was made; but, being 
 made, I do not see how I can better serve the country 
 than by accepting it." 
 
 " If a party wants my support," interjected the 
 younger man hotly, "it must nominate men whose 
 moral tone and character I can approve — men, in 
 short, whom I can trust." 
 
 "That is no doubt the duty of a party, but will 
 a failure of duty on its part also excuse a like failure 
 on the part of the voter? This is not a question 
 between you and your party, but between you and 
 your country. You and I had a right to have pre- 
 vented the nomination. It was perhaps our duty to 
 have done so. I said nothing — probably you did not. 
 In that we, no doubt, failed of doing our duty. The 
 nomination having been made, the question is not what 
 ought to have been done at the convention, but what 
 ought to be done at the ballot-box. You would not 
 think of voting for the other candidate, I suppose?" 
 
 "No, indeed," said the younger man with em- 
 phasis. 
 
 "You believe, no doubt, that General McClellan's 
 success would be detrimental to the country." 
 
 "Not merely to the country," was the reply, 
 "but to the world."
 
 212 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 "If that is your opinion, can you afford to neglect 
 any thing you can honestly and lawfully do to prevent 
 such a result?" 
 
 "That is a hard way to put it, General," said the 
 subordinate with a shrug; "but it is only one vote, 
 which is not likely to make any difference with the 
 result, and I would like to tell my children, if I ever 
 have any, that I never helped to elevate a drunkard 
 to office." 
 
 "I am only a soldier, as you know," said the 
 elder man gravely, "and have never been accused 
 of what is termed 'meddling in politics;' but, as I 
 understand it, the country gives one aliquot part of 
 the power of choosing our rulers and legislators — in 
 other words, of governing — to every citizen, and 
 requires him to use that power, not for his own grati- 
 fication, for any man's advantage, or any party's 
 success, considered as an end, but for the common 
 good of the whole people of the country, according 
 to his best judgment. While it may be a bad thing 
 to have an intemperate nominee for Vice-President, 
 which is the better, a possibly drunken official, or the 
 certain failure of this war? The fact that it is but 
 one vote makes no difference with the question of 
 duty. I have heard the story told among politicians 
 of the one vote which elected a governor, a member 
 of the Legislature, and a congressman ; I have heard 
 how the Legislature, at that session, had a majority 
 of one only on joint ballot, and that there was a tie
 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 21 3 
 
 in the House of Representatives at the next session 
 of Congress ; so that this one vote also chose a United 
 States senator, and at least prevented the election of a 
 party favorite as the speaker of the House. That was 
 of course an accident; but if others thought as little of 
 the right of suffrage as )'ou seem to, it might happen 
 very often. To my mind, sir, it is an act of cowardice 
 to refuse to exercise the discretion vested in you as a 
 citizen for the public good. Because you can not do 
 all that you wish, in the precise way that you prefer, 
 you have no right to refuse to do all the good you can, 
 in any way that is open to you. You might just as 
 reasonably refuse to bring your command into action 
 because you did not approve the plan of battle adopted 
 by the general commanding. After the battle is joined, 
 there is no chance for protest. When one of two 
 things is certain to occur, the part of prudence and 
 discretion always is to make sure that the least harm- 
 ful happens. I shall not modify the order, Colonel, 
 because I will not be a party to any avoidance of duty 
 by so good a soldier. Good-night." 
 
 He rose and gave his hand to the younger man, 
 Avho thought very seriously of what he had heard 
 from the wise and patriotic leader, whose name is 
 among the brightest of our hero-dead, 'as he rode off 
 in the twilight. On the day of election he voted for 
 the Republican candidates. Afterwards, when the 
 assassin's bullet had taken from us all but the fame 
 of the greatest of Americans, casting the burthen of
 
 214 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 responsibility on the Vice President, whereby his 
 worst fears were reahzed, he told me of this conver- 
 sation, and added: 
 
 ' ' I have never regretted the vote I gave, because 
 it was the best I could do for the country under the 
 circumstances in ivhicJi I ivas placed. 
 
 Your father was a conscientious citizen, as well 
 as a Christian soldier, my young friend, and the rea- 
 son he gave for refusing to act upon one of his most 
 cherished convictions contains the true philosophy of 
 all political action. The question to be answered by 
 the individual is always, "What is the best that I 
 can do for the country, urider the circumstances in 
 which I am placed V 
 
 You will find that independent political action — 
 that is, refusal to act with your party — is always a 
 matter for serious consideration. Your conduct can 
 not safely be determined upon beforehand, but must 
 always be decided according to the exigencies of the 
 occasion — the circumstances by which you are sur- 
 rounded. 
 
 Such independent political action may be classi- 
 fied under three heads: 
 
 I. A mere refusal to support the candidates of 
 the party with which you are in substantial accord, 
 because of the unfitness of the candidates themselves 
 or improper methods used in their selection. 
 
 This is the mildest form of protest — the simplest 
 form of revolt. It has one advantage over the others
 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 21$ 
 
 which we shall consider, in that it is not usually held 
 to debar the individual adopting it from future co- 
 operation with the party. This is of material conse- 
 quence, since, as we have seen, party is the instru- 
 mentality which the citizen must use in order to 
 impress his thought or conviction upon the commu- 
 nity, or, in other words, in order to be of service 
 to the country as a factor in its government. Of 
 course a partisan loses somewhat of influence even 
 by non-conformity. Activity and zeal are essential 
 elements of success, and a party naturally prefers the 
 man who is always zealous in its behalf, to the one 
 who chooses to exercise his right of non-compliance 
 with its behests when its action does not in all re- 
 spects meet his approval. This fact should restrain 
 you from mere factional or whimsical revolt, since 
 every prudent patriot should always carefully con- 
 serve his influence, in order that be may accomplish 
 the greatest possible modicum of good. In testify- 
 ing disapproval in this manner, you in effect simply 
 withdraw one vote from the number which your 
 party normally ought to poll, and the extent of dis- 
 satisfaction is measured by the number of votes thus 
 withdrawn. This form of protest against wrongful 
 party action is no less positive and decided in char- 
 acter, though less obnoxious to those with whom 
 you are forced to disagree, than the methods we 
 have yet to consider. 
 
 2. The second form of independent political action
 
 2l6 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 is the organization of a specific opposition — the 
 establishment of another party, or the setting up of 
 a candidate in opposition to one whose nomination 
 or character is deemed objectionable. 
 
 This course becomes an unavoidable one to the con- 
 scientious voter, who finds himself irreconcilably at 
 variance with his party upon a question of paramount 
 importance. In that case, supposing always that no 
 organization especially advocating his views exists, it 
 becomes the duty of the voter to join with others 
 in organizing a new party whenever there is a reason- 
 able hope of thereby advancing the canse he has at 
 heart. The question of organizing a new party or 
 remaining with the old one is always one of policy 
 only. The real question for the voter to decide is 
 still, How can I best serve the country ? If satisfied 
 that the best interests of the country demand the 
 adoption of a specific idea as the basis of public 
 policy, the question becomes, How can I best pro- 
 mote the general adoption of this idea? Of course 
 this line of action presupposes an intense conviction 
 of the paramount importance of the specific idea, and 
 a clear belief that its adoption can best be promoted 
 thereby. 
 
 It sometimes becomes desirable, also, to organize 
 a specific opposition out of the elements of the party 
 itself, in order definitely to measure the extent of 
 the dissatisfaction with the course adopted by a ma- 
 jority. This is a bold and manly method of protest
 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 21/ 
 
 against improper methods, which, in most cases, 
 where it has been well-founded, has proved success- 
 ful. It is a drastic measure, which requires courage 
 and vigor on the part of its promoters, is perilous in 
 the extreme to the party standing of those engaging 
 in it, and, in case of failure, usually leaves its origi- 
 nators stranded high and dry, without prospect or in- 
 fluence in any party. If successful, it brings the 
 party up to the ground occupied by the protesting 
 party or faction. Because of its bold and defiant 
 character, this form of protest has received the spe- 
 cific name of "bolt." It is a two-edged sword, but 
 one which a brave man need not fear to take, and by 
 which it is no dishonor to be slain. 
 
 3. The third form of what is termed "independ- 
 ent " political action, consists in going over to the 
 opposition in order to secure the defeat of the party, 
 with which the voter still claims to be in substantial 
 harmony in principle. 
 
 In England, where parties are of a more personal 
 nature and not self-organizing and self-controlling, 
 deliberative as well as administrative in character, a 
 frequent change from one extreme of political asso- 
 ciation to another is far more frequent than with us. 
 It is there looked upon as hardly reprehensible ; and 
 a leader of one party to day is not unfrequently a 
 leader of the other to morrow. In our country this 
 has rarely been the case. The actual severance of 
 relations with one of the great established represent- 
 
 19
 
 2l8 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 atives of public thought and active alliance with its 
 traditional opponent is rarely followed, either by 
 leadership in the latter or recognized and unimpugned 
 restoration to the former. Of course this does not 
 apply to the formative period of a new party, and 
 exceptional epochs like that of the War of Rebellion 
 give exceptional results. Outside of these limits 
 there are very few instances in our political history 
 of such changes unattended with loss of prestige and 
 influence. 
 
 When there is a change of political belief on the 
 part of a voter, an abandonment of accepted doctrine 
 by the party, or a new departure by the traditional 
 opponent, practically changing their relations, such 
 change is in no sense reprehensible. When, however, 
 the established relations between two great parties 
 are undisturbed, while the traditional characteristics 
 and tendencies of each remain, a man can not swing 
 back and forth between them without incurring the 
 opprobrious name of "turncoat." Politics is, and 
 ought to be, a matter of conviction, and a man who 
 believes in the principles of one party — its traditional 
 polic)' and tendency as exemplified in its history and 
 constitution — can not give his support to one antip- 
 odally opposed to it without doing violence to all 
 accepted notions of consistency. A man rnay change 
 his convictions and go to the hostile camp with the 
 full respect of his former associates, but he can not 
 go over to tlie enemy on the day of battle and
 
 THE PERILS OF REVOLT. 2lg 
 
 expect to return afterwards and be recognized and 
 treated as a friend. The American intellect is not 
 subtle enough to recognize the "Democratic voter 
 with Republican principles," or the converse — if such 
 a thing should ever be developed — as a consistent 
 fact. One who attempts this role must naturally ex- 
 pect to lose whatever influence he has acquired with 
 his party associates. He may possibly regain it, but 
 the struggle will be a long one, and in most instances 
 the individual who attempts it becomes a mere shut- 
 tlecock, vibrating between the two extremes of polit- 
 ical thought, of little moment or significance to either, 
 and of doubtful value to the country. Of course, if 
 a man's political views are chameleonic in character, 
 if he is by nature a mere pohtical "bummer," this 
 is a matter of no consequence. If, however, he 
 regards the exercise of the power vested in him as a 
 citizen, not as a mere personal privilege, but a duty 
 of the highest and most sacred character, it behooves 
 him to use such discretion as will enable him to re- 
 tain the confidence of his associates, in order that his 
 influence for good in the councils of the government 
 may not be needlessly destroyed. 
 
 In considering these various forms of independent 
 political activity, my young friend, you will perceive 
 that, while the ties of party should not, and never 
 need, restrict the conscientious action of the voter, 
 yet no one who desires to do his whole duty as a 
 citizen-king should take a course calculated to weaken
 
 220 LETTERS TO A KING, 
 
 or destroy his own influence as a recognized member 
 of an established party, without the most serious 
 consideration, and under the unavoidable compulsion 
 of an honest reply to this inquiry: "How can I 
 best serve the cause of good government under the 
 conditions in which I am placed?" 
 
 Of course there must be martyrs, political and 
 otherwise ; but the demand for them is not half as 
 great as some chronic malcontents would have us 
 believe ; and many a self-applauding patriot, who 
 advertises by political defection for an immortalizing 
 crown of thorns, obtains instead only the shreds and 
 tatters of general contempt, or a self-conviction of 
 his own folly that afterwards clings and stings like 
 the shirt of Nessus. When all is said, the fact remains, 
 that those who have accomplished most for the country 
 have done it by faithful, patient, earnest service in 
 the ranks of that party most nearly in accord with 
 their personal convictions; and what is so clearly 
 true of our past is most likely to be true of our 
 future.
 
 XVIII. 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY. 
 
 "The position of a delegate to a party conven- 
 tion is the most difficult and important that an 
 American citizen can hold, and no honest man will 
 undertake to discharge its duties with a fettered 
 discretion." 
 
 These words fell from the lips of a venerable man 
 who had long been prominent in the councils of his 
 party and the nation, and against whose patriotism 
 and integrity no word of detraction had ever been 
 uttered. He was at once a partisan leader and a pa- 
 triotic citizen. Living in a period of the fiercest po- 
 litical conflict, a man of the most pronounced and 
 unfaltering convictions, he had the respect even of his 
 bitterest opponents. When he uttered these words he 
 had just been selected as a delegate to a national con- 
 vention by the State convention of his party to whom 
 they were addressed, and it was proposed to instruct 
 these delegates to support a certain aspirant, "first, 
 last, and all the time." This the veteran politician re- 
 fused to submit to, declaring that if the resolution 
 was adopted he would decline to serve as a delegate, 
 
 221
 
 222 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 This seemed at first incomprehensible to many of his 
 Hsteners, all the more so as the candidate named was 
 his especial choice — the one for whom he had been 
 earnestly at work from the very opening of the can- 
 vass. He proceeded, however, with such a lucid 
 explanation of the responsibilities and duties of the 
 delegate that the resolution was withdrawn and the 
 delegates sent unhampered to exercise the power of 
 the constituent body in the supreme council of the 
 party. His words made such an impression upon 
 my mind that, though he has long since passed from 
 sight, I have chosen them for the text on which to 
 base some reflections upon the position and duties 
 of the delegate. 
 
 The delegate to a political convention is a trustee 
 who gives no bond for the faithful performance of 
 the trust imposed, except his personal honor. Usu- 
 ally he is chosen to express the preference of his 
 associates, who thereby become his constituents, for 
 some particular candidate. His preference is gener- 
 ally well known, and he is selected because of it. 
 Sometimes, however, it is deemed advisable, in order 
 to secure his adhesion to the favorite, to adopt more 
 or less vigorously phrased instructions as to the exer- 
 cise of the power vested in him. The relation of the 
 delegate to the body he represents, and the obliga- 
 tion created by the instructions given, are matters 
 of such grave import as to demand tiie serious atten-
 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY. 223 
 
 tion of every citizen who would faithfully discharge 
 his political duty. 
 
 The delegate is the creature of one deliberative 
 assembly and a member of another. To the former 
 he owes consideration and respect; to the latter, 
 allegiance and sincerity of purpose. It is no light 
 thing to have your fellow-citizens put in your hands, 
 without any guarantee save confidence in your honor 
 and integrity, their collective civic power, and ask 
 you to act for them in rendering effective their polit- 
 ical predilections. If it were a trust of almost any 
 other sort — if it affected the disbursement or control 
 of a single cent — the law would take notice of its 
 existence and enforce its execution. As, however, 
 it concerns only human rights, the law is silent as to 
 its scope, and appends no sanction to its non-per- 
 formance or penalty to its betrayal, being far more 
 anxious about purses than prerogatives. Any right- 
 minded man will see, however, that the principles of 
 equity which govern the administration of a pecun- 
 iary trust, apply in morals with tenfold stringency to 
 the discharge of the delegate's duty. 
 
 The most important and self-evident of these 
 principles is that the trust shall be diligently and 
 faithfully performed, according to the sound discre- 
 tion of the trustee, and with an eye single to the 
 interests of the cestui que trust. It is not to be exer- 
 cised for the benefit or advantage of the trustee, nor 
 neglected to enhance a stranger's interest. It is a
 
 224 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 debt of honor laid upon one clothed with the confi- 
 dence of his fellows. By their selection he is charged 
 to speak for them as to the interests of the party, 
 which, to their apprehension, means also the interest 
 of the country. So far as their preferences are 
 known he is bound by them as the express will of 
 his trustor, unless he finds them at variance with his 
 conviction of policy and duty for the party at large. 
 Not unfrequently it becomes a most troublesome 
 question to determine when he shall act according to 
 instructions, and when upon his own discretion. 
 
 If the delegate were a mere agent this question 
 would be easily decided. The will of his principal 
 would be always supreme. The trouble is, that he is 
 vested with a discretion which underlies and some- 
 times overrides even explicit instructions. It not un- 
 frequently happens that the very thing he is directed 
 to do becomes futile and absurd. By a strict con- 
 struction of his orders he is forbidden to do any thing 
 else. But he owes a duty to the country and the 
 party as well as to the constituency whose power he 
 exercises. These obligations he must reconcile accord- 
 ing to the circumstances of each particular case. Hav- 
 ing accepted the trust, he must carry out the wishes 
 of the trustor, unless satisfied that the interest of the 
 beneficiary is likely to be impaired thereby. He is 
 not required to imperil the success of the party by 
 stubborn and unreasonable observance of the instruc- 
 tions of a section of it. The whole is more important
 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY. 225 
 
 than a part, and the welfare of the whole should 
 properly override the will of the part. 
 
 It is not with the honest and capable delegate, 
 however, that the trouble usually arises. It is with 
 the weak, infirm of purpose, dull of intellect, and 
 corrupt of heart, that the professional manipulator 
 works. For it is with the delegate that most of the 
 so-called "fine work" of the political "striker" is 
 done. The first effort of the professional politician, as 
 we have seen, is to get men chosen as delegates who 
 are pledged to do the work required of them, by 
 controlling the action of the primaries. Should this 
 be impossible, the next move is to secure men who 
 will be likely to leave the matter to well-disposed 
 alternates or proxies ; and, in case this also should 
 fail, to secure the selection of delegates who are sus- 
 ceptible of being influenced, either by flattery, favor, 
 or direct purchase. Such delegates constitute a very 
 considerable proportion of almost all conventions, 
 those who are not actually purchasable often regard- 
 ing their trust as a personal or factional perquisite, 
 rather than a public obligation, and seeking it rather 
 to gain advantage for themselves or their friends 
 than in order to serve the interests of the party to 
 which they belong, or the constituency by which 
 they are chosen. 
 
 Because of this fact, the delegate feature undoubt- 
 edly constitutes the weakest point in the American 
 party system. The objection to it is of the same
 
 226 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 character with that which obtains against the jury ; 
 to wit, the difficulty of making proper selections, and 
 of impressing upon the people the importance and 
 gravity of this peculiar civic function. English criti- 
 cism of the American party is almost always directed 
 to this element as one of very objectionable character, 
 and a defect which it seems almost impossible to rec- 
 tify. A recent writer points out very forcibly the analo- 
 gies between the delegated organization and those 
 peculiar associations which became such potent factors 
 in hastening the downfall of the Roman republic, and 
 there can be no doubt that his strictures are in a 
 sense just. It is the one link in our system that 
 seems incapable of protection by legal enactment. 
 The evils of the primaries are in the main curable by 
 statute, and it is possible to conceive that laws pro- 
 viding for the regulation of conventions may yet be 
 found feasible and necessary, but the only possible- 
 remedy for the choice of improper and untrustworthy 
 delegates is the cultivation of a sense of individual 
 responsibility and general diligence in the discharge 
 of political duty by the masses of the respective 
 parties. 
 
 It is difficult to realize the extent of this evil. 
 Men of the keenest honor in other respects readily 
 consent to become the recipients of doubtful favors 
 in the capacity of delegates. Candidates, or their or- 
 ganized adherents, pay the expenses of delegates and 
 provide them with necessaries and luxuries until
 
 THE TRUSTEE OF ATUHORITY. 22/ 
 
 political conventions have come to be looked upon as 
 periods of almost unlimited indul<^ence on the part 
 of delegates, at the expense of aspirants or their 
 friends. As a rule, perhaps, sucli 'favors do not con- 
 sciously affect the action of the recipients, but their uni- 
 versal acceptance tends to inculcate the idea that the 
 delegate has some sort of right to mulct the aspirant 
 and make the test of fitness, not unfrequently, not the 
 capacity to discharge the duties of the position to 
 which a candidate aspires, but his ability and w illing- 
 ness to meet the pecuniary demands of his support- 
 ers. In the case of the highest offices of the nation, 
 this has rarely constituted an ingredient of the choice 
 of nominees. Usually the candidates for President 
 and Vice-President have been men of moderate 
 means. Since Washington, not one of our Presidents 
 could properly be called a wealthy man according to 
 the standards of his time. With two exceptions, no 
 man of unusual means, so far as I can recall, has 
 been nominated for either place. In one case it was 
 openly charged, and almost universally believed, that 
 "the bar'l" — a term that will long be associated 
 with his memory — was relied upon to secure both 
 the nomination and election of a candidate. In some 
 instances the ability to control the support of great 
 corporations and immense moneyed combinations 
 has been counted as an element in favor of even a 
 Presidential nominee. 
 
 In the case of inferior national officials, senators
 
 228 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 and representatives in Congress, and the higher of- 
 ficers of the various States, it is the rule rather than 
 the exception, that the aspirant must be able and 
 willing to furnish a liberal allowance for such expend- 
 itures. It has lately been publicly asserted that no 
 man can receive a nomination for any important 
 office in the city of New York without paying a sum 
 which would constitute a fortune to most of his con- 
 stituents. The result of this system is that the Sen- 
 ate of the United States is probably a richer body 
 of men than that of patrician Rome. It is not sus- 
 ceptible of reasonable claim that this may be the re- 
 sult of accident. It is not possible that the two 
 men best fitted to legislate should, in almost every 
 State of the North, happen to be among the wealth- 
 iest of her citizens. In fact the presumption is, that 
 a man who has devoted his energies to the acquisi- 
 tion of a great estate must have been so absorbed in 
 the pursuit of wealth as to unfit him to a certain ex- 
 tent for the deliberative duties and representative 
 functions of the legislator. So, too, with the guber- 
 natorial office. No one supposes that the man in 
 any party best fitted for the place is always, or even 
 generally, a man of great wealth. Yet in four cases 
 out of five throughout the North the man selected as 
 a gubernatorial candidate is pretty sure to be of 
 large fortune. It is tacitly conceded that he must be, 
 and openly declared that it is very desirable that he 
 should be.
 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY. 
 
 229 
 
 At the South this evil is far less generally preva- 
 lent than at the North. It is greatly to the credit 
 of that section that it still sends poor men to our na- 
 tional legislature. One of the reasons why it has 
 always exercised a predominating influence in national 
 affairs is that its people have preferred that their serv- 
 ants should be endowed with brains rather than pos- 
 sessed of unlimited bank accounts. Only a small 
 proportion of its present representatives can be ac- 
 counted wealthy men. It has been laughingly said 
 of the senators from one of these States that nothing 
 could make the note of either less valuable, unless it 
 were the indorsement of the other. Yet both have 
 the firmest hold upon the people of their State, and 
 no amount of wealth would be of any considerable 
 advantage to a competitor seeking to oust either from 
 his place. 
 
 Throughout the North, however, the ability and 
 the inclination to purchase favor, directly or indirectly, 
 by the use of money, has become an almost universal 
 element in the choice of candidates. Public office, 
 in the general apprehension, has become a sort of 
 perquisite of wealth — a luxury in which the rich man 
 indulges as naturally and properly, it would almost 
 seem, as he does in a yacht or a racing-stable. Of 
 course, there are exceptions, but they prove the rule 
 to be otherwise by their rarity. It is a fact beyond 
 question that no man can reasonably look forward to 
 a successful political career in the North who has not
 
 230 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 at the outset an ample fortune, or the inclination to 
 acquire it by questionable methods while in the 
 public service. 
 
 One of the most specious forms of this evil is 
 denominated "log-rolling," or "trading," which con- 
 sists in exchanging votes or influence in a nominating 
 convention, by which the nomination of one man to 
 a certain office is yielded, in order to secure the 
 nomination of another man to another office or at 
 another time. This species of bargaining so generally 
 prevails that it will no doubt affect you with some 
 surprise to learn that it is, or could by any one be, 
 considered at all reprehensible. In some States it is 
 even customary to allow a candidate for a specific 
 office to name the delegates from his township or 
 precinct to several conventions — as a candidate for a 
 county office is allowed to name delegates to a dis- 
 trict convention — in order to facilitate transactions 
 of this character. The inevitable result is to encour- 
 age the belief that the power which the delegate 
 exercises is a legitimate matter of bargain and sale — 
 a stock in trade, which he is expected profitably to 
 invest on his own account or another's. It induces 
 men to become professional candidates, standing dele- 
 gates, and political brokers, with the specific purpose 
 of making gain thereby. Men are encouraged to 
 secure the control of delegates in order to hold the 
 balance of power so as to command a price for their 
 support.
 
 THE TRUSTEE OF AUTHORITY. 23 1 
 
 "The delegates from Concord are alwaj's pur- 
 chasable," said a veteran politician recently, looking 
 over the list of members of a convention. "See 
 Jones," he continued, mentioning one whose name 
 was not on the list of delegates; "he always has the 
 delegation from that town in his pocket; find out 
 what he wants, and if we can not get along without 
 Concord, we shall have to trade with him. The in- 
 fernal scoundrel," he continued with hot indignation, 
 "has made his living for twenty years by buying and 
 selling votes and voters. The Republicans of his 
 township, and very frequently of the whole county, 
 are just as much his slaves as if he had bought them 
 in market overt. He has an organized clique of 
 strikers, with whom he divides the profits of his ven- 
 tures. Men stand in awe of his influence, and pay 
 him for his silence as well as for his support. He 
 levies blackmail upon friends and foes alike. For 
 years there has not been a man elected to office m the 
 county who has not paid tribute to this infamous buc- 
 caneer. There was Smith, the clerk, who paid him a 
 regular commission on all the receipts of his office, and 
 settled with him regularly once a quarter. There was 
 Haynes, the sheriff, who gave him the appointment 
 of every one of his deputies in return for his influence 
 to secure the nomination, and he sold the appoint- 
 ments at from one to three thousand dollars apiece! 
 Probably he divided one-third of this with his strikers 
 and pocketed the rest himself! The people of the
 
 232 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 county are just as much his property as if he held 
 bills of sale for their bodies and souls. He Hterally 
 sells to them the privilege of going through the form 
 of an election. While the rest of us were fighting to 
 free the slave he was forging fetters for us ; so that to 
 this day there is not a free man in the county. I 
 have fought for years to overthrow his power, but 
 there is no use in kicking so long as the people 
 are willing to be bought and sold, and are proud of 
 the facilities they offer for such transactions !" 
 
 The man thus referred to is a notorious " Boss," 
 whose unblushing infamies have made the name of 
 the county in which he lives synonymous with polit- 
 ical corruption and ballotorial debasement throughout 
 the whole country. For such evil there is absolutely 
 no remedy but active, unremitting effort on the part 
 of the individual voter, until a public sentiment shall 
 be created that will esteem the barter of delegated 
 power just as reprehensible as the breach of a pecun- 
 iary trust — until the citizen king realizes that the 
 right to rule is even more sacred than the right to 
 possess.
 
 XTX 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 
 
 The declaration that the voters of the country are 
 the slaves of "bosses" and "rings" is so often made 
 with little comprehension of the grounds on which 
 it rests, and such faulty analysis of the causes from 
 which it proceeds, that it has come to be regarded 
 as a sort of poetic license, — a figure of speech not 
 literally consistent with fact, but especially designed 
 to express chagrin or dissatisfaction. Yet the first 
 lesson you will learn upon entering political life will 
 probably be the utter helplessness of the individual 
 citizen. He is like the untrained child, cast into the 
 water which he has not yet learned to make the in- 
 strument of safety and delight. The element which 
 should be a servant to buoy him safely up, becomes, 
 instead, an enemy to strangle and overwhelm. 
 
 The citizen king is not an autocrat. He can not 
 rule alone. Though the sovereignty vested in him 
 is absolute, it must be exercised jointly with that in- 
 hering in his fellows ; though the right is several, the 
 possession is joint. One aliquot part of the aggre- 
 gated sovereignty is )'ours, to be exercised and 
 
 20 233
 
 234 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 enjoyed as you may see fit ; but you can not make 
 it effective so as to sliape the common destiny except 
 by co-operation with your fellow-citizens. Whatever 
 hinders, restricts, or prevents this mutual co-opera- 
 tion, and therefore in effect deprives you of your 
 inherent right to rule, takes away from you what 
 really distinguishes the freeman from the slave. 
 
