would compel them to show their hands | ples are plain: Van Buren's, Tyler's, Fillfor or against one or other of the opposing more's, Buchanan's, and Hayes'. The latRepublican factions. The extra session of the Senate adjourned May 20th.

ter's indecision was more excusable than that of any of his predecessors. The inexorable firmness of Grant caused the most bitter partisan assaults, and despite all his efforts to sustain the "carpet-bag govern

The New York Legislature began balloting for successors to Senators Conkling and Platt on the 31st of May. The majority of the Republicans (Independents or "Half-ments" of the South, they became unpopubreeds") supported Chauncey M. Depew as the successor of Platt for the long term, and William A. Wheeler as the successor of Conkling for the short term, a few supporting Cornell. The minority (Stalwarts) renominated Messrs. Conkling and Platt. The Democrats nominated Francis Kernan | for the long term, and John C. Jacobs for the short term; and, on his withdrawal, Clarkson N. Potter. The contest lasted until July 22, and resulted in a compromise on Warner A. Miller as Platt's successor, and Elbridge G. Lapham as Conkling's successor. In Book VII., our Tabulated History of Politics, we give a correct table of the ballots. These show at a single glance the earnestness and length of the contest.

lar and were rapidly supplanted. As they disappeared, Democratic representation from the South increased, and this increase continued during the administration of Hayes-the greatest gains being at times when he showed the greatest desire to conciliate the South. Yet his administration did the party good, in this, that while at first dividing, it finally cemented through the conviction that experiments of that kind with a proud Southern people were as a rule unavailing. The re-opening of the avenues of trade and other natural causes, apparently uncultivated, have accomplished in this direction much more than any political effort.

In Pennsylvania a successor to U. S. Senator Wm. A. Wallace was to be chosen. Henry W. Oliver, Jr., received the nomination of the Republican caucus, the friends of Galusha A. Grow refusing to enter after a count had been made, and declaring in a written paper that they would not participate in any caucus, and would independently manifest their choice in the Legislature. The following is the first vote in joint Convention⚫

OLIVER.

WALLACE.

The factious feelings engendered thereby were carried into the Fall nominations for the Legislature, and as a result the Democrats obtained control, which in part they subsequently lost by the refusal of the Tammany Democrats to support their nominees for presiding officers. This Democratic division caused a long and tiresome deadlock in the Legislature of New York. It was broken in the House by a promise on the part of the Democratic candidate for Speaker to favor the Tammany men with a just distribution of the committees -a promise which was not satisfactorily carried out, and as a result the Tammany forces of the Senate_joined hands with the Republicans. The Repub- Senate... lican State ticket would also have been House.. lost in the Fall of 1881, but for the interposition of President Arthur, who quickly succeeded in uniting the warring factions. This work was so well done, that all save one name on the ticket (Gen'l Husted) House............... 1 House......

succeeded.

The same factious spirit was manifested

in Pennsylvania in the election of U. S.

Senate
House...............

20 Senate............... 16 75 House..................................... 77

Total............. 95
GROW.

Total............. 93

AGNEW.

Senate........... 1

12

44

House...

Total............. 56
BREWSTER.

Senate.........

Senate...

Total............. 1

BAIRD.

Whole number of votes cast, 248; necessary to a choice, 125.

Senator in the winter of 1881, the two wings Senate............... taking the names of "Regulars" and "In-House........ dependents." The division occurred before the New York battle, and it is traceble not alone to the bitter nominating ontest at Chicago, but to the administration of President Hayes and the experiment of civil service reform. Administrations which are not decided and firm upon political issues, invariably divide their parties, and while these divisions are not always to be deplored, and sometimes lead "Henry W. Oliver, jr., of Allegheny to good results, the fact that undecided county, was nominated on the third ballot, administrations divide the parties which receiving 79 of the 95 votes present. Unthey represent, ever remains. The exam-der the rules of all parties known to the

On the 17th of January the two factions issued opposing addresses. From these we quote the leading ideas, which divided the factions. The "Regulars" said:

local considerations and factional differences, and unite with our colleagues in the selection of a candidate in whom are combined at least some of these important and essential qualifications. It was only when it became apparent that the party caucus was to be used to defeat this popular desire and to coerce a nomination which is conspicuously lacking in the very essentials which were demanded, that we determined to absent ourselves from it.

