The Price of Union

"In 1896 ... a man who stood for 'No Compromise' stampeded a Convention.... 'We beg no more,' said Bryan in his 'cross-of-gold' speech, 'we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them!' So did Goldwater defy them. But this was no way to hold together a continent-wide federation of varied interest, occupations, climates and habits of life. Bryan, who was at least a politician, tried to broaden his agrarian base and to capture the factoriy worker for his cause. He failed, and thus lost every northern state east of the Mississippi.

Goldwater never explained what his base was, aside from nostalgia and a bitterness against the compromises of life. So he could not broaden what he could not define, and was beaten far more cruelly than Bryan. But they were both beaten for the same reason: they both, in their rash enthusiasm, forgot that a successful American political party must be a non-ideological affair, accommodating many points of view .... Such parties should never allow themselves to feel, and preach, that the opposition is not only mistaken but wicked. Bryan did this. So did Goldwater, with his suggestion that the Democrats were sowing a form of moral decay throughout America.

The Democratic party was long handicapped by the bitterness consequent to 1896 .... Once, unhappily, both parties failed at the same time in their assuaging mission, both offering us 'a choice instead of an echo.' The result was the Civil War."

Herbert Agar, "The Price of Union"