The Boss and the Machine | Page 8

It was discovered very early in American experience that without
organization issues would disintegrate and principles remain but
scintillating axioms. Thus necessity enlisted executive talent and
produced the politician, who, having once achieved an organization,
remained at his post to keep it intact between elections and used it for
purposes not always prompted by the public welfare.
In colonial days, when the struggle began between Crown and Colonist,
the colonial patriots formed clubs to designate their candidates for
public office. In Massachusetts these clubs were known as "caucuses,"
a word whose derivation is unknown, but which has now become fixed
in our political vocabulary. These early caucuses in Boston have been
described as follows: "Mr. Samuel Adams' father and twenty others,
one or two from the north end of the town, where all the ship business
is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plans for
introducing certain persons into places of trust and power. When they

had settled it, they separated, and used each their particular influence
within his own circle. He and his friends would furnish themselves with
ballots, including the names of the parties fixed upon, which they
distributed on the day of election. By acting in concert together with a
careful and extensive distribution of ballots they generally carried the
elections to their own mind."
As the revolutionary propaganda increased in momentum, caucuses
assumed a more open character. They were a sort of informal town
meeting, where neighbors met and agreed on candidates and the means
of electing them. After the adoption of the Constitution, the same
methods were continued, though modified to suit the needs of the new
party alignments. In this informal manner, local and even congressional
candidates were named.
Washington was the unanimous choice of the nation. In the third
presidential election, John Adams was the tacitly accepted candidate of
the Federalists and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans, and no
formal nominations seem to have been made. But from 1800 to 1824
the presidential candidates were designated by members of Congress in
caucus. It was by this means that the Virginia Dynasty fastened itself
upon the country. The congressional caucus, which was one of the most
arrogant and compact political machines that our politics has produced,
discredited itself by nominating William H. Crawford (1824), a
machine politician, whom the public never believed to be of
presidential caliber. In the bitter fight that placed John Quincy Adams
in the White House and made Jackson the eternal enemy of Clay, the
congressional caucus met its doom. For several years, presidential
candidates were nominated by various informal methods. In 1828 a
number of state legislatures formally nominated Jackson. In several
States the party members of the legislatures in caucus nominated
presidential candidates. DeWitt Clinton was so designated by the New
York legislature in 1812 and Henry Clay by the Kentucky legislature in
1822. Great mass meetings, often garnished with barbecues, were held
in many parts of the country in 1824 for indorsing the informal
nominations of the various candidates.

But none of these methods served the purpose. The President was a
national officer, backed by a national party, and chosen by a national
electorate. A national system of nominating the presidential candidates
was demanded. On September 26, 1831, 113 delegates of the
Anti-Masonic party, representing thirteen States, met in a national
convention in Baltimore. This was the first national nominating
convention held in America.
In February, 1831, the Whig members of the Maryland legislature
issued a call for a national Whig convention. This was held in
Baltimore the following December. Eighteen States were represented
by delegates, each according to the number of presidential electoral
votes it cast. Clay was named for President. The first national
Democratic convention met in Baltimore on May 21, 1832, and
nominated Jackson.
Since that time, presidential candidates have been named in national
conventions. There have been surprisingly few changes in procedure
since the first convention. It opened with a temporary organization,
examined the credentials of delegates, and appointed a committee on
permanent organization, which reported a roster of permanent officers.
It appointed a committee on platform--then called an address to the
people; it listened to eulogistic nominating speeches, balloted for
candidates, and selected a committee to notify the nominees of their
designation. This is practically the order of procedure today. The
national convention is at once the supreme court and the supreme
legislature of the national party. It makes its own rules, designates its
committees, formulates their procedure and defines their power, writes
the platform, and appoints the national executive committee.
Two rules that have played a significant part in these conventions
deserve special mention. The first Democratic convention, in order to
insure the nomination of Van Buren for Vice-President--the nomination
of Jackson for President was uncontested--adopted the rule that