The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-08-20
PARTY DICTATORS, PAST AND
PRESENT.

|
over his party amounting TO prac-
teal dictatorship.
Mr.. Bryan's nomination at Denver
Is equally impressive of his supreme
influence over the rank and file of
the great party he has led twice to
defeat but never to victory.
This evidence of control
ling power over American politics in
two men, shaping the actions of the
! two great political parties to their
will, looks from one point OF view
discouraging, but glance backward
shows that similar conditions in
politics prevailed even in the early
days of the republic and that moth
ing like wreck or ruin followed.
In the earlier period the great
| body of the people and the conserva-
tive forces of business and industry
made the proper adjustment against
the possible danger of hero worship
and submission to single mind, and
the same thing will happen again.
! Speaking of Mr.. Bryan's remarkable
hold on the democracy Charles M.
Harvey, writing in the Globe-Demo-
crat says:
ITO find any parallel to the sway
exerted over his party by the twice
defeated Mr. Bryan we must go back
| to the most popular and most power
full of the presidents, like Jefferson
and Jackson say after their second
elections We know that jefferson
was popular with the country from
| the fact that in his second election,
in 1904, he received practically
unanimous vote, 1872 to IA. although
his antagonist Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney, was one of the leading
| spirits of the federalist party. The
federalist party was on the down.
ward course at that time, but it had
a fairly strong delegation in con-
gress, and some of it's members were
a striking instance of Jefferson's
sway over the people in the fact that
he was able to put his embargo
policy through congress by an over
whelming majority, and after very
little consideration. With the hope
of Furnishing England and France
then at war with each other, and to
compel them to give to American
vessels the fair treatment guaran-
teed to neutrals by the observances
of nations, Jefferson proposed his
embargo, which was a cessation of
trade by the United States with
those countries. John Quincy Adams,
then in the senate, voiced the view
of most of the other members by
saying that as the president proposed
this measure it ought to be adopted
without delay. 1t went through con-
gress promptly, though only after
protests from the federalists, most
of them resided in New England,
| which would be the first locality to
be hit by this commerce-annihilatin
| policy
! And of Jackson this:
Fully as striking an instance of
| absolutism in the way of a presi-
dent over his party and the country
was shown by Jackson in the over
| throw of the United States Bank.
which he began to assail in his first
year of office, 1929. and kept up the
| attack until he drove it out of ex-
istence in 1886. He attacked the
bank on several srounds--it was I'M
constitutional, it was unnecessary,
it exercised damaging influence on
business, it was a vast political ma
| chine, and 1t corrupted politicians
and sought to control the govern
ment. Jackson unquestionably be-
| lieved all these things. A majority
of the people believed most of them.
| Many of the leaders of Jackson's own
| party, however, believed none of
| them No sensible person of any party
today believes any of those charges
Nevertheless, some of the acts of
the banks president, Nicholas Bid
die, and of the banks leading cham
| pion in congress, Clay, gave color
to certain counts in Jackson's in
dictment. Biddle assailed Jackson
fiercely through the press, Clay
pushed bill through the democratic |
| congress in 1892 granting a twenty
years charter TO the bank, although
its existing charter would not ex-
pire until 1886. BY doing this early !
| in the presidential year, they made |
the bank the paramount issue in the |
campaign, and gave Jackson an OPP
portunity to appear as tribune of
the people. Jackson promptly vetoed |
the bill, and its friends in congress
were unable to muster the two-thirds |
vote needed to override the veto. !
The campaign was waged on the |
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