Morning journal and courier., 1884-12-08
Corruption in Politics. From the Quarterly Reyiew.1


 Party disputes were originally the occupa-
 tion of aristocracies, which joined in them
 because they loved the sport for it's own sake, | and the rest of the community followed one
 side or the other as it's clients. Nowadays 1 party has become force acting with vast
 energy on multitudinous democraeies, and a
 number of artificial contrivances have been l invented for facilitating and stimulating it's
 action. Yet, in democracy, the fragment l of political power falling to each mans share ] is so extremely small that it would be hardly
 possible with all the aid of the caucus, the
 stump and the campaign newspaper, to rouse | the interests of thousands or millions of men | if party were not coupled with another pc litical force. This, to speak plainly, is cor | ruption It is on record that friend, in 1 conversation with tn great American Alex l ander Hamilton, expressed wonder at Hamil- | toms extreme admiration of corrupt 8
 system as that covered by the name of the | British constitution Hamilton, in reply
 expressed his belief that when the corrup- I tion came to an end the constitution would | fall to pieces. The corruption referred to | was that which had been openly practised by the Whig ministers of George l. and George I H., through the bestowal of places and the payment of sums of money but which in ! the reign of George III. had died down to an l obscurer set of malpractices, nl-understood but partially explained by the constant in debtedness of the thrifty king. Hamilton of
 course meant that, amid the many difficult ties of popular government, he doubted | whether, in its English form, it could be car
 ried on unless support were purchased by l governments, and this opinion might very plausibly have been held concerning the ear | ly governments of the Hanoverian dynasty, | so deeply unpopular did the Revolution Set ! L1 | Englishmen. What put an end to this cor
 ruption was in reality not an English but a French phenomenon revolution begun ! in 17S9, which, through the violent repulsion with which it inspired the greatest part of ' the nation, and the half avowed attraction l which it had for the residue, supplied the ] English parties with principles of action which did not need the cooperation of any corrupt inducement to partisanship. The corruption which wa find denounced by Ben ! than after the close of the great war was not bribery but vested interest; nor did the old practices ever revive in England in their an- cient shape Votes at elections confirmed to be bought and sold, but not votes in Parlia- ment. Whether Hamilton looked forward
 to an era of purity in his own country can not be certainly known. He and his coad-
 tutors undoubtedly were unprepared for the rapid development of party which soon set in; they evidently thought that their country would be poor, and they probably expected to see all evil influences defeated by the ela-
 borate contrivances of the Federal constitu- tion But the United States became rapidly wealthy and rapidly populous, and the uni versal suffrage of all white men, native born or immigrant, was soon established by the legislation of the most powerful States.
 With wealth, population and widely difused electoral power corruption sprang into vigor- ous life. President Andrew Jackson, pro claiming the principle of 'fto the victors the spells, ; which all parties soon adopted, ex- pelled from office all administrative servants of the United States who did not belong to his faction; and the crowd of persons filling these offices, which are necessarily very nu- merous in so vast territory, together with the groups of wealthy men interested in public lands and in the countless industries protected by the customs tariff, form an ex- tensive body of contributors from whom great amounts of money are levied by spe- cies of taxation, to be presently expended in wholesale bribery. The opinion of almost l all the politicians now supporting Mir. Blaine 1 bears probably the closest resemblance to l Hamilton's opinion about Great Britain. | They are persuaded that the American party | system cannot continue without corruption. 1