THE BOSS AND THE MACHINE

CHAPTER I. THE RISE OF THE PARTY

The party system is an essential instrument of Democracy.
Wherever government rests upon the popular will, there the party
is the organ of expression and the agency of the ultimate power.
The party is, moreover, a forerunner of Democracy, for parties
have everywhere preceded free government. Long before Democracy
as now understood was anywhere established, long before the
American colonies became the United States, England was divided
between Tory and Whig. And it was only after centuries of bitter
political strife, during which a change of ministry would not
infrequently be accompanied by bloodshed or voluntary exile, that
England finally emerged with a government deriving its powers
from the consent of the governed.

The functions of the party, both as a forerunner and as a
necessary organ of Democracy, are well exemplified in American
experience. Before the Revolution, Tory and Whig were party names
used in the colonies to designate in a rough way two ideals of
political doctrine. The Tories believed in the supremacy of the
Executive, or the King; the Whigs in the supremacy of Parliament.
The Tories, by their rigorous and ruthless acts giving effect to
the will of an un-English King, soon drove the Whigs in the
colonies to revolt, and by the time of the Stamp Act (1765) a
well-knit party of colonial patriots was organized through
committees of correspondence and under the stimulus of local
clubs called "Sons of Liberty." Within a few years, these
patriots became the Revolutionists, and the Tories became the