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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sion affirms ; and, as far as conscience allows, 

 a man should support that which he thinks 

 host. In one respect, however, all parties 

 agree. They all foster that pestilent spirit 

 which I now condemn. In all of them party 

 spirit rages. Associate men together for a 

 common cause, be it good or bad, and array 

 against them a body resolutely pledged to an 

 opposite interest, and a new passion, quite 

 distinct from the original sentiment which 

 brought them together, a fierce, fiery zeal, 

 consisting chiefly of aversion to those who 

 differ from them, is roused within them into 

 fearful activity. Human nature seems inca- 

 pable of a stronger, more unrelenting passion. 

 It is hard enough for an individual, when 

 contending all alone for an interest or an opin- 

 ion, to keep down his pride, willfulness, love 

 of victory, anger, and other personal feelings. 

 But let him join a multitude in the same war- 

 fare, and, without singular self-control, he 

 receives into his single breast the vehemence, 

 obstinacy, and vindictiveness of all. The 

 triumph of his party becomes immeasurably 

 dearer to him than the principle, true or false, 

 which was the original ground of division. 

 The conflict becomes a struggle, not for prin- 

 ciple, but for power, for victory ; and the des- 

 perateness, the wickedness, of such struggles, 

 is the great burden of history. In truth, it 

 matters little what men divide about, whether 

 it be a foot of land or precedence in a proces- 

 sion. Let them but begin to fight for it, and 

 self-will, ill-will, the rage for victory, the 

 dread of mortification and defeat, make the 

 trifle as weighty as a matter of life and death. 

 The Greek or Eastern Empire was shaken to 

 its foundation by parties which differed only 

 about the merits of charioteers at the amphi- 

 theatre. Party spirit is singularly hostile to 

 moral independence. A man, in proportion 

 as he drinks into it, sees, hears, judges by the 

 senses and understandings of his party. He 

 surrenders the freedom of a man, the right 

 of using and speaking his own mind, and 

 echoes the applauses or maledictions with 

 which the leaders or passionate partisans see 

 fit that the country should ring. On all points 

 parties are to be distrusted ; but on no one so 

 much as on the character of opponents. These, 

 if you may trust what you hear, are always 

 men without principle and truth, devoured by 

 selfishness, and thirsting for their own eleva- 

 tion, though on their country's ruin. When 

 I was young, I was accustomed to hear pro- 

 nounced with abhorrence almost with exe- 

 cration the names of men who are now hailed 

 by their P irmer foes as the champions of grand 

 principles, and as worthy of the highest pub- 

 lic trusts. 



This is a dark indictment, but Dr. 

 Charming was a man who weighed his 

 words. He represents partisan politics 

 as a blighting influence, fatal to self- 

 improvement, hostile to moral inde- 

 pendence, and degrading to character. 

 He says that "truth, justice, candor, 

 fair-dealing, sound judgment, self-con- 

 trol, and kind affections, are its natural 

 and perpetual prey." A system the 

 spirit of which makes "truth" its 

 "natural and perpetual prey," it is 

 needless to say, is not favorable to sci- 

 ence. Science can not grow, it can 

 not exist, in such an atmosphere. 



If it be said that Dr. Channing wrote 

 forty years ago, the reply is that forty 

 years have not mended matters. There 

 is, on the contrary, every evidence that 

 party ends are now pursued in this 

 country with more recklessness of false- 

 hood and more shameless unscrupulous- 

 ness than ever before. That " all is fair 

 in politics" a maxim that would be 

 scouted in the cock-pit and on the race- 

 course is not a recent rule; but the 

 bad arts of an inveterate partisanship 

 have been gradually perfected. With 

 our political progress principles are pro- 

 gressively eliminated from politics, and 

 first-class men are driven from the field. 

 More and more it is becoming the func- 

 tion of the people merely to ratify at the 

 polls the proceedings of wire-pullers, 

 plotters, intriguing demagogues, caucus- 

 bullies, and convention-desperadoes. It 

 is notorious that our politics has passed 

 into the hands of practiced professionals, 

 who outmanoeuvrestraightforward men, 

 and drive them to the wall. Every- 

 thing is done by management and under 

 false pretenses. Party excitement is 

 stimulated by stirring up the meanest 

 passions and by plying all the arts of 

 detraction and falsehood. When the 

 campaign opens, the sluices of slander 

 soon run full. Here comes the last 

 "Evening Post," representing the state 

 of things in 1880. In a leader it. says: 

 "As generally conducted, our Presi- 

 dential campaigns are so volcanic out- 



