n the
restrictions of the Constitution, whether in the interest of individual
liberty or of State rights. This tendency was disguised at the first by
the arbitrary action of Jackson's own proceedings, for Jackson alone
among Presidents displayed the sentiments of what may be called a popular
despot. Its insistence upon State rights, aided perhaps by its dislike
of Protection, attracted to it the leading politicians of the South, who
in the main dominated its counsels, though later on they liked to do it
through Northern instruments. But it must not in the least be imagined
that either party was Northern or Southern; for there were many Whigs in
the South, and very many Democrats in the North. Moreover, it should be
clearly grasped, though it is hard, that among Northern Democrats
insistence on State rights did not involve the faintest leaning towards
the doctrine of secession; on the contrary a typical Democrat would
believe that these limitations to the power of the Union were the very
things that gave it endurance and strength. Slavery, moreover, had
friends and foes in both parties. If we boldly attempted to define the
prevailing tone of the Democrats we might say that, while they and their
opponents expressed loyalty to the Union and the Constitution, the
Democrats would be prone to lay the emphasis upon the Constitution.
Whatever might be the case with an average Whig, a man like Lincoln would
be stirred in his heart by the general spirit of the country's
institutions, while the typical Democrat of that time would dwell
affectionately on the legal instruments and formal maxims in which that
spirit was embodied.

Of the Whigs it is a little harder to speak definitely, nor is it very
necessary, for in two only out of seven Presidential elections did they
elect their candidate, and in each case that candidate then died, and in
1854 they perished as a party utterly and for ever. Just for a time they
were identified with the "American policy" of Clay. When that passed out
of favour they never really attempted to formulate any platform, or to
take permanently any very definite stand. They nevertheless had the
adherence of the ablest men of the country, and, as an opposition party
to a party in power which furnished much ground for criticism, they
possessed an attraction for generous youth.

The Democrats at once, and the Whigs not long after them, created
elaborate party machines, on the need of which Jackson i