Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/405

 1800-24] Presidential elections: the Caucus. 373 of 1804 occurred it was altered by providing that each elector, instead of writing two names on one ballot without designating which was his choice for President, should cast two separate ballots, one for President and one for Vice-President. But the Republicans went a step further, and, at a "caucus" of Republican members of Congress, formally nominated Jefferson and George Clinton as their candidates. By so doing they deprived their party electors of all choice, required them to vote for these two men and no others, and thus reduced the electoral colleges to mere boards of registration. The custom of " caucus " nomina- tion thus introduced was followed in 1808, in 1812, in 1816, in 1820, and, for the last time, in 1824. The Federalists, though hopelessly in the minority, continued to put forward candidates (selected in private " caucus " by free leaders) till 1816, when they ceased to be a national party, and never again named candidates. From the election of Monroe in 1816, therefore, there was but one great national party the Repub- lican. The old issues, growing out of foreign complications, disappeared with the peace of 1815. No domestic issues which could divide the people into two great parties existed ; and, while they were growing up afresh, the Republicans formed the only national party. In 1820, therefore, Monroe had no competitor. He was the only candidate before the electors, and would have received every electoral vote, had not one elector thrown away his vote lest Monroe should be unanimously elected, an honour never conferred on any man save Washington. With the second election of Monroe the Republican party began to go to pieces. The old leaders of Revolutionary days were now dead or in retirement. Among the active party leaders there was none whose services so overshadowed those of others as to point him out as the one man entitled to party support. The friends of each leader therefore rallied about their favourite; and, in the course of two years, five candidates representing the four great sections of the country and nominated by members of State legislatures, by mass meetings, and by the Congressional "caucus" were put before the public. These men were John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, Secretary of State ; Henry Clay of Kentucky, Speaker of the House of Representatives; Andrew Jackson, a citizen of Tennessee; John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Secretary of War ; and William H. Crawford of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury, who was chosen by the Congressional " caucus." The selection of these men is notable for many reasons. It meant the absence of great party issues ; it meant a revolt against the old method of "caucus" nomination, a method now denounced throughout the country as "King Caucus" ; it meant the assertion by the people of a right to have a voice in the nomination and election of a President, a condition which the framers of the Constitution never contemplated. In the first election (1789) eleven States participated. In four of these the people took part in the election of electors ; but in seven the State legislatures CH. XI.