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became so serious as to threaten the peaceful relations of the two countries, and the subject so much absorbed public attention that the Democratic National Convention of 1844 in its platform declared for a certain boundary line or war as a consequence. (See Northwest Boundary.)

De Facto and De Jure.-These terms are generally used in connection with the holding of office. One who has actual possession of an office and exercises its functions is said to be an officer de facto, or in fact; one who is entitled to an office, but does not actually fill it, is said to be an officer de jure, or by right. A de facto officer may hold his office without wrongful intent, though without legal sanction, as when there have been technical irregularities in the appointment, or when the law under which he was appointed is afterward declared unconstitutional by the courts. The acts of a de facto incumbent are valid as respects third persons and the public generally if the officer holds his position by color of right (that is, with supposed authority based on reasonable grounds), if he holds it with some degree of notoriety, if he is actually in exercise of continuous official acts, or if he is in actual possession of a public office. For application of these terms in 1877 to Hayes and Tilden, see Presidents De Facto and De Jure.

Defender of the Constitution.-A name applied to Daniel Webster, principally by reason of his second speech in reply to Robert Y. Hayne in the Senate. (See Foot's Resolution.)

Deficiency Bill. (See Appropriations.)

De Golyer Contract.-In 1872 the Board of Public Works at Washington had under advisement about forty different kinds of pavement, one of which it intended to select for use. James A. Garfield was retained by the attorney of the De Golyer and McClellan patent to prepare a brief on this patent and to argue its merits before the board, the attorney himself having been called away from Washington. For these services he received a fee of $5,000. It was charged, and the

charge was revived during the presidential campaign of 1880, that Garfield had done no work to deserve this fee, which had been given, it was said, as a bribe to influence his action in Congress, and especially as chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the House. On the other hand, it was shown that he did considerable laborious work in connection with the matter, and that, moreover, the money required had already been voted, so that the alleged bribe would have been on the rather remote contingency of a deficiency and a consequent additional appropriation. Moreover, the objections to the whole transaction were not to the pavement itself, but to the contract with the company, and with this Garfield had no connection.

Delaware was one of the original States of the Union. The capital is Dover. The population in 1880 was 146,608, in the last census (1890) is 168,493. Delaware sends only one member to the House of Representatives, and has but three electoral votes. Since 1860 it has voted for the Democratic national candidates, except in 1872, and the Democratic vote has been, as a rule, steadily increasing. It took its name from the river and bay, which, in turn, were named after Lord De la Ware, one of the early Governors of Virginia. It is familiarly known as the Diamond State from its shape, and the Blue Hen State from a game breed of fighting cocks of which the State was proud. (See Governors; Legislatures.)

Democrat. Thus did the Federalists call all their opponents. Of these only a portion accepted the title, and after 1810 Democrat and Democratic may be taken as synonymous. The word as first used was intended to denote revolutionary tendencies. (See Democratic Society.)

Democratic Clubs. (See Democratic Society.) Democratic Invincible Club. (See American Knights.)

Democratic Party. (See Democratic-Republican Party.)

Democratic Reading Room. (See American Knights.)

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Democratic Republican Party. This party, known first as the Republican, then as the DemocraticRepublican, and generally in our own time, merely as the Democratic party, has as its fundamental principles the limitation of the powers of the federal government to those granted by the letter of the Constitution and the increase of the direct influence of the people in the affairs of the government. Though the party has from time to time swerved from these principles, when the exigencies of the political situation seemed to demand it (and the slavery question caused very violent fluctuations of this nature), yet to these principles it has always returned, and while acting on them its greatest successes have been gained. The adoption of the Constitution left, the antiFederal party without a cause; there was no organized opposition to the Federal party, to which most of the prominent men of the time belonged, and from it the Republican party, as the Democratic-Republican party was first called, was but gradually differentiated. The financial measures of Hamilton clearly showed his purpose of applying to the Constitution loose principles of construction, and his proposals to assume the State debts, and later to incorporate the United States bank, and to levy a tax on distilled spirits, were the first measures that marked a divergence in the Federal party. Madison, Jefferson and Randolph opposed these measures as unconstitutional. As was natural, the following of Hamilton consisted largely of the commercial interests, while the agricultural interests as naturally favored a view tending to localize political power. It was not until 1792 that the party thus segregated, was known by the name of Republican. Those that were then known as Democrats, agitating, loud-mouthed and abusive partisans of France, in the war she was then engaged in, were not acknowledged by the Republicans as their party, though the two were frequently united in action; in the third House, the Republicans elected their candidate for Speaker, and the merging of the two factions was hastened by this event, though, for some time thereafter, the line between the two was plainly visible within the