*

*

present or past history of our country, a | cities, her prosperous communities, her majority of those participating should have vast material wealth and diversified indusbeen sufficient; but such was the desire for tries and resources, but that in the wisparty harmony and for absolute fairness, dom, sagacity and statesmanship of her that a majority of all the Republican mem- representative she shall occupy a corresbers of the Senate and House was required ponding rank and influence. To meet to nominate. The effect of this was to this public expectation and demand we are give those remaining out a negative voice and have at all times been willing to suin the proceedings, the extent of any priv-bordinate our personal preferences, all ilege given them in regular legislative sessions by the Constitution. In no other caucus or convention has the minority ever found such high consideration, and we believe there remains no just cause of complaint against the result. Even captious faultfinding can find no place upon which to hang a sensible objection. Mr. Oliver was, therefore, fairly nominated by the only body to which is delegated the power of nomination and by methods which were more than just, which, from every standpoint, must be regarded as generous; and in view of these things, how can we, your Senators and Representatives, in fairness withhold our support from him in open sessions; rather how can we ever abandon a claim established by the rules regulating the government of all parties, accepted by all as just, and which are in exact harmony with that fundamental principle of our Government which proclaims the right of the majority to rule? To do otherwise is to confess the injustice and the failure of that principle-something we are not prepared to do. It would blot the titles to our own positions. There is not a Senator or member who does not owe his nomination and election to the same great principle. To profit by its acceptance in our own cases and to deny it to Mr. Oliver would be an exhibition of selfishness too flagrant for our taste. To acknowledge the right to revolt when no unfairness can be truthfully alleged and when more than a majority have in the interest of harmony been required to govern, would be a travesty upon every American notion and upon that sense of manliness which yields when fairly beaten."

The "Independent" address said. "First. We recognize a public sentiment which demands that in the selection of a United States Senator we have regard to that dignity of the office to be filled, its important duties and functions, and the qualifications of the individual with reference thereto. This sentiment is, we understand, that there are other and higher qualifications for this distinguished position than business experience and success, and reckons among these the accomplishments of the scholar, the acquirements of the student, the mature wisdom of experience and a reasonable familiarity with public affairs. It desires that Pennsylvania shall be distinguished among her sister Commonwealths, not only by her populous

Second, Having declined to enter the caucus, we adhere to our determination to defeat, if possible, its nominee, but only by the election of a citizen of unquestioned fidelity to the principles of the Republican party. In declaring our independency from the caucus domination we do not forget our allegiance to the party whose chosen representatives we are. The only result of our policy is the transfer of the contest from the caucus to the joint convention of the two houses. There will be afforded an opportunity for the expression of individual preferences and honorable rivalry for an honorable distinction. If the choice shall fall upon one not of approved loyalty and merit, the fault will not be ours."

After a long contest both of the leading candidates withdrew, and quickly the Regulars substituted General James A. Beaver, the Independent Congressman, Thomas M. Bayne. On these names the dead-lock remained unbroken. Without material change the balloting continued till Febru ary 17th, when both Republican factions agreed to appoint conference committees of twelve each, with a view to selecting by a three-fourths vote a compromise candidate. The following were the respective committees: For the Independents: Senators Davis, Bradford; Lee, Venango; Stewart, Franklin; Lawrence, Washington; Representatives Wolfe, Union; Silverthorne, Erie; Mapes, Venango; McKee, Philadelphia; Slack, Allegheny; Stubs, Chester; Niles, Tioga; and Derickson, Crawford. For the Regulars: Senators Greer, Butler; Herr, Dauphin; Smith, Philadelphia; Keefer, Schuylkill; Cooper, Delaware; Representatives Pollock, Phila delphia; Moore, Allegheny; Marshall, Huntingdon; Hill, Indiana; Eshleman, Lancaster; Thomson, Armstrong; and Billingsley, Washington.

