of Americans fought continually for better and cleaner
government as the evils of boss rule became more visible. One of them,
Bishop Potter, of New York, gained wide hearing through a sermon
preached at the centennial of the Constitution, in 1887, in which he
turned from the usual patriotic congratulation to discuss actual
government. The keenest interest in the subject was aroused by the
_American Commonwealth_ of James Bryce.

Not since Alexis de Tocqueville published his _Democracy in America_, in
1835, had any foreign observer made an equally intimate study of
American life, until James Bryce, a young English historian, began a
series of visits to the United States in the early seventies. For nearly
twenty years Bryce repeated his visits, living at home a full life in
his Oxford professorate, in the House of Commons, and in the Ministry.
In America he knew every one worth knowing, and he saw the remoter
regions of the West as well as the older society of the East. In 1888
he brought out the result of his studies in two volumes that were filled
with admiration for the United States and with disheartening observation
upon its practices. One of its chapters cut so close that its victim
brought suit for libel, but American opinion accepted the book as a
friendly picture and regarded attacks upon it as further evidence of its
inherent truth. Probably no book in a generation so profoundly
influenced American thought and so specifically directed the course of
American reform. It became a textbook at once, teaching the truth that
corruption and misgovernment were non-partisan, and until the Populists
took them up the movements for reform were non-partisan as well.

The power of the boss lay largely in the structure of American
governmental machinery, and though some preached the need for a reform
in spirit, others saw that only mechanical improvements could accomplish
results. A corruptible electorate, such as had long confused British and
American politics, was one defect most easily improved. The prevailing
system for conducting elections made it easy for the purchaser of votes
to see that he got value for his money. The State provided the
polling-place, but the candidate or the party provided the printed
ballot. Party agents distributed these at the polls, and the voters who
received them could be watched until the votes were cast. Intimidation
of employees or direct bribery were easy and common, while secret deals
were