A history of the Whig party, or some of its main features; with a hurried glance at the formation of parties in the United States, and the outlines of the history of the principal parties of the country to the present time, etc., etc

Front matter

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Preface

The object of the writer of these hasty sketches has been to give the outlines of the principal parties that have existed in the United States to the present day, and notice the more important and leading measures of the various administrations of the general government. Of the administrations prior to that of President Jackson he speaks according to the impressions he has received from reading and tradition ; but of the politics since Jackson's day, with which he has been contemporary, he speaks from personal observation, and gives his own views as to public men and measures. He is aware that his outlines are very imperfect, and in many things may be erroneous. He has had no access to libraries, nor public documents ; and his statis-

PBEFACE.

tics are sometimes given from general recollection, and are but approximations to accuracy. But feeling that some history of the parties of this country is needed, he has the temerity to offer this till its place shall be supplied by one more reliable and satisfactory.

THE AUTHOB.

Bradford, Vermont, Aug., 1859.

Contents

INTRODUCTION, page ix

CHAPTER I. — Political parties prior to and during the Revolution. — The sectionalism which caused the separation. — The conservatism and policy of William Pitt, the £lder. — The effect of the Revolution on parties. — The incongruity of the different colonies, 13

CHAPTER II. — The persistence of England in her revenue acts unites the colonies. — Action of Virginia and South Carolina. — The formation of the union by the adoption of the Constitution. — The difficulties in the way of a union. — Probable results in case there had been no union. — The sacrifice of the large and gain of the smaller states by the union. — Constitutional convention. — The part taken by Virginia in establishing the union, 21

Introduction

The origin of political parties which have existed in this country cannot well be understood without a recurrence to the events and circumstances in the mother country from which many of our political principles took their rise. Many of the principles considered when our forefathers established the institutions they bequeathed to us were, at different times, the subjects of agitation in England before the American Revolution commenced. If the Anglo-Americans are truly the descendants of the ancient Saxons, the American Revolution only had the effect of restoring to the race the primitive but greatly modified independence it enjoyed upon the shores of the Baltic. The subjugation of the Saxons in England by the Normans (a conquest of filibusters by fillibusters), and the establishment in that island of the Feudal System, was a reduction of our ancient ancestors to a pretty severe state of bondage, As in the process of ages the Saxon blood so flourished as to check the power of that haughty line of iron rulers, a greater degree of liberty and

(IX)

X INTRODUCTION.

freedom was gradually acquired. All such acquisitions, or rights and immunities, by the commonalty of Old England extorted from their lordly masters, were usually secured by solemn writings, called charters, constitutions, etc. The freedom of speech; "the liberty of conscience in matters of religion ; the principles of taxation and representation ; the right of jury trial ; the right of relief from arbitrary imprisonment by writ of habeas corpus ; and very many other principles considered and guarded by our constitutions, had their birth in the British isle, and were brought to this continent by the early settlers. To see the Saxons thus gradually make their feudal lords relax their tyranny, and by degrees break up that uncouth system of military tenures, and to see them secure those great principles of civil liberty so rarely enjoyed by mankind, was to witness the triumphs of more than an ordinary race. The ancient Britons, who were subdued by the Roman arms, and held in subjection for some four hundred years, were by that subjugation and dominion rendered spiritless and helpless. Scarcely a family of the old Sclavonic race has ever made much progress, but take the servile as a normal condition. The pure Celtic race has ever been slow in the development of the principles of popular sovereignty. But the Saxon is an aspiring blood. The tutelage it has received and is receiving from the Norman, — a kindred, but for a long time in military discipline a superior people, — though rough and severe, may, under Providence, prove an instrumen-

