Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-31
Complete Collapse
of Federalist Party,

OF FederallSt rarity. tue of their
position with respect to foreign policies
Then, for the first time, domestic prob
lens arose and pressed for settlement
in 1916. at the behest of Pennsylvania
Congress enacted a protective tariff,
which resulted in further stimulating
American industries The strict con-
structionists and the latitudinarians
again clashed upon the question of wheth-
er the federal government possessed the
power under the constitution to appro-
pirate money for roadS, canals and other
internal improvements.
Henry Clay, who had come into nation
al prominence in the young republican re-
volt of 1870 placed himself at the head
of the progressive faction. He formulated
a protective tariff doctrine which he named
the American system. He was heartily in
favor of internal improvements, and he
was so thoroughly devoted to the bust
| ness of advancing the material prosperity
of the country that he deprecated the in
lection Of purely political questions into
the national forum Thus he was always
ready with a compromise measure to
| stave off the final reckoning on political
questions, that he might save his indus
| trial program from disturbance He was
a protectionist because he believed pro-
! lection would enrich the north: he was
| for internal improvements because they
would develop and enrich the west, and he
was for slavery because it would enrich
| the south.
| He flattered himself, and the country
| agreed with him, that he had forever
| taken the
Clay's Missouri Compromise cry
as Political Stroke. onf %
politics by the Missouri compromise of
1890. In his ardent young republican
days he had defeated the bill to recharter
the Bank of the United States. but the
panic of 1916 caused him to change his
mind and, in consonance with his gen.
eral faith in the material future of the
| country, he became stanch defender of
the bank and therefore an ally of the
money power
| But, unfortunately for Clay, there were
important political questions which could
not be compromised and which in the
| minds of great majority of the people
were more important than the economic
and fiscal questions which Clay thought
| to make the paramount issues. In state
| after state the ruling classes had been
compelled by popular revolutions to grant
| new Constitutions which extended the
Ght of suffrage, which abolished or re-
| embodied reforms demanded by the new
democracy. The oligarchies overthrown
in the states were not clearly different
in form from that small number OF men
at Washington who had assumed the
| power and authority to select Presidents
and administer the affairs OF the gov
eminent. 1t was inevitable that this gen.
eral democratic revolution should. attack
the national government Defeated in
1924 by what they were pleased to be-
| lieve q corrupt bargain, the new demo-
Gratis, with n war hero for their leader,
gained control of Congress in 1926 and
of the presidency two years later.
The wings under Adams and Clay, I'M
able to combat openly the democratic de-
mand for popular participation in govern
ment. sought to create a diversion by a
strong South American policy in pur-
suance of the Monroe doctrine, and in
sisted upon protective tariff and inter-
| nal improvements. The protective doc
| trine alienated the south, but as the dem
ocrats were careful not to commit them
selves on the tariff. it did not succeed in
uniting the north.
| Although at this distance it Is clear that
/ the administration of the second Adams
IN a d e a
People Held Adams most excel
Federalist in Disguise. for itse,,
the people of that day looked upon Ad-
ans as a federalist in disguise. who
sought to build up an artstocracy and to