He must have been an inattentive student of our
political history, who has not observed that the successful prosecution
of any political enterprise has too often dignified its author in the
eyes of the people, in spite of its intrinsic iniquity. The party
reaping the benefit of the measure has not withheld the expected reward,
and the originator and abettors of the accomplished wrong have found
that exalted official position covers a multitude of sins.
Wisely availing themselves of this national weakness, and most adroitly
using all the elements of political power with which long practice had
made them familiar, the leaders of the Democratic party had every reason
to believe that the duration of their political supremacy would be
coeval with the life of the Republic. In fact, the peril predicted more
than twenty years ago, by one of the purest and wisest men whom this
country has ever seen, with a sagacity which, in the light of subsequent
events, seems almost inspired, had wellnigh become an historical fact.
"The great danger to our institutions," said Dr. Channing, writing to a
friend in 1841, "is of a party organization so subtle and strong as to
make the Government the monopoly of a few leaders, and to insure the
transmission of the executive power from hand to hand almost as
regularly as in a monarchy.
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