THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.
THE most striking of the many differences between American and English politics is the relation of parties to their leaders. In England, the leader is almost everything, possesses the power alike of initiative and veto, is often the creator of his own party, to which he gives his name, and is always the object of a loyalty differing rather in kind than in degree from that which is given to popular Kings. Occasionally he is the object., indeed, of a kind of idolatry, and can then issue decisions which change the very wills of his worshippers, as the Mikado's decrees do, so that they follow him with readi- ness on lines which, but for him, would have appeared to them abhorrent. But for Mr. Gladstone, for example, every Liberal would have resisted Irish Home-rule up to or beyond the verge of civil war. These leaders give their followers cues, arguments, and guidance; their speeches are read with microscopic attention, and their letters are treated with more respect than the proclamations of Royalty. In America, on the contrary, the parties have, strictly speaking, no leaders at all, only agents whom they select to carry out their policy, and whom they raise to the first places in the State on condition that they shall strictly adhere to previously settled "platforms." Their speeches are read, like other speeches, for the sake of the arguments they may contain ; and until they are nominated to the highest offices, they are frequently almost unknown beyond the boundaries of their own States. Their followers own no loyalty to them comparable with their loyalty to parties ; and if they find them unpopular, or opposed by large sections of the voters, fling them back without a scruple into the obscurity from which they have been withdrawn. The ablest men in American parties, therefore, rarely rise to leadership, and when they do, make so many enemies that they still more rarely secure the highest offices in the State. A Mr. Gladstone is in America almost inconceivable, and if he could exist, would most assuredly never be elected President, unless, indeed, he had been a successful Presi- dent before, when no doubt, as happened with Mr. Lincoln, the wire-pullers and the people fixing on the same man, opposition becomes futile, and in practice disappears. The consequence of this contempt or disregard of leaders, is that the people do not elect the head of the Executive at all. Only sections of them confide in any particular man, or feel any obligation to support him ; and the task of selecting the candidate who is entitled to the unbroken party vote, is confided to a Convention, or assembly of delegates, sent up nominally by all the voters belonging to the party in each State, but really by the influential electors of each district. A portion of these delegates are " instructed " to vote for a particular man who happens to be known to the electors, whether as President or as politician ; but the majority, though they are doubtless made aware of the favourite name, are left free, if he appears impossible, to select some other whom it may be easier to carry, the one condition absolute being that he shall have a fair chance of success. As that man has the best chance who has fewest enemies, and therefore obtains the unbroken party vote, it con- stantly happens that all eminent men are excluded, and that the choice falls on a comparatively unknown man, who may be qualified or may not, but who is to the mass of the electors merely a name, a standard-bearer appointed to carry the party colours. Abraham Lincoln, popular as he afterwards justly became, was originally nothing better than a flag ; and when he was elected, was so utterly unknown to the electors, that in consequence of a sudden rush which he made into Washington, a rush insisted on by his advisers, who had become aware of dangerous plots against his freedom or his life, he was actually suspected of personal cowardice. The flag-candidate brings out the greatest strength of the party, and except in extreme cases, like Mr. Lincoln's second election, when the people, growing excited, act independently of any wire-pullers, has always the best chance of being elected. The present may be such an extreme case. Mr. Blaine attracting an unusual amount of admiration ; but all the signs indicate to observers that neither he nor his rival, President Harrison, has any serious chance. The section of the party devoted to each is too hostile to the section devoted to the other. If Mr. Harrison is selected as the candidate, thousands of Mr. Blaine's friends will abstain, in their irritation, from the polls, declaring that they want a man for their President, and not a man's cloak ; while if Mr. Blaine is selected, thousands of Mr. Harrison's friends will vote against him, alleging that he is is a " cuckoo " who has sub- tilely and basely, by intrigue and bullying, evicted the legitimate owner of the nest. Mr. Harrison, too, has disappointed many of the sanguine, who looked to him to secure purity of patronage ; while Mr. Blaine is regarded by a large body of his party as "an Aaron Burr,"—that is, a candidate of brilliant parts, who fights for his own hand alone, and if not personally corrupt, is too unprincipled not to condone corruption in his principal supporters. Mr. Harrison is further accused of being a "disagreeable man," which means, we fancy, in America, a reserved man ; while Mr. Blaine is charged with a weak- ness of constitution which would make his election practi- cally an election of any man who may be selected for Vice-President. Finally, Mr. Harrison is anathema to all the Silver States, w hose greed he has resisted with creditable nerve; while Mr. Blaine, horrible to relate, does not believe in the McKinley Tariff, and has tried to turn the Protectionist flank by a scheme of Reciprocity. Altogether, the prospect is, that if either of the prominent candidates is elected, the chance of the Democrats' success will be seriously in- creased; and as that would temporarily ruin Republican hopes, a comparatively unknown candidate will, in spite of the evidence afforded by the early ballots, probably be selected,—Mr. Robert Lincoln, as the only dark horse whose name is known to the whole Union, and who would bring out the unbroken Negro vote, having perhaps the best chance of all.
