vention of the Republican members of both Houses of Congress," the newspapers at once began to harp upon his authoritative language, and to ask upon what meat this Cæsar fed. This system of nomination aggravated the inequality of the electoral system by complicating with it the inequality that existed in the system of congressional elections. While in some states the district system prevailed, in others the representatives were elected on a general ticket, constituting a solid party phalanx. The violation of democratic instincts, perpetrated by this diversity of political circumstances, caused a simultaneous demand for reform here, as well as in the electoral system, and the two propositions were generally coupled. In 1818, Senator Sanford of New York, by instruction of his state legislature, introduced an amendment providing for an uniform district system in the election both of members of the House and of presidential electors, the appointment of the two electors, allotted to each state in addition to those corresponding to the number of its representatives, to be made by the legislature. This was the one of the various propositions submitted from time to time which came the nearest to passing Congress.

The combination of interests which established the Virginia dynasty was too strong to be seriously disturbed. The presidency was handed along from Jefferson to Madison, and from Madison to Monroe with some perturbation, but with no great dif

ficulty. Pennsylvania, the heterogeneous character of whose population prevented the establishment of a family political control, like that of the Clintons in New York, was always attentively cared for by the Virginia dynasty, and her adhesion made it impossible to form a sectional combination against Southern ascendency. New York went into revolt against the Congressional caucus, and set up De Witt Clinton against Madison when he was a candidate for the second time; but, although the remains of the Federalist party rallied to Clinton, he was crushingly defeated, and then the federal patronage was used to overthrow his control of New York politics. The state was brought back to its former subordinate relation, and again received the vice-presidency as its reward.

The time was not ripe for a successful revolt against the rule of the Congressional Caucus until the older generation of statesmen should cease to furnish a presidential candidate upheld by their collective prestige. That period arrived when Monroe had received the usual renomination. Every one of the four candidates for the presidential succession were men of the post-revolutionary age, and among them was a typical representative of democratic aspirations. General Jackson's career had marked him as the natural leader of the democratic movement. His success as a military man had been in brilliant contrast with the pompous impotence of generals set up by the Wash

ington gentry. His victory at New Orleans over the flower of the British army uplifted the national pride which had been humiliated by the incapacity of the government. As a politician he represented the new states, the chief source of the democratic leaven which was stirring the whole mass of American society. In the splendid force of his indomitable manhood, he realized a popular ideal which his frontier training and his educational deficiencies made only the more genial and inspiring.

Having found such a leader, the triumph of democracy was inevitable. Although in six states, among them the great state of New York, there was no election by the people, yet such was the strength of the Jackson movement that he received the greatest number of electoral votes. Crawford, the nominee of the rump, which in 1824 was all that was left of the Congressional Caucus, stood third in the poll. John Quincy Adams, who stood second, was elected to the presidency by the House of Representatives, but he was the last President of the old order. The Jackson movement went on without intermission. Before Adams had sent his first message to Congress, the Tennessee legislature had nominated Jackson to the succession and he had formally accepted the nomination. The force of public sentiment compelled Vermont, New York, Georgia, and Louisiana to accept the popular system of choosing

electors, leaving only Delaware and South Carolina to continue the system of appointment by the legislature. Jackson was triumphantly elected, and the subserviency of the electoral machinery to popular control was forever established. Before the next presidential election, South Carolina, which had taken up an independent rôle and was outside of the communion of national party organization, was the only state which retained the old. system of appointment by the legislature.

During Jackson's administration, efforts were made to obtain the passage of a constitutional amendment providing for a direct election by the people, but they were unavailing. The President repeatedly urged it on the attention of Congress, and the agitation of the subject continued for a number of years; but the conditions required for the amendment of the constitution are so many and so rigorous that in the ordinary course of politics it is impossible to satisfy them. The end sought was, however, step by step attained through party activity. With the establishment of the system of nominating conventions, which took place at this period, the superior weight in party councils of a state which cast a solid electoral vote, over a state whose vote was apt to be divided by the district system, caused a general abandonment of the latter method. In 1832, the method of choosing electors was uniform throughout the country, with the exception of Maryland and South

Carolina. Before the next presidential election, Maryland abandoned the district system for the general ticket; but South Carolina clung to the system of appointment by the legislature until after 1860. Since the Civil War the general ticket has been everywhere used, except in Michigan in 1892. The Democrats, having secured the legislature at the election of 1890, revived the party trickery of the Federalist period, and passed a law establishing the district system; but the next legislature repealed it.

Lack of uniformity as regards the method of congressional elections ceased to disturb the Democratic party after its triumph, as it speedily found a party advantage in the complete suppression of minorities in some of the states. The correction of this injustice was a fruit of the Whig victory of 1840. In May, 1842, an act was passed requiring the election of members of the House by districts. At that time the members from New Jersey, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Louisiana were elected on a general ticket. The national regulation of senatorial elections did not take place until the present Republican party rose to national dominion. The law for this purpose was enacted

1 There have been three Republican parties in United States history, viz.: The Republican party of Jefferson, of which the Democratic party claims to be the lineal successor; the National Republican party established by the Adams and Clay men, which was soon merged into the Whig party; and the Republican party still existing, organized in 1856.