The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1842-04-04
From the Boston Times
GOVERNMENT WITHOUT PARTIES.

not be in our power, though whoever recoects the
inyariable course of the Times, and of the leading
penny presses in the four great Atlantic cities 0an
easily divine the result that is within our wishes, and
those of our independent contemporaries. The ex-
pertinent deserves success and if the result depended
on our efforts, il would be successful To define the
experiment we say is attempt to administer the
Government for the benefit of the whole country, and
not for that of few who may constitute themselves
the leaders Of portion Of that country, Reasoning
upon abstract principles, we might be unable to inn
agine how honest men would conduct government
for any other purpose But btract principles, how
ever sound are always carried out in Details and
honest politicians have often been led into the error
Of believing that party was the only instrument OF
an honest government.
Several political writers have said that parties
were necessary free governments and especially to
republics and the remark has been often repeated
by superficial thinkers and the crowds who do not
think at all and the other crowds who know not what
they think, as to have become political axiom
Yet the remark has no solid foundation. Parties
haze existed all free governments. This is not
because free governments cannot be conducted
without them, but because the people and their ser
wants did not sufficiently understand, or would not
sufficiently practice the principles of all just gov
eminent to dispense with them. Parties are incident
al to free governments, but not necessary and they
are incidental only through human ignorance or per-
versty. The most favorable defiaton which parti-
san government will admit, is the application of evil
fcienty enlightened to reach the good directly and
our history fully proves that the ascendancy OF
party has never been much more than the choice of
the people between two evils
In governments partially free like that Of England,
parties have always existed and from this fact SUI
perical deiuce the necessity Of parties TO
FREQ government But must remember that parti-
san conflicts in England under The most favorable
circumstances have been conflicts between right and
wrong, between sound and unsound principles, be-
tween the champions and the vioators OF human
rights Yet the English parties have not always
horne this favorable charac,er and we may add that
from the days of Cromwell those Of the American
Revolution. no English party has been the advocate
of human rights in their broadest extent. The re-
puhcans in the time of Charles did contend for hui
man rights without llaiion and under the belief
that men were capable of selEgovernment and they
were opposed 10y two parties the absolute monarchsts
who conended for the divine right OF kings, and the
limited monarchlsts who contended for the govern
ment of the few and the qualified freedom OF the ma
nv Here indeed was contest between good prin-
cple on side and two bad principles the other
and they prove not that parties necessary to free
governm mt but that the advocates of freedom should
unite in self defence when the advocates Of arbitrary
DC wer unite against them The conf els which have
ragged in England since, between Wings and Tories,
have been mere contests for the power and emolu-
ments of government contests TO crafty human am
bition and not to maintain human rights and the on
ly difference between these parties Is that one OF them
accords to the people few more of their natural
rights than the other. Thus under such partially
free governments that Of England parties have al
ways been incidental or may add, necessary, and
euinently US full; they have been SO merely because
they conflicts between good and bad primo pies
upon theatre where human rights were neither fully
protected nor fully understood They were contests
for principles in government, and they were useful
because bad principles carried into practice, and
good principles not fully understood
IT, in the reign Of Charles |, every Engllshman had
been Pyn, Hampden, Sydney, or Nane, or
those Of opposite character had been too few in num-
Der or influence give the slightest tone to any de-
partment of the Government, exert the least iniu-
ence over public opinion, parties, instead OF being
useful, would have been emnently mischievous. But
because such men were minority, or opposed by
powerful minority with the means Of becoming
majority, partisan organization became incidental and
emnently useful As the principles of these men
opposed, they had some ground on which to IN
trench themselves under partisan organization.
AT the close of our Revolution, and before the
adoption Of the Federal Constitution the people were
divided upon measures, not upon princples-one por-
ton, among whom were Mr. Madison and General
Hamilton, names sacred to liberty, coAtending for a
consolidated Republic, and the other for league OF
States. Each party commended for the largest liberty,
the utmost extent Of natural rights and they merely
disagreed about the of security for such rights
But all agreed about principles, the Federal Con.
sttuton adopted and in most of the States, with
very little opposition, and that little prompted by
concern for liberty After the Presidency of Gene
raj Washington, and during that OF Mr. Adams, poll
tcians, not the people, became divided into two par
ties the one contendng fora strong federal Govern
ment the principle of consolidation, and the other
for the supremacy of the State Governments on the
principle of confederacy3 and one strayed about as
far from the proper balance between the two prnci-
ples as the other. But the people less divided
upon this point than their leaders, for majority, in
the election of Mr., Jefferson declared in favor OF
conederacy, and this principle has ever since main
tanned its ascendancy Since that election, all OF our
partisan conflicts have been merely for men or mea-
sures and not for principles; and they have inflicted
various and severe evils upon the country
During the administration of General Washington
the government of the country was not much embar-
raised by partisan conflicts and the few that occurred
were contests for men or measures and not for princl-
pies AS the institutions Of the country had not been
tried, all seemed disposed 10 give them fair trial and
as the principles which they were founded were
derstood and supposed 10 be well settled, nobody
was disposed to dispute about them. This admins
traon eminently wise and patriotic and eminent
satisfactory to the ma ,rty and 1t was thus its
f,ctory because the whole country fully confided in
the sincere patriotism and integrity of The President
the Cabinet, and Congress. All were the great men
who had carried the country successfully through the
revolutions and such, they inspired general conf
dcnce. Here, then was period when no parties ex-
isted would hardly pretend to org aniza ion aud
the fact proves that parties not necessary to Ie-
public and that when the people and their servants
are sufficiently wise and honest it is governed much
better without them
At present the principles Of our Government are
thoroughly understood and settled, that all three
of the political parties in the field profess the
same political creed. All call themselves democrats
and any three Representatives of these parts at all
versed in constitutional law, will give precisely the
same definition of democracy, and of it's securities
and each will insist doubtless with justice, that he
and bis party seek the honor prosperity and safety OF
M n hers
then is the necessity for parties None are in con.
fict about principles all think alike about n.tltu-
tons, and all seek the same object, the prosperity of
the country and therefore, their conflicts be for
men and measures only. Is contest about men wor-
thy of an enlightened and honest people No en-
lighened and honest man will pretend it, Is parti-
san o ganlzation necessary for the success of any
series of measures Can they not be sus-