who was an ultra-Jeffersonian democrat, a Pharisee of the Pharisees.  Mr. Polk, a Jacksonian democrat, was President from 1845 to 1849.  The four years that followed saw the Presidential chair filled by Whigs, General Taylor and Mr. Fillmore; and those four years form the only time in which men who had had no connection with the democratic party wielded the executive power of the United States.  General Pierce and Mr. Buchanan, both democrats, were at the head of the Government for the eight years that followed Mr. Fillmore’s retirement.  Thus, during the sixty years that followed Mr. Jefferson’s inauguration in 1801, the Presidency was held by democrats for fifty-six years, President Harrison himself being a democrat originally,—­and if he is to be counted on the other side, the counting would not amount to much, as he was President less than five weeks.  Even in those years in which the democrats did not have the Presidency, they were powerful in Congress, and generally controlled Federal legislation.  It was natural, when the democratic party was so successful under our polity, that that polity should itself be considered democratic.  In point of fact, the polity was as democratic as the party,—­our democrats seldom displaying much sympathy with liberal ideas, and in their latter days becoming even servilely subservient to Slavery.  It is but fair to add, that down to 1854 their sins with respect to Slavery were rather those of position than of principle, and that their action was no worse than would have been that of their opponents, had the latter been the ruling party.  But, as the democratic party did rule here, and was supposed to hold to democratic principles, the conclusion was not unreasonable that we were living under a democratic polity, the overthrow of which would be a warning to the Liberals of Europe.

Our polity was constitutional in its character, strictly so; and if it has failed,—­which we are far indeed from admitting,—­the inference would seem fairly to be, that Constitutionalism has received a blow, not Democracy.  As England is the greatest of constitutional countries, our failure, supposing it to have occurred, tells with force against her, from whose system we have drawn so much, and not adversely to the cause of European democracy, from whose principles and practice we have taken little.  To us it seems that our war bears hard upon no government but our own, upon no people but ourselves, upon no party but American parties.  It is as peculiar in its origin as in its modes.  It had its origin in the existence of Slavery, and Slavery here existed in the worst form ever known among men.  Until Slavery shall be found elsewhere in combination with Constitutionalism or Democracy, it would be unfair to quote our contest as a warning to other liberally governed lands.  We were a nation with a snake in its bosom; and as no other nation is similarly afflicted, our misfortune cannot be cited in the case of any other community.  Free institutions are to be judged by their effect when they have had fair play, and not by what has happened in a republic which sought to have them in an unnatural alliance with the most detestable form of tyrannical oppression.  REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES.