Political nomination

“ Factors which Influence Presidential Nominations and Elections.—As matters have worked out it is not possible for anyone to be elected President without first obtaining a nomination from one of the two leading political 291parties. The party organizations and the party conventions are influenced by groups of political leaders and these leaders are often more interested in a man’s strength as a candidate than in his personal qualifications for the work which a President has to do. ”

“ You ask me whether anything can be done to make amends. I think the best thing to be done is that proposed by the Evening Post: to make another nomination, and to resort to that end not to the dangerous machinery of a convention, but to get up a meeting of “notables.” Several Democrats of high standing and influence have called upon me to discuss with me the same thing. ”

“ Men have ceased to try to hide this; and the present political contest that is waged so hotly even for the nomination of the man who shall fill the presidential chair is stirring up the people as I have never seen an election stir them up before. ”

“ As this View of the Thirty Years is intended to show the working of our political system, and how things were done still more than what was done; and as the election of chief magistrate is the highest part of that working; and as the party nomination of a presidential candidate is the election of that candidate so far as the party is concerned: in all these points of view, the device of this resolution becomes historical, and commends itself to the commentators upon our constitution. The people are to elect the President. ”

“ HOW CANDIDATES ARE NOMINATED While any man’s name can be put in nomination for any office, he has little chance of being elected in most elections without being the candidate of a political party. For a long time parties were allowed to nominate candidates as they chose, and party bosses dictated nominations without regard for the wishes of the rest of the party or for the interests of the public. For some time past the State has regulated the methods of nominations. ”

“ In other words, the existing machinery for nominations is cumbrous, and is not designed to secure the real expression of the popular desire. Now, as good citizens we are all of us willing to acquiesce cheerfully in a nomination secured by the expression of a majority of the people, but we do not like to acquiesce in a nomination secured by adroit political management in defeating the wish of the majority of the people.
I believe in the election of United States senators by direct vote. ”

“ A candidate, if he be an honest, genuine man, will not seek and accept a party nomination to the presidency, vice presidency, or Congress, and after he is elected become a law unto himself. The higher obligations among men are not set down in writing and signed or sealed; they reside in honor and good faith. The fidelity of a nominee belongs to this exalted class, and therefore the candidate of a party is but the exponent of a party. The object of political discussion and action is to settle principles, policies, and issues. ”

“ And it must, also, be admitted that peace and prosperity render sound political learning and great experience less necessary, and at the same time multiply the number of men who are considered eligible to office. Candidates are put in nomination and elected because they have been good neighbors, honorable citizens, competent teachers of youth, or faithful spiritual guides; or, possibly, because they have been successful in business, are of the military or of the fire department, or because they are leaders [Pg 292] and benefactors of special classes of society. ”

“ In a word, it was assumed in the face of all experience to the contrary that, if the voters had the direct power, they would perform their political duties, that better qualified and more competent and independent candidates would offer themselves or somehow would be brought to the attention of the electorate, and that nominations would then represent the will or choice of the majority in each party, and not the will of minorities, or the choice of bosses. ”

“ This is the foundation of our campaign, to focus on active citizenship, to create fresh political movements that will displace the control of the Democratic and Republican Parties, two apparently distinct political entities that feed at the same corporate trough. ”

“ The idea being that the first election, if not resulting in any candidate receiving a majority, should stand for a popular nomination—a nomination by the people themselves, out of which the election is almost sure to be made on the second trial. ”

“ I prefer the position of Senator or even that of a private citizen, where I would be at liberty to defend and maintain the well-defined principles of the Democratic party, to accepting a Presidential nomination upon a platform incompatible with the principle of self-government in the Territories, or the reserved rights of the States, or the perpetuity of the Union under the Constitution. ”

“ So we have nominating conventions run by political bosses, legislative bodies taking orders from agents of the money cliques, who purchase franchises for railway lines and for other public utilities; election laws that make independent voting almost impossible.
Until we have direct nominations the people will be the willing or unwilling tools of the men who dictate nominations, and they must make choice between the candidates set up for them. ”

“ A complicated system of party organization and representation grew up under which a disciplined body of party workers in each state supported each other, controlled the machinery of nomination, and thus controlled nominations. The members of state legislatures and other officers, when elected, felt a more acute responsibility to the organization which could control their renomination than to the electors, and therefore became accustomed to shape their conduct according to the wishes of the nominating organization. ”

“ I have several times since had occasion to note the carelessness of National and State conventions in nominating a candidate for the second place upon the ticket—whether Vice-President or Lieutenant-Governor. It would seem that the question of questions—the nomination to the first office—having been settled, there comes a sort of collapse in these great popular assemblies, and that then, for the second office, it is very often anybody's race and mainly a matter of chance. ”

“ We will nominate no candidate unless his character and record are such as to justify public confidence in his assurance that, if elected, he will not use his office, or permit it to be used, for the benefit of any political organization, but will administer it in all respects in accordance with the principles of this declaration. ”

“ Do we aim at making election in fact as well as in constitutional theory the sole base of political authority, or do we desire that the non-elected officials shall exert some amount of independent influence? ”

“ As soon as a candidate receives the number of votes necessary to nominate, which is two-thirds of the delegates in a Democratic convention and a majority in a Republican convention, usually some one moves that the nomination be made unanimous, which is adopted with great applause. ”

