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L E C T U R E V I I I .
TIIE
PHILOSOPHY OF POLITICAL
PARTIES.
I .
P
olitical
parties have existed in all free gov
ernments, and, so far as we may forecast, they
always will. One of the errors of the authors
o f our Constitution, if they committed any, was
an under-estimate of the scope, strength, and
bitterness of parties. Obviously their rise, pro
gress, decline, and extinction are due to constantly-
acting laws—laws many of them not difficult to
discover; while others furnish evidence of their
existence by the recurrence of similar phenomena
alone.
I am not aware of any attempt to elucidate
these laws or to trace such phenomena to their
producing causes. I am sure the subject is one
of very grave practical importance, as well as
full of speculative interest. I shall take a look
at it in the light of our times; and if my obser
vations are not of a profound character, 1 hope
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