a principle that then appealed powerfully, and that still
appeals, to much in the American character. This was the
principle of negative action on the part of the government--the
old idea that the government should do as little as possible and
should confine itself practically to the duties of the policeman.
This principle has seemed always to express to the average mind
that traditional individualism which is an inheritance of the
Anglo-Saxon race. In America, in the middle of the nineteenth
century, it reenforced that tradition of local independence which
was strong throughout the West and doubly strong in the South.
Then, too, the Democratic party still spoke the language of the
theoretical Democracy inherited from Jefferson. And Americans
have always been the slaves of phrases!

Furthermore, the close alliance of the Northern party machine
with the South made it, generally, an object of care for all
those Northern interests that depended on the Southern market.
As to the Southerners, their relation with this party has two
distinct chapters. The first embraced the twenty years preceding
the Compromise of 1850, and may be thought of as merging into the
second during three or four years following the great
equivocation. In that period, while the antislavery crusade was
taking form, the aim of Southern politicians was mainly negative.
"Let us alone," was their chief demand. Though aggressive in
their policy, they were too far-sighted to demand of the North
any positive course in favor of slavery. The rise of a new type
of Southern politician, however, created a different situation
and began a second chapter in the relation between the South and
the Democratic party machine in the North. But of that
hereafter.