BRIEF SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR'S LIFE.

He is a native of South Germany, and immigrated to the United States, eighteen years old, in 1832. He was there in successful mercantile business for twelve years, when he retired to a farm near the city of Cincinnati, where he has lived ever since. In 1844 he was elected to the Lower House of the Ohio Legislature, and in 1846 to the Senate thereof. In 1850 he was chosen a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention, and to him is due the best provision in that instrument: a selfacting apportionment provision for Assembly districts, whereby the wrongs of so-called "Gerrymanders," or arbitrary apportionments of members by counties for party purposes, was for ever prevented. The clause has since been adopted in several other State Constitutions.

In 1856 he was appointed Reform School Commissioner, and advised as such the establishment of the State Reform Farm, near Lancaster, Ohio, after the model of the Institute near Mettray, in France, which measure was sanctioned by the Legislature of Ohio, and is now in as successful operation as under the partisan government of the American States is possible.

He was, in 1854-55, Bank Commissioner of Ohio, and had to examine some thirty-four banks. His reports led to several reforms in their administration.

In 1858 he was chosen an Examining Commissioner into the large defalcation in the Ohio State Treasury, and he wrote the larger part of the valuable exposition of the frauds and peculations then perpetrated between the banks and State officials and slippery politicians.

He has been a frequent contributor to the American press, both in English and German, either as editor or correspondent, namely, of the Volksblatt, Volksfreund, the Pioneer, and Commercial in Cincinnati; the New York Evening Post and Bulletin. The Ohio State Papers contain many valuable essays of his on various subjects; the ones on the "Climate of Ohio" deserving special mention. He has written three books: "The Vine

dresser's Manual," "The Wine-Maker's Manual," and "A Treatise on Politics as a Science." In 1846 he was admitted to the practice of the law by the Supreme Court of Ohio; and in 1871 he was elected to the last office he has held, viz: President of the Board of Control of Hamilton County, Ohio.

He has mostly acted with the so-called Democratic party; but has early, and all the time, maintained an independent position towards it; never hesitating to combat it, when it sunk into corrupt conditions. Indeed, it must be stated, that to him parties, and especially party government, as they exist in the United States, have ever appeared as an evil, whose existence was to be recognized, but with a view to be abated; or, at any rate, to be ever brought back to being mere schools for political culture. English parties with recognized leaders, and as the understood constitutional organs for working out a wisely virtuous mature public will, were and are to him such organs, though he thinks they need reforms, so as to impart to them higher ethics and better political culture.

His thirst for knowledge has never been quenched, though he had full access to the fountains in several languages. Current literature and scientific research has been by him ever pursued in both English and German; and during a visit of Europe in 1873-74, he attended several German universities, sitting, an old man, as "Hospes" amidst young students, and hearing political economy, the science of government, and public administration discussed by their learned professors. He has himself been a frequent public speaker and lecturer, ever aiming at a higher tone of the public mind. The work before the reader he regards as a tribution towards the correction of the political abuses that exist in America, in pursuance of their defective and impure party organizations, which he looks upon as a blot upon its otherwise fair escutcheon.

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President Hayes appointed him (1871), as Governor of Ohio, one of the Commission on mining, and proper laws for its regulation; and he prepared the majority report, including a bill in reference to the subject.

INTRODUCTION.

"Allow me to introduce you to yourselves."-Ancient Athenian Oration.

THE phrase: American Politics, in the title of this book, will appear trite to many, because the word "politics" has now a disagreeable sound in the public ear. But as our objective point is not euphony, but the discussion of concrete political conditions, we must remit those, who object to the cause that has led to the dissonance of an innocent word, to its history and changes of definition, and proceed to the object of this chapter, to wit: the introduction of the Americans to themselves.

