18. How long should a potential voter be required to live in a state before being allowed to exercise the ballot?
19. To what extent does the educational test show the fitness of the individual to make the right use of his vote?
20. Should all convicted criminals be denied the vote during the remainder of their lives?
21. Just what constitutes fitness for the suffrage?
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE POLITICAL PARTY
421. NATURE OF THE POLITICAL PARTY.—A political party may be defined as a voluntary association of voters, entered into for the purpose of influencing elections to public office. The individuals comprising a party have certain broad political principles in common, and these they seek, by organized effort, to have applied to actual government. Just as individuals differ on matters of business or religion, so it is human nature for the voters of a community to form varying opinions as to the nature, functions, and methods of government. And just as men tend to draw away from those with whose opinions they do not agree, so they tend to draw toward those with whom they are in agreement, and with whose co÷peration they may advance principles of mutual interest. It is this natural tendency of men, first, to differ with one another, and second, to form associations for the advancement of mutual aims, that has led to the formation of political parties.
422. DEVELOPMENT OF PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES.—The American political party is older than the nation. Differences of political opinion divided the American colonists into Whigs and Tories. Later, party spirit was manifested in the formation of the Revolutionary committees of correspondence. The struggle over the Constitution of 1787 divided men into Federalists and Anti-Federalists. The question of a broad or a strict construction of the constitution, the tariff, and the problem of slavery in the territories,—these are a few of the great national issues that have influenced party lines. Before the Civil War party spirit had extended to all parts of the country, evidencing itself in a number of party organizations. Many of these organizations proved temporary, but since the Civil War party lines have been relatively fixed. For more than a half century there have been two great parties, the Democratic and the Republican. Third parties have been either temporary or relatively unimportant.
423. PARTY ORGANIZATION.—There is no constitutional basis or provision for American political parties, nevertheless each of the great parties has built up a powerful organization which co÷rdinates party members in every part of the country. In practically every township, village, election district, and city ward there are party agents and local committees whose work it is to promote the interests of the party both at election time and between elections. The local party workers constitute a link between individual voters and the county or State committees, while these latter groups in turn connect with the national committee of the party.
It is the work of all those officially connected with this centralized organization to win adherents to the party standard, to place issues before the voters, to stimulate interest in candidates, to organize meetings and clubs, to collect funds for party support, to secure the registration of voters, and to see that they get to the polls. Party opinion is formed by means of personal contacts, campaign literature, speeches, parades, and every manner of propaganda. Party opinion is formally expressed through the caucus, the primary, the convention, and the regular election. (See Sections 435-438.)