THE HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES. CHAPTER I. I WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT. PROPOSE to write an outline of the history of book. political parties in the United States. I wish to describe the great currents of thought and action in our political life, and the forces that have determined their direction. I wish to describe Purpose of this the forces that have made the Mississippis and Ohios and Missouris in our history, leaving to larger books the detailed and microscopic study of the little streams which have resulted from comparatively unimportant causes. From such a point of view, we may say that the history of political parties in this country begins with the Federalists. The first question to ask of every political party is, What is it trying to do? Object of political parties. to satisfy? What public want does it seek What motive influences the men that belong to it to associate together in a political organization? Let us put this question to the Federalist party; let us ask what it was organized to do* What constitutes a government? To this question it is possible to give a definite answer. From the adoption of the Articles of Confederation in 1781 to the organization of the government under our present constitution in 1789, we were without a government. "Without a government! Did not Congress meet every year and pass laws, and levy taxes, and send ministers to foreign countries, and seek to make treaties with them?" Yes, it did all this and much more. But a body may pass laws, and levy taxes, and make treaties without being a government. If you wish to determine whether an organization really constitutes a government, you can apply a simple, and at the same time, an infallible test. Ask what happens in case any one on whom its so-called laws operate, or upon whom its taxes are levied, refuses to obey the law, or to pay the tax. If the body that passed the law or levied the tax, can do nothing about it, if it can only remonstrate, it can pass all the laws and levy all the taxes it likes. It is not a government. A law that I can obey or not, is not a law; a tax that I may *See Political Science Quarterly, Vol. VI., page 593. pay or not, is not a tax. The one is a suggestion or a piece of advice, and the other a request for the payment of money. It was Madison who said "A sanction is essential to the idea of law, as coercion is to that of government." And Washington, in a circular letter which he addressed to the governors and presidents of the states in 1783, declared that one of the things which was essential to the very existence of the United States as an independent power, was that there must be an indissoluble union of all the states under a single federal government, which must have power to enforce its decrees; since without such power it would be a government only in name. I say, therefore, that the Congress of the Confederation was not a government. No one paid any attention to its so-called laws unless he chose; every one did as he pleased about paying its taxes. The states Character of the Congress of the Confederation. on whom these requests, or requisitions, as they were called, for money were made, had indeed solemnly agreed to pay them, when they assented to the Articles of Confederation. But since these requisitions were nothing but requests, the states could break their promises and disregard them.* The result was that of $6,000,000 called for by Congress from 1782 to 1786 only $1,000,000 had been paid at the end of March, 1787. *Madison characterized the requisitions of Congress as mere calls for voluntary contributions. |