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Show 22 DESPOTISI\1 Unio~, their origin is so recent, and their population has hitherto been so much engrossed with the cares and occupations incident to new settlements, that as yet, they have cxerci~e~ but a limited influence upon the sentiment and opnuons of the country. rl'hat ina fluencc however has been almost purely democratic and from the very birth of those communities, democ~ racy has always been their prevailing political creed. 'l'hese slight and imperfect historical sketches lead us to a fact of the greatest importance towards a cor· rcct understanding of the progress, present state, and future prospects of political opinion and political action, m Amenca. Ever smce the formation of the federal constitutioll~ down almost to the present moment, strange as 1t may seem, the democratic party of the Unwn has been headed, guided, governed and controlled by ccrtam slave-holding aristocrats of the south· -Jefferson, Madison, l\1onroe, and Jackson have heed successively, its leaders, and its idols . . Under Je!ferson, thcoretica~ democracy was a new thmg; and It was embraced wtth all tho warmth which uovcltY: is apt to inspire. It formed a principal topic ofpub!JC d1scuss1on ; and was defended, if not always b~ sound rcasot~mg_s and sub_slantial arguments, yet With the enthus~asttc zeal of smcere conviction. But presently t!Je public attention was diverted into ot~·1er ch~nnels, and became engrossed by matters Wtth winch democracy had little or no connection. Un?cr ~iadison, the great question was, whether the Umted States should resent and repel the insults and ~he wrongs heaped upon them by foreign powers, and 1f so, whether they should make war ao-ainst the tyrant Bonaparte, or the Bnglish aristocr~cy. The democratic party was 111 general favorable to Bonaparte, for he was the child, and he had declared himself the heu·, and had seized upoJl the inheritance of the French Revolution. But the very fact that they we~~ led by Hratwnal sympathies, and the ardor of pohtJcal controversy, to wink at, to apologize for, and almost to defend, the violence and outrages of a mili- IN AMERICA. 23 tary usurper, was so contrary to their principles, and produced snch a confusion of ideas, that the great doctrines of their creed dropped almost out of sight, and whether or not one was favorable to a war with Great Britain, presently became the .test of political orthodoxy,-a test altogether aside from the fundamental principles of the democratical system. Under Monroe, the great controversies of the day, rcspc~tcd the pr~tection of American industry; a pure questiOn of national economy, upon which people took sides, for the most part, not according to their political opinions, but according to the views they entertained of the eflCct which this protection would be likely to have upon their own private pecuniary interests. During the administrations of Madison and Monroe though the democratic creed was predominant thronghout the greater part of the country, and though duriug the interval, it achieved its final triumph in I\"ew England, yet beginning in those states where it had earliest prevailed, and extending gradually to the rest, it degenerated almost into a mere form of words without force or vitality. 'l'his state of things is easily explained. The leaders of the democratic, as of all other political partJ~ s, were for the most part advcnturers,-mere soldJCrs of fortune, who sought credit, honors, office, and power, by the zealous advocacy of principles which they saw to have many adherents, but for which they themselves felt no very devoted love, apart from the advancement to wh1~h they hoped these principles m1ght help them. 'I hat advancement attained the party triumphant, themselves in office they ldoked with feelings of contempt upon the ladder by which they had ascended, they were even desirous to cast it down, lest perchance stronger men might climb up thereby, and thrust them from their places. The mouths of the prophets being closed, the people wandered as sheep wuhout a shepherd · and though the democratic creed was publicly professea |
