ishonesty, we cannot extend the same
charity to their leaders. They reap the rewards of the docility and zeal
of the masses which they direct. Ordinarily our parties are parties of
circumstance, and not of principle; as the planting interest in conflict
with the commercial; the party of capitalists and that of operatives;
parties which are identical in their moral character, and which can
easily change ground with each other in the support of many of their
measures. Parties of principle, as, religious sects, or the party of
free-trade, of universal suffrage, of abolition of slavery, of abolition
of capital punishment,--degenerate into personalities, or would inspire
enthusiasm. The vice of our leading parties in this country (which may
be cited as a fair specimen of these societies of opinion) is that they
do not plant themselves on the deep and necessary grounds to which they
are respectively entitled, but lash themselves to fury in the carrying
of some local and momentary measure, nowise useful to the commonwealth.
Of the two great parties which at this hour almost share the nation
between them, I should say that one has the best cause, and the other
contains the best men. The philosopher, the poet, or the religious man
will of course wish to cast his vote with the democrat, for free-trade,
for wide suffrage, for the abolition of legal cruelties in the penal
code, and for facilitating in every manner the access of the young and
the poor to the sources of wealth and power. But he can rarely
accept the persons whom the so-called popular party propose to him as
representatives of these liberalities. They have not at heart the ends
which give to the name of democracy what hope and virtue are in it. The
spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless: it is not
loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends, but is destructive only out
of hatred and selfishness. On the other side, the conservative party,
composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the
population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates
no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no
generous policy; it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts,
nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science,
nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the
immigrant. From neither party, when in power, has the world any benefit
to expect in science, art, or human