IMPRESSION'S OF AMERICA. 



141 



political agitation in order to resist a policy which 

 was regarded as the cause of national distress. 

 From the close of the war down to the election 

 of Mr. Hayes there were no public questions 

 which were calculated to kindle popular passion, 

 none that created the enthusiasm and the hos- 

 tility which were aroused in this country by the 

 struggle for Catholic emancipation, for the Re- 

 form Bill of 1832, for the abolition of the Corn 

 Laws, for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, 

 for the extension of the suffrage in boroughs, for 

 the reform and reconstruction of the national 

 system of education — none that could excite the 

 fervor both of support and of antagonism which is 

 excited by the present movement for the dises- 

 tablishment of the Church of England. Of late 

 years the most violent contests in America have 

 turned upon persons rather than upon principles. 

 " The American people," some one has said, " care 

 very little about politics, but a great deal about 

 politicians." 



Further, the energy of political life is lessened, 

 and the current of political interest is broken, 

 by the division of power between the State Legis- 

 latures and Congress. America is the paradise 

 of home-rulers. With the interior affairs of the 

 several States the Washington Government has 

 no authority to interfere. Within its own limits, 

 the government of every State is charged with 

 the protection both of life and property ; it pre- 

 serves order and controls all matters of police ; 

 tries criminals in its own courts, and punishes 

 them in its own prisons ; enforces civil contracts ; 

 regulates the mode of acquiring, holding, selling, 

 and conveying property ; legislates on all social 

 questions, such as education, pauperism, mar- 

 riage and the domestic relations, wills and testa- 

 ments ; provides roads and bridges ; grants pow- 

 ers for the making of railways and canals ; levies, 

 collects, and administers taxes for all purposes of 

 government within its own boundaries. On the 

 other hand, " within the several States the Fed- 

 eral Government has power to levy taxes for 

 national purposes ; to establish post-offices and 

 post-roads, receive, transport, and distribute mail 

 matter ; to regulate foreign commerce, and the 

 commerce and navigation between States ; to ex- 

 ercise certain enumerated military powers; to 

 borrow money ; to establish a uniform system of 

 naturalization and uniform laws upon the subject 

 of bankruptcies ; to secure copyrights to authors, 

 and patents to inventors ; to coin money, ... to 

 regulate the currency, as is now claimed, and fix 

 the standard of weights and measures ; to punish 

 certain enumerated crimes and all violations of its ! 



own laws ; and to hold courts to administer its 

 own laws, and to administer justice beteen citizens 

 of differentt Sates and in a few other cases." ' It 

 has also the entire control of the foreign relations 

 of the country. 



It is at Washington that statesmen win a na- 

 tional reputation ; and in the great crises of the 

 national history, when war seems imminent, when 

 any of the States are disposed to secede, when 

 commercial disasters compel the whole country 

 to reexamine the principles of free trade, or the 

 currency laws, or the laws regulating bankruptcy, 

 Congress is the centre of all political excitement. 

 But in quiet times Congress has very little to oc- 

 cupy it. To the farmers of Illinois and to the 

 citizens of Boston, Washington seems to be a 

 very long way off, and Washington has nothing 

 to do with most of those departments of Govern- 

 ment which affect most closely the affairs of or- 

 dinary life. But the State Legislatures, though 

 charged with great powers, fail to appeal to the 

 popular imagination. The State, though it may 

 cover more square miles than an ancient and 

 powerful European kingdom, is dwarfed to the 

 American mind by the extent of the national ter- 

 ritory, and the importance of State politics suffers 

 a corresponding diminution. This system of 

 home-rule is an historical necessity, and it is vin- 

 dicated by its practical adaptation to the necessi- 

 ties of the people. But it divides political inter- 

 est. Political life loses the depth and the force 

 derived from concentration. 



The interest of the general community in po- 

 litical affairs is lessened by another and perhaps 

 still more powerful cause. In the United States 

 during the last fifty years, it has been customary 

 for each political party, on its accession to power, 

 to expel its opponents from all the appointments 

 in the civil service worth having, in order to 

 make way for the promotion of its own adher- 

 ents. This was not the custom in the earlier 

 days of the republic. During Washington's Ad- 

 ministration, which covered eight years, he re- 

 moved " six unimportant collectors, one district 

 surveyor, one vice-consul, and one foreign minis- 

 ister," nine persons in all; and none of them 

 were removed because they did not belong to his 

 own party. John Adams " removed nine subor- 

 dinate officers during his presidency, but none for 

 political opinion's sake." " Jefferson," according 

 to Mr. Parton, from whose life of Andrew Jack- 

 son 2 I have quoted these facts, " removed thirty - 



1 " The American System of Government," by Ezra 

 Seaman, pp. 25, 26. 



2 Vol. Hi., pp. 207, sq. 



