MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Henry Adams’s Democracy: An American Novel (1880), although written over 130 years ago, remains a vital examination of the political culture of Washington, D.C. A large part of the novel’s enduring power stems from Adams’s portrayal of Silas P. Ratcliffe – a character who provides an early example of a “politico” in the modern sense. A former governor and senator, Ratcliffe now aspires to the presidency – but not because he holds ideological beliefs that he feels should become national policy, and not because he believes that he has a contribution to make in terms of national service. Rather, he enjoys holding and wielding power, and wants to perpetuate his political career as long as possible. All of Ratcliffe’s actions, including his choice of a prospective mate (the novel’s protagonist, Madeleine Lee), proceed from his selfish ambitions.

The Ratcliffe character shows how far Washington politics had advanced, even by 1880, toward the preponderance of self-perpetuating “career politicians” whose presence on the Washington, D.C., political scene remains a concern in United States society today. By 1880, Gilded-Age American politics had strayed from the Revolutionary ideal of the selfless leader who reluctantly serves for the sake of the greater good, and had moved into an era when the increasing power and wealth of the post-Civil War United States Government gave politicians an increased stake in prolonging their national political careers by any means possible. Ratcliffe sees himself as a creature of the new political era, saying that “If Washington were President now, he would have to learn our ways or lose his next election….If virtue won’t answer our purpose, we must use vice, or our opponents will put us out of office.” Henry Adams’s Democracy, through its presentation of the character of Silas Ratcliffe, evokes in a powerful manner these anxieties within American democracy.