INTRODUCTION. XI

tality of good. Without it the Saxon would but slowly have thrown off his primitive barbarous fillibuster state, so as to have emerged from England in a different condition from that in which his ancestors, under Hengist, entered it. The nomads that for centuries wandered over the vast plains of Scythia, and in process of time were crowded upon the coasts of north-western Europe, entered Britain as metal enters a mould, to receive the form and impress suitable for the purposes they were designed to subserve. To subdue the nomadic habits of a race, and imbue it with feelings, capacities, aptitudes, sympathies, and the principles of nationality,- and fit it for civil liberty, is no small undertaking, and requires not only severe discipline, but also time. From the conquest of England by William the Norman, about the twelfth century, to the discovery of America, near the dawn of the sixteenth, we see that the reformatory rule of tyranny had been applied in England with so strong a hand as to very much modify the native disposition of the Saxon, and he began to experience those national feelings which caused him to exult in the idea that he had a country. The constant wars for centuries with France had contributed to inspire the islander with patriotic feelings. And the occasional quarrels between the king and the turbulent nobility of early ages, enabled the people, by siding with one or the other of the parties, to extort from the crown those charters which have changed the British government from almost an absolute despotism, to a limited,

XII INTRODUCTION.

constitutional monarchy. But for several centuries the British monarchy submitted to changes but gradually, and very reluctantly, and concessions had to be many times extorted from the crown before they' were sacredly regarded as the inviolable rights of the people. The earlier ages of that monarchy were devoted more to warlike enterprises than to the arts of peace. The susceptibility of the Saxon for civilization, as disclosed by his history while upon the coast of the Baltic, as well as by the administration of Alfred, was quite apparent; but the Feudal System, with such masters as the Norman brought into England, though well calculated to nationalize those migratory tribes, was not well adapted to develop the pursuits and arts of civilization. The Saxon upon the Baltic repressed all civilizing arts by the dire necessity of his situation, and not as a matter of choice ; he was never insensible to the ameliorating influences of peace and social commerce ; but without a government which is the gift of mental and moral discipline, such influences can never be enjoyed.

The Saxons were early addicted to the sea, and were, in their rude vessels, spirited navigators ; under Alfred and his successors they took much pride in their fleets ; but England, until after the discovery of America, had accomplished but little in the way of commerce, or the arts and sciences. The early British monarchs were warriors, and are prominent in English annals as soldiers; but the trades, and those pursuits which now render England

INTRODUCTION. XIII

the first of nations, were but little encouraged. The earlier kings, for their support, and to defray the expenses of their armies, were obliged to resort to robbery, and, as a fruitful resource, frequently plundered the Jews. They had no commerce. Edward the Third (about A. D. 1350) began to encourage the manufacture of woollen fabrics ; but he prohibited the exportation of all articles manufactured of wool and iron. This shows how crude must have been the ideas of the British rulers of those days in regard to commerce. The exports and imports of England about a century before the discovery of America (merely nothing) will show how little tfee English had advanced in the arts of peace and civilization. It was about this time that her vessels began to reach the Baltic for the purposes of trade, and they did not trade to the Mediterranean until about the middle of the next century, or about fifty years previous to the discovery of America. But the discovery of America, and of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope, late in the fifteenth century, gave an impetus to commerce ; and at about this period modern civilization began to take its rise. Since the discovery of America, England herself, in her political as well as in her social institutions, has passed through an entire revolution. For many hundred years Great Britain was but a sort of military despotism, without a king or statesman capable of comprehending the principles of political economy as practised by civilized nations. But commerce is the magic power before the touch 2

XIV INTRODUCTION.

