The Rise of the Democracy Part 11

The Whigs, or Republicans, as they came to be called, stood for a strong Federal Government; the Democrats were jealous for the rights of State Governments. The issue was not decided till the Civil War of 1861-1865, when the southern slave-holding States, seeing slavery threatened, announced their secession from the United States. Abraham Lincoln, the newly-elected President, declared that the Government could not allow secession, and insisted that the war was to save the union. Slavery was abolished and the Union saved by the defeat of the Secessionists; but for a time the fortunes of the Union were more desperate than they had been at any time since the Declaration of Independence.

Hamilton was the real founder of the Republican party, as Jefferson was of the Democrats. Both these men were prominent in the making of the American Const.i.tution in 1787, and Jefferson was the responsible author of the Declaration of Independence. But Franklin and Paine made large contributions to the democratic independence of America.

THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)

Edmund Randolph, the first Attorney-General of the United States, was on Washington's staff at the beginning of the War, and he ascribed independence in the first place to George III., but next to "Thomas Paine, an Englishman by birth."[75]

Paine's later controversies with theological opponents have obscured his very considerable services to American Independence, to political democracy in England, and to const.i.tutional government in the French Revolution; and as mankind is generally, and naturally, more interested in religion than in politics, Paine is remembered rather as an "infidel"--though he was a strong theist--than as a gifted writer on behalf of democracy and a political reformer of original powers.

Paine--who came of a Suffolk Quaker family--reached America in 1774, on the very threshold of the war. His Quaker principles made him attack negro slavery on his arrival, and he endeavoured, without success, to get an anti-slavery clause inserted in the "Declaration of Independence." He served in the American ranks during the war, and was the friend of Washington, who recognised the value of his writings. For Paine's "Common Sense" pamphlet and his publication, "The Crisis," had enormous circulation, and were of the greatest value in keeping the spirit of independence alive in the dark years of the war. They were fiercely Republican; and though they were not entirely free from contemporary notions of government established on the ruins of a lost innocence, they struck a valiant note of self-reliance, and emphasised the importance of the average honest man. "Time makes more converts than reason," wrote Paine. Of monarchy he could say, "The fate of Charles I. hath only made kings more subtle--not more just"; and, "Of more worth is one honest man to society, and in the sight of G.o.d, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived."

Paine was in England in 1787, busy with scientific inventions, popular in Whig circles and respected. The fall of the Bastille won his applause, as it did the applause of Fox and the Whigs, but it was not till the publication of Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France," in 1790, that Paine again took up his pen on behalf of democracy.

Burke had been the hero of Paine and the Americans in the War of Independence, and his speeches and writings had justified the republic. And now it was the political philosophy of Hobbes that Burke seemed to be contending for when he insisted that the English people were bound for ever to royalty by the act of allegiance to William III.

Paine replied to Burke the following year with the "Rights of Man" which he wrote in a country inn, the "Angel," at Islington. It was not so much to demolish Burke as to give the English nation a const.i.tution that Paine desired; for it seemed to the author of "Common Sense" that, America having renounced monarchy and set up a republican form of government, safely guarded by a written const.i.tution, England must be anxious to do the same thing, and was only in need of a const.i.tution.

The flamboyant rhetoric of the American Declaration of Independence--"We hold these truths to be self-evident--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"--was not the sort of language that appealed to English Whigs (America itself cheerfully admitted the falseness of the statement by keeping the negro in slavery), and the glittering generalities of the "Rights of Man" made no impression on the Whig leaders in Parliament. Paine was back in the old regions of a social contract, and of a popular sovereignty antecedent to government. It was all beside the mark, this talk of a popular right inherent in the nation, a right that gave the power to make const.i.tutional changes not _through_ elected representatives in Parliament, but by a general convention.