 You will soon learn, perhaps you have already 
 learned, that though by right a king, you were prac- 
 tically born to an estate of slavery. It matters not 
 how wise, how brave, how strong, how noble, and 
 patriotic you may be, unless enough of your fellows 
 act with you to make your thought effective, you 
 will be as helpless as a babe, as powerless as a slave. 
 This is sometimes mistakenly termed the tyranny of 
 the majority. Men of intense and imperious char- 
 acter, finding themselves unable to make effective 
 their patriotic desires, are apt to assume that the 
 right is of necessity with them, and that popular 
 power and party spirit are at fault for thwarting their 
 good intentions. 
 
 Because of this misconception of the true relation, 
 you will find a considerable proportion of the most 
 intelligent and patriotic of our people bitterly hostile 
 to that universal suffrage which has become the rule 
 of our government. They assert that it fosters po- 
 litical corruption ; that ignorance and vice are the 
 natural enemies of good government ; that parties 
 and States are controlled by manipulation of the
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 235 
 
 ignorant and debased, who run party caucuses, and 
 compel the well-disposed citizen to accept the results 
 of their action. We have already given some con- 
 sideration to this question ; but as it concerns the 
 fundamental principle of republican government, and 
 is the invariable excuse for negligence, and the basis 
 of all morbid denunciation of our party system, it 
 may not be amiss to recur to it again. As an ex- 
 cuse for political inaction, the claim that the "igno- 
 rant and the depraved masses " neutralize the power, 
 paralyze the beneficent energies, and thwart the pa- 
 triotic purposes of the wise and virtuous among our 
 people, and that they ought not therefore to be al- 
 lowed to exercise the power of the ballot, is not only 
 absurd, but cowardly and unjust in the extreme. 
 
 Vice and ignorance are in the minority with us. 
 In the States of the North the average of illiteracy is 
 less than five in a hundred, and in any one of them 
 the proportion of ignorance is so small that even a 
 coward should be ashamed to make it an excuse for 
 evil, being at the worst less than twelve in a hun- 
 dred. In the South the proportion is much greater, 
 averaging thirty-six per cent, and in South Carolina 
 climbing up to fifty five per cent. This, however, is 
 of little moment, as in several of those States only 
 about one in ten of the population, or about half of 
 the usual percentage of voters, wield the elective 
 franchise, even in a Presidential year, and an inspec- 
 tion of the vote shows that it is the more ignorant
 
 236 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 portion of the population who thus neglect the exer- 
 cise of their ballotorial right. This, therefore, elimi- 
 nates ignorance as a political factor in those States. 
 They are all controlled by the class which boasts of 
 its "wealth and intelligence," which is, consequently, 
 directly and admittedly responsible for their political 
 condition. 
 
 To include the illiteracy of the South in estimates 
 designed to justify the growing sentiment in favor of 
 the disfranchisement of ignorance, lest it should over- 
 whelm the power of intelligence, is a proposition too 
 absurd to be soberly considered. A people of seven 
 millions, who in two States greatly outnumber the 
 whites, and in two others are at least equal to them 
 in number, yet are able to choose in all hardly sev- 
 enty of their fellows to any office whatever, and not 
 one to a position of any impoiiance, however great the 
 proportion of ignorance among them, can not reason- 
 ably be held to exert any appreciable influence upon 
 the political situation. 
 
 It is folly, therefore, to speak of the detrimental 
 power of the ignorant masses in the United States, 
 or in any State of the Union. In fact, there are no 
 "ignorant masses." The ruling masses are intelli- 
 gent. Even if it were otherwise, intelligence ought 
 to be ashamed to prate about the power of ignorance. 
 If "knowledge is power," intelligence should be 
 stronger, man for man, than ignorance ; and if it does 
 not strengthen, we ought at least to stop boasting of
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 237 
 
 its possession. It is not the strength of the "igno- 
 rant masses," nor the viciousness of an ignorant 
 minority, that shrouds the future of the Republic 
 with apprehension, and makes the citizen-king a 
 helpless captive from the first, but the general neglect 
 of the more important political functions by the intel- 
 ligent masses, and an almost universally debauched 
 conscience in regard to political affairs. We talk and 
 act as if there were no such thing as an obligation to 
 do right, nor any reason why we should not do 
 wrong, in matters affecting the public welfare. 
 
 But even if this bugbear of "the ignorant and 
 vicious masses" were a veritable fact, their exclusion 
 from the rights of the citizen would be an act of 
 such gross injustice as to be unfit to be considered 
 as a remedy. The whole theory of republican gov- 
 ernment is based on the idea that the distribution of 
 the sovereign power enables every man to do some- 
 thing toward securing his own rights and remedying 
 his own wrongs, or what he conceives to be his 
 rights or believes to be his wrongs. It is a piece of 
 protective armor, intended to equalize the weak with 
 the strong. It is always the poor, the weak, and 
 the ignorant who are the victims of oppression. To 
 such the ballot is at once a sword and a shield. The 
 untrained soldier may injure his friend as often as 
 his foe, or even hurt himself oftener still, with this 
 weapon of celestial temper, but he will at least be 
 able to defend himself from attack therewith, ' ' She
 
 238 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 hath given more than they all " was said of the 
 widow's mite, and the ballot is the only weapon with 
 which poverty and ignorance may even blindly defend 
 themselves. It is their only hope. Unfortunately, 
 intelligence does not always imply righteousness or 
 justice ; and even against the best, the lowest and 
 meanest of every land need always to stand upon 
 their guard. 
 
 In avoidance of the self evident absurdity of this 
 claim that ignorance and poverty are responsible for 
 misgovernment, it is usually alleged that our political 
 ills are chiefly confined to the great centers of popu- 
 lation, where ignorance, vice, and an unassimilated 
 foreign element chiefly abound. Even here the rea- 
 son does not hold good. In our greatest commercial 
 metropolis the proportion of native to foreign is as 
 three to two, and the ratio of illiteracy is less than 
 prevails among the whites of the most intelligent 
 Southern States. If her best citizens were as active 
 in the support of good government and the right, as 
 her bad ones are in promoting evil, the city of New 
 York would be well enough governed. Ignorance 
 and vice are weak before intelligence and virtue in a 
 republic, if intelligence and virtue are awake and will 
 do the work that confrcjiits them instead of intrusting 
 it to hired proxies. 
 
 It is true that the results of the corruption of the 
 sovereign power are usually most notable in the great 
 cities. This is simply because in them is found the
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 239 
 
 best opportunity for peculation ; and the wrong 
 which touches the purse is always felt much more 
 keenly than that which affects only the person. The 
 "boss" may be more notorious in the city and his 
 achievements more startling, but political demoraliza- 
 tion is by no means confined to the haunts of trade. 
 The "boss," who is only a leader wielding the 
 power of a greater or less body of subservient citi- 
 zens for personal advantage, and the "ring," which 
 is only a body of subordinate leaders who co-operate 
 with him in the exercise of this power, flourish 
 equally well in rural or suburban regions. It re- 
 quires neither poverty nor vice for their support, 
 since intelligence and morality are not unfrequently 
 their most subservient instruments. 
 
 An incident which has come under my observa- 
 tion since my last letter was written, most forcibly 
 illustrates this fact. The following paragraph in a 
 newspaper, the other day, attracted no attention and 
 provoked no comment, being a mere record of an 
 event not at all extraordinary or unusual: 
 
 "At the Republican caucus in the town of J , 
 
 it was voted that Mr. L should be allowed to 
 
 name all the delegates to all the conventions in which the 
 town is entitled to representation. " 
 
 The italics are mine. I was interested in this 
 item, because the town referred to is situated in a 
 county noted for its prosperity and the high average 
 of intelligence and morality among its people. Its
 
 240 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 population is almost solidly American, there being 
 no city of ten thousand inhabitants within its limits, 
 and no special segregation of what is sometimes 
 called "the laboring classes " among its people. In 
 all respects it must be ranked very high as a repre- 
 sentative agricultural American community. Yet for 
 a score of years its name has been synon)'mous with 
 political corruption. It has had its "bosses" and 
 its "rings." It is usually referred to, even in the 
 councils of the party, to which it gives a remarkably 
 steady and reliable majority, with a sneer. The 
 party orator, when he boasts of purity and reform, 
 not only passes by it on the other side, but holds 
 his nose with a knowing leer as he does so. It has not 
 many very rich men, and few that are very poor. 
 
 There the "boss" flourishes; the office-seeker 
 plies his trade successfully, and the professional dele- 
 gate pieces out an honest income by the favor of 
 anxious candidates, or a thrifty sharing of the profits 
 of the "boss." The- " boss " himself is sometimes 
 an office-broker, and sometimes an aspirant for office. 
 It is said that he makes politics his "profession." 
 It ought to be said that he makes office-mongering a 
 business. Between times he turns an honest penny 
 in the lobby. He is not lavish with his money, but 
 pays the good men who serve him as pawns in his 
 various games, precisely what he agrees, if it be cash, 
 and as little as he can, if it be favor. He is a kindly 
 man who knows exactly when to "stand treat," and
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 24 1 
 
 has been known to give something to public enter- 
 prises. He is not a member of the Church, but 
 gives Hberally to the support of the preached Word, 
 and is esteemed as a generous patron by the congre- 
 gation. As an aspirant for office, he has not always 
 been successful; but as an "office-broker" it is be- 
 lieved that he seldom "gets left." 
 
 It is said that in a score of years there has never 
 been a contest for a nomination in the county or dis- 
 trict in which this man lives, that one aspirant or 
 another has not paid roundly for his support. A 
 hundred times he has thwarted the will and defied 
 the wrath of a majority of his party. Indeed, the 
 majority have reached a point where they no longer 
 expect to control. Politics has become to them a 
 game which they are interested in watching, but in 
 which they do not feel that they really have any im- 
 portant part to play. In every town there is a little 
 group of experienced manipulators, who call them- 
 selves "the boys." They are usually past middle 
 age, and embrace a large proportion of successful 
 professional loafers. They meet and fix up the 
 "slate," arrange who shall be chosen as delegates, 
 and prepare the tickets for the caucus or primary. 
 The people come together at the appointed time 
 Avithout previous consultation or preparation, unaccus- 
 tomed, it may be, to parliamentary forms and pro- 
 cedure. There are a few motions; some quick tactical 
 
 maneuvers, and what seemed likely to be a drawn 
 
 21
 
 242 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 battle is decided. There were perhaps a dozen con- 
 testants ; two or three withdrew ; there was a motion 
 to make unanimous, and perhaps that set of dele- 
 gates who had the least support — the preference of 
 hardly a respectable minority — are declared chosen 
 by acclamation ; or, perhaps a few really good men — 
 honest, honorable, and true — are put on the ticket, 
 with others to neutralize their action. Whatever 
 the result, it has been done decently and in order. 
 The people have delegated their authority and chosen 
 men to choose or "trade " for them, as the case maybe. 
 To understand how little significance is attached 
 to such forms of barter, let us return for a moment 
 to the excerpt already given. What does it mean ? 
 
 The Republicans of the town of J authorize Mr. 
 
 L to name delegates to represent them in the 
 
 county, senatorial, and Assembly district conventions. 
 These delegates will constitute one eleventh of a ma- 
 jority in the county convention, one-twentieth of a 
 majority in the senatorial district, and one-seventh of 
 a majority in the Assembly district convention. 
 
 Truly Mr. L must be a very good man, that he 
 
 thus is given by his neighbors carte blanclie to exer- 
 cise the governing function vested by the law in more 
 than a thousand voters ! If he manages well he will 
 be able to make 07ie-scventh of an assemblyman, one- 
 twentieth of a senator, and one-elcventli of a judge and 
 other county officers! Even the "boss" himself, 
 notorious as are his moral infirmities, has more than
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 243 
 
 once been nominated by just such methods, and may 
 choose to be again. In that case he will be triumph- 
 antly returned, though not one out of five in his 
 party would openly favor his selection for any office ! 
 
 What makes such debasement of our party system 
 possible ? Simply the fact that there are too many 
 cases in which men abrogate their rights in a similar 
 manner, and for the same purpose as the Republicans 
 
 of the town of J gave to Mr. L the power to 
 
 name delegates who would wield their authority. 
 
 Why did they give Mr. L this power? He 
 
 is a rising young politician, and his neighbors sym- 
 pathize with his aspiration, and desire to promote his 
 success. So they give him their power as a sort of 
 capital to set him up in business. He thinks he would 
 like to go to the Assembly, but hardly expects the 
 nomination. He stands ready, however, to trade one- 
 eleventh of a county judge, one-eleventh of a treasurer, 
 and one-twentieth of a senator, for six-sevenths of a 
 majority in the Assembly district convention. Should 
 he succeed, he may nominate each of these officers 
 and himself too. If so, you and I will confirm these 
 trades at the ballot-box next November ; not because 
 the candidates are our choice ; not because a majority 
 of the party prefer them ; but simply because we are 
 slaves — the slaves of a shrewd, unscrupulous trickster, 
 who makes even our sincerity and honesty of purpose 
 an element of his success ! 
 
 There is no more intelligent, earnest, or patriotic
 
 244 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 community in the land than the town of J , or 
 
 the county of which it is a part. The people are pas- 
 sionate lovers of liberty, and their political convictions 
 are a sort of religion. They believe in their party as 
 the chosen agency for the amelioration of evil and 
 the elevation of humanity. They are patriots of a 
 most fervid and noble character. Out of this very 
 town went forth a larger proportion of its sons to do 
 battle for the country and for liberty than from any 
 other community in the State — perhaps any in the 
 entire country. While they struck the shackles from 
 the slave's limbs, the fetters were forged for their 
 own, which they have worn ever since. Their very 
 devotion to principle has constituted the chief instru- 
 ment of their enslavement. They do not neglect 
 what they deem their political duty. They attend the 
 primaries of their party with religious faithfulness. 
 Tiiey are enslaved in the sacred name of liberty, and 
 serve all the more submissively, because they believe 
 that by ignoring themselves and surrendering their 
 own preferences they are serving the cause of 
 humanity and promoting the general welfare. They 
 have a kindly feeling for their young townsman, and 
 do not at all realize that, by putting up their prerog- 
 atives for sale for his benefit, they are selling them- 
 selves into bondage and furnishing the price with 
 which their liberties are to be bought. 
 
 This is the saddest of all our political ills, and one 
 against which individual protest is powerless except
 
 THE CAPTIVE KING. 245 
 
 through co-operation of the very ones whose misguided 
 zeal has produced this result. To offer opposition to 
 what is thus done is to lay unhallowed hands upon 
 the sacred ark — the principles and traditions they so 
 devoutly revere, and which, indeed, are altogether 
 worthy of their reverence. What has thus been done, 
 if not well done, has at least been with their consent 
 and approval; and they unquestionably acted from 
 the best of motives. 
 