of which the harshest features of feudalism have long since given away, and its last relics are fast disappearing. The spirit of feudal aristocracy is anything but compatible with what by modern politicians is called progress ; and the regulation of the arts, trades, and commerce, under her earlier kings, shows England, until comparatively a late period, acting in defiance of the principles which have in modern times, in despite of her rulers, elevated her to the first rank in greatness. Her trade has been of slow but sure growth. It is interesting to trace its progress, as with it came her civilization and power. Her first rude statutes, adopted to aid her merchants; her efforts to compete with her Dutch rivals, and then her naval warfare with those audacious Dutchmen, in which the English navy, triumphing over the gallant Yan Tromp, laid the foundation of her future greatness ; the relaxation of the system of entails about the middle of the fifteenth century, by which feudalism received a check and commerce an. impetus ; the discovery of America ; the invention of the art of printing ; the introduction of the use of gunpowder in warfare, by which national difficultie's could the more speedily be brought to a close ; and the revival of letters ; all are events which, falling out nearly in the same century, were the precursors of the changes which have been witnessed in modern times. The Saxon is certainly a promising race. Its origin is involved in mystery, being but an offshoot of the still more mysterious German race, from which the principal civilization of the present age took its rise.

INTRODUCTION. XV

The revival of letters came with the discovery, by the German mind, of the press, which at once repro« duced the ancient civilizations, and enabled the nations to leap from infancy to maturity at a bound; and hence the ideas of progress which have so startled the thinkers of the present age. But although great revolutions have swept over Europe, and over England in particular, they were but such revolutions as we witness in the vegetable kingdom when some coarse sKrub puts forth a bud, the old and the new — the rough stock and its blossom — remaining inseparably connected and mutually dependent on each other. In consequence of the causes alluded to, England, for many hundred years, has been undergoing a change in the spirit of her institutions, and the change will continue its progress hereafter ; and nature has in the human as well as in the vegetable kingdom her subjects so effectually under her control, that we may expect the future development of the fruits of civilization will proceed with that gradual and regular course which shall indicate them healthy growths. Hot-bed plants are pleasing and luscious, but can only be preserved by an artificial atmosphere. In the moral world it is not singular that some minds, impatient at what they conceive to be the slow advancement, as by a natural growth, of ameliorating principles, should seek, by stimulating expedients, to hasten their progress. But as yet no revolution produced in advance of its proper time, by the application of such excitants, has been productive of useful fruits.

XVI INTRODUCTION.

Prior to the commencement of the English colonies in America political parties had an active existence in the mother country, of which the parties in America, especially during and preceding the Revolution, were the offspring. The earliest parties in England were the gift of religious controversies, and were, subsequent to the Reformation, very violent. One has but to read the history of the times of the Cavaliers and Roundheads, or of England down to and during the time of the Commonwealth, to see with what rigor party spirit reigned in that country. The persecution of those who embraced reformatory views in matters of religion, under James the First, drove the Puritans to Plymouth Rock. The titles of Whig and Tory, which have designated the two principal parties in England for the last two hundred years, originated in the time of Charles the Second. It is not a little interesting to trace the history of parties in Great Britain ; and in the perusal the reader is struck with what he must regard as their providential direction. As a general thing the two parties in question have been both national and conservative. For much of the time during their existence it would be puzzling for one to discern the principles that divided them, their contests having been more for place, or office, than anything else. This is by no means true of the whole period during which those parties have existed. During the ministries of Grenville, the Pitts, and Fox, we find that they were divided on important political measures. But what is worthy

INTRODUCTION. XVII

of remark is that throughout the whole existence of those parties, they have, with scarcely more than one exception, been founded on a conservative and national basis, and, though at times degenerating into mere factions, rarely ever have taken an attitude dangerous to the integrity of the British dominions. With the exception of the Tory measures in regard to the American colonies, neither of those parties have been sectional, nor composed of one class of society as antagonistic to another. In each have ever been individuals of all classes. The Whigs have in later times been regarded as the most liberal ; but the Duke of Monmouth was the first Whig, and ever since his day the Whigs have embraced a fair share of the aristocracy. At the revolution of 1688, when the bigoted James was divested of his crown, and William of Orange placed upon the English throne, the masses of Whigs and Tories seemed to cooperate. In short, throughout the history of these parties, embracing England's history for two hundred years, the evidences of their beneficial effects are apparent. They have been the schools in which the greatest statesmen have been educated, and the unparalleled prosperity of England in modern times has been much owing to their instrumentality. Within proper channels, restrained within legitimate, reasonable, and natural limits, political parties may be instrumental of good ; but, beyond these limits, devastating floods.

