Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-05-18
THE PROBLEM OF THE POLITICAL
PARTY
Grafton presented an competition for the
Woodford Prize, by Frank PdrEer
Uford, Cornell University, 1896.

pie, and principle not of morality
but of expediency about which honest
men may differ.
Human nature has a main division
| line of individual temperament which
marks men off, roughly, as Coserva-
tive and Liberal. The Conservative
says, ''Let us hold fast what we have
already attained" The Conservative
party is the party Of the past, the en-
| bodiment of the spirit of reverence
| for all that has been and all that is.
It's watchword is 'sStability." The
| Liberal party is the apostle of change,
| impatient of the present, dissatisfied
with the actual, revealing in dreams
of the best world, of the perfect state.
It's ranks are filed with the bold and
| fearless young men. Reckless some
times, seeing no dangers ahead, they
make the Liberal party, the party of
the future and Of the ideal; its watch
word, Progress"
Thus men divide, and always will
divide as long as society offers pos
sibility of change. Wherever there is
a free people seeking higher civil
ization and broader life, there will
be developed the strongest antago
nisms, and there party lines will be
most sharply defined. Tremendous
forces will meet and struggle in the
body polite, and all citizens will be
drawn into their conflicts.
Political parties are storehouse of
good and evil. The problem to- day
is to define their Office and determine
how their action can be made bene
fetal to the state. For it's solution
are needed the sagacity Of the states
man and the loyalty Of the patriot.
What is the character Of the political
party, and what part does it play in
the development of our institutions?
The object of party is to promote
the public good. There is no other
end consistent with its true office. Ev-
cry partisan believes this end can
best be served throug hthe applica-
ton of the principles of his party. He
is therefore justified in using every
honorable means to place the repre-
sentatives of that party in power. The
success of a party in an election is an
endorsement of policy which the
successful candidates bind themselves
to execute. Their action is in the ma
ture of an experiment, and the next
election registers the verdict of the
people upon the result.
Party contests, viewed in this light,
are a political necessity. They awak-
en- the sluggish citizen to civic duty;
they reveal the secrets of corrupt adj
ministration; they lead to the dis
cussion of great principles of state
craft, resulting in the adoption of the
theory most approved; they secure
the subordination of government to
the will of the people and provide
way by which the majority may sub
NIT its tenets to the tests of practical
experience Within these limits, ODE
dent and responsible to the people,
the activities of parties, in free
country, are an unmixed good.
An unmitigated evil are the parties
which have lost sight of their true Of
flee. The magnetism Of name takes
the place of Intelligent loyalty to
princip pie; the binding power Of self
ishness obscures the general good, land
the substitution Of party as an end
for party as a means destroys all pos
sibility of usefulness to the state. Sue
cess means as much to party as it
does to an individual, and to attain
success a party will resort to even
more dishonorable means. How Of
ten, in the heat of political cam
paign, do men seek to bride voter
to falsify a statement or an attitude
and even to assasSinate the reputa-
ton of a political opponent. No Ia
Dor is too great, no price too dear to
pay for the coveted majority. Or
ganization of intricate completely
watch over and seek to control the
great army of voters, and when the
contest is over the victorious party
forgets its pledges, and, to pay the
expense of the costly victory and Sc
cure the permanence of it's ill-bought
tenure, not infrequently confiscates
the public wealth. The servant has
become the master. independence
from the people, secured by theft,
gives birth to defiance of the popular
will. Entrenched behind the bull
warks reared by its own corruption.
the victorious party sits coolly down
to enjoy it's booty and filings it's taunts
in the very face of it's difcomfted ri
val, which is indignant only because
deprived of a similar enjoyment.
The outcome of this method of con-