Sectionalism was the favorite charge which the Democrats brought
against their enemies; and yet it was upon these very Democrats
that the slaveholders had hitherto relied, and it was upon
certain members of this party that the label, "Northern men with
Southern principles," had been bestowed.
The label was not, however, altogether fair, for the motives of
the Democrats were deeply rooted in their own peculiar
temperament. In the last analysis, what had held their
organization together, and what had enabled them to dominate
politics for nearly the span of a generation, was their faith in
a principle that then appealed powerfully, and that still
appeals, to much in the American character. This was the
principle of negative action on the part of the government--the
old idea that the government should do as little as possible and
should confine itself practically to the duties of the policeman.
This principle has seemed always to express to the average mind
that traditional individualism which is an inheritance of the
Anglo-Saxon race. In America, in the middle of the nineteenth
century, it reenforced that tradition of local independence which
was strong throughout the West and doubly strong in the South.
Then, too, the Democratic party still spoke the language of the
theoretical Democracy inherited from Jefferson.
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