Congress, and they can only be there by practising obedience to their chiefs. The forms of Congress, it has been already explained, give the utmost licence to extreme partisans, and allow no freedom to men of moderate opinions. In the election of Speaker by a general vote, the most numerous faction take care that one of their own number shall be appointed. This officer then appoints the Committees which have the first control of every department of business-finance, the tariff, taxation, foreign affairs-and he places upon them a clear majority of his own side. The Committees sit throughout the Session, and no subject which comes within their province can be brought before the House without their consent. Thus, in 1865-7 no member of the minority could bring forward a proposal for the restoration of the Southern States, because by the standing orders it would at once have been referred to the Reconstruction Committee, and there buried out of sight. To render the party discipline more certain in its operation, a “caucus" is held at the beginning of each Session. At this a process akin to swearing in the members is gone through. Each person makes an unexpressed, but well-understood, vow to be true and faithful to his party. The caucus was originally little more important than the preliminary meeting of Conservatives or Liberals which is held at the opening of the English Session at the houses of their respective leaders. It is now a distinct and important part of the governing power of the country. The whole

CHAP VIII.

THE CAUCUS USED AS A GAG.

167

business of the land, at the opening of a Session, is practically at the disposal of a caucus, The deliberations of the body are conducted with closed doors, and the conclusions which have been arrived at are alone made known to the public papers, and often even that dole of information is withheld. The caucus cannot indeed make laws; but when it has decided upon a particular course, it has the power to carry it out, and the people do not learn the motives. which led to its adoption. For the sake of avoiding strife and divisions in the party, all the members of it usually attend the caucus, and the weaker section avoids, if possible, a collision with the stronger. This is another evil of the practice of secret discussion, for if it were carried on in the face of day, the minority might often obtain such encouragement and support from without as would enable it to make a successful struggle for its principles. But the dread of the reproach of causing schism and disorganization, and the well-known penalties of offending the leaders, constantly induce even able men to agree to resolutions of which they do not approve, in the hope that when they come before the House an opportunity will arise, or some accident occur, to defeat them.20 But as a rule no such chance presents itself. The member finds that he has pledged himself to the views of his leaders en masse, and no discretionary right of action is afterwards permitted.

20 See The Times' (American correspondence) of December 29th, 1865, and March 25th, 1867.

He has accepted sealed orders. A dominant party is not to be assailed lightly or heedlessly. It has ample means with which to harass and destroy the recusant. No wonder, then, that this unseen and potent tyranny infuses a spirit of time-serving and cowardice even into men who enter upon their career firm in their good intentions, and impregnable, as they suppose, in their conscientious principles. They think at first that earnestness of conviction, and resolute adherence to that conviction, will save them from defeat. They soon discover that the virtues by which they set so great a store are ridiculous in the eyes of their party, that they are denounced as visionaries or impostors, that they are impotent against the compact phalanx arrayed before them, and that, so far as their own interests are concerned, they had done better to have entered the Legislature without an opinion to call their own. They go back to their former occupations with a character impaired by the ceaseless assaults and calumnies of their former associates, with old friendships sundered, old ties broken, with discouragement in every circumstance which surrounds them. The member of Congress who aims at being successful, before other considerations, must resolve at the outset to close his eyes and ears to all save those who marshal and lead the columns of his party."

21

21 The following is from a Republican paper, the New York Evening Post,' of 16th February, 1867:-" The violent and extreme Republicans in both Houses exercise an influence disproportioned to their numbers, by reason of their virulence and intolerance.

CHAP. VIII.

POLITICAL OSTRACISM OF ABLE MEN.

169

A system of government which has a tendency to repel men of high character and position, and attract the needy and unscrupulous, will necessarily be full of corruption. The standard of integrity and honour will be low.22 And this is what we find in the United States. Posts in the civil service are so many bribes used to win over men whose opposition might prove dangerous. There is a general scramble for the emoluments of office. But this is not the

They denounce as copperhead every Republican who offers to differ from them, and exercise really a system of terrorism which has broken down the independent judgment of very many, and makes some of the ablest men in the House and Senate so anxious to avoid their proscription that they are silent, or acquiescent in measures which their judgment condemns."

In the Senate, on the 11th July, 1867, Senator Buckalew made the following remarks:-" If a member of this body gets re-elected, his friends think it is a subject for warm congratulation, regard it as a wonderful result to be wrung from a caucus and from managers at home. But, sir, I insist that in this country, as abroad, the House of Representatives ought to be the great House of our Legislature; its hall should be resorted to for words of eloquence, for profound logic, and for the exhibition of the highest traits of American statesmanship. How is it, and how must it be, as long as you keep members there two, four, and six years only? They have no opportunity to grow up into distinction; they have no opportunity to mature their abilities and become able statesmen."('Congressional Globe,' 12th July, 1867.)

22 Burke, in his 'French Revolution,' utters certain truths which seem to have disappeared altogether from modern political discussions, or at best are openly disavowed and repudiated. "Everything," he says, "ought to be open, but not indifferently, to every man." "I do not hesitate to say that the road to eminence and power, from obscure condition, ought not to be made too easy, nor a thing too much of course. If rare merit be the rarest of all rare things, it ought to pass through some sort of probation. The temple of honour ought to be seated on an eminence. If it be opened through virtue, let it be remembered, too, that virtue is never tried but by some difficulty and some struggle."

only, or the worst, form of corruption which exists, Lord Brougham bears this testimony to the honour of the House of Commons:-"I have sat in Parliament for above fifty years, and I never even have heard a surmise against the purity of the members, except in some few cases of private Bills promoted by Joint Stock Companies. I had been considerably upwards of a quarter of a century in Parliament before I ever heard such a thing even whispered; and I am as certain as I am of my own existence, that, during the whole of that period, not one act of a corrupt nature had ever been done by any one member of either House." 23

The incredulity of a high American official when this passage was once shown to him revealed the difference in the tone of honour which prevails in English and in American public life. Corruption is the first thing to which an American politician of the common order becomes accustomed. He beholds it practised everywhere. It has been brought to bear upon himself, and he is driven to the use of it in his dealings with others. The member of Congress is surrounded with persons who are being bought and sold from morning till night. Before he begins the business of the day, his rooms are besieged by an eager crowd of office-seekers, whose claims, in the larger proportion of cases, he knows to be worthless; but he is bound to advance them. When he goes down to the House he finds himself beset by a

23 Lord Brougham on the 'British Constitution,' p. 62, chapter iv.