To designate more particularly the great fact which had been disregarded in this notable experiment of fifty years ago, and which is apparently not sufficiently considered in the measures of reform that have been more recently pressed upon us, we may declare that the government of the United States is, as yet, the direct outcome of what may be called the political activity of the people.  Whether or not, having read history, we must anticipate a time here when the many, weary of preserving their own liberties, will resign their power to a few, it is certain that no such inclination yet appears.  The government is the product of the public mind and will when these are moved with reference to the subject.  It is created freshly at short intervals, and the manner of the creation is seldom languid or careless, but usually earnest, intense and heated.  Upon this point there has no doubt been much misapprehension.  As it has happened—­perhaps rather oddly—­that those of our thoughtful patriots whose warnings and appeals have reached public notice have had their experiences mostly in city life, surrounded by the peculiar conditions which exist there, the conclusions they have drawn in some respects are applicable only to their own surroundings.  They have discovered persons who had forgotten or did not believe that liberty could be bought only with the one currency of eternal vigilance, and coupled with these others who were too busy to attend to the active processes by which the government is from time to time renewed; and they have concluded, with fatal inaccuracy of judgment, that this exceptional disposition of a small number of persons was a type of the whole population.  Nothing could be more absurdly untrue.  Outside of a very limited circle no such political fatigue exists.  The people generally are deeply interested in public affairs and willing to attend to their own public duties.  Their concern in regard to measures, methods and candidates is seldom laid aside.  The political activity to which we have called attention thus at some length is earnest, persistent and exacting.

It will be useful for the reformer of the civil service to give some study to the manifestations of this activity.  He will find it one of the most marked and characteristic features in the life of the American people.  If he will take the pains to examine the civil organization of the country, he will find that its roots run to every stratum of society.  The number of persons interested in politics, not as a speculative subject, but as a practical and personal one, is wonderfully great.  Thus, in most of the States there exists that modification of the ancient Saxon system of local action by “hundreds”—­the township organization.  This alone carries a healthy political movement into the farthest nook and corner of the body politic:  every citizen of common sense may well be consulted in this primary activity, and every household may be interested in the question whether