 What is the remedy? There is but one — the 
 conscience and intelligence of the universal king must 
 be so awakened and informed that he will not him- 
 self make merchandise of his prerogatives, nor permit 
 others to do so. Do not furnish opportunity or 
 temptation to the office-monger. Your party organi- 
 zation is the sword and scepter of liberty, only so 
 long as the king wields it hhnself. He can not give 
 it to another and remain unharmed by its edge. Like 
 Excalibar, only the master's hand can safely hold it. 
 Select always the best men as delegates; change them 
 often ; never send one man to two conventions the same 
 year ; and if there is even a hint of bargain and sale 
 about the result of his work, put on him the brand 
 of Cain, and never trust him again. But above all 
 things, the simplest and most effective remedies are : 
 
 I. Let every primary and every convention which 
 sends a delegate to another, express a preference for 
 some aspirant for every office for which the constituent 
 body is to name a candidate ; and let this preference
 
 246 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 be certified in the credentials of every delegate to 
 that body. 
 
 2. Insist always upon the election of delegates, not 
 as a group or upon a ticket, but man for man, and 
 let nominations be openly made for the place of first 
 delegate, second delegate, and so on, each being 
 chosen separately. 
 
 3. Insist upon the ballot in the primary, and the 
 viva voce vote upon a call of the roll in all delegated 
 conventions. This method takes rather more time, 
 but makes it difficult for the "boss" to "get in his 
 work," and for the purchasable delegate to "deliver 
 the goods." 
 
 Of course, there will always be fraud and chicane 
 in government of any kind, because government is a 
 human institution ; but if you and I are to be made its 
 victims — if our liberties are to be bought and sold — 
 let us at least make the transaction as difficult and 
 undesirable as possible. So shall we save ourselves 
 from ignominy, and the cause of human liberty from 
 disaster ; so shall the citizen-king wisely rule.
 
 XX 
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 
 
 I AM reminded that our pleasant intercourse is 
 drawing to a close. I have not touched upon many 
 of those public duties which you no doubt deem most 
 important, for the reason that, although they are by 
 no means to be neglected, they shrink into comparative 
 insignificance beside the political functions we have 
 considered. It is true that the king is an administrator 
 as well as a lawgiver, and the citizen-king can by no 
 means be excused from the discharge of this func- 
 tion of government. Before administration, however, 
 comes law-making ; and it happens, under our system, 
 that the office of the citizen-king as law-maker and ad- 
 ministrator are in the main united. When you have 
 done your duty in the making of law, you have 
 usually provided also for its enforcement. In other 
 words, we choose our law making agents and our 
 administrative officials by the same method, and 
 usually at the same time. Both are selected through 
 the operation of party mechanism ; and faithfulness 
 in the selection of the one implies faithfulness in 
 
 the choice of the other. You will perceive, therefore, 
 
 247
 
 248 LEISTERS TO A KING. 
 
 that the subjects discussed embrace the fundamental 
 principles of the safe and effectual exercise of sover- 
 eign power by the vast body of co-ordinate rulers. 
 
 In these letters I have purposely avoided the 
 consideration of what are termed political questions. 
 Free trade, State rights, the limitation or extension 
 of national authority, — all these have had no place in 
 our discussion, because their determination one way 
 or the other is a mere result of the exercise of the 
 power we have been considering. There are, how- 
 ever, two matters outside the field of political action 
 which I wish to call to your attention before closing 
 this series. The first of these is the fact that the 
 prime object of government is not economj^ nor is 
 cheapness of administration its highest excellence. 
 Money is not the mainspring of national life, and the 
 citizen-king, whether acting in an individual or official 
 capacity, is not fulfilling his highest function when 
 he acts as a mere accumulator of treasure. 
 
 Economy or acquisition, as the adjunct of a noble 
 purpose, is a most worthy attribute ; as an end, 
 either in individuals or nations, it is most despicable. 
 The so-called science of political economy is respon- 
 sible for not a little foolish and criminal neglect of 
 duty on the part of our people. I say so-called 
 science, because political economy can never become 
 a science in the ordinary and true sense of the 
 term ; that is, it can never offer specific formulae by 
 which particular results may be invariably attained.
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 249 
 
 It is at best merely a collection of analogies more 
 or less perfect — studies in the lives of nations — ex- 
 periments, only part of the conditions of which are 
 known, and only a few of which can ever be repro- 
 duced. Self-confident sciolists have sought to advance 
 this most interesting and useful study of ever-vary- 
 ing conditions, to the rank of a positive science, — the 
 science of government. Such a science is manifestly 
 impossible. It would be like a science of life ; for 
 government is, after all, only the regulation of segre- 
 gated lives. The conditions of such segregated life 
 vary as infinitely as the conditions of individual suc- 
 cess. In the first place, peoples differ in their 
 motives, characters, and sentiments just as greatly 
 as individuals. What might be a sound and effective 
 method of organization, administration, or revenue 
 with one people would be absolutely ruinous to 
 another ; just as in private life one man acts upon 
 one principle, and another upon its converse, and 
 yet both succeed. 
 
 "I owe my success," says one man, "to the 
 fact that I never borrowed a dollar." Another de- 
 clares, "I should never have been worth a pinch of 
 salt had I not begun by getting hopelessly in debt." 
 "No man succeeds," said one of the richest of 
 Americans, "who does not take chances which 
 would wipe him out if his calculation should happen 
 to fail." "I should have been cleaned out a dozen 
 times," said a great speculator, " if those who were
 
 250 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 playing against me had known the weakness of my 
 hand." 
 
 So, one political economist arrives at the con- 
 clusion that a nation should never emit bills of credit ; 
 another, that it should lev)- duties on imports in 
 order to encourage domestic manufacture ; another, 
 that the collective good demands that the individual 
 be allowed to buy his wares in the cheapest market. 
 One instances England with her five millions of 
 paupers, and the Irish land question impending, as an 
 example of unquestionable prosperity. Another 
 cites France, with her infinite subdivision of land as 
 exemplifying the true philosophy of national wealth. 
 One proceeds upon one hypothesis, and another upon 
 its converse. 
 
 "It is an undeniable fact," says a great author- 
 ity on political economy, "that the richest portions 
 of all new countries are first settled." This asser- 
 tion he makes an important postulate in his specu- 
 lations in regard to land, on which his economic theory 
 is mainly based. The simple fact is, that the "assump- 
 tion is not true. The land which is first settled may 
 be either that which is most easily tilled ; that which 
 is most easily defended ; that which is supposed to be 
 the most healthful ; that which is most easily ac- 
 cessible from the sea, or even that which has no 
 merit at all except mere contiguity to the land of 
 origin. A similar uncertainty pervades all the de- 
 ductions of political economists, and, indeed, of all
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 25 I 
 
 scientists whose theories are dependent on the action 
 of men or masses for their exempHfication. 
 
 The identity of human nature is a principle so 
 little understood and of so subtle a character, that its 
 application almost as often leads to error as to correct 
 results. Theoretically, it may be true that human 
 nature is always the same — that is, that under like 
 conditions every one would do the same thing — but 
 in order to make this assertion true, the antecedent 
 conditions, and even the heritable attributes of the 
 individual or communities we desire to compare, 
 must be identical. The course that one man or peo- 
 ple would adopt, another, under like conditions, 
 merely because of inherited differences, would spurn. 
 What would impel one to fight to the bitter end, 
 would induce another to surrender unconditionally. 
 What would inspire one people to superhuman exer- 
 tion would overwhelm another with hopeless despair. 
 The same is true of all sciences or pretended sciences 
 in which human attributes constitute a chief element 
 on which deductions are based. 
 
 It is evident to every one that there can be no 
 such thing as a science of trade ; that is, a system of 
 fixed and invariable rules, the observance of which 
 will insure financial success, and the violation of which 
 will insure failure. So, too, there can never be a 
 science of war. The curious attempts that have been 
 made to prescribe rules to control the movements of 
 armies and the conduct of warfare, which compose
 
 252 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 the science of strategy, are simply obvious truths, 
 applying only to specific conditions known to both 
 contestants. If its assumptions were ever true, war 
 would be merely a game of chess, instead of being, 
 as it always is, a game of chance, in which one man's 
 audacity and genius, or one army's confidence or 
 fortitude, may change defeat into victory, and reverse 
 the most imperative rules. The movement of Jack- 
 son to the rear of the Federal right at Chancellors- 
 ville was in defiance of the most positive precepts of 
 strategic science ; but he knew his men, guessed the 
 morale of his army, and, but for the misfortune of 
 death, would no doubt have destroyed the army he 
 so effectually repulsed. So, too, with Grant's mar- 
 velous campaign below Vicksburg. Take Sheridan 
 out of Winchester, and you have a Federal rout. 
 The battles of the world, in short, have rarely been 
 won by science, but generally by a correct estimate 
 of the quahties of masses and individuals. Some- 
 times the general wins by brilliant combinations, but 
 more frequently by an instinctive appreciation of the 
 spirit and capacity of his soldiery. When Fabius had 
 accustomed his men to success he could afford to 
 fight, and not till then. 
 
 It is this principle that makes the spirit, charac- 
 ter, and sentiment of a people, the most important 
 element of all political movements and economic 
 theories. That economic system which is the best 
 for one people may be ruinous to another, and that
 
 , THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 253 
 
 administrative method which the experience of one 
 people approves, may be destructive to the pros- 
 perity of another. Institutions must be adapted to 
 the genius of the people who are to be affected by 
 them, and the sentiment of national pride — the esprit 
 of a distinctive nationality — is, especially in a repub- 
 lic, by far the most important of all the attributes of 
 the citizen. This sentiment is sometimes ludicrous 
 in its manifestations, but the lack of it is of all things 
 most dangerous to national harmony and strength. 
 The glory of France was the chief element of Napo- 
 leon's military success. His genius consisted not 
 merely in the power to make brilliant and successful 
 military combinations, but in the ability to intoxicate 
 the soldiers and people of the republic and the em- 
 pire with a self forgetful frenzy for the glory of la 
 belle France. The power and prosperity of England 
 depend more than all things else upon the unaltera- 
 ble conviction in the mind of every Englishman of 
 the superior excellence of her laws, her institutions, 
 and her people. The idea of the Vaterland lies at 
 the root of German power, and the patriots of Italy 
 effected nothing until they had created a universal 
 longing among her people for an Italy redeemed and 
 free. This principle has found a curious exemplifica- 
 tion in China, ancient and modern. The impregnable 
 belief in the super-excellence of all things Chinese 
 has kept a weak people from dissolution and absorp- 
 tion. The Tartar could- overcome their armies, but
 
 254 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 was in turn subjugated by their institutions. Modern 
 civilization, with all its insidious agencies, has never 
 been able to get a secure foothold in the Celestial 
 Empire. Yet, in all things except the supreme sat- 
 isfaction with which they regard their own institu- 
 tions, they are perhaps the weakest people on the globe. 
 The root of national strength, therefore, is to be 
 found in the sentiment of devotion and regard for 
 the national idea. With this spirit strongly devel- 
 oped, a nation small in numbers and insignificant in 
 material resources may be enduring and invincible; 
 while without it a people of unlimited resources and 
 numbering many millions will necessarily be weak. 
 Of this last proposition, India is the most perfect ex- 
 ample that could be desired. From the earliest 
 dawn of history she has been the victim of lesser but 
 compacted nationalities. The barbarous khans of 
 Central Asia, for ages ravaged her plains; Greece 
 sent compact little phalanxes to plunder her temples; 
 . France and Portugal conquered with a few hundred 
 soldiers realms more populous and extensive than 
 the entire empires who.se power their captains repre- 
 sented; and now a handful of Englishmen — less than 
 threescore thousand — hold in check the aspiration 
 and power of two hundred and twenty millions! 
 Why is it? Simply because India has never had a 
 central thought — an Indian nationality. 
 
 " Our country, right or wrong," may be, as it has 
 been often declared, a despicable sentiment ; but the
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 255 
 
 belief that one country, however wrong, is better than 
 any other, however right, united with a determina- 
 tion to make her better still, not on borrowed models, 
 but along her own lines, and in harmony with her 
 own precedents, lies at the foundation of all govern- 
 mental stability and excellence. A government that 
 looks abroad for its models, and seeks to conform its 
 civilization to the lines of other developments, is, and 
 of necessity must always be, weak. A soldier can 
 never fight successfully in another man's armor. 
 David was wise when he refused the king's armament, 
 and used his own sling and the smooth pebbles from 
 the brook. The American people never manifested 
 such incontrovertible evidence of "structural weak- 
 ness " as when their secretary of the navy advertised 
 abroad for designs for our ships of war. God grant 
 that the borrowed bastards may never leave the ways 
 of our navy-yards ! Better a thousand times that we 
 should fight on rafts and canal boats than rely upon 
 another people's brain for the models of our ships of 
 war! It was not such subserviency to foreign na- 
 tions, nor even the excellence of her ships, that made 
 England "the mistress of the sea," but the spirit 
 that underlay Nelson's famous order, "England ex- 
 pects every man to do his duty." 
 
 As a people, especially at the North, we are 
 sadly deficient in this spirit. Selfdepreciation is 
 our forte, shrewdness our especial pride, and money 
 our chief reliance. In the War of the Rebellion we
 
 256 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 imported Belgian muskets for our soldiers, and it 
 was not until the summer of 1863 that the Ameri- 
 can repeating rifle was used in battle. E\en at the 
 close of the war many of our troops were using the 
 worst arms in the world, while our factories were sup- 
 plying other nations with the best. Instead of evolv- 
 ing a system of civil service adapted to our institu- 
 tions, and suited to the genius of our people, we 
 borrowed one from England, which England herself 
 had but recently borrowed from China. Our modern 
 literature consists chiefly in deprecatory comparison 
 of American life with the "sweetness and light " that 
 surrounds the beatitudes of English social and polit- 
 ical existence. Our clothes, our intonations, and our 
 aspirations we seek to form on English models as well 
 as our ships of war! 
 
