AMERICAN CAUCUS SYSTEM.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 67, 11 January 1879, Page 2

AMERICAN CAUCUS SYSTEM.

(From the Melbourne Argns.) Tho introduction into Kngland of the American caucus system, or rather of secret and irresponsible conventions, for the purpose of "working" elections in tho interest of party organisations, is a proceeding which is naturally viewed with aversion aud dismay by tin- best friends of that representative governmont wlnoh it is calculated to subvert. That it should have received the hasty and inconsiderate approval of some prominent politicians in the mother country is not to he regarded as an argument in its favour. It is, on the contrary, another painful evidence of the fact that public men too frequently succumb I" the temptation to subordinate their convictions as statesmen to the temporary exigencies of the party with which they are associated, and to snorlHco tho interests of the country to personal ambition. It is a proof, alio, that the perversion and deformation of tho political institutions of tho United States which have resulted from the caucus and tho convention, are very imperfectly understood iu Qreat Britain. For if there is one point upon which high-minded American* of all parties arc perfectly agreed, and in which the most. COSpeotablo and independent reviews, inagasines, ami newspapers of th t country toueur, it is in

deelarin" that "the machine, m tt is call I i- '!•'■ perennial foootaw bead •' ■tome of the i;r.nn »t ivils wlm-li afflict the nation. And tha magnitude of tfwae is ww-oli' susceptible of exaggeration. S .!.»• of them wen> thiw enumerated by Mr David Dudley Hold to.an articlo upon "Corruption in Politics," which appeai-ed in the International Review : • Wp see 39 states, owinj an aggregate of 582,000,000d01.. and >•- ■'• . eight p.iv neith r principal nor inl ' we see countries cities and townships overwhelmed with debt; and all !l while these rarioust iovernuients—federal, stute, and innniripal—take from our people in taxes more than any Government of Christendom takes from its people. We see oHiceii which it. is the fnuctinn of the President to fill, and which it is his plain duty to fill with the truest and best, funned out to senators and representatives in [Congress. Wo sec nffi-es claimed and bestowed not for merit, but for party work, and, as a natural consequence, wo see the public service inoflicieut and disordered. A\ osee venal Legislatures and executive olKcers receiving gifts. Wn see the most, depraved and least responsible newspaper press in nil the world. We sec a customs tariff which taxes SO2 imported articles, and !>72 dilfereut grades of these articles, some of them to the extent of 100 pelcent, of their value, while tile tariff of England taxes only 17, and the tariff of fjermanv I"''2. arranged in :>7 classes. » We'ser depreciated paper money forced upon creditors who contracted for eoin, iiiid swaying prices back and forth like the swing ot a weavers shuttle. We see a commerce whieli on overcd the sens mm so diminished that in this present war the tonnage of onr scaifiin" steamers is 250.000. h'ifteen veai-s ago we were advancing with the stride of a giant to the dominion of the seas; to-day the trident is ill of her hun.ls." The Hon. ('ail Sehiins, a m■••iiher of I'residenl Hayes." Cabinet, told !'■•■■ ate that there was nothing !>•-' in'"':;. : the depravity ami corruption of |. iil ■. lit'.- in America in any ether civil: country in the world, that the gi . agency .if demoralisation was the caucusystem, and that, unless it wnre destroyed republican institutions would run tierisk of perishing of the dry rot. And another distinguished politician has described how, when n convention has been organise 1 hv fraud, it is " surrounded by an mined mob of bruisers and ballot-box stuif is. with a binOin-; judiciary to defend, and a venal press "to apologise for i: ; and how a dozen wire-pullers control the nomination.-) for every high ofXco in their state, beeause they can manipulate " n sufficient nuinber of men. trained for the purpose, who sneeze whenever These conventions, under the name of . executive tfnniniitlees, are being transplanted lo the motlier country : and form . the subject of a well-timed article by M . . K 1). S. Wilson in the October number of the Nineteenth Century. He remarks . that if the voku which Mr. l-'oistt-r refused to pass under .it Bradford should i be once accepted by candidates "nr a sent . in the house uf (..'ominous. " it will crush out individuality of character in public. life, will extinguish the free discussion 1 and competitive examination of opinions . before elections, will practically di - franchise minorities, will strike a sharp line between parties and a line drawn f not by real natural ditt'ercnecs of princi--1 pie but by the controversy that may , i;est be twisted into a ' rrv,' and. worst of . all, will pass under the control of the . wire-puller-., and will developc all the . evils which have degraded and defeated . popular government in the I'nited States,'' A member elected under such degrading t conditions will be merely a delegate, and . will not he even the delegate of the con- ., stittieney, but of the little knot of wiivi. pullers calling itself an executive coms mittec or a reform league, to which ho i owes his nomination. This will he eomi posed of professional politicians, who will f bave th.-ir own venal and dirty objects i to accomplish, mid from whom the delegate must submit to receive, his instructions, under penalty of being placed under the ban of his mast, rs at the next genera! election. None but sycophants, abject place-hunter-, and men destitute of principle and independence will stoop to the humiliation of entering a professedly representative ( 'hambcr by such despie- ■ able means, and the result' would be what f has actually occurred in the I'tutcd Stati s

—tho ostracism from public life .it' tho mural worth, the eminent übilitv, and -in tli" true sense of Hi' word tho natural aristocracy of tho couutry. There would be in every constituency a small soli: appointed college of primary electors, •• holding," as John Stuart Mill roinurkod, •• no permanent olHec or position in the public oye," deliberating in secret, utterly irresponsible, and exercising their functions from motives tlutt might be simply capricious to day and thoroughly corrupt to-morrow, When thai philosophical writer discussed this subject twenty years ago, lu> apologised " for saying so much against a political expedient which perhaps could not, in England, muster a single adherent," The time has como, unfortunately, when this pernicious system, linils many advocates, who perceive its utility for parly purposes, whilo they ate blind to the subversion nl ri - prescntative government which it would inevitably entail. It has destroyed individual 'liberty tmd individual respoiui bility in the United States, wto n it has established a new f >rtit ut di potisra, as odious and revolting as it i, vulgar and dcWihig; and Mr. Wilson—who is himself u liberal—may well declare that

•' there an no imaginable: gains t" be ox ]•■•• •! from the reconstruction of i Libera] majority in the House nf Cow inoni thai con be weighed for an instan in the scale* of prudence or in tins,. ~ principle, against the complicated peril <>f organisation under the caucus. I English puliticiAita wish to be infonnei wlial fruits the system has borne in Vic toria, the reply in this: It bus siil-ti tut. .1 voting machines for representative in the Legislative Assembly : it lias sup paired the open dLsuussion of question of law anil policy in that Chamber; am it has enabled a clique uf voieeferous am unsi rtipulous agitators to combine t. ili \ the right of public meeting and o li to their political npjK uts Against »nch an intolerable tyranny tin f our countrymen at home wil