CHAP. VII.

CONDEMNED BY AMERICAN WRITERS.

141

rity would be able to secure at least one member. But the Senate declined to take any step towards the proposed reform, and the governing party of the day is never likely to assent to a change which would be its own death-blow at the next election.29

29 The following extracts, from a report of the Personal Representation Society of New York, to the Constitutional Convention of 1867, fully substantiate the charges made against the representative system of the United States:

"It is a bold thing to say that throughout the Union our civil policy in regard to representation is a mistake and therefore a failure, but a slight examination of the principles upon which representation is based may serve to convince you, as it has served to convince us, of this truth. If we were to draw a bill of indictment against our present electoral scheme, we should first and foremost set forth that it is a sham, that it is not what it pretends to be, that it does not effect the representation of the people, but only a part of the people. We have shown that our present system is unphilosophical, and results in evils so flagrant and so manifest, that they not only make our legislation and the venality of our legislators a by-word and a reproach, but also retard the progress of republican and democratic institutions the world over, by having the evils, arising from our faulty system of election, laid to the door of democracy itself."

CHAPTER VIII.

PARTY GOVERNMENT.

ALREADY we have repeatedly found it necessary to dwell upon the evil results which flow from the organization and supremacy of party rule in the United States. That rule has done more than anything else to pervert the true principles of the government. It has lowered and changed the original character of those national institutions to which men like Washington, and Hamilton, and Madison were most deeply attached. It takes possession of the entire political system, and wrests it into an instrument for the advancement of personal interests. A rapid and incessant deterioration is progressing in each department of the public service. There are still some countries left in the world in which the history of great parties is a portion of the history of great principles and ideas, for which a persistent, if not always a generous, struggle is kept up generation after generation.1 In America it is a record

1 See, for example, Mr. Wingrove Cooke's History of Party' in England (Lond. 1832). But, probably, could this author have lived to bring his work down to the present time, the moral of it would be very different.

CHAP. VIII.

PARTY DESPOTISM.

143

of perpetual contests for the aggrandisement of individuals, who at the best unworthily reflect sectional discords and hatreds, and of cliques which know no sentiment higher than that of securing power in order that profit may be gained by it. Hence, the least deserving men too often contrive to seize the leadership. They govern their forces with a rod of iron, and do not hesitate to adopt the most unscrupulous expedients to extend their sphere of dominion. According to Burke, "party is a body of men united for promoting, by their joint endeavours, the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.” are all agreed." It is not too much to affirm that politicians seldom rise to this view of party in the American republic. Many turn to public life distinctly and avowedly as a means of making money. It is a paying trade. Self-interests are the first consideration; the interest of the nation is entirely secondary, and sometimes it is impossible to detect the evidence of its being taken into account at all. An English historian may see abundant cause, in looking back upon the great victories or defeats which have chequered the course of party in his country, to exclaim, "By argument and discussion truth is discovered, public opinion is expressed, and a free people are trained to self-government. Who can fail to recognise in party the very lifeblood of freedom?"2 No such eulogy will ever be

2 T. Erskine May's 'Constitutional History of England,' chapter conclusion.

viii.,

pronounced upon party in America by the candid and truthful historian. There, argument and discussion are easily suppressed in the popular branch of the Legislature, and a tyranny unheard of under other constitutional governments is imposed upon the minority. The circumstances amid which Congress does its daily work reflect greater light on these abuses of power than general statements could do, and a short account of them will tell its own story.3

The House of Representatives is sufficiently spacious to seat the 658 members of the House of Commons instead of its own 277 members. It is lit from the roof, the windows being of ground and stained glass, with copies of the arms of each State in the centre of the squares. The Speaker sits close to the wall under one of the galleries, with a large brass eagle and two flags above his head. The desks of the members are placed in a semicircle in front of the Speaker, and around the hall run the galleries for strangers, large enough to hold 1500 persons. People walk in and out as they please; the only restriction being that into some galleries men cannot go unless they are accompanied by ladies. There is sometimes much noise and confusion in these public galleries, and very often the discussions below are interrupted by applause. In the Senate (which is in outward peculiarities only a smaller copy of the

The descriptions here given were written by the author in the course of several Sessions, and are now partly borrowed from his letters to The Times.'

CHAP. VIII.

FORMS OF THE HOUSE.

145

House) these demonstrations are always promptly suppressed, and indeed in that Chamber the proceedings are invariably conducted with greater order and dignity than in the other. But it must be borne in mind that there are only sixty Senators at present entitled to seats, and of this number there are often scarcely a score in their places except when votes are being taken, whereas there are in the House a hundred and ninety-one Representatives, most of them present every day. The eighty-six members representing the Southern States are excluded.

Upon the opening of a new Session the Speaker of the House is elected by ballot. The oldest "consecutive" member swears him in, and afterwards the Speaker administers the oath to all the members. He does not wear any distinctive dress, and, when he is tired of occupying the Chair, he sends a message to any member he may please to select, and places him in authority over the House for that day only. He generally alludes to himself as the "Chair," in this form-"The Chair thinks the ayes have it," or "The Chair does not hear any gentleman object;” and his decision on a point of order, or upon any other question that may arise, is not final, but may be disputed by any member. It is then put to the House whether it will support the Speaker's decision or not, and if, on a division, the votes are equal, the Speaker can give the casting vote sustaining his decision-an incident which has happened on several occasions. The Speaker is also at liberty to vacate the Chair, and

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