American people in the tangible and physical process of governing
themselves.

A book ought to be written describing how our government actually
works. I do not mean the formal machinery of administration and
law-making at Washington or at our state capitals. These multitudes of
officers and groups of departments, these governors and presidents,
these legislatures and congresses, are not the government; they are
the instruments of government.

_The people are the government._ What said Lincoln in his greatest
utterance? "A government of the people, for the people, _and by the
people_," are the great American's words. And Lincoln knew.

The real thing is found at the American fireside. This is the forum of
both primary and final discussion. These firesides are the hives
whence the voters swarm to the polls. The family is the American
political unit. Men and measures, candidates and policies, are there
discussed, and their fate and that of the Republic determined. This is
the first phase of our government, the first manifestation of our
institutions.

Then comes the machinery through which these millions of homes "run
the government." I cannot in the limited space of this paper describe
this system of the people; the best I can do is to take a type, an
example. In every county of every state of the Nation each party has
its committee. This committee consists of a man from each precinct in
each township of the county. These precinct committeemen are chosen by
a process of natural selection. They are men who have an aptitude for
marshaling their fellow men.

In the country districts of the Republic they are usually men of good
character, good ability, good health, alert, sleepless, strong-willed.
They are men who have enough mental vitality to believe in something.
When they cease to be effective they are dropped, and new men
substituted by a sort of common consent. There are nearly two hundred
thousand precinct committeemen in the United States.

These men are a part of American institutions in action. They work all
the time. They talk politics and think politics in the midst of their
business or their labor. Their casual conversation with or about every
family within their jurisdiction keeps them constantly and freshly
informed of the tendency of public opinion.

They know how each one of their neighbors feels on the subject of
protection, or the Philippines, or civil service, or the currency.
They know the views