The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1911-04-18
CHOOSING A PRESIDENT. q
Early Methods That Paved the Way 10
National Conventions

Nationai conventions.
History records that George Wash
ington was chosen president OF the
United States without first having
been nominated and even without an
opposing candidate. So was his sue
cessor In olice, John Adams. In the
language of the street the presidency
was In the case of each Of these dis
tinguished patriots handed to him on
a silver platter" The presidency went,
as 1t were. by common consent to the
founders of the republic, to whom a
grateful people looked for continued
service and guidance.
In the early days president choosing,
according to the primitive way. was as
simple compared to modern methods
as kindergarten exercise beside
course In four dimension mathematics.
Since then the changes. though gradu-
al. have been marked and have led up
to our present complicated convention
nominations that make the electoral
college but a mechanical device for
registering the popular decision as be-
tween rival party organizations. It
was the fluke that almost installed
Aaron Burr as president instead Of
Thomas Jefferson that forced the in
itlal notifications Of the plan of presi-
dent choosing agreed upon by the
trainers of the constitution.
Originally members of the electoral
college were to vote for two persons.
the one receiving the highest number
Of votes to be president and the next
highest to be vice president. The
danger of a succession that would pull
the political lever each time from one
side to the other made imperative the
change by which the electors should
vote for only one person for president
and for another for vice president.
Two or three object lessons. too. Of
irresponsible and baphazard action by
the electoral college. throwing the
choice of president to the house or of
vice president to the senate. because
no one had majority of the votes
cast, showed the necessity of centering
the efforts of the newly aligned politi-
cal parties each on single presiden-
tiai ticket and of imposing on the
members of the electoral college
moral obligation to cast their ballots
uniformly for the nominees of the
party which had elected them.
The forerunner of our national nomi-
mating convention was the caucus or
conference of members of congress OF
the same political faith who got to-
getber on their own initiative and
without any mandate from their con-
stituents assumed to advise as to who,
in their Judgment. was entitled to be
recognized as the party standard bear
er. This caucus must necessarily have
proved to be too crude and unsatlsfac-
tory to serve long as the president
choosing machinery. In such an as
semblage only those states and dis
tricts represented in congress by MEM
bers of one and the same political
party had voice. and all the others
were left without representation. It
was to remedy these defects and to
enable the rank and file of the parties.
wherever they might he. to exercise at
least nominal control of the presi-
Dental nomination that the nationan
convention. meeting every four years.
came to be evolved as we know it.
Victor Rosewater in American Review
Of Reviews.
Warning to PhiIateIists.
Postage stamp collectors are warned
from Berlin against buying stamps
which purport to be old Thurn and
TaSis issues. A scandal has been
caused by the fact that the Thurn and
TaXis administration. which formerly
had monopoly Of the mail service
in Germany. has lately printed several
hundred thousand stamps from old
plates. The stamps are distinguished
from genuine old issues only by a
couple of letters on the back. which
can easily be washed off. German
stamp dealers are indignant at what
they consider an unworthy trick. as
they hold large quantities of old Thurn
and Taxis stamps, which have now
lost all their value. As the Thurn and
Taxis administration was literally
compensated by the German empire
for surrendering the mail monopoly
this attempt TO earn more or less
honest penny through stamp issuing is
regarded with disapproval.--New York
| Sun.