 If we boast of our nation at all, it is almost cer- 
 tain to be of its wealth. Our Goulds, our Vander- 
 bilts, and the aggregates of the columns of exports 
 and production in the census, — these are the chief 
 things in which we presume to compare ourselves 
 proudly and exultantly with other nations. As a 
 concomitant, if not a result of this spirit, we have 
 little, if any, pride in personally serving the country. 
 We incline to regard politics as a game ; and our in- 
 terest in it is too often of the same sort we have in 
 a boat-race or a game of base-ball. Our children 
 are not consecrated to the service of the country, 
 nor taught to do and dare — to attempt and achieve
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. ^ 25/ 
 
 for her sake. Nothing is sacred to our eyes 
 because it is American, except our aggregated 
 dividends and "the surplus in the treasury." Pub- 
 lic office is neither "a public trust," to be adnain- 
 istered for the public good, nor a privilege which is 
 prized as a public honor or an opportunity to serve 
 the nation. On the contrary, we generally look 
 upon official position as merely an opportunity for 
 personal advancement or enrichment, and a public 
 duty is regarded as desirable only when it offers op- 
 portunity for display or emolument. 
 
 It is for this reason that the duties of official 
 positions which do not pay well are seldom well 
 performed among us. I need but instance in this 
 connection the duty of the juror. No one who will 
 sit in a court in any Northern State and listen to the 
 miserable subterfuges that are offered to enable the 
 best citizens to evade this important but unpleasant 
 duty will wonder at the demoralization of our jury 
 system, and the scorn of law and inclination to un- 
 lawful forms of public violence which are coming to 
 degrade our civilization. No man is glad to perform 
 such a public service, but, on the contrary, seeks to 
 evade it, or at the least hire a substitute. The same 
 is true of all unpleasant public duties, and the act of 
 evading them, even by falsehood or substitution, is 
 considered honorable. Twenty-five years ago the 
 country called her sons to its defense. It was a 
 service honorable but difficult, and could not, in the 
 
 22
 
 258 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 majority of cases, bring advantage or preferment. 
 When they did not respond readily, the country ap- 
 pealed to conscription, and the conscript was allowed 
 to put in a substitute or go himself. So creditable was 
 it deemed to avoid personal service, that twenty 
 years afterwards (in 1884), two out of the four can- 
 didates for the Presidency were men who refused 
 to serve the country when drafted, one of whom was 
 elected I 
 
 In this respect it must be admitted that the people 
 of the South are greatly our superiors. They are 
 first of all things Soiitheni men, proud of the fact, 
 and believing in the excellence and superiority of all 
 things Southern. They are, consequentlj^ anxious 
 to serve the public, by whose confidence they are 
 honored. After fifteen years' residence at the South, 
 six of which were spent in judicial duty, offering 
 unusual opportunity for observation, I feel justified 
 in saying that the Southern man rarely seeks release 
 from civic duty on the plea of personal advantage. 
 Public duty is, in his eyes, always the most important 
 that can devolve upon him. As a result, hardly an 
 instance can be found of the preferment by the people 
 of that section of one who refused or neglected to 
 support with might and main the Confederate cause — 
 the cause which they regarded as their cause, to up- 
 hold which was in itself an unmatched honor. It is 
 this attribute which has made the people of the South 
 revere their soldiers as heroes, and the lack of it
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 259 
 
 which has made the people of the North contemn 
 their defenders as paupers. 
 
 No more striking illustration of this could be con- 
 ceived than a series of articles which have appeared 
 in one of the journals in which these letters have 
 been printed, simultaneously with them. They have 
 been an unexampled laudation of the motives, char- 
 acter, and attributes of the Confederate soldier and 
 a constant glorification of the Confederate cause. 
 The comparison which is instituted with the Federal 
 soldier is always, and in every respect, one of sweep- 
 ing and contemptuous disparagement. The Southern 
 soldiers, we are shown, were altogether the grandest, 
 bravest, holiest men that ever rallied to the support 
 of a glorious idea. They were "champions of lib- 
 erty," "Christian heroes," "the most devoted and 
 accomphshed of knights." On the other hand, the 
 Federals — the people of the North — were "mer- 
 cenaries," "cruel," "barbarous," the "instigators 
 of an unholy war," "fanatics," and "dupes of am- 
 bitious and unscrupulous politicians!" 
 
 I do not refer to these papers to refute their ideas 
 or deprecate their publication. Personally, I dissent 
 from their conclusions and question their premises. 
 I do not believe the Southern soldier was any more 
 addicted to piety than his Northern compeer; that 
 the Southern general was any better gentleman or 
 any purer Christian than the Northern leader ; that 
 there was any more profanity or vice of any sort in
 
 26o LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 the Northern than in the Southern camps; or that 
 intemperance was any less frequent among men or 
 officers, unless the difficulty of obtaining intoxicants 
 may have produced such result ; though any one 
 who ever tasted the "persimmon whisky," to be 
 found in that region in those days, may well wonder 
 that it did not prove an effective antidote for intem- 
 perance. The muster-rolls of the two armies show 
 that the average of intelligence, as attested by the 
 power to sign their names, was many times greater 
 with the Northern than with the Southern soldier, 
 and the spectacle of a ghastly slaughter of men ex- 
 ecuted for adhesion to the Government of the United 
 Stales, brings to mind the fact that notwithstanding 
 the Southern soldiers were such paragons, there were 
 at least a hundred times more desertions to the enemy 
 and many times as many executed for cowardice and 
 desertion, as of the abandoned and depraved creatures 
 found in the Northern camps. I remember, too — 
 and there are many who were my companions in a 
 Southern military prison of ill-repute, who will recall 
 the fact — that the most brutal and cruel among the 
 subordinate keepers was the devoted leader of a 
 notable revival that took place among the guards ! 
 
 I think that the soldiers of both armies averaged 
 better than the people they represented, "each after 
 his kind;" and I merely cite these papers to show 
 the difference in national or collective esprit of the 
 two sections. I suppose the circulation of the journal
 
 THE NATIONAL IMPULSE. 26 1 
 
 in which the papers referred to appear, is at least 
 three-fourths at the North ; I should not be surprised 
 if even a greater proportion of its readers were found 
 there. Now, if any Southern paper should publish a 
 series of articles contrasting in a like manner the 
 Northern and Southern soldier, it would have to go 
 out of business in less than a month. Its subscribers 
 would put it in the fire with the tongs. What is the 
 reason ? Because, on one side of the line, public 
 spirit means an exalted ideal of Southern worth and 
 excellence. On the other — well, we court deprecia- 
 tion and invite contemptuous disregard. We happen 
 to be Americans ; but seemingly we would almost as 
 soon, if not a little rather, have been anything else. 
 I do not blame, but rather honor, the Southern man 
 for his devotion to the Confederate hero. I only 
 regret that a similar regard for the public welfare 
 does not inspire the Northern man to count the per- 
 formance of public duty, whether civil or military, 
 pleasant or unpleasant, profitable or unprofitable, an 
 honor ; and I sincerely trust that the time may soon 
 come when he who performs such duty faithfully, will 
 be honored as the true American ideal. 
 
 When that time shall come, the contrast between 
 the Northern and the Southern city upon election 
 day will not be so striking as it now is. At present, 
 to their honor be it said, you will meet at the South 
 the most prominent citizens at the polls, using their 
 influence for the cause and party they believe to be
 
 262 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 right. In a Northern city you will find the voter's 
 booth surrounded with paid "strikers" and hired 
 " manipulaiors ;" but the "good citizens" are too 
 busy to more than put in a" substitute " to do their 
 duty for them. Southern sentiment is in many re- 
 spects reprehensible and dangerous, but in public 
 spirit and that faithfulness to an ideal which corn- 
 mands respect, even from one who disapproves, they 
 may well give a needed lesson to the American who 
 desires to see his country prosperous, peaceable, and 
 strong. 
 
 "For the sake of France," murmured the hero, 
 who had fought her battles, as he gave the signal for 
 his own death which the usurper had decreed. " For 
 the sake of my country," should be the watchword 
 of the citizen king as he does his dut)% whether 
 pleasant or unpleasant, profitable or unprofitable, as 
 one of the myriad controlling atoms of the Republic, 
 " without fear, favor, or affection, reward or the hope 
 of reward," as the ancient law defines his duty, in 
 the most thankless post it ever calls him to occupy.
 
 XXI. 
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES. 
 
 There remain to be considered some of the sub- 
 stitutes which have been devised for the party agen- 
 cies which we have discussed. One of the most 
 singular of these, and one which is the most delusive 
 in its specious pretense of fairness, is what is known 
 as tlie cumulative method of voting. It was intended 
 primarily to secure to a minority a "talking repre- 
 sentation" in legislative bodies. It has generally been 
 accepted as especially favoring individual action, and 
 giving expression to individual preference without 
 the intervention of party agencies. There could not 
 be a greater mistake. Without party agencies and 
 systemized co-operation among the electors, the cu- 
 mulative method would merely magnify the power 
 of the working politician. It might possibly limit 
 the power of the individual "bosses," but it would 
 materially increase their number, and almost certainly 
 preclude the assertion of the will of the majority, 
 except in cases where there was a practical una- 
 nimity of sentiment. Under its operation the cabal 
 263
 
 264 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 would become the real and almost impregnable 
 source of power. 
 
 This method consists merely in dividing the con- 
 stituency into groups, which elect a certain number 
 of representatives each, the system being especially 
 adapted for the choice of members of legislative 
 bodies. Every elector is allowed as many votes as 
 there are representatives to be chosen by the group 
 of which he is a part; and he may cast them all for 
 one, or one each for the whole number. As, if there 
 are three representatives to be chosen from a district, 
 the voter may cast one vote for three candidates, two 
 votes for one, and one for another, or three for one ; 
 so that a minority numbering one-third of the elect- 
 ors can always secure one representative. This is 
 the theory. In practice it yields no such results. By 
 splitting up the vote, individual aspirants may suc- 
 ceed in securing their own election with only an in- 
 significant minority of the votes cast; as, if there be 
 twelve candidates in the district referred to, and those 
 having the highest number of votes are chosen, it is 
 quite possible that none of those chosen may repre- 
 sent more than a tenth of the votes. This is neither 
 popular representation, nor independent action. It 
 is simply a bid for trickery. 
 
 This method may also be taken advantage of 
 where organized parties exist, to give the whole power 
 of a legislative body into the hands of a minority. 
 This is well illustrated by a plan which was recently
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES. 265 
 
 proposed by a minority, to obtain control of a con- 
 stitutional convention in the State of New York. A 
 bill which was before the Legislature to authorize 
 such a convention, provided for cumulative voting, 
 was warmly supported by the organized "reformers" 
 of the State, and was expected to become a law. 
 A party so small as not to have a majority in any 
 county of the State, proposed under this system to 
 control the action of the convention. The plan was 
 this : in every Republican district they were to ally 
 themselves with the Democrats, and secure a ma- 
 jority of the delegates chosen by the combination. 
 This would be no loss to the Democrats, and in some 
 cases a gain, besides weakening their strongest oppo- 
 nent. In Democratic districts this was to be re- 
 versed by alliance with the Republicans. Had the 
 bill become a law and this programme been carried 
 out, it seems probable that a minority, comprising 
 less than one fifth of the voters of the State would 
 have had a clear majority in a convention having 
 power to revise the fundamental law. 
 
 Another plan which has met with a good deal of 
 favor from political reformers is one intended to do 
 away with delegate conventions, by having nomina- 
 tions made directly by the constituents. This idea 
 has two forms: the one known as the "subscription- 
 paper" plan, and the other the "primary-election" 
 plan. Both are open to serious objections. 
 
 The plan of nomination by "subscription papers," 
 
 23
 
 266 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 has not been very widely adopted in this country. 
 It has the merit of an English flavor, and beyond this 
 has absolutely nothing to commend it, as a substitute 
 for the party convention. Whenever it becomes nec- 
 essary to run an independent candidate, as a rebuke 
 to improper methods or to prevent the election of an 
 unfit candidate, however, this method is not only a 
 very proper one, but is almost the only one that can 
 safely be adopted. When a reasonable number of 
 his fellow-citizens in this maimer call upon a man to 
 assume the burdens and responsibilities of candidacy, 
 it becomes not only an honorable thing, but well- 
 nigh an imperative duty for him to comply. 
 
 As a substitute for party nomination, however, 
 this plan is open to the most serious objection. If 
 generally adopted, it would result not only in an in- 
 finite multiplication of candidates, but would also 
 afford one of the most convenient and effective 
 methods for self promotion and improper manipula- 
 tion. There is nothing easier than to get a man to 
 sign a paper, unless it be to sign it for him. The 
 nomination by "subscription-paper" is open to both 
 these methods of abuse. Men would be induced to 
 sign such papers thoughtlessl)', in ignorance of their 
 character or by corrupt procurement; and in case of 
 failure of these methods, wholesale counterfeiting of 
 signatures would be, and often is, resorted to. As a 
 method of nomination it is not only faulty, but is 
 the most unreliable and unsatisfactory ever devised.
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES. 267 
 
 The method of nomination by ' ' primary election, " 
 which at first sight seems to be entirely fair, and 
 certain if properly conducted to give satisfaction, is 
 nevertheless open to serious objection. It has come 
 to be common knowledge in American politics that 
 a man may be the prime favorite of a majority 
 of his party, and yet be the worst candidate it can 
 nominate. While ninety per cent of a party micrht 
 prefer a candidate, the hostility of the remaining ten 
 per cent might be so bitter as to make his defeat a 
 certainty in case he should be nominated. The work 
 of a convention is not merely to ascertain the party 
 preference, but to determine the force of any hostile 
 feeling which might secure his defeat, despite the fact 
 that a majority heartily approved his candidacy. The 
 first element of a fit nomination is that it shall not 
 only meet the approval of a portion of a party, but 
 shall also be not unacceptable to the rest of them. 
 In nominations by primary election, this combination 
 of essential qualities is dropped from sight : the fa- 
 vorite of a majority is named, and the party not unfre- 
 quently suffers defeat thereby. This fact is so appar- 
 ent, that despite the seeming fairness and desirability 
 of this method it has never been generally adopted. 
 This has often been attributed by the class known as 
 "professional reformers" to the machinations of 
 politicians. It might much more reasonably be cred- 
 ited to the instinctive sagacity of the American peo- 
 ple. The masses may not be able to give reasons for
 
 268 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 their conduct, but as a rule the popular manage- 
 ment of parties as political instrumentalities has been 
 marked by the most sagacious regard for success. It 
 is usually when the power of the politician has 
 usurped the functions of the people that a party has 
 met with disaster. 
 
