TOPICS OF THE DAY.
PARTIES AND POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES: ELECTION OF PRESIDENT.
THERE is nothing surprising in the result of the Presidential elec- tion in the United. States. It is merely a repetition of what has happened at every election since 1800. The Democratic mass has obtained another victory over the Doctrinaires of America.
Since the recognition of American independence by Great Britain, there has always been a Doctrinaire party in the Union ; it has been almost a hereditary party. HAMILTON was in a manner its founder; the IWO ADAMSES have been its principal ornaments. It has enrolled under its banners a decided majority of the public men of the Union, who, born to a competency, have enjoyed a sys- tematic education and opportunities of cultivating refined tastes. It has been an intelligent and on the whole an honourable party— rather sceptical, the natural tendency of men of the world, as to the perfectibility of man or the wisdom and virtue of the masses— with a good deal of knowledge, a great deal of fastidiousness, and not a little pedantry. This party has from its character been more powerful in coteries than with the public. It has had too much faith in abstractions and precedents to know and control actual circumstances; its little airs of superior refinement and learning have alienated and disgusted the great body of electors. It has called itself Federalist at one time and Whig at another ; but it has still been the same unchanged and unchangeable party, the counterpart of the Gironde or the Doctrinaires of France—of the "Liberal Whigs" or "the Educated Radicals" of England.
Opposed to this party of men made by schools and colleges, has always been the great Democratic mass, which feels rather than thinks—which needs men—leaders as the exponents and visible symbols of principles. When the Union has had a statesman of commanding character, this sentient body has been guided by his will. So was it in the times Of JEFFERSON, of MADISON, of MOs- ROE. When such a master-mind was not to be had, the Demo- cracy has been split into sectarian worshipers of a number of local leaders—provincial great men. But even when the mass has been thus taken at a disadvantage, the Doctrinaires have rarely if ever been able to make good use of it. Somehow or other, the bellwethers of the flock have agreed to cede their claims in favour of one of their number; or their followers have been in- duced to desert them for a time in favour of some man of straw, till that moment unheard-of. The Democratic mass is the field which yields a harvest to experienced political traders—the Doc- trinaires are too sensible to be used by them, and too supercilious to use them • and the political traders, by appealing to the public sentiment of the moment, carry the day.
JEFFERSON, the man of the Million, carried the Presidential elec- tion in 1800, by a majority of 73 1o64 over the Doctrinaire ADAMS; in 1804, by a majority of 162 to 14 over the Doctrinaire PINCKNEY. MADISON, the man of the Million, carried the election in 1808 over the Doctrinaire PINCKNEY, by a majority of 122 to 45; and in 1812 over the Doctrinaire Ds WITT CLINTON, by a majority of 128 to 89. MONROE, the man of the Million, carried the Presidential election in 1816 over the Doctrinaire KING, by a majority of 183 to 34; and in 1820 only one vote was given in opposition to MONROE'S election. In 1824 the Doctrinaires made a rally ; but still the Mil- lion placed ANDREW JACKSON above JOHN QUINCY ADAMS by 94 votes to 84: ADAMS was nominated President by the House of Representatives, upon which body the choice devolved in conse- quence of none of the candidates having an absolute majority. AN- DREW JACKSON, the man of the Million, carried the Presidential elec- tion over the Doctrinaire ADAMS in 1828, by a majority of 178 to 83; and over the Doctrinaire CLAY in 1832, by a majority of 219 to 49. In the elections of 1836 and 1840 the Doctrinaires were nowhere; and now, once more, in the election of 1844, their crack man has been worsted by the nominee of the Million—a gentleman never before beard of on this side of the Atlantic, and of whose preexistent state a majority of his own supporters appear to have been equally ignorant.
The moral of these events seems to be, that the most careful education and best opportunities of self-tuition cannot compensate for the want of the vivida via which enables men to command their fellows; that this inborn force is of comparatively little value with- out education ; and that where men born and bred to command are not to be had, people will put up with any block rather than take an artificial imitation of them. JEFFERSON, MADISON and MONROE, and even WASHINGTON, were by circumstances and education of the same class as the Doctrinaires ; but they had a natural power with- in them, wanting which all the accomplishments of the latter have not been sufficient to enable them to take the lead. JACKSON was of the Million : he had the native energy, but wanted the mental cultivation, so that his public career has been neither useful nor ornamentaL And the histories of VAN BUREN and TYLER afford nothing more than exemplifications of the kind of blocks that the Million will fall down and worship rather than desert the idolatry of its own wilL It is curious how little effect this determination of the Million not to be ruled by the mere men of training and education has had upon the march of public affairs in the United States. The princi- ples which have been adopted by the Doctrinaires have had an in- fluence ever the people and their chosen rulers which themselves have been unable to attain. While the Doctrinaires have continued unaltered under their shifting names of Federalists, Whigs, &c., the Million have repeatedly changed their prinC ing to their original designation of Democrati * Thei beta ble resolute in having their own will, but that will has been elitist kinitit- ble. The leaders of the Million—the celebrities and the traders- in politia—speak the momentary sentiments of the Million at elections, but they adopt the principles of the Doctrinaires in the- Cabinet. They rely on the changeable moods of their supporters— upon the thousand conflicting interests and prejudices which di- vide them—for averting the punishment of inconsistency when the elections come round again. TherilItldress the passions of the multitude by their speeches, its judgment by their acts. The wilfulness of the mass of the American people guides it ifftbe choice of its rulers; but an under-current of good sense and right feeling compels those leaders to keep on the whole within certain bounds of sound policy.
Though the party of the Canadian Sympathizers, of the advo- cates of Texan annexation, and the forcible occupation of Oregon, haveariumphed, there is no more fear of their crotchets being car- ried-Into effect under POLK than under CLAY: And though the tariff was the cheval de bataille of the Whigs, free trade principles are as far from being really in the ascendant in Congress as they would have been had the Whigs triumphed. The average intelli- gence and morale of the American people give law to the Govern- ment whatever be the personality of the governors. The most im- portant change likely to be wrought in the United States by the election of Mr. PoLa is the adoption of a new name by the Doc- trinaires: the Whigs are writing themselves down "Native Re- publicans" as fast as they can.
Previous page
