e., principles that may have been wrought out of
experience, may have been created by public opinion, or were
perhaps merely made out of hand by manipulators); secondly, the
voters who profess attachment to these principles; and thirdly,
the political expert, the politician with his organization or
machine. Between the expert and the great following are many
gradations of party activity, from the occasional volunteer to
the chieftain who devotes all his time to "politics."
It was discovered very early in American experience that without
organization issues would disintegrate and principles remain but
scintillating axioms. Thus necessity enlisted executive talent
and produced the politician, who, having once achieved an
organization, remained at his post to keep it intact between
elections and used it for purposes not always prompted by the
public welfare.
In colonial days, when the struggle began between Crown and
Colonist, the colonial patriots formed clubs to designate their
candidates for public office. In Massachusetts these clubs were
known as "caucuses," a word whose derivation is unknown, but
which has now become fixed in our political vocabulary. These
early caucuses in Boston have been described as follows: "Mr.
Samuel Adams' father and twenty others, one or two from the north
end of the town, where all the ship business is carried on, used
to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plans for introducing
certain persons into places of trust and power.
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