reckoned among the causes of the present civil war. Our politics have gradually degenerated into fanaticism and party scramble for office, and the effects could hardly be otherwise than deplorable. This subject will be further discussed in the following sections. SEC. 14. In all the early American constitutions provision was made for the appointment of judges, by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the senate or council, or for their election by the legislature in joint convention; and for the appointment or election of state officers, other than the governor, in the same manner; and in many of the states, the governor also was elected by the legislature. The second constitution of the state of Mississippi, adopted in 1832, I think was the first American constitution which provided for the election of state officers and judges of the supreme and superior courts by the people. The example of Mississippi has been since followed by New York, Ohio, Michigan, and several other states, in the revision of their constitutions. That system is inherently vicious, so far as it regards both the executive and judicial branches of the government. It provides for the election of seven or eight or more heads of executive departments, but no governor or chief executive officer, in the proper sense of the words, and no cabinet nor executive council. The governor is only the head of th military department of the state, and has no control over, and no business with, the other executive departments. The secretary of state, state treasurer, auditor general, attorney general, and other state officers, being elected in the same manner as the governor, are all independent of him, and independent of each other and each determines the policy of his "own department, and discharges its duties in his own way, and without any legal obligation to consult the governor, or any of the other state officers. The effect of the system is, that there are no cabinet or executive councils of the governor and heads of department, to determine the executive policy of the state; no uniform policy is prescribed or acted upon; the policy and action of each department is substantially determined by one mind; and there is no unity or concert of action between the several depart ments-which often leads to confusion and conflict. It is imposBible to conduct the affairs of a state, wisely, on such a system, and the tendency of it is to excite dissention and distrust, and to weaken the confidence of the people in the administration of the government The system of electing judges by the people makes them so directly dependent upon popular favor and upon majorities, and renders it so easy for a few persons combining, from motives of disaffection or favoritism, to throw the majority on one side or the other that a rigid and upright administration of justice tends to make a judge unpopular with the debtor interest, and with so large a class of gamblers and gamesters, rowdies and reckless politicians, as to hazard his future election. It has the same effect also upon sheriffs, constables, and police officers, elected by the people, and tends strongly to relax and destroy the administration of justice, to give a loose rein to riots and mobs, vice and crime, and to break down law and order. The 2d article of the constitution of the United States provides that each state shall have a number of presidential electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in congress-to be appointed in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct. Congress may, and have determined the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes; but has no power to prescribe the mode of their election. Several differe modes have been adopted in the several states, at different periods, for the election or appoint ment of presidential electors. 1st. By the state legislatures, either by a concurrent vote of the two houses, or by a joint convention thereof. 2d. By the people in districts. 3d. By the people, by general ticket, each one casting a vote for the whole number of presidential electors, to which the state may be entitled. At the first election of president, in 1788, the choice of electors in most of the states, was made by the state legislatures; but in Virginia, they were chosen by the people, in single districts. New York did not vote, and North Carolina and Rhode Island not having ratified the constitution, were independent states out of the Union. In 1796, the presidential electors were chosen by the legislature in the states of New York, Connecticut, and South Carolina; by the people, by general ticket, in Pennsylvania; and by the people, by districts, in the other states. The choice of electors, by districts, gives the fairest expression of public opinion in a state, and the different.parts thereof; but as it often divides the vote of a state between two or more candidates, it is not so favorable to the views and wishes of managing politicians, who are in the majority, and desire to give the whole vote of a state to their favorite candidate, and allow the minority no vote at all in the elective college. Such considerations of ambitious leaders, in the then leading states of Massachusetts and Virginia, induced a change, in the year 1800, in the mode of electing presidential electors, and an abandonment of the district system. In Virginia, the choice was given to the people by general ticket; and in Massachusetts, it was made by the legislature; but the latter state adopted the general ticket, system of elections by the people, four years afterwards. In New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, the