of government.  In the beginning the most efficient of these politicians were usually Jacksonian Democrats, and they ruled both in the name of the people and by virtue of a sturdy popular following.  They gradually increased in power, until in the years succeeding the war they became the dominant influence in local American politics, and had won the right to be called something which they would never have dared to call themselves, viz. a governing class.

While the local “Boss” nearly always belonged to the political party dominant in his neighborhood, so that he could in ordinary elections depend upon the regular party vote, still the real source of his power consisted in a band of personal retainers; and the means by which such groups were collected and held together contain a curious mixture of corruption and democracy.  In the first place the local leader had to be a “good fellow” who lived in the midst of his followers and knew all about them.  His influence was entirely dependent upon personal kindliness, loyalty, and good-comradeship.  He was socially the playmate and the equal of his followers, and the relations among them were characterized by many admirable qualities.  The group was within limits a genuine example of social democracy, and was founded on mutual understanding, good-will, and assistance.  The leader used his official and unofficial power to obtain jobs for his followers.  He succored them when in need; he sometimes protected them against the invidious activity of the police or the prosecuting attorneys; he provided excursions and picnics for them in hot weather; he tied them to himself by a thousand bonds of interest and association; he organized them into a clan, who supported him blindly at elections in return for a deal of personal kindliness and a multitude of small services; he became their genuine representative, whether official or not, because he represented their most vital interests and satisfied their most pressing and intimate needs.

The general method of political organization indicated above was perfected in the two decades succeeding the Civil War.  The American democracy was divided politically into a multitude of small groups, organized chiefly for the purpose of securing the local and individual interests of these groups and their leaders, and supported by local and personal feeling, political patronage, and petty “graft.”  These groups were associated with both parties, and merely made the use of partisan ties and cries to secure the cooeperation of more disinterested voters.  The result was that so far as American political representation was merely local, it was generally corrupt, and it was always selfish.  The leader’s power depended absolutely on an appeal to the individual, neighborhood, and class interests of his followers.  They were the “people”; he was the popular tribune.  He could not retain his power for a month, in case he failed to subordinate every larger interest to the flattery, cajolery, and nourishment of his local clan.  Thus the local representative system was poisoned at its source.  The alderman, the assemblyman, or the congressman, even if he were an honest man, represented little more than the political powers controlling his district; and to be disinterested in local politics was usually equivalent to being indifferent.