The joint convention held daily sessions and balloted without result until February

many States the people composing either of the great parties now select their own representative delegates to National Conventions, and where their selections are not respected, grave party danger is sure to follow. There is nothing wrong in this, since it points to, and is but paving the way for a more popular selection of Presidents and Vice Presidents to an eventual selection of Presidential electors probably by Congressional districts. Yet those to be selected at large must through practical voluntary forms be nominated in that way, and the partisan State Convention is the best method yet devised for this work, and its instructions should be as binding as those of the people upon their representatives. In this government of ours there is voluntary and legal work delegated to the people directly; there is legal work delegated to appointing powers, and an intelligent discrimination should ever be exercised between the two. "Render unto Cæsar those things which are Cæsar's," unless there be a plain desire, backed by a good reason, to promote popular reforms as enduring as the practices and principles which they are intended to support.

Fredrick W. Whitridge, in an able review of the caucus system published * in Lalor's Encyclopædia of Political Science, says:

there was secured the previous concurrence of two-thirds, and this principle was extended to the 56 who supported Mr. Bayne. Then when the joint committee of 24 was agreed upon, it was bound by a rule requiring three-fourths to recommend a candidate. All of these were plain departures from a great principle, and the deeper the contest became, the greater the departure. True, these were but voluntary forms, but they were indefensible, and are only referred to now to show the danger of mad assaults upon great principles when personal and factious aims are at stake. Opposition to the early Congressional caucus was plainly right, since one department of the Government was by voluntary agencies actually controlling another, while the law gave legal forms which could be more properly initiated through voluntary action. The writer believes, and past contests all confirm the view that the voluntary action can only be safely employed by the power by the law with the right of selection. Thus the people elect township, county and State officers, and it is their right and duty by the best attainable voluntary action to indicate their choice. This is done through the caucus or convention, the latter not differing from the former save in extent and possibly breadth of representation. The same rule applies to all offices elective by the people. It cannot properly apply "A caucus, in the political vocabulary to appointive offices, and while the attempt of the United States, is primarily a private to apply it to the election of U. S. Senators meeting of voters holding similar views, shows a strong desire on the part, frequently held prior to an election for the purpose of of the more public-spirited citizens, to ex- furthering such views at the election. ercise a greater share in the selection of With the development of parties, and the these officers than the law directly gives rule of majorities, the caucus or some them, yet their representatives can very equivalent has become an indispensable properly be called upon to act as they would adjunct to party government, and it may act if they had direct power in the pre- now be defined as a meeting of the majority mises, and such action leads them into a of the electors belonging to the same party party caucus, where the will of the majority in any political or legislative body held of their respective parties can be fairly preliminary to a meeting thereof, for the ascertained, and when ascertained re- purpose of selecting candidates to be spected. The State Legislatures appoint voted for, or for the purpose of deU. S. Senators, and the Representatives termining the course of the party at and Senators of the States are bound to the meeting of the whole body. The consider in their selection the good of the candidates of each party are univerentire State. If this comports with the sally selected by caucus, either directly or wish of their respective districts, very indirectly through delegates to convenwell; if it does not, their duty is not less tions chosen in caucuses. In legislative plain. Probably the time will never come bodies the course of each party is often when the people will elect United States predetermined with certainty in caucus, Senators; to do that is to radically change and often discussion between parties has the Federal system, and to practically de- been, in consequence, in some degree stroy one of the most important branches superseded. The caucus system is, in of the Government; yet he is not a careful short, the basis of a complete electoral observer who does not note a growing dis- system which has grown up within each position on the part of the people, and party, side by side with that which is alone largely the people of certain localities, and contemplated by the laws. This condition imaginary political sub-divisions, to control has in recent years attracted much attenthese selections. The same is true of tion, and has been bitterly announced as Presidential nominations, where masses of an evil. It was, however, early foreseen. people deny the right of State Conventions John Adams, in 1814, wrote in the "Tenth to instruct their delegates-at-large. In! * By Rand & McNally, Chicago, Ill., 1882.

