nising, as the members of other nationalities
have organised, for the mere purpose of sharing in the party plunder,
has, I believe, never been seriously contemplated by any Englishmen in
America; though there are many communities in which their vote might
well give them the balance of power. It would, as a rule, be easier to
pick out--say, in Chicago--a Southerner who had lived in the North for
ten years than an Englishman who had lived there for the same length of
time. It would certainly be safer to guess the Southerner's party
affiliation.

The ideas of Englishmen in England about American politics are vague.
They have a general notion that there is a great deal of politics in
America, that it is mostly corrupt, and that "the best people" do not
take any interest in it. As for the last proposition, it is only locally
or partially true, and quite untrue in the sense in which the Englishman
understands it.

The word "politics" means two entirely separate things in England and in
the United States. Understanding the word in its English sense, it is
conspicuously untrue that the "best people" in America do not take at
least as much an interest in politics as the "best people" take in
England. Selecting as a representative of the "best people" of America,
any citizen eminent in his particular community--capitalist, landed
proprietor or "real-estate owner," banker, manufacturer, lawyer, railway
president, or what not,--that man as a usual thing takes a very active
interest in politics, and not in the politics of the nation only, but of
his State and his municipality. He is known to be a pillar of one party
or the other; he gives liberally of his own funds and of the funds of
his firm or company to the party treasury[229:1]; he is consulted by,
and advises with, the local committees; representatives of the national
committees or from other parts of the State call upon him for
information; he concerns himself intimately with the appointments to
political office made from his section of the country; he attends public
meetings and entertains visiting speakers at his house; as far as may be
judicious (and sometimes much further), he endeavours by his example or
precept to influence the votes and ways of thought of those in his
service. The chances of his being sent to Congress or to the Senate, of
his becoming a cabinet minister, being appointed to a foreign mission,
or accepting a position on some commission of a public chara