Among the influences which are most | cates itself to the imagination of those who perative in effecting a change of popular sion, we find three prominent: First. The desire of the great interests the country, of agriculture, of commerce, mines and manufactures, and of the arned professions, to secure for themives a government that will protect and These interests expend Rey, time, and influence upon elections. ctions in England, to a great extent, controlled by these interests. In our an country they are the great, if not the reatest, of those powers which ught immediately to bear upon opinion, stain them. a the eve of an election. are listen to him. The experience of the reform parties in France and England, and, in general, of reform parties in all parts of the world, may enable the discerning politician to assign its true value to the force of enthusiasm, as compared with that of interest in the management of elections. For our own part, we are not inclined to put confidence in the success of any movement, that turns primarily upon reform enthusiasm. The most powerful of all enthusiasms, that of superstition, is ineffectual against the continued, unseen and silent pressure of interest: a party that means to endure, must ground itself upon Second. The interest of office, and of all the physical hopes and necessities of the se who depend upon the existing admin- middle classes of men, those whose protion for their support. Previous to the perty and whose affections are engaged in ablishment of universal suffrage in France, permanent industry, under the protection e number of office-holders and of pension of permanent institutions. Masses of pores very nearly equalled, it is said, the enverty and ignorance may be roused and re number of national electors in the king- agitated by eloquence and sympathy: that m. To be an elector was to be an office- natural sympathy which unites the exolder; and the power of the government tremes of imaginative speculation with ested, through its entire extent, upon its brute ignorance and ardor; which brings patronage. It maintained itself by con- the lowest grade of humanity into a moerring office, and could not, but by brib-mentary agreement with the highest; but ry in this kind, have existed for a day. these movements, though vast and terrible, t bribed itself in. This system, pursued are like the swellings of a shallow sea, Louis Philippe and his ministers, is dashing over and submerging everything erhaps the most complete example that that rides upon its bosom. as ever been, or ever will be, of this the disasters of the radical and socialist econd means by which parties are main-parties in Europe of late years, and in ained in power; that it is the least relia- former times; or the no less eminent, ale of all, even in its full efficacy, will not be though less ruinous, failures of the radical lenied by any person acquainted with the enthusiasts in England and Ireland. Witstory of French politics during the reign ness the apparent strength, and, in times Witness of trial, the real weakness and discord of of Louis Philippe. Third. The influence of popular ideas- the Abolition party in England. Opinion. of schemes for the reformation of society, taken by itself, has no binding or harmonand of progress and revolution, in all their izing quality; it is upon INTERESTS, the life forms. These influences we have put last of society, the bond of union and the soul in order, although they are really of great- of the body politic, that the skillful party er force than the second class named. leader founds his movement; enthusiasm When they are united with the two former, is only an accessory to it. they acquire indeed an unnatural force. Let us now inquire what means will be The reformer who not only seeks office, employed by the far-sighted politician to but who is able to identify himself with national interests, with the interests of effort will be for a period of years, before secure the triumph of his party. His first culture, or of the learned professions, is fuse through all ranks and in all parts of commerce or of manufactures or of agri- the coming on of a general election, to difand only inspired himself with a peculiar the country a knowledge of the common and irresistible enthusiasm, but is able to interests of all. He will, if possible, conhis projects for reform, which communi-ests are identical with those of the m give an air of sincerity and importance to vince the agriculturist that his own inter and manufacturer; he will discover to the learned professions the secret causes of their own decline, and show them by what great national measures their own prosperity and that of every species of industry may be secured. To the slaveholder he will impart a spirit of confidence in the Union and the Constitution; and while he will not hesitate to disclose to him the economical reasons of his losses and misfortunes, he will inspire him with a confidence in the forbearance of those whose religious and moral prejudices incline them against him; he will found all arguments upon wants, necessities and facts, and rarely or never upon magnificent hopes, or hypotheses of a better state; he will take care to let all men see that he is himself a man, and that the interests he advocates are his own interests; he will avoid, as ruinous, the reputation of a theorist, a metaphysician, or a fanatic; he will as carefully fly from the other extreme, and show in every word that he is no bigot; his enthusiasm will be sincere and ardent, but it will rarely assume the character of a partisan enthusiasm. And now, when the time has nearly arrived for the trial of the great question, and parties are coming to a distinct and final issue, he will find himself acting in harmony with the sense, the property, and the permanent wisdom of the nation. Such is the course of the skillful politician in all ages. While the imagination is occupied with these, the solid means and true causes of political success, worthy as they are of the most dignified and the most intelligent minds, and while at the same time the sudden and terrible, though transient energy of reform movements is exciting the wonder of those even who are least given to admiration; combinations of office-holders and office-seekers, founded on a handful of paltry interests and meagre hopes, without dignity, without magnanimity, in a word, without any moral value or permanent importance-such combinations shrink into a contemptible insignificance. It becomes evident, it becomes certain, that they are not of that value and importance which they seem to be of. That they have a value, no man will indeed pretend to deny, but that these interested combinations are the great levers by which the million are moved, it is absurd to suppose, even for an instant. We have already pointed out the causes of the late successes of the Whigs; we have attributed them not to the efforts of an interested band of office-seekers, nor to the enthusiasm of reform movements; but solely to a conviction in the minds of those who represent the great interests of commerce, agriculture, manufactures, and all liberal pursuits, that the measures of the late administration, and of the party who elected them, were injurious to the country, and that therefore new men should be elected, who would allow the measures of the majority to have an unimpeded course. The causes of the first successes of the party, must be relied on for its continuance in power. Should it resort to other means, and adopt the policy of its antagonists—the policy of indiscriminate proscription, its moral power will be lost, and it will no longer occupy the grand position which it now holds; of a party founded upon the wants and necessities of the people, and which makes the prosperity of the working classes, and not the miscalled "reward" of office-seekers, the true end and aim of its existence. |