A HISTORY

OF

THE WHIG PARTY.

Chapter I

POLITICAL PARTIES PRIOR TO AND DURING THE REVOLUTION. — THE SECTIONALISM WHICH CAUSED THE SEPARATION. THE CON- SERVATISM AND POLICY OF WILLIAM PITT, THE ELDER. THE EFFECT

OF THE REVOLUTION ON PARTIES. — THE INCONGRUITY OF THE DIF- FERENT COLONIES.

Two large political parties have existed in this country nearly from the period of the adoption of the Constitution. Since the times of Jefferson, the measures of these parties have undergone many changes, and many of their respective members have changed sides ; but still we can trace in the present Democratic many lineaments of the old Republican party ; and the late Whig was in many respects the representative of the old Federal party. The policy, tactics, and measures, have not continued the same, and perhaps the modern parties contain but few traits to identify them with their predecessors. When the relationship of the modern to the ancient parties is spoken of, we have more particular reference to their perpetuation as political organizations, than to the transmission of party principles. These two original parties were organized and brought into action soon after the adoption of the Constitution, but were formed, in part, from elements previously existing-. In sketching their origin, we will glance at only some of the more prominent events that gave them birth. During the Revolutionary struggle the old English party titles of Whig and Tory were in vogue ; and, at the outset of the difficulties that led to that struggle, the parties represented by those titles in England and America were nearly identical ; but at a later period the American Whig and Tory lost all identity with their transatlantic namesakes. In this country the title Whig came to represent one who was in favor of popular rights as opposed to all regal government, while that of Tory was applied to those who, although opposed to the usurpations of George the Third, were still in favor of monarchy, and opposed to the stand for independence taken by the colonies. The Tories of that period were, in America, divided into two classes, it is true ; viz., those who sided with the ministry of George the Third, and those who dissented from that monarch's project of taxing the colonies, but still adhered to the royal cause during the Revolution. The change in the spirit of parties progressed with the Revolution, and kept pace with the body which that event produced. The American Revolution was not, compared with the French, and other revolutions, a very bloody struggle ; it was indeed attended with some agony, but was in reality but the throe of a great nation in giving birth to a child. As we look back upon the conduct of the mother country prior to the separation of her colonies from her, we see how entirely, in the whole course of her proceedings towards them, she was guided by the

THE WHIG PAETY. If)

hand of Nature, or of Providence, who had apparently foredoomed that separation. As the party politics of the United States at the present day are liable to lead to as unexpected and undesired results as did those of Great Britain which produced the dismemberment of her empire, we should often look upon the example of the latter as a warning, and endeavor to profit by it. It seemed to the British government as reasonable and entirely right that her colonies should contribute, by way of taxes in some form, to defray the expenses of their protection, as it was called. One method, and a fruitful one, of raising money in the mother country, by way of tax, was by making a law that all paper used for commercial, legal, and business purposes, should be stamped, and that all contracts, writings, and all sorts of obligations used without such stamp, should be void. The officers of the crown sold the stamps at fixed prices. They were small pieces of paper, on which were printed the words, under the picture of the royal crown, " Honisoit qui mal ypeme;" and the person executing a contract, note of hand, bill of sale, deed, will, or other instrument in writing, was obliged to paste on one of them, or his writing would be void. It was one of the many ways adopted by England to raise the necessary funds to defray the enormous expenses of her government ; and about the year A. D. 1*764, immediately after what in America was called the French and Indian war, it was thought advisable to extend the stamp system of taxation to this country.

