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THE ADVENT OF CLEVELAND.
Popular dissatisfaction with the behavior of public authority had not up to this time extended to the formal Constitution.

Schemes of radical rearrangement of the political institutions of the country had not yet been agitated.

New party movements were devoted to particular measures such as fresh greenback issues or the prohibition of liquor traffic.
Popular reverence for the Constitution was deep and strong, and it was the habit of the American people to impute practical defects not to the governmental system itself but to the character of those acting in it.

Burke, as long ago as 1770, remarked truly that "where there is a regular scheme of operations carried on, it is the system and not any individual person who acts in it that is truly dangerous." But it is an inveterate habit of public opinion to mistake results for causes and to vent its resentment upon persons when misgovernment occurs.