The predicate "American" belongs to the people of the United States by universally recognized usage. They were the first to assert the right of America to be independent, and the act was called: The American Revolution. The signers of the Declaration of Independence named themselves: "The Representatives of the United States of America," and this name was continued in the Articles of Confederation, and in the Constitution of 1787. The other nations on this Continent call themselves Canadians, Mexicans, West Indians, Brazilians, &c., and the whole world has fallen in with these respective designations. And Washington was right in saying in his farewell address: "The name-America-which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."

There is indeed nothing characteristic or descriptive in the name itself. It was accidentally first printed on a map by a German geographer in 1572. It sounded much finer to those who then first heard it, than it does in the English pronunciation.

The man (Vespucci) whose surname was like it, was innocent of the transfer of this appellation to the new Continent; he died, in fact, without knowing that it was discovered, and believing that only the eastern coast of Asia was reached. He never himself used or heard used the name America," and Humboldt might well say of him in "Kosmos": "The Florentines' boastfulness (Ruhmredigkeit) has brought upon him the misfortune of drawing upon himself the attention of the world more than he deserved." An ill-natured Englishman remarked thereon: "that America has certainly caught this peculiarity from its name-parent;" but an American bystander insisted that the national pride complained of, came from the mother-country. Be this as it may, the name is now a symbol of grand patriotic aspirations, and it signifies a peculiarly attractive political development. And when we speak of " American Politics," it refers by common consent to: Constitutional Republicanism; while if "Asiatic Politics" are mentioned, it designates: Absolutism, just as European Politics are understood to mean: Constitutional Monarchism. Indeed, the word "America" has much more a political than a geographical significance, and its character is, in this respect, rather cosmopolitan than national. Only lately it has become otherwise.

The statesmen and people of the United States always had, in using the name, the arrière pensée, that the whole Continent should be embraced within their one great federal Union; and this idea was retained in common speech even after other official appellations, that signified its infeasibility, had been adopted. The refusal of Canada to make common cause with the other North American Colonies in the Revolution, was the first counter-shock to this ideality; and when this same recusancy was repeated in 1812, and fraternization was again refused, it opened an old wound. Canada had been wrenched from France in 1760-65 by American valor, and it seemed so natural that the rescued country should respond to the more than cordial invitations (to come in) that were made from 1770-83 in the most public manner, and even by a special clause in the Articles of Confederation. It seemed, then, like a lack of true. Americanism for any portion of so-called Anglo-Saxonism in America not to make common cause in building up the New

World. But to-day (and thenceforth evermore) it is being perceived that the elementary causes, that have in all parts of our globe prevented the union of the more northern countries with lands in the temperate or southern zones under one government, were operative then (1776) already. And we know that events are only adding intensity to the original natural, we might call them instinctive, reasons.

It has been well said, that Franklin spake the blessing of freedom over America, that Washington baptized and nursed it, but that Jefferson's far-sweeping eye discerned its coming national grandeur. The last had made the history of national aggregations his special study, and he determined, that here nationalization should be the beginning and the ending of political organization. In Europe it had been an afterforcing together of feudal tenures and communities into larger conglomerates. And Jefferson meant, that "while Europeanism was an after-development, Americanism should be a predestination." Here, if there ever should be segregations, they should, as he purposed, be "like the partings of the full-grown members of an overnumerous family, who could not well remain together. The seceders were to be countrymen still, and for ever remain such. Once American, always American!" This idea possessed him as an unconscious inspiration, and he died without realizing, that it was the opposite of the ideals upon which his political school was founded. Nor did Virginia ever become aware, that it was the parent state of the grander American nationalism which came near crushing her afterwards, while New England was the mother of sectionalism.

This nationalization or Americanization, with its subsequent permissive sub-nationalism, sub-Americanism, or state-ism, found its legitimation in the two great public documents of 1787, to wit (first in time): The Ordinance for the organization of the north-western territory, and: the Constitution of the United States of America. It could not well have existed before, because neither in England nor in Europe generally, had re-ripened, into a healthy revival, the old Roman idea of large areas under one government. And the British Colonies in America could not, so far as New England was concerned, have free western extensions, as long as France held its Canadian