party; thereafter it was known as the Democratic-Republican party. John Adams succeeded Washington as President, defeating Jefferson by a majority of but three electoral votes. The alien and sedition laws aided in rendering Adams' administration extremely unpopular, and in the next presidential contest the small Federalist majority was overcome and Jefferson was elected President by the House of Representatives, into which the election had been thrown by a tie in the electoral college. The party as now constituted aimed at strict construction, an elective judiciary, reduction of expenditure (on this ground they opposed a navy), and, as a consequence, thereof, a reduction of taxation, and the extension of the suffrage. The party was so successful that before 1805 the State governments of all but two of the States (Vermont and Connecticut) were in their hands, and they controlled the Senate and House of Representatives. The purchase of Lousiana by Jefferson, though enthusiastically commended everywhere, was a palpable deviation from strict construction, as was also the embargo; to this latter step the party was forced by its previous policy of refusing to establish a navy. The failure of the embargo occasioned a change in party feeling, and as a result war against England was declared in 1812. The war increased the national feeling, the restriction of trade preceding the war and incident to it, had fostered manufactures to maintain which the party was forced to adopt a tariff slightly protective, and the financial difficulties raised by the war led to the establishment of a national bank in 1816. Thus the party had been forced into a position closely resembling that of its former antagonists. These were now politically dead, the few that remained calling themselves Federal-Republicans. It was an "era of good feeling," but it was not destined to continue long. The party was soon divided into two wings, again on the general lines of strict and loose construction. John Quincy Adams was an advocate of the latter, and the opposition to him culminated in the election of Andrew Jackson as his successor. During the presidency of

Adams, his followers gradually came to be known as National Republicans, while the others first known as "Jackson men," ultimately took the name of Democrats. The former were the precursors of the Whigs. Jackson undertook to give form to his party, using the federal patronage as a means, and he was eminently successful; his own leanings were to strict.construction, and the party was once more placed on that basis. A distinctively Southern and slavery faction of the party, under Calhoun, carried their opposition to the length of threatening secession, but Jackson firmly repressed the movement. (See Nullification.) In practice, Jackson was not uniformly consistent, but he enforced his strict construction theories in the case of the United States bank, and the adoption, under Van Buren, of the sub-treasury system, still more firmly entrenched the theory. The panic during Van Buren's administration was effectively used against him in the next campaign, and Harrison, a Whig, was elected. It was about this time that the name Loco-foco was applied to the Democratic party. Harrison died within a month after his inauguration, and was succeeded by the Vice-President, Tyler, a Calhoun Democrat. The ascendency of the Calhoun faction committed the party, in its convention of 1844, to the annexation of Texas. From this time forward, it vibrated between strict and loose construction, as suited its purpose, using the latter for the purpose of spreading slavery, and the former to secure it where thus established; the Calhoun faction was first and foremost a proslavery party. The election of Polk was in great part due to the Liberty party. His successor, Taylor, was a Whig, but his election was owing to local dissensions among the Democrats, and Fillmore, who became President on Taylor's death, was succeeded by Pierce, a Democrat. Northern Democrats were not in favor of slavery, but they regarded it as the policy of their party to ignore the question; Southern Whigs were pro-slavery, and to them the question of slavery was paramount to any party ties. Buchanan, another Democrat, succeeded Pierce, but the power of the party was diminishing,

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