 Nothing, indeed, proves the fitness of our popula- 
 tion for self government, more clearly than the fact 
 that we have so generally avoided the cumbrous, 
 impracticable methods which mere sciolists have ad- 
 vanced, and which the great class who are always on 
 the lookout for a specific remedy for all political ills 
 have so generally approved and advocated. It is said 
 that the love of quackery is inherent in human nature. 
 Every one would rather be cured by a sort of mira- 
 cle than in the good, old fashioned, everyday method 
 by which others are healed. Whether this be true 
 or not, it is absolutely certain that in the political 
 world there is always a demand for quack nostrums — 
 specifics for all political diseases. In no other branch 
 of human thought, perhaps, do we meet with so 
 many "crank notions," and in none, certainly, is the 
 tendency to their adoption so strong, especially with 
 what are known as cultivated and intelligent people. 
 As a rule, it would seem that our so-called political 
 philosophers are the most ignorant of what govern- 
 ment is, and what changes are practicable as well 
 as desirable. That our government has been pe- 
 culiarly free from absurd experiments, but has steadily
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES. 269 
 
 and faithfully adhered to the old ways, adopting only 
 those simple and approved changes, which have led 
 towards stability and prosperity, is the strongest ar- 
 gument the world has ever known, in favor of popu- 
 lar institutions. The fact which our history abun- 
 dantly proves, that the popular heart is much less 
 liable to go astray in such matters than the trained 
 and aristocratic judgment, shows conclusively that the 
 citizen-king — the whole body of the people — is the 
 safest depository of national power. 
 
 This truth is especially demonstrated in the result 
 of a popular attempt to combine the advantages of 
 the delegate convention with the certainty of popular 
 preference secured by the system of primar)' elec- 
 tion. This plan seems not to have been the in- 
 vention of any mere theorist in government, but a 
 practical attempt to combine the advantages of two 
 methods. It has been adopted as a part of the 
 organic law of one party at least, in parts of several 
 States, and an attempt to make it statutory has been 
 made in Illinois. Who is entitled to the credit of 
 its invention I am unable to learn, but it is usually 
 known by the name of the county in Pennsylvania 
 where it was first applied, as the "Crawford County 
 Plan." 
 
 This "Plan" has several features; but the really 
 valuable one, and the one in which the invention 
 really consists, is the combination of the delegate 
 and elective methods of nomination. Briefly stated,
 
 2/0 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 this is its essential feature : At ever)' primary or 
 caucus called for the election of delegates to nom- 
 inate a candidate for an office, or to select delegates 
 a part of whose duty shall be to name delegates to 
 another convention, a poll is opened, under charge 
 of the officers of the primary, at which every one 
 voting for delegates names also, if he desires, his 
 own personal preference for a nominee for each office 
 for which one is to be chosen. 
 
 Thus when primaries choose delegates to a State 
 convention or district convention, which is to name 
 delegates to a national convention, a poll is opened 
 at each primary, showing the popular preference of 
 the party in the various towns for Presidential nom- 
 inee. The ballot may indicate a first and second 
 choice, if desired. By this means the delegates are 
 informed with exactitude of the preference of their 
 own particular constituents. If there is good reason 
 for declining to act in accordance with this instruc- 
 tion, on account of violent opposition to the one 
 preferred on the part of others, or if for any other 
 reason he becomes unavailable as a candidate, the 
 delegate is still at liberty to act upon his indi- 
 vidual judgment. With some amplification as to 
 certifying the result of the poll, this system would 
 seem to offer the only practicable method of making 
 the voice of the majority of a party effective without 
 fatally crippling that elastic discretion which has 
 made the delegate party convention the most admi-
 
 THE AMENDMENT OF PARTY AGENCIES. 2^1 
 
 rable instrumentality ever devised by a free people 
 for the assertion of their political views. 
 
 There are other more intricate and apparently 
 more scientific methods for limiting or abolishing 
 either the caucus or the delegate elements of our 
 party system. They compare with this simple device 
 very much as the constitution prepared for one of 
 our American colonies, by the philosopher Locke, 
 did with the simple plans of political organization 
 adopted by the various States after the separation 
 from Great Britain. The one looked well on paper ; 
 the others have worked splendidly in practice. The 
 one was the invention of a man ; the others were the 
 outcome of many men's experience and sagacity. 
 So far as my knowledge of these devices goes, the 
 " Crawford County Plan " is the only one that seems 
 easil)' adaptable to our present system, accomplishes 
 a most desirable result, and puts a truss upon the 
 delegate at the very point at which he most needs 
 trussing, without interfering with a due, proper, and 
 necessary discretion vested in him for the benefit 
 of the whole party. It commends itself to every 
 thoughtful mind and is opposed only by those who 
 desire to make use of party organization for per- 
 sonal rather than public ends. That it will event- 
 ually become a universal attachment of our party 
 system, no one who studies the indications of the 
 present and the needs of the future can for a moment 
 doubt. To that end, especially, the influence of
 
 272 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 young men who are desirous of maintaining good 
 government through the extension of popular power 
 should be steadily directed. The "Crawford County 
 Plan," or its equivalent, should become a part of the 
 organic law of every party, and be regulated and 
 made enforcible by statute in every State.
 
 XXII. 
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 
 
 It will naturally be expected that a work of this 
 kind should say something about the ballot, and the 
 safeguards of this palladium of our liberty. Indeed, 
 it is probable that you have been surprised that it 
 has not been given a more prominent place in these 
 monitory letters. Without any desire to detract 
 from the reverence in Avhich I trust you hold this 
 visible instrument of the citizen's power, you will per- 
 mit me to say, that in comparison with the subjects 
 we have treated, it is not of first importance. If 
 the citizen has learned to do his duty, has been 
 heedful of his privileges, jealous of his rights, and 
 earnest in his desire to promote good government as 
 a member of a party, there is little danger of his 
 going astray at the ballot-box, or permitting the 
 enginery of an election to be used to thwart the will 
 of the majority. To the citizen-king the ballot-box 
 is merely the means of promulgating the edict of 
 which the mechanism of party is the shaping of the 
 substance. It compares in importance and difficulty 
 with the duties we have been considering as the 
 
 273
 
 2^4 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 fo'"iTi of expression does witli the eliinination of an 
 idea — as the phrasin^i; of the kind's command does 
 with tlie dcterminaliou of its import. 
 
 Yet the formal expression of )'our will as a citi- 
 zen is a matter worth)' of most caicfiil considera- 
 tion. In this, as in the matters alrcad}' considered, 
 the supreme aptitude of the American citizen for 
 self-government is readily discernible. In the 
 Grecian republics, in whose citizenship something of 
 the same inborn talent for government appears, the 
 ballot seems to have prevailed as the only reliable 
 method of takin;^ the will of a majority, which, you 
 must keep clearl\- in mind, is the one immutable 
 safeguard of popular government. As a political 
 instrumentality, however, the ballot had well-nigh 
 disappeared from the earth until it was revived by 
 the American Colonies. The mother country, to 
 which we are apt to give credit for every thing that is 
 good in our political institutions, can claim no merit 
 in this instance. The ballot is not a British institu- 
 tion. Indeed, Great Britain and her colonies have 
 been very slow in adopting that instrumentality which 
 was the shield and cover of national aspiration in her 
 American possessions. 
 
 In most of the American Colonies the ballot had 
 been adopted before the Revolution. It is probable 
 that the instinct of safety impelled those who were 
 already planning resistance to the oppressive acts of 
 Great Britian to adopt this as a means of individual
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 2JS 
 
 self-protection. On the organization of the Union 
 the use of the ballot became universal except in 
 certain States of the South, and in all but one of 
 these the viva voce method was long since discarded. 
 The experience of more than a himdred }ears has 
 fully justified the wisdom of the fathers in selecting 
 tlie secret ballot as the means by which the freeman 
 should exercise his power. The question has long 
 ceased to be debatable whether this instrumentality 
 is better than another ; and the experience of the 
 world has confirmed the sagacity of the American 
 people. England herself, after a hundred years of 
 struggle, yielded to the irresistible demand of her 
 suffragans, and in 1872 placed in their hands the 
 same instrument which secured our liberties. It was 
 a tardy but undeniable recognition of the political 
 capacity of the American people. 
 
 The questions which are at the present time at- 
 tracting public attention in connection with this sub- 
 ject are those looking to the improvement of the 
 ballotorial system, and the means by which its exer- 
 cise shall be protected from debasement and corrup- 
 tion. The greater portion of these are mechanical, 
 and pertain either to the form and character of the 
 ticket used, or to the method of identif}'ing the 
 elector and preventing unauthorized voting. Of the 
 latter character is the now very general method re- 
 quiring an antecedent registration of the voter, by 
 which opportunity is given to inquire into his resi-
 
 276 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 dence and antecedents. This power, intended for the 
 purification of tlie ballot-box, in some instances, how- 
 ever, has been made tributary to its debasement. In 
 some of the Southern States an almost unlimited 
 discretion has been vested in the registrar of voters, 
 for the express purpose, it would seem, of being 
 used to debar dul}' qualified voters from the exercise 
 of the elective franchise. It is a power that needs 
 to be carefully guarded. Publicity is the great cure 
 for crimes of this sort, and the publication of full 
 hsts of voters in each ward and precinct a sufficient 
 time before the election would be the most effective 
 means that could be devised for preventing this kind 
 of fraud. 
 
 As regards the ballot itself the change has been 
 chiefly in form, with some recent movements in the 
 direction of supplying the same at public expense 
 and in a particular manner. The ballot as originally 
 adopted among us was of the most primitive character. 
 It might be of any form or size, written or printed 
 on any kind of paper, and needed only to contain 
 enough to express the voter's purpose. Little by 
 little all this has has been changed. Almost every 
 State now prescribes the form of the ballot and the 
 precise words that must be printed or written on 
 it. If printed, the character of the ink and paper 
 also is made obligatory. These changes have in the 
 main been healthful. Legislative bodies, and even 
 courts, have sometimes made mere technical non-
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 2/7 
 
 compliance the means of defeating the evident pur- 
 pose of the voter ; but, on the \Yhole, there can be no 
 doubt that fraud has been greatly checked thereby. 
 Some of the proposed reforms have not, however, 
 commanded public approval, and have either fallen 
 into disuse or remained altogether local in applica- 
 tion; such as the laws enacted in some States re- 
 quiring the ballot to be inclosed in an envelope. 
 Somehow it has never become popular, though it 
 would seem to be a most effective method of pre- 
 venting ballot-box stuffing and other kindred abuses. 
 Of late an attempt has been made in several 
 States to introduce what is known as the English or 
 Australian method. Despite the fact that the Brit- 
 ish government only adopted the ballot in the elec- 
 tion of members of Parliament as late as 1872, that 
 they have experience with it only in connection 
 with an untrained class of suffragans, instead of 
 electors who have been accustomed for generations 
 to the conduct of elections, such is the force of the 
 Anglican craze among the self-styled "better ele- 
 ments " of our life, that a perfect furor has been 
 created among the class of " professional reformers" 
 for the adoption of the English improvements on the 
 ballotorial system. Aside from the fact that the 
 very brief experience of the English government 
 with the ballot is not favorable to the hypothesis 
 that they have greatly improved upon methods 
 founded on an experience of more than a hundred
 
 278 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 years, there is also the fact that the ballot in Eng- 
 land is applied under vastly different conditions. 
 
 In the first place it should be noted that the hold- 
 ing of an election in England is the act of the govern- 
 ment ; with us it is the act of the people. In all 
 but a few great cities in this country the people 
 really administer the election laws. The poll-holders 
 are officers of their own choice ; the clerks, chal- 
 lengers, and all the machinery of the election are 
 designated by the voters, are sworn and installed in 
 their presence, and at no time are allowed to forget 
 that they are their servants. In the great cities, 
 perhaps from necessity, this principle has been 
 somewhat relaxed, but all election officials must still 
 be residents and electors in the precinct in which 
 they are to act. It is not the abstraction known as 
 "the government" that takes a poll of the electors 
 here, but the citizens who hold a poll themselves. 
 In fact, in most States there is either an express 
 provision, or else it is held as an unavoidable infer- 
 ence, that in case any or all of the designated of- 
 ficials fail to appear or refuse to qnalif)', the as- 
 sembled electors may designate some of their own 
 number, who, having been duly qualified, may pro- 
 ceed to hold the election and certify the results. 
 
 Thus far in our history, departure from this sim- 
 ple and efficient plan does not seem to have been 
 generally attended with markedly beneficial results. 
 Almost all the glaring frauds upon the ballot, in
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 279 
 
 the States of the North at least, have occurred in the 
 great cities, where the so-called election machinery is 
 supposed to be most perfect, and the means for pre- 
 venting fraud most complete. It is, in fact, another 
 proof that self-government can not be effectually car- 
 ried on by paid substitutes and a centrally organized 
 municipal power so far removed from the people as 
 to constitute it, in seeming at least, a foreign control. 
 The voluntary co-operation of citizens in the admin- 
 istration and enforcement of the lavV is the highest 
 and most efficient protection of the ballot-box, the 
 only real security for the freedom and purity of elec- 
 tions in this country. 
 
 Again, it should be remembered that not only 
 are a far greater proportion of the English suffiagans 
 dependent and illiterate than of our own electors, but 
 they are also demoralized by the long-established 
 methods of intimidation and corruption which flour- 
 ished under the viva voce system. The English re- 
 strictions upon the ballot are, of course, designed to 
 meet these conditions and relieve the voter from the 
 restraint of either intimidation or corruption. After 
 a careful inspection of elections in many States and 
 a thorough study of the facts established by con- 
 tested elections and other reliable data, I am fully 
 satisfied that these two forms of debasement of 
 ballotorial power are very greatly magnified in 
 the general apprehension. Very few people at the 
 North vote knowingly against their own desires. I
 
 28o LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 presAime this statement will seem a startling one to 
 )'ou, but it is the result of careful examination and 
 deliberate conviction. I do not doubt that a very 
 considerable number, in the aggregate, receive money 
 or favor of some sort, in connection with the exercise 
 of this right; but they are generally men who would 
 either have voted just as they did, or have refrained 
 from voting at all but for the gratuity received. So 
 too, there are some instances in which the employer 
 may coerce his dependents; but, in my opinion, these 
 are fully counterbalanced by the cases of emplo}'es 
 who are coerced or intimidated by their associates. 
 On the whole, I think there are few men at. the 
 North who do not know how they wish to vote, and 
 who do not vote according to their wishes. 
 
