Machine, with the boss at its head, was therefore not only an indicator of the moral decomposition of the parties, but one of its efficient causes. The Organization contributing to the moral disintegration of the parties, impeding their transformation and at the same time keeping them artificially alive, marked the furthest limit of the action of the Caucus which imbued the whole political existence of the country. We have seen the strength of this complex power gradually accumulate, in the course of the evolution which we have followed step by step, as the historical phenomena one after another revealed it to us. To fill up the unavoidable gaps attending this method of observation, to gauge the power of the party Organization in its daily action, together with its limitations, or rather the power of the political and social forces of which it is the resultant, we shall now proceed to consider its working from the statical point of view. FIRST CHAPTER THE LOCAL ORGANIZATION I THE body of the Organization of American parties contains the following three essential organs: the primary assembly of the members of the party from which all the powers of the Organization emanate; the committee of the party which is the controlling power within it; and the conventions of the delegates who choose the candidates for elective offices on behalf of the party. We have had many an opportunity of observing the movements of these organs without having been able to inspect them in detail. We shall now proceed to make this inspection, which will disclose to us, if it is permissible to go on using biological terms, their anatomical form and their physiological functions, as well as their nervous system. The primary assemblies of the members of the party bear the name of "caucuses" in New England and in certain States of the West, and that of "primaries" or "primary elections" in the rest of the Union. They meet in each city ward or rural district, at tolerably frequent intervals, to make: direct choice of the candidates of the party for the local offices assigned to the ward, but especially to appoint delegates to the various party conventions, who select candidates for public functions on all the other steps of the hierarchical ladder. In almost every case the primaries simply serve as a cell for the numerous conventions of the party. The details of their organization vary a great deal, not only from State to State, but in different parts of the same State. This organization is determined sometimes by rules, sometimes, and more often, by custom and precedents. In principle, the primaries are composed of all the adherents of the party, but those who lay claim to the title must have it confirmed by the party Organization. In a few large cities a preliminary selection is already made; there the followers of the party are grouped into associations, or permanent clubs, and all those who are members of them are allowed to sit in the primaries. The discretionary right of admission or exclusion possessed by these associations, or clubs, has too often made them close bodies, and has enabled a small fraction of the party to assume the power of speaking and of taking decisions on its behalf. In New York especially the political monopoly of the associations has been one of the factors of the power which the "Machine" has acquired there.1 In the very great majority of cases, where the permanent nucleus does not exist in the regular form of associations or clubs, the organization of the party is started in the primaries, to which are admitted the electors who declare that they have voted for the candidate of the party at the last election, or who, in general, profess the creed of the party. They are bound to make good these declarations in case they are challenged by any member of the party. The meeting, or more often the committee, has to decide the point in dispute. But whether the admission to the primaries of the adherents of the party is beset with more or less extensive restrictions, in practice the great majority of the voters keep away from these assemblies. The proportion of voters who take part in 1 At certain periods the Republican associations of New York contained hardly a tenth or an eighth of the whole of the Republican voters of the city. In a letter addressed, in November, 1879, to the future President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, Col. G. Bliss, ex U. S. District Attorney, estimated the number of persons allowed to vote in the Republican primaries of New York at six thousand. "The rolls," he said, "are deceptive; in one district half the names of those on the rolls are not known in the district. These bogus names afford a convenient means for fraudulent voting." . . . "The rolls of many of the districts are full of names of men not Republicans, and are used by the managers to perpetuate their control of the associations. On the other hand, desirable members, good Republicans, who have an absolute right to become members, are excluded. Sometimes this is done by a direct rejection, but oftener by a refusal to vote upon the names presented." "At elections (primaries) they are or are not members, according as they are or are not prepared to vote a ticket satisfactory to the controlling powers." When it suited the Organization, on the other hand, it entered an altogether exaggerated number on the lists of the associations. The Republican Machine adopted this course in 1895 to obtain a larger representation at the State convention, which was about to select delegates to the national convention of 1896. |