Henry St. John Quotes
Faction is to party what the superlative is to the positive. Party is a political evil, and faction is the worst of all parties.
St. John, Henry. The Idea of a Patriot King. London, A. Millar, 1749.
Despite his fears, that is exactly what happened. Ironically, he himself was the focus of much dissatisfaction with the administration, and the Federalists led by Adams and the Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson opposed each other, ousting Adams.
Faction was the then common word for political party. James Madison frequently used the word in this sense. See {606044}.
His description of the extreme partisanship in England at the time could just as easily describe the American political polarization of 2012—85 years later.
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his antireligious views and opposition to theology. He supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the new king George I. Escaping to France he became foreign minister for the Pretender. He was attainted for treason, but reversed course and was allowed to return to England in 1723. According to Ruth Mack, "Bolingbroke is best known for his party politics, including the ideological history he disseminated in The Craftsman (1726–1735) by adopting the formerly Whig theory of the Ancient Constitution and giving it new life as an anti-Walpole Tory principle."
