that their candidate for the presidency should be named by members of Congress, and they soon began to clamor for the privilege of making their own nominations. In 1823 the people of Blount County, Tennessee, at a mass meeting nominated Andrew Jackson for President. From this time on nominating influences began at the bottom instead of at the top. Mass meetings, State legislatures and State conventions began to express their views as to presidential candidates, and by 1832 the congressional caucus had disappeared and a national convention consisting of party delegates from all the States had begun to name the party candidate for President and Vice-President.

Along with the popular method of naming the presidential candidates there was established the custom of electing the presidential electors by the direct vote of the people. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in a majority of the States, the electors were chosen by the legislature, but by 1832 all the States but one (South Carolina) were electing the electors by a popular vote. This change was made necessary by the requirements of party organization. If a presidential election was to be a party affair and a popular affair, the party must not only name the presidential candidates, but it must also elect the electors who were to choose the President.

Thus party organization in the United States was built up while men were finding a way to nominate a candidate for the presidency, and the presidential nomination is still the central subject of party activity. Since this is so, we may most conveniently study the subject of party organization by following the workings of a party in a presidential year.

Permanent Party Organization. The work of a political party does not end on election night when the ballots have been counted. The life of a party must be supported from one election to the next, and this is done by means of a permanent organization, which is maintained throughout

the length and breadth of the land. In almost every township, village, election district, and city ward, each of the great parties has its permanent local committee of management. Likewise it has its permanent county, city and State committees. Above all these it has a permanent National Committee, consisting of one member from each of the States and Territories.

These permanent committees do the heavy work of politics. Indeed, they do all the work of politics except voting. They issue calls for the nominating conventions to be described below; they organize political clubs; they arrange for political mass meetings and processions; they solicit funds for conducting campaigns; they urge voters to be registered, and then urge them to come to the polls; in many other ways they promote and defend the interests of the party, through good and ill report, after defeat as well as after success.

The members of these party committees are generally experienced politicians, and they know how to organize and control men. They are skillful in determining what the rank and file of the party desire, and they are quick to respond to the commands of public opinion. Their services are generally performed without compensation. In many instances, however, in the event of party success, they expect either to hold office themselves or to assist their friends to office, or to profit personally in some other way.

Party Conventions. The chief work of the permanent committees is to keep the nominating machinery in motion. This consists of a series of party conventions which in a presidential year are all called into action. These conventions, beginning with the lowest of the series, will now be described:

I. The Primary. In the spring of a presidential year the permanent local committees of the lowest grade, in response to an order which has come down to them through

the State committee from the National Committee, call together the voters of the party within the town or election precinct or ward to confer and act upon party matters-especially upon matters relating to the nomination of a candidate for President-in a primary meeting.1 At the primary two things at least are likely to be done: (1) the permanent local committee is either reëlected, or a new one is chosen, and (2) delegates to a county (or city) convention are elected.

These primary meetings are quite in the nature of pure democracies. Sometimes they are held in a hall and are so conducted that any voter, in addition to voting, may express his opinion in discussion. They are the meetings where the voting masses of the party have a direct voice in the management of the party's affairs. They can be controlled by the voters of the party, and if they are controlled by the party managers (the permanent committee) it is the fault of the voters.

After the people have expressed themselves at the primaries they have nothing further to do with party management. Everything henceforth is in the hands of the delegates and managers chosen in the primaries. It is only natural that the permanent organization should seek to control the primaries, for if they can do this they can name the delegates to the higher conventions, and thus control the nominations for all the higher offices, and can secure for themselves and friends appointments to office. If the voters of a party do not like the nominations which are made they can, of course, vote against the candidates at the polls, but voters are loath to do this. It seems to be much easier to neglect one's duties at the primaries than it is to rebuke the party management on election day.

The primary, like the entire party organization, be it remembered, is an extra-legal, voluntary institution. It is controlled by rules made by party managers, and whe1 Sometimes called a caucus.

ther it is conducted honestly or otherwise is not an affair of the government. If at the primary election there is cheating or irregularities no one can be punished.

Several States are now making the experiment of placing primaries under control of the law and having them conducted as regularly and as honestly as other elections p. 345) are conducted. It will be the part of good citizenship to give these primary election laws the heartiest support, for the primaries are the springs in which the great stream of politics rises, and that stream will be pure or impure according as the source is pure or impure.

II. The County (or City) Convention. We left the primary sending delegates to the county convention in a presidential year. These delegates may be instructed at the primary to act in the interest of a certain man as the party candidate for President, and to support certain political measures, or they may go to the convention free to act as their judgments direct. In a short time after the primary election they assemble (usually at the countyseat) as the county convention of the party which they represent. This body, consisting perhaps of forty or fifty men, elects three or four or five delegates to represent the party in a State convention. If the county convention is in favor of a certain man for President it may instruct these delegates for this man in the State convention.

III. The State Convention. A few weeks after the county convention, delegates from all the counties (and cities 1) assemble at some convenient place as the State convention of the party. This body, consisting sometimes of several hundred men, passes resolutions expressing the political views of the party in the State, names its choice for presidential candidate-if it happens to have a choice. -and elects delegates to a National Convention, the number of delegates allotted to each State being twice the

1

1In a city each ward in primary meeting sends delegates to a city convention and this body elects delegates to the State convention to meet with the delegates from the counties.

number of its representatives in both Houses of Congress.1 Sometimes it also selects candidates for presidential electors. Although the men in this convention are several degrees removed from the voting mass, yet if the sentiment at the primaries was pronounced and definite it will find expression in the State convention. If, on the other hand, the voters at the primaries gave no direct indication of their will the delegates in the higher conventions must act according to their judgment.

IV. The National Convention. In July or August, all the State conventions having been held, the delegates from the States (and Territories) assemble as the great National Convention. This body, consisting of nearly a thousand men, meets in some convenient city, and after several days of discussion, expresses the views of the party upon public questions in the shape of a platform and chooses candidates for President and Vice-President.

The Presidential Campaign. After all the political parties have named their candidates the struggle for election begins. Political meetings are held, the claims of the candidates are urged, the platforms are explained and defended, and everything that can be done to influence voters is done.

The campaign, with all its faults, is a most wholesome element in our public life. It is the school-time of democracy. By it, men's attention is strongly attracted to public affairs, civic spirit is awakened, and voters are educated. The greatest objection to lengthening the presidential term is that to do so would be to deprive the people of the great educational advantage of frequent presidential campaigns.

1In many States the State convention elects only four delegates (called delegates at large) to the National Convention, the other delegates being elected at congressional district conventions, two delegates being chosen from each district. Where this is the practice the district convention selects a candidate for presidential electors.