The colonists remonstrated and protested ; but the American Stamp Act passed Parliament with great unanimity, — by a majority, in the House of Commons, of about two hundred, and in the House of Lords unanimously. The conduct of the colonies, in refusing to submit to that tax, was regarded by our forefathers across the deep as most unnatural, unreasonable, and undutiful. George the Third, who incurred so hearty a detestation of our ancestors, was not what his more worthy countrymen called an immoral man ; he was in all the private walks of life regarded as virtuous and upright ; but he had a monarch's notions of royal authority, and of the subject's duty of obedience. That his people in distant colonies should presume to question his power, or the rightfulness of its exercise, excited him strongly against them. The ideas of the king were a part of his being ; and, although they were his misfortune, perhaps they were not his fault. But few men are responsible for their opinions. The question of taxing the colonies was one that affected all England ; and England generally, at first, participated in feelings of indignation at the idea that they thus should refuse to submit to taxation. Her statesmen, her orators, her jurists, and her writers,, with few exceptions, united in putting their rights at absolute defiance. The contest soon became sectional, and the bitterness between the two portions of the British empire became so extreme, that thousands in America, who at first were disposed to espouse the side of the mother country, were forced to turn against her.

There were a few intelligent, clear-sighted, and conservative men in England, at that time, who foresaw the tendency of the measures, policy, and course, pursued by the ministry ; but the warnings of these brave patriots were unheeded, or only met with derision. They foresaw and predicted that the bitterness likely to be engendered between the two portions of the common country would lead to a separation, and a final loss of the colonies ; and whenever such disunion was thus, in spite of the seeming omnipotence of the British throne, predicted, the speaker was uniformly made an object of ridicule. At that very epoch in English history there was in England a statesman whose wisdom had really laid the foundations of the unparalleled greatness which, notwithstanding the loss of her best colonies, that kingdom has since attained. To none more than to William Pitt was our ancient mother indebted for the inception of a course of policy which has made Britain one of the greatest of modern powers. Had his views been regarded by his countrymen, the British empire would long since have been the greatest, and altogether the most powerful and magnificent, the world has ever seen. Pitt was the first of English statesmen ; he was more than a century in advance of his age ; his penetrating mind saw clearly the advantages, in a commercial point of view, of the position of Great Britain and he understood better than any of his cotemporaries the real resources of his country, and in what her true wealth and power were to consist. He gave the impetus and direction to her commercial system, which all the blunders of later statesmen, and all the impediments thrown in its way by ignorance and folly, have not been able to arrest. The colonial system of England Mr. Pitt regarded as the right arm of her power, without which her commerce, for which she seemed designed by nature, could never be developed. Under his administration the Canadas were added to the crown ; and, had his prudent counsels been heeded, it is very clear that the loss of the American colonies would not have taken place. But what signifies the voice of wisdom when opposed to the prevailing sentiment, or passion, or ideas of a nation ? His sense of right, justice, prudence, and expediency for his country, prompted him to stand up almost alone in the British Parliament, and resist the first steps of that power in a course that was to cost England the most valuable portion of her empire ; and, by taking such a stand against the settled feeling of his day, he placed himself in a small minority, and his great wisdom and unparalleled faculties were lost to the administrative service of his country.

It should always, in reading the history of American politics, be borne in mind that, at the time when the troubles between England and her colonies commenced, those colonies were far from being composed of such homogeneous materials as to facilitate their ready union into one people. The New England colonists were generally religionists ; people of severe morals, and disciplined in the school of adversity. They were mostly, especially the- first settlers, persons bred in poverty, with but little education, saving in scriptural matters. The Puritans, in England, were looked upon as fanatics. To escape from oppression they sought refuge in New England. On the other hand, Virginia was settled by a portion of those same Englishmen whose religious and political sentiments had driven the Puritans from England. Virginia was the most favored of the American colonies ; her charter was liberal and her grant of territory magnificent. Many of her planters were from high families, and, as a general thing, the settlers of that colony were of the Anglican church, and attached to the English institutions. Maryland, also, settled under the auspices of Lord Baltimore, received many wealthy planters, who sought asylum from religious persecution ; but, as they were Catholics, they would not be likely to find much sympathy amongst their Protestant neighbors. The Pennsylvania colony, commenced under Penn and his followers, who were driven from the mother country by harsh usage, was, like that of Maryland, exceedingly tolerant of other sects, and, like that colony, also received into her midst with fraternal affection people of all lands and religions.

