Without Going With Minuteness Into The Early Contests Of Democracy
In The United States, I Think I May Say That There Soon Arose Two
Parties, Each Probably Equally Anxious In The Cause Of Freedom, One
Of Which Was Conspicuous For Its French Predilections And The Other
For Its English Aptitudes.
It was the period of the French
Revolution - the time when the French Revolution had in it as yet
something of promise and had not utterly disgraced itself.
To many
in America the French theory of democracy not unnaturally endeared
itself and foremost among these was Thomas Jefferson. He was the
father of those politicians in the States who have since taken the
name of Democrats, and in accordance with whose theory it has come
to pass that everything has been referred to the universal suffrage
of the people. James Madison, who succeeded Jefferson as President,
was a pupil in this school, as indeed have been most of the
Presidents of the United States. At the head of the other party,
from which through various denominations have sprung those who now
call themselves Republicans, was Alexander Hamilton. I believe I
may say that all the political sympathies of George Washington were
with the same school. Washington, however, was rather a man of
feeling and of action than of theoretical policy or speculative
opinion. When the Constitution was written Jefferson was in France,
having been sent thither as minister from the United States, and he
therefore was debarred from concerning himself personally in the
matter.
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