A reexamination of party history and a detailed exposition of party politics in Illinois argues that constitutional issues, not economic or social affiliations, were key to early party development.

This volume goes back into time to seek out the divergent and sometimes contradictory legal principles and practices which, bit by bit, created an accumulating mosaic -- the American political system of self-government. The author maintains that this system reached maturity in the 1850, a few years before its severest test, during the American Civil War. This book provides a summary of constitutional-political antecedents with some elements of the old "germinal, organic growth" views of self governing institutions.

Contending that a restored party system remains the best hope for revitalizing our democracy, Reichley uncovers the historic sources of this system, the pitfalls the parties encountered during earlier efforts at reform, and how they arrived at their current weakened state. Reichley recalls that the Founders took a dim view of parties and tried to prevent their emergence. But by the end of George Washington's first term as President, two parties, one led by Alexander Hamilton and the other by Thomas Jefferson, were competing for direction of national policy. The two-party system, complete with national conventions, party platforms, and armies of campaign workers, developed more fully during the era of Andrew Jackson. The Civil War Republicans, led by Abraham Lincoln, were the first to achieve true party government, and Franklin Roosevelt produced a second golden age of party government in the 1930s.