Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). New York. 1906.
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| was not yet quite used to power, and did not know how to behave. |
| A year or two later one of the labor parties led a brief career in the city, arising—as has usually been the case—from a split in the Democratic party. Its adherents styled themselves “equal-rights men” or “anti-monopolists.” By outsiders they were usually dubbed “Loco-focos,” because at the outset of their career, in the course of a stormy meeting of the city Democracy in a hall, their opponents put out the gas; whereupon they, having thoughtfully provided themselves with loco-foco matches, relit the gas, and brought the meeting to a triumphant close. The chief points in their political creed were hostility to banks and corporations generally, and a desire to have all judges elected for short terms, so as to have them amenable to the people,—that is, to have them administer the law, not in accordance with the principles of justice, but in accordance with the popular whim of the moment. They split up the Democratic party, and thus were of service to the Whigs during the two or three years of their existence. |
| The Native American party began to make a stir about the time the Loco-focos came to an end. The Native Americans represented simply hostility to foreigners in general, and Catholic foreigners in particular. They therefore had no permanent |