Parliament in the sight of the Whigs was the sovereign a.s.sembly holding its authority from the people, and only by a majority in the House of Commons could the people express its will. What made the "Rights of Man" popular with the English democrats of the "Const.i.tutional Society" and the sympathisers with the French Revolution was not so much the old pre-historic popular "sovereignty" fiction--though it is true that there were many Englishmen, of whom G.o.dwin was one, who could see no hope of Parliament reforming itself or of granting any measure of enfranchis.e.m.e.nt to the people, and therefore were willing to fall back on any theory for compelling Parliament to move towards a more liberal const.i.tution--as the programme of practical reforms that was unfolded in its pages and the honest defence of the proceedings in Paris. That Parliament had no right to bind posterity, as Burke maintained, and that if the revolution of 1688 was authoritative, why should a revolution in 1788 be less authoritative? were matters of less interest than the clear statement of events in France, and the proposals for a democratic const.i.tution in England and for social reform. Fifty thousand copies of the "Rights of Man" were quickly sold, and it obtained a large number of readers in America, and was translated into French. The total sales were estimated at 200,000 in 1793. Paine followed it up with Part II. while he was an elected member of the National Convention in Paris, and in 1792, when a cheap edition of the "Rights of Man" was issued, its author was tried for high treason, and in his absence convicted and outlawed.

Part I. of the "Rights of Man," while relying on the popular "sovereignty"

fiction for getting a national convention, contained a careful definition of representative government. It showed that government by democracy--i.e.

by popular meeting, suitable enough for small and primitive societies--must degenerate into hopeless confusion in a large population; that monarchy and aristocracy which sprang from the political confusion of the people must degenerate into incapacity. A representative government was the control of a nation by persons elected by the whole nation, and the Rights of Man were the rights of all to this representation.

As a nation we have never admitted any "natural" political rights to man, but we have steadily insisted on the const.i.tutional right of representation in Parliament to those who possess a fixed abode and contribute by taxation to the national revenue.

Paine attacked all hereditary authority and all t.i.tles, but approved a double chamber for Parliament. He claimed that the whole nation ought to decide on the question of war with a foreign country, and urged that no member of Parliament should be a government pensioner.

In Part II. there is a confident announcement that "monarchy and aristocracy will not continue seven years longer in any of the enlightened countries of Europe," so sure was Paine that civilised mankind would hasten to follow the examples of France and America, and summon national conventions for the making of republican const.i.tutions. As the old form of government had been hereditary, the new form was to be elective and representative. The money hitherto spent on the Crown was to be devoted to a national system of elementary education--all children remaining at school till the age of 14--and to old-age pensions for all over 60. It is in these financial proposals and the suggested social reforms that Paine is seen as a pioneer of democracy. A progressive income tax is included in this Part II., the tax to be graduated from 3d. in the on incomes between 50 to 500; 6d. on incomes between 500 and 1,000; an additional 6d. up to 4,000; and then 1s. on every additional 1,000 until we get to an income tax of 20s. in the on an income of 22,000 a year.

The popularity of Paine's proposals in England and the Reign of Terror in France frightened the British Government into a policy of fierce persecution against all who bought, sold, lent or borrowed the "Rights of Man." "Const.i.tutional Societies" were suppressed, and all who dared openly express sympathy with revolutions or republics were promptly arrested.

Paine, outlawed by the British Government, contended in the National Convention for a republican const.i.tution for France, did his best to prevent the execution of Louis XVI., fell with the Girondins, was thrown into prison, and only escaped with his life by an accident. Then, under the very shadow of the guillotine Paine wrote his "Age of Reason," to recall France from atheism to a mild humanitarian theism. This book was fatal to Paine's reputation. Henceforth the violent denunciation of theological opponents pursued him to the grave, and left his name a byword to the orthodox. As Paine's contribution to the body of democratic belief in the "Rights of Man" was submerged in the discussion on his religious opinions, so was his early plea for what he called "Agrarian Justice." On his release from a prison cell in the Luxembourg, in 1795, Paine published his "Plan for a National Fund." This plan was an antic.i.p.ation of our modern proposals for Land Reform. Paine urged the taxation of land values--the payment to the community of a ground-rent--and argued for death duties as "the least troublesome method" of raising revenue. It was in the preface to this pamphlet on "Agrarian Justice" that Paine replied to Bishop Watson's sermon on "The Wisdom and Goodness of G.o.d in having made both Rich and Poor." "It is wrong," wrote Paine, "to say G.o.d made rich and poor; He made only male and female, and gave them the earth for their inheritance."

Napoleon organised the plebiscite, which conferred on him the Consulate for life, in 1802, and the French Revolution and Const.i.tution making having yielded to a military dictatorship, Paine returned to America, and died in New York in 1809.

MAJOR CARTWRIGHT AND THE "RADICAL REFORMERS"

John Cartwright, the "Father of Reform," is notable as the first of the English "Radical Reformers." His direct influence on politics was small--none of his writings had the success of the "Rights of Man"--but, like Paine, he laboured to turn England by public opinion from aristocracy to democracy, and for more than forty years Cartwright was to the fore with his programme of Radical reform. The problem for Cartwright and the Radical reformers was how to get the changes made which would give political power to the people--with whom was the sovereignty, as they had learnt from Locke--and make Parliament the instrument of democracy. A hundred years and more have not sufficed to get this problem answered to everybody's satisfaction, but in the latter part of the eighteenth century, to the minds of simple, honest men, it seemed enough that the argument should be stated plainly and reasonably; it would follow that all mankind would be speedily convinced; so great was the faith in the power of reason.

What neither Cartwright nor Paine understood was, that it was not the reasonableness of a proposed reform but the strength of the demand that carried the day. The revolt and independence of the American Colonies were not due to a political preference for a republic, but were the work of public opinion driven by misgovernment to protest. The difficulty in England was that the ma.s.s of people might be in great wretchedness, badly housed, ill-fed, and generally neglected, but they were not conscious of any desire for democracy. They were against the government, doubtless, and willing enough, in London, to shout for "Wilkes and Liberty," but the time had not yet come for the working cla.s.s to believe that enfranchis.e.m.e.nt was a remedy for the ills they endured.

Major Cartwright was an exceedingly fine type of man; conscientious, public spirited, humane, and utterly without personal ambition. He resigned his commission in the Navy because he believed it wrong to fight against the American Colonies, and he organised a county militia for the sake of national defence. On the pedestal beneath his statue in Cartwright Gardens, just south of Euston Road, in London, the virtues of the "Father of Reform"

are described at length, and he is mentioned as "the firm, consistent and persevering advocate of _universal suffrage_, equal representation, vote by ballot, and annual Parliaments." It was in 1777 that Cartwright published his first pamphlet ent.i.tled "Legislative Rights Vindicated," and pleaded for "a return to the ancient and const.i.tutional practice of Edward III."

and the election of annual Parliaments. Long Parliaments were the root of all social political evil, Cartwright argued. War, national debt, distress, depopulation, land out of cultivation, Parliamentary debate itself become a mockery--these calamities were all due to long Parliaments; and would be cured if once a year--on June 1st--a fresh Parliament was elected by the votes of every man over eighteen--by ballot and without any plural voting--and a payment of two guineas a day was made to members on their attendance. Of course, Cartwright could not help writing "all are by nature free, all are by nature equal"--no political reformer in the eighteenth century could do otherwise--but, unlike his contemporaries, the Major was a stout Christian, and insisted that as the whole plan of Christianity was founded on the equality of all mankind, political rights must have the same foundation. By the political axiom that "no man shall be taxed but with his own consent, given either by himself or his own representative in Parliament," Cartwright may be quoted as one who had some perception of what democracy meant in England; but he is off the track again in arguing that personality, and not the possession of property, was the sole foundation of the right of being represented in Parliament. It was the possession of property that brought taxation, and with taxation the right to representation. We cannot repeat too often that in England the progress to democracy has never been made on a.s.sumptions of an abstract right to vote. We have come to democracy by experience, and this experience has taught us that people who are taxed insist, sooner or later, on having a voice in the administration of the national exchequer. But we have never admitted "personality" as a t.i.tle to enfranchis.e.m.e.nt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GORDON RIOTS

_From the Painting by Seymour Lucas, R.A._]

Cartwright followed with the mult.i.tude of political writers of his time to deduce a right to vote, and his deduction is as worthless as the rest of the _a priori_ reasoning. But the brave old man--he was tried for "sedition" at the age of eighty in the Government panic of 1820--was an entirely disinterested champion of the poor and a real lover of liberty. He believed the affairs of government ought to be a matter of common concern, and that they were quite within the capacities of ordinary men.

Cartwright's life--much more than his writings--kept the democratic ideal unshaken in the handful of "Radical Reformers" who survived the Tory reaction on the war with the French Republic in 1793, and his glowing enthusiasm helped to kindle the fire for political enfranchis.e.m.e.nt that was burning in the hearts of the manufacturing population by 1818. But in 1777 the electorate was not anxious for reform, and the unenfranchised gave no thought to their political disabilities. On the very day in 1780 that the Duke of Richmond proposed, in the House of Lords, a resolution in favour of manhood suffrage and annual Parliaments, the London mob, stirred up by the anti-Catholic fanaticism of Lord George Gordon, marched to Westminster with a pet.i.tion to repeal Savile's Act of 1778, which allowed Catholics to bequeath land and to educate their own children. There was a riot, and in the course of the next six days the mob burnt Newgate, sacked Catholic chapels, and generally plundered and ravaged the City.

In the House of Commons Pitt made three attempts to get reform considered--in 1782, 1783 and 1785--and on each occasion his resolution was defeated by an overwhelming majority. After that Pitt made no further effort for reform, and from 1793 to 1795 the Government he led pa.s.sed the Acts of repressive legislation which made all democratic propaganda illegal, and crushed all political agitation.

But "the Cause" was not dead.

Sir Francis Burdett, M.P. for Westminster, Henry Hunt, better known as "Orator Hunt," and Cobbett with his "Political Register," in various ways renewed the campaign for manhood suffrage, and the growth of the manufacturing districts made a change in the const.i.tution of Parliament imperative.

Burdett was sent to the Tower in 1810 for contempt of Parliament, but lived to see the Reform Bill of 1831 pa.s.sed into law, and died a Tory. Cobbett spent two years in prison, and became M.P. for Oldham in 1832. What Cobbett did with pen--and no man at that day wrote with greater ability for the common people, or with greater acceptance--Hunt did on the platform. Both strove to arouse the working cla.s.s to demand enfranchis.e.m.e.nt. Hunt presided at the ma.s.s meeting at Peterloo, by Manchester, in 1819--an entirely peaceful meeting which was broken up by the military with some loss of life--and was sent to prison for two years for doing so. He also was elected M.P. (for Preston) in the first reformed Parliament.

Again the Government tried coercion, and after Peterloo, for the next few years, intimidation and numerous arrests kept down all outward manifestation of the reform movement.

In spite of this, the movement could not be stayed. Each year saw political indifference changed to positive desire for enfranchis.e.m.e.nt, and the British public, which, in the main, had been left untouched by the vision of a democracy and the call for a national convention and a new const.i.tution, became impatient for the reform of Parliament and the representation of the manufacturing interest.

THOMAS SPENCE (1750-1814)

The name of Spence must be mentioned amongst those who preached the democratic idea at the close of the eighteenth century. A Newcastle schoolmaster, Spence, in 1775, expounded his "Plan" for land nationalisation on the following lines:--

"The land, with all that appertains to it, is in every parish made the property of the Corporation or parish, with as ample power to let, repair, or alter all or any part thereof, as a lord of the manor enjoys over his lands, houses, etc.; but the power of alienating the least morsel, in any manner, from the parish, either at this or any time thereafter, is denied.

For it is solemnly agreed to, by the whole nation, that a parish that shall either sell or give away any part of its landed property shall be looked upon with as much horror and detestation as if they had sold all their children to be slaves, or ma.s.sacred them with their own hands. Thus are there no more or other landlords in the whole country than the parishes, and each of them is sovereign lord of its territories.

"Then you may behold the rent which the people have paid into the parish treasuries employed by each parish in paying the Parliament or National Congress at any time grants; in maintaining and relieving its own poor people out of work; in paying the necessary officers their salaries; in building, repairing, and adorning its houses, bridges, and other structures; in making and maintaining convenient and delightful streets, highways, and pa.s.sages both for foot and carriages; in making and maintaining ca.n.a.ls and other conveniences for trade and navigation; in planting and taking in waste grounds; in providing and keeping up a magazine of ammunition and all sorts of arms sufficient for all the inhabitants in case of danger from enemies; in premiums for the encouragement of agriculture, or anything else thought worthy of encouragement; and, in a word, doing whatever the people think proper, and not as formerly, to support and spread luxury, pride, and all manner of vice."