Letter on Government:" "They have themselves with ballots, including the invented a balance to all balance in their names of the parties fixed upon, which caucuses. We have congressional caucuses, they distributed on the days of election. state caucuses, county caucuses, city cau- By acting in concert, together with a carecuses, district caucuses, town caucuses, ful and extensive distribution of ballots, parish caucuses, and Sunday caucuses at they generally carried their elections to church doors, and in these aristocratical their own mind. In like manner it was caucuses elections have been decided." The that Mr. Samuel Adams first became a caucus is a necessary consequence of representative for Boston." (History of majority rule. If the majority is to define the American Revolution, vol. i., p. 365.) the policy of a party, there must be some February, 1763, Adams writes in his method within each party of ascertaining diary: This day I learned that the cauthe mind of the majority, and settling the cus club meets at certain times in the garparty programme, before it meets the op- ret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Bosposing party at the polls. The Carlton ton regiment. He has a large house and and Reform clubs discharge for the Tories he has a movable partition in his garret and Liberals many of the functions of a which he takes down and the whole club congressional caucus. Meetings of the meets in his room. There they smoke members of the parties in the reichstag, tobacco until they cannot see one end of the corps legislatif and the chamber of the room from another. There they drink deputies are not unusual, although they flip, I suppose, and there they choose a have generally merely been for consulta- moderator who puts questions to the vote tion, and neither in England, France, regularly; and selectmen, assessors, colGermany or Italy, has any such authority lectors, wardens, fire wards and representabeen conceded to the wish of the majority tives are regularly chosen in the town. of a party as we have rested in the deci- Uncle Fairfield, Story, Ruddock, Adams, sion of a caucus. What has been called a Cooper, and a rudis indigestaques moles of caucus has been established by the others, are members. They send commitLiberals of Birmingham, England, as to tees to wait on the merchants' club, and to which, see a paper by W. Fraser Rae, in propose in the choice of men and measures. the International Review" for August, Captain Cunningham says, they have of1880. The origin of the term caucus is ten solicited him to go to the caucuses; obscure. It has been derived from the they have assured him their benefit in his Algonquin word Kaw-kaw-wus-to con- business, etc." (Adams' Works, vol. ii., p. sult, to speak-but the more probable 144.) Under the title caucus should be derivation makes it a corruption of considered the congressional nominating caulkers. In the early politics of Boston, caucus; the caucuses of legislative assemand particularly during the early difficul- blies; primary elections, still known outties between the townsmen and the British side the larger cities as caucuses; the evils troops, the seafaring men and those em- which have been attributed to the latter, ployed about the ship yards were promi- and the remedies which have been pronent among the town-people, and there posed. These will accordingly be menwere numerous gatherings which may tioned in the order given. have very easily come to be called by way of reproach a meeting of caulkers, after the least influential class who at tended them, or from the caulking house or caulk house in which they were held. What was at first a derisive description, came to be an appellation, and the gatherings of so-called caulkers became a caucus. John Pickering, in a vocabulary of words and phrases peculiar to the United States (Boston, 1816), gives this derivation of the word, and says several gentlemen mentioned to him that they had heard this derivation. Gordon, writing in 1774, says: "More than fifty years ago Mr. Samuel Adams' father and twenty others, one or two from the north end of the town where all the shi business is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus and lay their plan for introducing certain persons into places of trust and power. When they had settled it they separated, and each used their particular influence within his own circle. He and his friends would furnish

"The democratic system is the result of the reorganization of the various antiTammany democratic factions, brought about, in 1881, by a practically self-appointed committee of 100. Under this system primary elections are to be held annually in each of 678 election districts, at which all democratic electors resident in the respective districts may participate, provided they were registered at the last general election. The persons voting at any primary shall be members of the election district association for the ensuing year, which is to be organized in January of each year. The associations may admit democratic residents in their respective districts, who are not members, to membership, and they have general supervision of the interests of the party within their districts. Primaries are held on not less than four days' public notice, through the newspapers, of the time and place, and at the appointed time the meeting is called to order by the chairman of the election district as