The Carolinas were settlements of English planters, commenced under the auspices of the British nobility, and were generally attached to the English church, saving a moderate mixture of the Huguenots, who in early times found their way into the South. New York was a mongrel colony. She was in early times settled by the Dutch, and was afterwards overrun by Englishmen of all degrees and qualities. These settlements, prior to the Kevolution, had no political connection, and but little intercourse with each other. Their only bond of union was through the mother country, to which they all hung like clusters of grapes to the parent vine. So gracefully and naturally were the colonies attached to the mother country, and, left to themselves, so little were they adapted to a union amongst themselves, that, had it not been for extreme violence from that mother country, they would not have been shaken from her attachment. But King George had no conception of the policy which should govern his administration. Pitt saw in England's colonies but the pillars of her commerce and manufactures, which should make that country the richest and most powerful of nations ; but George's minister, Grenville, though accomplished and fully equal to the age in which he lived, looked upon them with a narrower view. He only saw them beneficial in proportion as they could be made tributary 3 to the treasury by means of taxation. The death of George the Second in 1160, after the conquest of the Canadas under the ministry of Pitt, was followed by the coronation of George the Third, and the peace of Paris, in 1763, brought about through the counsels of Bute, and in spite of the wishes of Pitt. In the French war, which resulted in the fall of Louisburg, Quebec, and the surrender by the French of the Canadas, the Americans had truly shown themselves of great service to England, and had taught France and Europe fearful expectations from the fast growing power of Britain. What would have been the career of England, had she continued to hold her colonies, can only be imagined ; it was perhaps well for the world that the dismemberment took place ; and France was far from censurable for seeking her own safety by the only measure that could prevent her rival's becoming at once the mistress of the world. The French minister (Choiseul) saw, better than either North or Grenville, the importance to England of the American possessions. In considering the early politics of this country, the motives of France for intriguing for American freedom should be carefully examined into ; for, on account of the interposition of that country in our behalf during the Revolution, American party politics were sensibly affected, especially during the progress of the French Revolution.

Chapter II

THE PERSISTENCE OF ENGLAND IN HER REVENUE ACTS UNITES THE COLO- NIES. ACTION OF VIRGINIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA. THE FORMA- TION OF THE UNION BY THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. THE

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF A UNION. PROBABLE RESULTS IN CASE

THERE HAD BEEN NO UNION. THE SACRIFICE OF THE LARGE AND

GAIN OF THE SMALLER STATES BY THE UNION. CONSTITUTIONAL

CONVENTION. THE PART TAKEN BY VIRGINIA IN ESTABLISHING THE

UNION.

The passage of the Stamp Act taught the ministry of George the Third two things, by neither of which did they seem to have the ability to profit. It taught them the great importance of the colonies as consumers of English goods, and the spirit with which they were evidently disposed to meet encroachments on their rights. The resistance of the colonists was not regarded at first in a serious light ; but the loss of trade with America, consequent on that resistance, disclosed the fact that, even at that time, the mercantile and manufacturing interests had begun to acquire some importance, although they had no decisive influence in the administration. They, perhaps, contributed greatly to the repeal of the odious Stamp Act ; but the infatuated ministry were so wedded to their project of taxing America, that the Stamp Act was only repealed to give place to other systems of taxation. Unlimited submission of refractory subjects was the only thing to satisfy a haughty feudal monarch, and hence the enforcement of attempted taxation became a matter of pride with the king and his ministry.