Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1928-07-20
LITTLE BAND WAGON
JOURNEYS L.r. MERRILL BY
Nsfs ~ o nsx1sK ts<4~ttsH
&c. 1928. Western Newspaper Union.O
4.-The ezra of Good
Feeling"

A the beginning of the Nine
teenth century were duly impressed
by the dilemma of 1900, in which
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr,
Of the Jefferson Republican party,
had received an equal number of
votes for President. The tied con-
test had been thrown into the house
Of representatives. There the OPP
posing Federalist party, having a
majority, threatened for a time to
elect Burr rather than Jefferson, al
though the latter had been clearly
Intended for President and the for
mer for vice president by their own
party.
The dilemma arose under the
early system which required each
member of the electoral college to
cast two votes, each for different
men, but without distinction as to
which man was desired for Presi-
dent and which for vice president.
In 1903, during President Jeffer-
sons first term, recurrence Of such
q deadlock as nearly had kept him
put of the White House and had
thrown the country into great con-
fusion was definitely fOrestalled.
Congress submitted to the states
the Twelfth amendment to the Fed
eral Constitution, under which each
member of the electoral college was
to cast one vote for President and
one for vice president. Duly rati-
fed by the states, the amendment
went into effect in 1904, in time for
the election Of that year.
Thus threatening difficulties in
the way of orderly elections were
removed. But methods of nominal
ing candidates, for which no means
had been provided or suggested in
the Constitution, continued to be a
matter of slow evolution.
The first stage in the develop
ment-nOminatiOns by caucuses in
eongress-was a natural one. Abb
yence of quick means Of communi-
cation made congress the only de-
lucrative body that adequately
could represent popular opinion.
Jeffersonian Republicans had
IrOwned on caucus nominations
when they first were made by the
Federalist party, but these squeam-
Ish scruples soon were abandoned
md the Republicans formally held
caucus to renominate Jefferson in
1904.
In 1903, however, definite OBJ
lection within the party was raised
against the caucus that nominated
James Madison Of Virginia to sue
reed Jefferson. Strangely enough
George Clinton of New York. picked
BY the caucus to be MadisOn's run
hing mate, protested against the
method of his own nomination to be
vice president.
Dewitt Clinton of New York,
when he saw that he could not get
the caucus nomination, broke away
from the Jeffersonian Republican
party in 1912 and was nominated
by a fusion state convention of Re-
publicans and Federalists in New
York. Practically all the other nOm-
nations in the first fifth of the CEN
fury were made by caucus. It re-
manned for doughty Gen. Andrew
Jackson to so vitalize the opposition
to Presidential nominating eau
cuses that their final abandonment
was accomplished.
Meantime the virginia dynasty"
of residents-JeffersOn Madison
and MOnrOe-succeeded in getting
elected with little opposition. The
Federalist party was but a shell,
which in some elections did not
even take the trouble to put up
Presidential candidates.
President Monroe, as the last
figure of the "Virginia dynasty"
to please both Federalists
md Republicans so well that he
vas wholly unopposed for re-elec-
ion in 1920.
But for a single vote cast by
New Hampshire elector for John
ADAMS son, John Quincy Adams,
Monroe would have shared Wash
ngton's unique distinction of a
unanimous election to the Presi-
lency. Some historians have pro-
essed to find in the New Hamp-
hire electors vote for John Quincy
adams the precise motive of de-
irving Monroe of this distinction
f unanimous election, which the
Jew Hampshire man believed
hOuld rightly be Washington's
lone.
With Monroe, the last of the men
7ho had participated directly in
he Revolution and the founding of
he Republic passed from executive
Ontrol, MOnroe's administration
ecause of it's political peace and
armOny was called the "era of
God feeling"
But new forces were stirring to
nd this tranquility. The tariff,
International improvements, and the
sue of slavery that prominently
merged with enactment of the
IissOuri compromise of 1920, were
ppearing to disrupt the harmony
nd create new partisan align
entS. An ambitious younger gen.
'atiOn of politicians had appeared
D the scene to take sides on the
ew issues. They were laying
leir plans for the succession to the
residency many months before
onroe cast off his executive re-
The turmoil Of the Jacksonian
a and the memorable struggles
r Democrats and Wings were just
read, to be begun with another
decisive election contest that had
be resolved again, amid consid-
able partisan bitterness, by the
wer house Of congress.
Incidentally, in this election con-
st of 1924, "King Caucus was