It is an extraordinary system for keeping the ablest men out of the Presidential chair, but it is difficult to think of a device by which it could be improved. The Founders of the Republic thought they bad remedied any possible evil by ordering the primary voters to choose an Electoral College ; and the failure of that device, which is in theory a super-excellent device, and in practice has created a mere Electoral Post Office, is fatal to any scheme of double election. The power cannot be entrusted to Congress,— first, because Congress and the people are often out of accord; and secondly, because the intention of the Con- stitution is that President and Congress should be checks upon each other ; and an election by mass- vote would end in a selection by Conventions very much of the existing type. The Eastern States, more- over, would feel drowned, the wave of population rolling so heavily westward that none but a Western man would ever be elected. Perhaps the best scheme would be to abolish Conventions, alter the etiquettes, and call on all candidates to do the best they could to attract the masses of the people—that is what would be done here if we had Presidential government—but it is wholly opposed to American feeling, which considers the People sovereign, and leaves choice in their hands, as effete Europe leaves it, nominally at least, to the Kings. Candidates in America at present behave like girls upon their promotion, and while they may employ every art to be attractive, would be shocked at the mere idea of proposing themselves for the place they so desire to fill. Mr. Blaine positively blushes in public at the very idea of being a candidate, and will only consent to think of such a thing "at the wish of the unanimous party,"—that is, after the proposal has been made. We fancy the system must continue, and that the only chance for eminent men is in the deliberate choice of the Conven- tions; and even of that, except occasionally, there is but little hope. For it is by no means so certain as the advo- cates of democracy contend, that the Americans desire to see their government always in the hands of an eminent man. They prefer rather respectable mediocrity, sprung, if possible, from a class which in early life has worked with its hands. Mr. Lincoln, the lawyer who had been a rail-splitter, General Garfield, the lawyer who had been a labourer, is nearer their ideal, they fancying that to have worked is a guarantee of sympathy with workmen. They do not expect anything from leaders except upon the battle- field, where the necessity of victory drives theories of equality out of their heads; and forces them to recognise not only that one man is not as good as another, but that one man must obey another, under penalty of being killed in a disastrous flight. Theories of equality are abandoned when shells are about, in the Union as every where else ; but at all other times Americans believe that the People can govern with- out guidance from intellectual superiors, as well as without guidance from superiors by right of birth. We do not believe in their wisdom, but hitherto they have had amazing good fortune, and their choice of Abraham Lincoln, the unknown man who more than all known men was qualified to guide them through a grand explosion, may almost justify them in believing that Providence directly protects the blind. At all events, they will not modify their system until it has broken down, and the outside world has only to gain experience by watching its results, so curiously unsuccessful in securing brilliant heads of the State, yet productive of so little reason for despair. The prosperity of America will doubtless survive a good many inferior Presidents, and it is only when a great struggle is at hand, and reality presses them hard, that a tribe resolved not to perish, lifts its ablest upon his shield. England has still a large place in the world, though Mr. Addington and Mr. Perceval were once its ruling men.
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