No taxes of any kind were to be paid by native or foreigner "but the aforesaid rent, which every person pays to the parish according to the quant.i.ty, quality, and conveniences of the land, housing, etc., which he occupies in it. The Government, poor, roads, etc., are all maintained by the parishes with the rent, on which account all wares, manufactures, allowable trade employments, or actions are entirely duty free."

The "Plan" ends with the usual confidence of the idealist reformer of the time in the speedy triumph of right, and in the world-wide acceptance of what seemed to its author so eminently reasonable a proposal.

"What makes this prospect yet more glowing is that after this empire of right and reason is thus established it will stand for ever. Force and corruption attempting its downfall shall equally be baffled, and all other nations, struck with wonder and admiration at its happiness and stability, shall follow the example; and thus the whole earth shall at last be happy, and live like brethren."

The American War and the French Revolution hindered the consideration of Spence's "empire of right and reason," but, in the course of nearly forty years' advocacy of land nationalisation, Spence gathered round him a band of disciples in London, and the Spenceans were a recognised body of reformers in the early part of the nineteenth century. The attacks on private property in land, and the revolutionary proposals for giving the landlords notice to quit, brought down the wrath of the Government on Spence, and he was constantly being arrested, fined and imprisoned for "seditious libel," while his bookshop in Holborn was as frequently ransacked by the authorities.

Spence died in 1814, and the movement for abolishing the landlords in favour of common ownership languished and stopped. The interesting thing about Spence's "Plan" is its antic.i.p.ation of Henry George's propaganda for a Single Tax on Land Values, and the extinction of all other methods of raising national revenue, a propaganda that, in a modified form for the taxation of land values, has already earned the approval of the House of Commons.

PRACTICAL POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIC IDEALS

Because we insist on the experimental character of our British political progress, and the steady refusal to accept speculative ideas and _a priori_ deductions in politics, it does not follow that the services of the idealist are to be unrecognised.

The work of the idealist, whether he is a writer or a man of action--and sometimes, as in the case of Mazzini, he is both--is to stir the souls of men and shake them out of sluggish torpor, or rouse them from gross absorption in personal gain, and from dull, self-satisfied complacency. He is the prophet, the agitator, the pioneer, and after him follow the responsible statesmen, who rarely see far ahead or venture on new paths.

Once or twice in the world's history the practical statesman is an idealist, as Abraham Lincoln was, but the combination of qualities is unusual. The political idealist gets his vision in solitary places, the democratic statesman gets his experience of men by rubbing shoulders with the crowd.

A democratic nation must have its seers and prophets, lest it forget its high calling to press forward, and so sink in the slough of contented ease.

The preacher of ideals is the architect of a nation's hopes and desires, and the fulfilment of these hopes and desires will depend on the wisdom of its political builders--the practical politicians. Often enough the structural alterations are so extensive that the architect does not recognise his plan; and that is probably as it should be; for it is quite likely that the architect left out of account so simple a matter as the staircase in his house beautiful, and the builder is bound to adapt the plan to ordinary human needs.

The idealist has a faith in the future of his cause that exceeds the average faith, and in his sure confidence fails to understand why his neighbours will not follow at his call, or move more rapidly; and so he fails as a practical leader.

Here the work of the statesman and politician comes in. They are nearer to the ma.s.s of people, they hold their authority by election of the people, and they understand that the rate of speed must be slow. Under the guidance of their political leaders, the people are willing to move.

Sometimes the idealist is frankly revolutionary, is for beginning anew in politics, and starting society all over again. If the state of things is bad enough, he may get into power, as he did in France at the Revolution, and for a time the world will stagger at his doings. But there is no beginning _de novo_ in politics, and the revolutions wrought by men who would give the world an entirely fresh start (to be distinguished from mere changes of dynasty, such as our English Revolution was) have their sandy foundations washed away by the floods of reaction.