The Republican Party … was literally shattered into fragments, and we had no fewer than five Republican Presidential candidates in the field. In the place of two great parties arrayed against each other in a fair and open contest … the country was overrun with personal factions. These, having few higher motives for the selection of their candidates or stronger incentives to action than individual preferences or antipathies, moved the bitter waters of political agitation to their lowest depths.
President Martin Van Buren, writing about the election of 1824.
His book is a free Kindle book. Read the whole thing.
Inquiry into the Origin and the Course of Political Parties in the United States (1867)
Hat/tip to Facebook – Robert Reich. My Facebook share.
