10. Compare the Massachusetts ballot with the Indiana ballot, and note their differences.
QUESTION FOR DEBATE.
Which system of voting is likely to secure the best public officers: that represented in the city ballot of 1890, in the Massachusetts ballot, or in the Indiana ballot?
CHAPTER XX.
PARTIES AND PARTY MACHINERY.
Wherever the right to vote exists, the people naturally form themselves into political parties.
A political party is an organization of voters maintained for the purpose of impressing its principles upon the public policy of the country. Men have divers views as to the duties, scope, and proper measures of the government, and these divers views lead to the formation of opposing parties. In a free country the majority must rule, and parties are the means by which majorities are ascertained.
ORIGIN.--Parties usually grow out of questions of legislation, rather than out of questions of executive management or judicial interpretation. In other words, a party is formed to influence the passage of laws, rather than their execution or their application by the courts. But, when parties are once formed, they usually extend their influence to the selection of officers of all grades and all departments, even the least important officials of a township or civil district.
The presidential election has come to be the most exciting and bitter of all political contests, because of the large influence which the President exerts upon national legislation, and because of the immense patronage of his office.