 At the South the conditions, so far as the iUit- 
 eracy and dependency of the voter are concerned, 
 are far more nearly analogous with those of the En- 
 glish suffragan. There, however, certain other con- 
 ditions prevail which affect the exercise of the right 
 of suffrage unfavorably. These are entirely local and 
 peculiar. If the fact of color were obliterated, the 
 problem of a free ballot at the South would soon be 
 solved. It is intelligence rather than ignorance, 
 wealth rather than poverty, that falsifies the popular 
 verdict in those States, distorting the forms of law 
 to the suppression of the popular will, and giving the 
 power of the whole people into the hands of a 
 minority.
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 28 1 
 
 The so-called English system consists of the fol- 
 lowing elements : {a) The printing and distribution 
 of the ballots at the public expense; {p) Printing the 
 names of all candidates upon one ticket and requiring 
 the voter to check those for whom he desires to 
 vote ; {c) Giving the voter a ticket only on his ar- 
 rival at the polls and isolating him from observation 
 while preparing the same ; {d) Preventing him from 
 receiving advice or dictation from any except the 
 officers of election, who may assist him in preparing 
 his ballot. 
 
 The first of these provisions is undoubtedly wise; 
 so, too, some of the others may be. The isolation 
 of the voter from observation while casting his ballot, 
 it may be well to remember, was borrowed by the 
 Australians from a California law, adopted in Eng- 
 land, and reimported here with a great flourish of 
 trumpets as the last result of British political wisdom. 
 It is a matter of grave doubt whether the other pro- 
 visions are adapted to our American methods and 
 necessities. The experiment now being tried in 
 Massachusetts will be watched with anxiety by the 
 friends of good government, who will ask more than 
 one trial before accepting the verdict of its promoters 
 as conclusive. There is no testimony more unrelia- 
 ble than that of the "reformer" who thinks he has 
 invented or adapted a method for outwitting the 
 political tactician without requiring the citizen to con- 
 cern himself about the conduct of the election. 
 
 24
 
 282 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 The apparent objections to the remaining provis- 
 ions so far as their general appHcation to our condi- 
 tions is concerned, are : 
 
 I. Their cumbrous character. The American in- 
 tellect is the great simplifier. In mechanics, in edu- 
 cation, and in politics, we have attained pre-eminence 
 chiefly by simplifying the methods of other peoples. 
 Simplicity is the key-note of adaptedness in our po- 
 litical methods. Our American system is the per- 
 fection of simplicity. A voter secures his ticket; 
 goes to the poll; makes known his identity; deposits 
 his ballot. Except in case of a challenge, it is all 
 over in thirty seconds. In England, where there 
 are never more than three or four candidates, from 
 which one or two must be selected, and only a small 
 number of suffragans, as well as a profound venera- 
 tion for "the government," as represented by the 
 officials, this objection may not be a serious one. 
 But where, as in a Presidential election in this coun- 
 try, every voter may have to select and mark his 
 choice for a dozen offices, among a hundred, or, as 
 in New York there would be, two hundred candi- 
 dates, the imported system would seem to be alto- 
 gether impracticable. It is doubtful if a man of or- 
 dinary intelligence could correctly check off those he 
 desired to vote for on such a ticket and compare it 
 with one he knew to be correct, in less than ten 
 minutes. This would limit the capacity of a polling-
 
 THE PROMULGATION OF THE EDICT. 283 
 
 place to less than one hundred voters and treble the 
 cost of an election. 
 
 2. The most frequent form of fraud with us is 
 falsification of the returns. The English system of- 
 fers peculiar opportunities for this. A pencil and 
 an eraser would very soon make the ballots corre- 
 spond with the return, be it what it might. Next to 
 the immediate destruction of the ballot provided for 
 by law in some of the Southern States, this would 
 seem to be the best method yet d.evised for covering 
 up a false return. 
 
 There are other less important objections which 
 we have not time now to consider. So far as an a 
 priori estimate of the character of the system can be 
 relied on, however, it would seem altogether certain 
 that this so-called "improvement" would prove to 
 be almost any thing rather than a genuine reform. 
 Mechanical devices to relieve the citizen from obli- 
 gation and duty have proved, and are likely to 
 prove, no more satisfactory in connection with the 
 election than with the party. The interested, volun- 
 tary zvatchf Illness of the citizen is the best and cJieapest, 
 if not indeed the only, reliable safeguard of the ballot-box ; 
 and as in the party, so at the polls, ive shall find that 
 the neglect of the intelligent, refined, and self approving 
 citizen, is far more dangerous than the zveakness of the 
 ignorant or the viciousness of the depraved.
 
 XXIII. 
 THE PENALTIES OF MALFEASANCE. 
 
 It would seem unnecessarj'' to dwell upon this 
 subject after what has been written already, but there 
 are some details of a punitory character which it is 
 well, my youn^ friend, that you should consider. 
 Of course, the great universal penalty for political sin 
 of every kind is bad government ; but the law attaches 
 specific punishments to particular acts. These laws, 
 so far as they extend, are sufficiently severe to pre- 
 vent most of the acts so prohibited, were it not for 
 the fact that they are very rarely enforced. This is 
 chiefly due to two causes: (r.) The disinclination 
 of the average citizen to investigate such frauds and 
 carry on prosecutions for such offenses — in other 
 words, the lack of a public sentiment which condemns 
 such acts and demands their punishment; (2.) The 
 difficulty, in some cases, of securing convictions, 
 both on account of the prevailing sentiment and 
 sometimes on account of the character of the laws 
 themselves. 
 
 Of these we need consider here but few instances : 
 
 The laws as^aitist the making of false returns are 
 284
 
 THE PENALTIES OF MALFEASANCE. 285 
 
 usually severe enough ; but the proof is sometimes 
 difficult and convictions rare. One of the most 
 fruitful causes of this is the counting of the ballots 
 in private. Each party should have a right to a 
 representative, who should be allowed to object 
 to the counting of any defective ballot ; a record 
 should be required to be kept of all proceedings 
 during the count, and these representatives should 
 be entitled to a copy of the same as well as have 
 a right to be present until the ballots are all 
 counted and the returns made up. They should also 
 have a right to put their own seals on both ballots 
 and returns. 
 
 The bribery of electors has usually a sufficient pen- 
 alty attached, generally the same for the briber and 
 the voter who accepts a bribe. The same penalty 
 should be extended to bribery at a primary or at a 
 convention. The person bribed should also be 
 relieved from punishment, if within three months he 
 gives full and complete information of the matter to 
 the proper officers of the law so as to secure the 
 prosecution of the briber. 
 
 The English plan of voiding the election and 
 making the candidate in whose favor bribery is done 
 ineligible for public office for a specified time, whether 
 he has actual knowledge of the briberv or not, is no 
 doubt the wisest and most effective method of pre- 
 venting the corruption of voters ever devised. It 
 makes both candidates and parties alert to prevent the
 
 286 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 very offense which the same self-interest now inclines 
 them to allow, if they do not commit. It is a drastic 
 measure, however, and for fear of unforeseen results 
 should first be applied to limited constituencies, mu 
 nicipal and township officers, and members of State 
 Legislatures. After experience with these it might 
 be extended, should there be need, in such form as 
 experience might dictate, to other offices. There 
 is no doubt that the decrease iti corrupt practices in 
 England is due moir to this provision than to all the 
 other features of their election laws. 
 
 The punishment for illegal voting is usually too 
 severe, its very rigor tending to prevent both prose- 
 cution and conviction. In this case, as in some 
 others, a disagreeable publicity is perhaps one of the 
 most effective corrective instrumentalities. It has 
 been suggested that a fine, with limited disfranchise- 
 ment and publication in an authorized black-list, 
 would prove most efficient in preventing this class 
 of crimes. In all such cases, large discretion as to 
 the punishment should be vested in the judge who 
 tries the case. The same penalties should be ex- 
 tended to illegal voting at the primary. 
 
 There is in no State any poialty for nonfeasance 
 of political duty. In many, a man is liable to punish- 
 ment who neglects other civil duties. In some, a 
 failure to list propert}' for taxation, a refusal to serve 
 in the militia, a neglect to work on the public roads, 
 and in a few instances the refusal or neglect to qualify
 
 THE PENALTIES OF MALFEASANCE. 28/ 
 
 and act in certain cases as public officers, after election 
 or appointment, is punishable as an offense against 
 the law. Yet the most important and harmful act 
 of non-feasance of public duty of which the citizen 
 can be guilty — the failure to exercise the governing 
 power vested in him as one of the co-ordinate kings 
 who are responsible for tlie good government, safety, 
 and prosperity of the country — is nowhere regarded 
 as an offense against the State. 
 
 It has recently been suggested — and the sugges- 
 tion is well worthy of consideration, though I am now 
 unable to give the credit that is due to its author — 
 that the registration of voters should be made uni- 
 versal and that the poll-holders in each precinct be 
 required, within a specified time after any election, to 
 compare the tally-sheet with the list of legal voters 
 in the precinct, and certify to the county clerk a list 
 of all those who failed to vote at said election ; that 
 the clerk be required to mail notices to said delin- 
 quents, and if within a specified time they fail to pre- 
 sent a sufficient excuse, their names, be published 
 subject to a statutory fine of one dollar, and they be 
 disfranchised until such fine is paid. The plan is 
 simple, cheap, and would no doubt prove effectual. 
 One thing is certain, some means must be found to 
 protect the country from the neglect, as well as the 
 malfeasance, of the elector. The evilly disposed are 
 sure to exercise this privilege, and make their power 
 felt in the government. It is only the mtelligcnt and
 
 288 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 highly moral citizen ivho stabs his country by treasonable 
 neglect. It is far more reasonable and important that 
 a man be punished for neglect to exercise his civil 
 power than for avoiding service as a juror, exercise 
 in the militia, or the payment of any tax.
 
 XXIV. 
 
 "GOOD-BYE, JOHN." 
 
 With this letter our pleasant intercourse reaches 
 its end. To me it has been especially agreeable. 
 The spirit of the past has been about me as I have 
 written — fragrant memories of the days of your 
 father's prime — and I have urged you to emulate, 
 not his achievements, but the spirit that prompted 
 him to do and dare. War is the theater where brave 
 men suffer for the acts of fools. In a republic, if 
 the citizen is wise enough and brave enough and 
 true enough to do his duty, there will never be any 
 need for civil war. Do not flatter yourself that 
 such a thing as physical strife will never come again, 
 simply because slavery is extinct, or because we 
 are Americans. The fact that we live in a new 
 world, under new forms and untried conditions, in- 
 stead of being a guarantee against internecine strife, 
 is in truth a most significant admonition of its prob- 
 ability. It is because Americans are what they are 
 that in your father's day two hostile forces stood ar- 
 rayed again.st each other, hundreds of thousands were 
 
 slain, millions of lives shattered, the choicest spirits 
 
 25 289
 
 290 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 of a generation wrecked, and billions of treasure de- 
 stroyed. There were fools then who declared war to 
 be impossible, even while the smoke of battle was 
 darkening the horizon ; and there are fools yet alive 
 who think that it was merely a political trick, and the 
 soldiers only the dupes of wily politicians. This 
 much-abused term has had to answer for many sins 
 that really rest upon the shoulders of the people. 
 If the citizen were oftener a king, and always a pol- 
 itician, there would be fewer "bosses," and never 
 such costly mistakes as that of our great war. If 
 the citizen-king does his duty, the citizen-soldier will 
 have to fight few battles. 
 
 What was the war, which we call Rebellion, and 
 for which our brethren of the South have half a 
 dozen milder names? Simply a conflict of opinion 
 between two great peoples, occupying distinct por- 
 tions of our territory. In a true and literal sense, 
 it was not a civil war at all. North of a definite 
 line, the Confederate cause had few outspoken allies 
 or real friends. There were some — alas ! too many — 
 who were willing to have the South triumph rather 
 than see their old political opponents succeed, but 
 there were very few who believed in the righteousness 
 of the Southern cause, or desired that the end it 
 sought should be accomplished. South of that line 
 there were even fewer — very many times fewer in pro- 
 portion — who believed that the nation had the right to 
 compel the States to remain in the Federal Union. For
 
 ''GOOD-BYE, JOHN." 29 1 
 
 seventy years American thought had divided along 
 that line. At each election the battle of words and 
 wits had been renewed. Thirty years before — just 
 the life of a generation, you will observe — tins very 
 question had reached the verge of bloody arbitra- 
 ment. Why, when we had so narrowly escaped from 
 war, did we allow the peril to continue? Simply be- 
 cause the American people lacked wisdom. Had the 
 generation to which your father's life belonged been 
 as wise as it was brave, both at the North and at the 
 South, the need of conflict and the sin of slaughter 
 would have been unknown to them. 
 
 But these facts existed; both sides thought they 
 were right; each believed with a passionate earnest- 
 ness in the rights their flags represented. Each be- 
 lieved so strenuously that they could not think it 
 possible that the other was equally sincere. Each, 
 in his own mind, fought, not for right merely, but 
 against intentional and deliberate injustice on the 
 part of the other. When these things coexist, and 
 any considerable body of American people divide on 
 a given question, with the idea firmly fixed in their 
 minds that they are being wronged by another class 
 or section, then there is likely to be civil war; and 
 this is all the more likely because we have already 
 had one great domestic strife. 
 
 It is a foolish notion that the fact that there has 
 been a war precludes the probability of another, even 
 between the same parties. The law of human nature
 
 292 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 is, that a feud grows more and more bitter until one 
 party or the other becomes practically extinct or 
 shows itself possessed of overwhelming strength, 
 coupled with apparent readiness to fight. This is 
 true of nations and factions as well as of families 
 and tribes. 
 
 We are wont to say that slavery was the cause, 
 and slavery is dead. Ergo, there can never be civil 
 war again in America. Slavery was not the cause, 
 but the opportunity. The cause was a contrast of 
 beliefs as to the rights of the people in the two 
 parts of the Republic. Slavery was merely the thing 
 which these contrasted beliefs affected. The golden 
 apple was not the real cause of discord between the 
 rival goddesses, but the claim of superior beauty, 
 which each preferred, and which was decided by the 
 dazzled shepherd's award. So slavery was only the 
 thing about which the difference of opinion arose, 
 and war followed, simply because the American will 
 fight for what he deems himself entitled to possess, 
 if he thinks it willfully and arrogantly withheld by 
 another. Then the difference was sectional — along a 
 dividing line; to-morrow it may be truly civil, and 
 run through every city in the land. 
 
 The War of Rebellion came because the citizen- 
 kings of a generation ago did not know, or, knowing, 
 did not wisely perform their duties. The holocaust 
 which was then offered to the folly of the American 
 ruler, and which the blood and courage of such men
 
 ''GOOD-BYE, JOHN:' 293 
 
 as your father was, alone redeemed us from, and 
 under God "preserved us a nation," should teach 
 the new-born citizen whom today greets with acclaim, 
 not to vaunt himself of the absence of peril, but to 
 prepare himself to avoid it wisely if he may, and 
 meet it bravely if he must. This is the message 
 which yesterday brings, and which I have sought 
 faithfully to interpret to your understanding. 
 
 We have examined the character of the weapon 
 the citizen-king of the past not only used, but forged 
 for the work he had to perform. We have tried its 
 temper, noted the causes which led to its adoption 
 and modification, called attention to its excellencies, 
 and have not spared its defects. Government, like 
 all human institutions, is affected very largely by the 
 character of the instrumentalities it employs. A good 
 king may be the victim of bad agencies, and the first 
 work — the most important work, indeed — of the citi- 
 zen-king is to see to it that the machinery by which 
 his governing power is to be exerted is of the most 
 perfect character. 
 
 You would never think of throwing away, or de- 
 nouncing as worthless, the chronometer that hangs 
 at your fob, if you found that by your neglect its 
 bearings had become rusty and its pinions clogged 
 with dust. Neither would you refuse to carry a stem- 
 winder because your grandfather used a key. On the 
 contrary you would at once declare that it was your 
 duty to see that the machinery was kept clean, and
 
 294 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 that whatever would make your time-piece more 
 complete and reliable should be added to it. The 
 great, distinctive feature of this age is its wonderful 
 improvement of tiie agencies by which its labors are 
 accomplished — the instrumentalities by which results 
 are more easily, cheaply, and surely effected. This is 
 true in mechanics, in art, in commerce, in war, in 
 science, in morals, and in politics. Peaceful measures 
 are taking the place of the sword. Brain and elec- 
 tricity are doing what only physical force was once 
 relied upon to accomplish. Compare Ireland under 
 the leadership of Parnell with the same country in its 
 great struggle of ninety years ago, if you would 
 learn what progress has been made in political 
 methods and the exercise of popular power. 
 
 Shall Americans, then, insist upon destroying 
 the great instrument our fathers' hearts conceived, 
 which their wisdom shaped, and their hands wielded 
 in so many notable conflicts, and with which they 
 won so many triumphs for liberty — shall we discard 
 our present party system as not only useless, but 
 harmful? Would it not be better to remedy its 
 defects, fit it to serve our present purposes and 
 express more perfectly the will of our people, on 
 the general correctness and wisdom of which our 
 government is founded? It is possible that some 
 more perfect mechanism than the American party 
 system — one less liable to get out of repair, more 
 easily amended, and more certain in its results — may
 
 '^ GOOD-BYE, JOHNr 2g$ 
 
 some time be devised as the instrumentality by 
 which popular government may be carried on ; but it 
 is certain that hitherto no such system has been 
 discovered. 
 
 Let us recapitulate, then, in this last letter, what 
 may be done to make this agency more effectual, and 
 what must be done to render any form of popular 
 government in which party organization is possible, 
 safe and effective. 
 
 We have seen that the caucus or primary meeting 
 of the members of the party, from which the power 
 and authority of its conventions are derived, is liable 
 to be corrupted, (a) by the exclusion of members en- 
 titled to participate therein; (d) by the admission of 
 those not qualified so to act ; (c) by improper exer- 
 cise of power by its officers in presiding over its de- 
 liberations; (d) by falsification of its records; (e) by 
 calling it at an obscure place ; (/) by insufficient no- 
 tice to the electors; (g-) by choosing delegates by 
 groups, instead of one at a time; {/i) by allowing a 
 contested vote to be decided by general acclaim. 
 No doubt there are many others, but these have been 
 clearly developed. 
 
 All of tliese defects may in a great degree be 
 remedied by statute. The time for holding caucuses 
 or primaries should be fixed either like an election, 
 on a specific day or within specific Hmits, previous to 
 the holding of the convention to which it is to send 
 delegates, or to the election for which it is to name
 
 296 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 candidates. In the same way, the time for holding 
 conventions to make nominations should be fixed 
 within narrow limits. 
 
 The right to act as members of a party primary 
 or caucus should be clearly defined by law. The 
 officers should be made public officials, with pre- 
 scribed duties, and a specific punishment for malfea- 
 sance. They should be required to keep tally-sheets 
 of all voters, be empowered to administer oaths like 
 judges of election, and required to make proper 
 returns. Bribery, intimidation, and disturbance of 
 such meetings should be made punishable, as at an 
 election. The right to challenge a vote at the pri- 
 mary should be secured, and false swearing to secure 
 a ballot should be punishable as perjury. In all re- 
 spects this meeting should be protected with as much 
 care as the election which follows, being in fact a 
 far more important governmental agency. What is 
 the use of guarding the front approaches to the 
 ballot-box and leaving open the side door? 
 
 We have seen that the will of the people is liable 
 to be thwarted by the failure of delegates to perform 
 faithfully and honestly their duty; in other words, 
 to do the will of their constituents. This may be 
 guarded against, partially at least, in three ways : 
 
 I. By making bribery of a delegate a crime, as 
 well as bribery of an elector. Where is the sense of 
 punishing an officer for receiving a bribe, who has
 
 " GOOD-BYE, JOHN." 297 
 
 openly obtained his place by bribing the delegates of 
 a convention, or the members of a caucus? 
 
 2. By making any candidate who offers bribe of 
 money or favor for a vote in caucus or convention, 
 ineligible for office upon conviction. 
 
 3. By abolishing the secret ballot in all delegated 
 nominating conventions. Observe here the distinc- 
 tion between a delegate convention and a pri- 
 mary caucus. In the latter it is essential that the 
 secret ballot be preserved, in order to secure the indi- 
 vidual in the free exercise of his right ; while in the 
 delegate convention it is equally important that it 
 should be di.-xarded, in order that the constituencies 
 may have full opportunity to note how their agents 
 discharge the trust reposed in them. 
 
 The officers of all political conventions should also 
 be made qtiasi public officials, be required, under 
 specific penalty, to preserve full records of the pro- 
 ceedings, with tally-sheets showing the votes of all 
 the delegates, open to inspection, and compelled 
 to furnish copies thereof on demand and tender of 
 reasonable fees. 
 
 That greatest of all witty proverbialists, "Josh 
 Billings," aptly said: " Sech is the frailty of human 
 natur, that it '11 bear watchin'." 
 
 There is no place where human nature will bear 
 more watching, or gets less of it, than in a political 
 convention. As a people we have simply invited
 
 298 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 our agents to become venal, and our aspiring leaders 
 to become corrupt and corrupting "bosses." It is a 
 principle in mechanics, especially in bridge-building, 
 that a truss placed at a point of special strain greatly 
 increases the strength of the material. No matter 
 how good the material may be, therefore, it is a mat- 
 ter of common prudence that it be trussed at proper 
 intervals. In our political life, the strain upon hon- 
 esty, integrity, and patriotism occurs especially at 
 two points. The places specified are the weakest 
 points in our party system. They are the places, 
 therefore, at which trusses should be applied, and 
 these trusses are of two sorts, moral and legal. 
 
 The moral truss is that wise stay and strong sup- 
 port of good intentions that arises from unavoidable 
 publicity and an imperishable record. It is the 
 watching which human nature always needs and 
 common prudence dictates. The legal truss is that 
 which attaches the shame of conviction and the peril 
 of punishment to the man who betrays his trust or 
 tempts another to misuse his power. This will not 
 only reduce the power of the "boss" and the "ring" 
 to a minimum, by making their trade nefarious and 
 perilous rather than honorable and profitable, but 
 will promote honesty and faithfulness in public of- 
 ficers by discouraging di.shonesty and corruption in 
 aspirants. Who can expect honesty or impartiality 
 in a judge who buys his nomination to the bench? 
 of a legislator, who pays for the votes of the constit-
 
 "GO OD-B YE, JOHN. " 2gg 
 
 uency he represents? of a rpeaker, who secures his 
 election by promising chairmanships and patronage? 
 of any man, indeed, who is permitted or required to 
 bu\- place with gold or favor? 
 
 " What have the people of S got to do with 
 
 my conduct?" said an irate legislator, who had been 
 charged with improper use of the power he held. 
 " They should have nothing to say; I bought their 
 votes and paid for them, and I guess I' ve a right to do 
 what I choose with my own property." 
 
 The newspapers printed this as a keen retort, the 
 
 people of S took it as a good joke, and the man's 
 
 political stock gained a decided!}' upward tendency 
 by this bold defiance of public decency. Such men — 
 the men who bu)\ the men who sell, the men who 
 boast, and the men who laugh at such displays of 
 corrupting craft — all these need trussing, trussing 
 with the fear of punishment, trussing with the cer- 
 tainty of a speedy public indignation, scorn, and 
 dishonor. 
 
 Under these circumstances, my young friend, 
 what is the duty of the citizen-king who has just re- 
 ceived his crown ? 
 
 First of all things, it is your duty neither to de- 
 spise your father's example, depreciate his work, 
 nor under-estimate your responsibility or opportu- 
 nity. What he was yesterdaj', you must be to- 
 morrow, or the near future will record retrogression 
 rather than progress, and the far future incurable
 
 300 
 
 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 and unavoidable decay. Remember that the char- 
 acter of a government, especially a popular govern- 
 ment, never rises above the level of the people, and 
 never falls very far below it. When cowards and 
 tricksters and thieves abound, it is always because 
 the people are cowardly, weak, or corrupt. In a 
 democracy the politician is always the exact and 
 infallible measure of the morality, courage, and patriot- 
 ism of the people. If he is tricky and corrupt, 
 they are either ignorant and weak, or base, cow- 
 ardly, and mercenary. Not more surely does seed 
 or .spore reproduce its kind, than do the people 
 reproduce their own character in their public 
 representatives. 
 
 "To my mind," said the greatest general of our 
 day, "Thermopylae was the most wonderful battle 
 in the virorld's history. There was no strategy about 
 it that a child would not be sure to perceive ; nor 
 any tactics save what were instinctive with the in- 
 dividual soldiers. The wonderful thing about it is 
 that a country about as large as one of our counties, 
 and hardly half as populous, should have had in it at 
 one time three hundred such men as stood there to 
 meet certain death with Leonidas. It is not alone 
 the leader and the soldiers who are on trial when the 
 battle is joined, but the people who have made them 
 what they ane." 
 
 But if you are brave and strong and willing ; if 
 you believe that the things I have indicated should
 
 " GOODS YE, JOHN:' 3OI 
 
 be done, and ask how you shall do your part, I 
 can only answer that the soldier marches instinct- 
 ively towards the sound of the guns. There is and 
 always must be in the battle of liberty — the conflict 
 of self government — a never-ending struggle, a con- 
 stant advance along the whole line. One wing may 
 carry with a shout the seemingly impregnable works 
 upon the mountain-side ; the other may be routed 
 in the open plain, while injustice or corruption holds 
 the doubly intrenched works in the center against 
 many an assault ; but at all events and under all cir- 
 cumstances, the duty of the citizen-king is to fight 
 the battle nearest him. Let his hand and helm be 
 always seen in the thickest of the fight. Let no 
 defeat dishearten or discourage ! Be at every caucus, 
 if you have to hire a detective to find where it is 
 held. Suffer no wrong to be done to yourself or 
 another without protest. Insist on the ballot in the 
 caucus and the viva voce vote in the convention of 
 delegates. Make the way of the transgressor hard 
 and the bed of the "boss " thorny. One determined 
 man can make a deal of trouble to the shrewdest 
 "gang" that ever lied or stole. A hundred brave 
 men fighting prudently for the right are equal to a 
 thousand determined rascals who have to cover up 
 their tracks and fight in the dark. Above all things, 
 organize for opposition and protest. 
 
 "I will never vote for A. B.," said a brave man 
 in a State senatorial district, ' ' whoever may nomi-
 
 302 LETTERS TO A KING. 
 
 nate him, because I believe him to be unworthy and 
 corrupt." 
 
 He signed his name to the statement ; presented 
 it to one of his neighbors, and then to another, 
 until one hundred and seventy-six good men and 
 true of his party had signed it. Then he sent a 
 copy of it to every delegate to the convention that 
 was to nominate. The majority in the district was 
 more than a thousand ; the proposed candidate was 
 an all powerful "boss" of his party and had two- 
 thirds of the delegates pledged to his support; but 
 neither he nor they had the nerve to face a hundred 
 and seventy-six common men brave enough to sign 
 such a protest. 
 
 Insist always on putting a moral and legal truss 
 on every weak joint in your party, and keep on in- 
 sisting until it is done. The American party is not 
 only founded on, but .shaped and ruled from, the 
 hearthstone. If the good men and true, who claim 
 to be Christian patriots, as well as law-abiding citi- 
 zens, will but do their duty, they will be actual as 
 well as potential kings. They will not be content 
 with the shadow of power but will insist upon having 
 the substance also. They will control and perfect 
 the machinery of their respective parties, and shape 
 with certainty the destiny of the country. They 
 will not, indeed, make either party or government 
 faultless, because they will not be themselves without 
 fault ; but they will assuredly keep both steadily 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 UNlVERSiT/ Oi* CALIFOJIMA 
 
 LOS AJNO£-UiS
 
 ''GOOD-BYE, JOHN:' 303 
 
 moving toward that perfection which is the con- 
 stant aim of manly aspiration and the noblest Chris- 
 tian endeavor. Do your duty, O newly crowned cit- 
 izen-king, as it comes to your hand and reveals itself 
 to your heart and brain, and you will thereby honor 
 the past and serve the present, and make the future 
 your debtor forever. 
 
 Yesterday is putting off its armor; today is put- 
 ting on its crown. "The king is dead ! Long live 
 the king!" The history of liberty is not one of 
 battles and sieges, of victories and defeats alone, but 
 one of men wise enough to do, brave enough to die, 
 and patient enough to wait. Trusting that }'ou may 
 ever be worthy to be counted one of her chosen sons, 
 I bid you " Hail and farewell!" 
 
 THE END.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 tami FEB2 11367 
 
 MAR27 
 
 I'oifii 1,-0 
 2.-,m-2,'43<520;j) 
 
 t967 
 
 M
 
 AA 000 565 692 
 
 llMI!llf'''IJiHilliH^^