CHAPTER XI ESTABLISHING THE MACHINE THE forces which broke down the traditional restraint were developed in state politics, where they began to operate with marked effect as soon as the national government was established. An intermixture of national with state politics was provided by the constitution, for the states were made parties to the administration of the government. The management of state politics was hence an essential part of national politics. As soon as the constitution was framed, the struggle to control state politics on national issues was begun, and it has gone on ever since. The South preserved longer than any other section the characteristics of colonial politics; the conditions there were such that the class interests and social connections of the gentry provided an organization that was sufficient for political purposes. Being thus shielded from the necessities which at an early date forced the Northern politicians into a commerce in offices, the original prejudice against assailing a man's property in his office remained acute in the South long after it had been dulled or extinguished in the North. The political activity of the Southern gentry was a function of their social position. What they chiefly sought from politics was honor and power. Their instinct was to regard office as the due of social eminence or individual ability. The conception of office as payment for partisan servility was revolting to their ideas. The greed and violence of the mob politics of Northern cities filled them with disgust. In Virginia changes of the state administration were not accompanied by changes in the offices until after 1834. Daniel Webster, in a speech at Richmond in 1840, declared that "Virginia more than any other state in the Union had disavowed and condemned the doctrine of removals from office for opinion's sake." As late as 1849 Calhoun boasted of South Carolina: " Party organization, party discipline, party proscription, and their offspring, the spoils system, have been unknown to the state. Nothing of the kind is necessary to produce concentration." 2 In the North, party divisions in the states, caused by the introduction of national issues, did not simply produce rival factions among the gentry as in the South, but from the first appealed to and drew into the field of political activity an electorate, in whose opinions the offices were good things which ought to go around. The rise of this sentiment was, however, gradual, and even in New York, 1 Tyler's Letters and Times of the Tylers, Vol. I., p. 524. where favoring influences were strongest, it made its way with difficulty. When Hamilton began the work of building up the Federal party in New York, state politics had for many years been controlled by family influences, with no more disturbance than was caused by rivalries among the Clintons, Livingstons, and Schuylers. Although party contests were full of personal rancor, yet effective public opinion was still the class opinion of the gentry. The electorate was limited, only freeholders with an estate of £100 above all liens having the franchise. In the state election. of 1789, out of a population of 324,270, only 12,300 votes were polled. Hamilton's success was due to the fact that on the issue he presented he was able to combine the Livingstons and the Schuylers against the Clintons. The use the Federalists made of their victory showed the restraining influence of polite opinion. Actual removals from office were few. The Federalists got their party friends into office by seizing vacancies caused by the expiration of terms of office, although reappointment had been the usage. New offices were created by increasing the number of such public officers as judges and justices of the peace. In this way enough Federalists were introduced into the county courts to out vote their opponents. In counties where the numbers of such officers had been about twenty, there were now forty or fifty. Politics could still be managed by conference and agreement among gentlemen, and the conduct of politics had to defer to their class opinion. But the spread of democratic influence was rapid. The growth of city population developed an electorate, which soon dispossessed itself of habits of deference to social superiors, so that it had to be wrought upon by other influences. There were none so available as those connected with the use of patronage, and this use had to conform to the changing conditions of politics. The change in the political situation was made sharply manifest by Aaron Burr, whose political ambition was so steadily thwarted by Hamilton's ascendency, and who was so jealously excluded from influence, that it was necessary for him to develop a new source of power, or be crushed altogether as a factor in politics. His instrument was the Columbian order, now better known as Tammany Hall. Founded during the second week of Washington's administration, it was originally a social rather than a political organization. It seemed to have become a centre of political activity, largely owing to the fact that it was a place of meeting for the common people, filling the place occupied among the gentry by their clubs and assemblies. By a natural antagonism of classes it gradually became a political power. While the gentry arranged their political deals with their feet under the mahogany and the punch-bowl on the board, there was now in existence a competitive mixture of politics and hospitality to which the common people could resort. A stanza by Fitz-Greene Halleck has embalmed the tradition of those early days: "There's a barrel of porter in Tammany Hall, And the Bucktails are swigging it all the night long. By the aid of Tammany Hall, in 1800, Aaron Burr wrested from Hamilton the political control of New York City. The election presented the modern features. Voters were sought out and brought to the polls, carriages were sent for the sick, infirm, or lazy, and Tammany Hall kept open house all day. Hamilton, whose power in New York City had rested upon the support of the local moneyed aristocracy, was much impressed by the effectiveness of the new political methods. He came to the conclusion that the Federalists. “erred in relying so much on the rectitude and utility of their measures as to have neglected the cultivation of popular favor by fair and justifiable expedients." He drew up a scheme of "the Christian Constitutional Society," whose objects were to be the support of the Christian religion and of the constitution of the United States.1 Senator Bayard, of Delaware, to whom he submitted the project, did not think favorably of it, and it was dropped. Ꮮ 1 Hamilton's Works, Vol. VI., pp. 541-543. |