POLITICAL PARTIES 



4735 



POLITICAL PARTIES 



praised the monarchical form of government, 

 and partly because of the influence of the 

 French Revolution. The result of this distrust 

 was the defeat of the Federalists in 1800, and 

 the seating of Thomas Jefferson in the Presi- 

 dent's chair in 1801. 



Sixty Years of Democratic Supremacy. From 

 1801 to 1861 the Democratic party was the ma- 

 jority party. It lost, to be sure, three elections, 

 n of 1824, 1840 and 1848, but these were all 

 in the nature of political accidents. During 

 this period the Democratic party underwent a 

 double change. First, it disregarded its old 

 principles, and for a time adopted the policy 

 of liberal construction of the Constitution, but 

 after slavery became the predominant political 

 issue it again became the party of strict con- 

 struction. Opposing the Democratic was the 

 Federalist party, which was succeeded by the 

 Whigs. When the Whig party split hopelessly 

 in an attempt to hold Southern proslavery and 

 Northern antislavery men together, its place 

 was taken by the present-day Republican party. 

 There were during this period a number of 

 minor parties the Anti-Masons; the Liberty 

 party, led by James G. Birney; the Free-Soil- 

 ere, an off-shoot of the Whigs; and the Ameri- 

 can, or "Know-Nothing," party. Each of these 

 minor parties had a brief independent exist- 



ence, although its principles may have survived 

 in the two great parties. 



Period of Republican Domination. In the 

 critical year preceding the outbreak of the 

 War of Secession, the Democratic party was 

 split into Northern and Southern wings. The 

 former, during the war, was allied with the Re- 

 publicans in the so-called Union party. After 

 the war, the Southern Democrats suffered from 

 the errors of the Reconstruction period, and re- 

 mained the minority party. With the exception 

 of Grover Cleveland, no Democrat was elected 

 President until 1912, forty-seven years after the 

 surrender at Appomattox Court House. As in 

 the half century preceding the War of Seces- 

 sion, there arose minor political parties, some 

 of which threatened for a brief time to become 

 major parties. These were the Liberal Repub- 

 lican; the Greenback, or National; the Prohi- 

 bition; the Socialist, or Socialist Labor; the 

 Populist; National Democratic, and Progres- 

 sive parties. The noteworthy feature of these 

 minor party movements is the fact that nearly 

 all of them had their origin, or derived their 

 greatest strength, in a discontent with social 

 and economic conditions rather than with the 

 purely political matters which had previously 

 been considered by national parties. Almost 

 all left an impress on politics. wj.z. 



Political Parties in Canada 



The Canadian system of party organization 



odeled closely on that of the United King- 

 dom of Great Britain and Ireland. Canada has 

 responsible government, which means that the 

 executive and legislative branches of the gov- 

 ernment are properly coordinated. The con- 



v is true in the United States, where the 

 President may be, and frequently is, of a dif- 

 ferent political faith from the prevailing ma- 

 jority in Congress. In Canada, therefore, both 

 in Dominion and provincial politics, the control 



lie legislative branch is the object desired. 



control of executive appointments, except 

 in so far as these are determined by the Crown, 



n in the hands of the legislative majority. 

 Both in the Dominion and provincial parlia- 



ts it is customary for each party to elect 

 it* leader. The leader of the majority party 

 becomes Prenm r; tl loader of the minority is 

 recognized as the head of the opposition. The 

 Cabinet becomes, in fact although not in name, 

 a committee of the party in power for the pur- 

 pose of carrying on the government. It is also, 

 of course, a committee to govern the party. 



A similar concentration of authority exists in 

 provincial affairs. For the most part there have 

 been only two major parties in Canada, al- 

 though from time to time a third or even a 

 fourth party has been influential. 



Origin and Development of Parties. Politi- 

 cal parties in Canada were first formally or- 

 ganized after the War of 1812. In the decade 

 following the war there arose in Upper Canada 

 a sharp division between the ruling political 

 class and a vigorous group of reformers. The 

 latter were aroused by the pride and power, 

 both socially and politically, of the small group 

 of Tories who were known as the "Family Com- 

 pact." The opposition demanded responsible 

 government, substantially as it was known in 

 England. Conspicuous among the reformers 

 were William Lyon Mackenzie and Robert 

 Baldwin. In Lower Canada too, there was a 

 demand for greater popular rights. There thr 

 leader of agitation was Louis J. Papineau. 



The Rebellion of 1837, although if resulted 

 in the granting of specific reforms, did the gen- 

 eral cause of reform considerable harm, for the 