electors, in 1800, were chosen by the state legislatures, and in most of the other states, by the people, in districts. At the presidential election in 1808, the electors were chosen by the people, by districts, in the states of Maryland and North Carolina; by general ticket in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and some of the smaller states, and by the legislatures in New York, Massachusetts, Commecticut, Vermont, and South Carolina. New York persisted in choosing electors by the legislature until after the presidential election of 1824, when, by an act of the legislature, the people of each congressional district were allowed to elect, in November, 1828, one elector of president, and the persons so elected, when assembled, to cast their votes for president and vice-president, were authorized to choose two others, to represent the two senators in the electoral college. The result was that the people chose eighteen electors in favor of Gen. Jackson, for president, and sixteen in favor of Mr. Adams-the college of electors chose two others who cast their votes for Gen. Jackson, so that Jackson received twenty of the electoral votes of the state, and Adams sixteen. That was a fair and just result, as near in accordance with the numbers and preferences of the people of the two great political parties of the state as it was possible to attain; but inasmuch as nearly all the other states voted by general ticket, the inequality operated unfairly, and the result was not satisfactory to the politicians of the majority party; and therefore the system was immediately changed, and the general ticket system adopted. At each presidential election since 1832, South Carolina has continued to choose electors by the legislature, and all the other states by general ticket, by the people. Uniformity has been practically attained, by that anomalous system, which substantially disfrachises the minority of the people of each state, and transfers their vote for electors to the majority, and thereby greatly increases the political power and influence of the majority-increases the objects of strife at each election, and increases the intensity and violence of party spirit. It tends also to increase the power of party organizations, the allegiance of individuals to party nominations, and to make men blind to the corruptions of party, and to the best interests of the country. SEC. 15. POLITICAL CONVENTIONS, CREEDS AND PLATFORMS. The first state convention ever held in the state of New York, to nominate candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, assembled at Utica, in September, 1824, and nominated Dewit Clinton, for governor, and Gen. Jas. Tallmadge, for lieutenant governor. Col. Samuel Young had been previously nominated for governor by a caucus of the democratic members of the legislature, in accordance with the previous usage of both parties. Since that time, the system of nominating candidates for governor, presidential electors, and other officers, by state conventions, has been introduced and established in all, or nearly all the states. In the years 1831 and 1832, the first national conventions were held in the United States to nominate candidates for president and vice-president of the United States; by the anti-masons, in September, 1831; by the national republicans, in December, 1831; . and by the democrats, in May, 1832. Previous to that period, candidates for president and vice-president were united on by the people of each par y in the several states, by common consent, or they were designated by a caucus of members of the legislature or congress, or they were first determined upon by the presidential electors, on consultation, after they assembled to cast their votes. The latter mode, which allowed a discretion to the electors, is strictly in accordance with the spirit of the constitution, and the designs of its framers. No political creed or platform of principles was adopted by either of the national nominating conventions held in 1831 and 1832. Similar conventions have been held by each of the great political parties of the country, every four years, since 1832, and several national conventions have been held by the abolitionists. A whig national convention, met at Harrisburg, in Pennsylva nia, in December, 1839, and nominated Gen. Harrison, of Ohio, for president, and John Tyler, of Virginia, for vice-president, but adopted no political platform or party creed. The democratic national convention, held at Baltimore, in May, 1840, nominated Mr. Van Buren for president, and adopted a platform, consisting of nine resolutions. The democratic national nominating conventions of 1844, 1848, 1852, 1856, and 1860, adopted, substantially, the same political platform, with some additions, from time to time. They divided and formed two conventions, and adopted two sets of resolutions in 1860. The whig national convention, of 1844, which nominated Henry Clay for president, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, for vice-president, adopted a single resolution, comprising a short political creed, in very general terms. The whig national convention of 1848, which nominated Gen. Taylor for president, and Millard Fillmore for vice-president, adopted no political platform or party creed. The whig national convention, of 1852, which nominated Gen. Scott for president, and Wm. A. Graham, of North Carolina, for vice-president, adopted a very full and complete platform of principles. The republican national convention, of 1856, which nominated John C. Fremont for president, and Wm. L. Dayton for vice-pres |