“ As it now stands, the complex and refined machinery provided by the constitution for the election of the President and Vice-President, is virtually superseded. The nomination of the successful party, by irresponsible individuals makes, in reality, the choice. It is in this way that the provisions of the constitution, which intended to give equal weight to the two elements in the executive department of the government, have been defeated; and an overwhelming preponderance given to that which is represented in the House of Representatives, over that which is represented in the Senate. ”

“ To obtain your election, even though you may have the support of an active and ardent party, you must also have a somewhat extended political notoriety, or, at any rate, some provincial backing of family or fortune. ”

“ The State chairman pulled his chair close, and tapped emphasis on the candidate's knee.
"No, you can't. It would give 'em the one fact that they need for a foundation to build their case on. What you've got to do, Harlan, is accept this nomination, just as it is handed to you. Stand up and fight for your election like a man. The thing may look rank to you. Politics usually looks rank to a beginner, who has to get down and fight on the level of the other fellow. ”

“ The republicans propose to press forward to an election. If they fail in this, a concert between the two higher candidates may prevent the dissolution of the government and danger of anarchy, by an operation, bungling indeed and imperfect, but better than letting the Legislature take the nomination of the Executive entirely from the people. Excuse the infrequency of my acknowledgments of your kind attentions. ”

“ I say they will be infinitely worse men, because they are to be chosen blindfolded: their election (the term, as applied to their appointment, is inaccurate) will be an involuntary nomination, and not a choice. ”

“ The plan for depriving the minority of the power to control the selection of public officials, which is now rapidly gaining adherents among the advocates of political reform, is the direct primary. That some such change in our method of nominating candidates is necessary to make the so-called popular election of public officials anything more than an empty form is apparent to any intelligent student of American politics. ”

“ Now, the basis of this representation is suffrage. The right to choose representatives is every man's part in the exercise of sovereign power; to have a voice in it, if he has the proper qualifications, is the portion of political power belonging to every elector. That is the beginning. That is the mode in which power emanates from its source, and gets into the hands of conventions, legislatures, courts of law, and the chair of the executive. It begins in suffrage. Suffrage is the delegation of the power of an individual to some agent. ”

“ The Grange favors the direct nomination and election of our United States Senators, and in due course of time we, the people, shall be electors in deed and action. By direct vote of the people, making the senators responsible and answerable to the masses, alone can we inject purity into our elections and accomplish reform in public affairs.—Sandusky (Mich.) ”

“ Does the constitution of our country in any one particular prohibit American citizens from uniting and casting a solid vote in favor of any eligible candidate who may be regularly nominated, say for the position of President of the United States? ”

“ But your renomination will save the Democratic party only if your name remains strong enough to draw a large number of Republican votes—not only the old Independent force, but much more; and you will be renominated only if the Democratic politicians know that you can draw them and that nobody else can. ”

“ The insistent demand for direct primaries, the initiative, the referendum and the recall indicate a disposition on the part of the rank and file to have more to say in our political and civic life. The object of these institutions is to make our representatives more truly responsible to those whom they are supposed to represent. ”

“ Men are 293borne into the presidential office on this surging tide, sometimes without much reference to their individual qualifications. They are nominated because they are acceptable to the party leaders, or because they come from some strong and doubtful state, or because they are agreed upon by compromise, or for any one of a dozen other reasons. The capacity of the man is not always, and indeed not usually, the chief factor in determining a presidential nomination. ”

“ Will the Republican party (a party which is entitled to credit for the service it has rendered to the cause of freedom) put in nomination, in 1860, a man for whom we can, with some degree of consistency, cast our ballots? It has such men in its ranks—prominent men of the party—men who are available. ”

“ Available is the omnipotent word—the grand countersign—the magic passport to a nomination and when nominated the candidate must be voted for although destitute of capacity, moral virtue and every requisite of a statesman. The sad consequences are more fearfully demonstrated as time rolls onward. Dignity, decorum, common courtesy are often banished from our legislative halls. ”

“ I cannot think of any circumstances that would induce me to accept the nomination. There are so many men in the country better fitted for the place than I am. I have no civil experience, as every President should have. ”

“ I submit that it is absurd to claim that such a method of nominating state officers to administer government for a population of over 10,000,000 is more likely to secure competent and trustworthy candidates, or to express the real preference and the sober and intelligent judgment of the majority of the voters of each party, than the old method of nominating state officers by public conventions composed of delegates and representatives of the voters from each assembly or election district of the state, proceeding in the open with full opportunity for investigation, discussion and criticism. ”

“ Resolved, That in this year of presidential nominations and political campaigns, we announce our determination to support no party by whatever name called, unless such party shall, in its platform, first emphatically endorse our demand for a recognition of the exact and permanent political equality of all citizens. ”

“ When an election to office shall be the selection by the voters of one of their number to assume for a time a public trust, instead of his dedication to the profession of politics; when the holders of the ballot, quickened by a sense of duty, shall avenge truth betrayed and pledges broken, and when the suffrage shall be altogether free and uncorrupted, the full realization of a government by the people will be at hand. And of the means to this end, not one would, in my judgment, be more effective than an amendment to the constitution disqualifying the president from re-election. ”