Politics in a Democracy; An Essay Volume 3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: ...Hall. It is taken for granted that, the organization once overthrown, the victory will be won. Thus reform agitation means simply the establishment of an anti-Tammany party, under the idea that Tammany government is inherently vicious, while anti-Tammany government will be certain to be virtuous. Those who are believed to be actuated by higher principles respecting political action are invited, not to assist in particular reforms, not even to work for improvement without reference to party, but to join in organizing an anti-Tammany party. Non-partisan though such movements may be claimed to be, they ultimate in the formation of as strong an association as can be established, whose prime object is to overthrow the power of Tammany Hall. They imitate Tammany methods of organization and electioneering, and the result of their efforts, if successful, would be to substitute for the Tammany machine 1 another machine, whose chief characteristic is op-p position to Tammany. The significance of these facts is that the opposition is founded on something deeper than reasonable and legitimate criticism of civil administration; otherwise we should sometimes find reformers supporting Tammany. For it is not conceivable that such an organization, in power by suffrage, should be wholly bad at all times and as respects all its candidates. The aversion is like a religious or a racial antipathy. A Frenchman dislikes a German because he is a German, not because he is a depraved man; or; perhaps, the Gaul determines that the Goth is depraved because he is a German. A Catholic in the times of the Inquisition thought that a Protestant must be satanic in character because he was a Protestant. So a Tammany man in the eyes of anti-Tammany must be a renegade...