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not, in Mr. Justice Story's opinion, look for support in the facts of the succeeding fifty years. Unfortunately," he says, "the experience of the United States has not justified the belief that large districts will always choose men of the greatest wisdom, abilities, and real dignity.” *

§ 675, note.

CHAPTER IX.

ELECTIONS.

THE times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives is, by the first clause of the fourth section of the first article of the Constitution, left to the State legislatures.

"The manner is various; and perhaps the power has been exerted, in some instances, under the influence of local or party feelings, to an extent which is indefensible in principle and policy. There is no uniformity in the choice, or in the mode of election. In some States the representatives are chosen by a general ticket for the whole State; in others they are chosen singly in districts; in others they are chosen in districts composed of a population sufficient to elect two or three representatives; and in others the districts are sometimes single, and sometimes united in the choice. In some States the candidate must have a majority of all the votes to entitle him to be deemed elected; in others (as it is in England), it is sufficient if he has a plurality of votes. In some of the States the choice is by the voters vivá voce (as it is in England); in others it is by the ballot."*

* § 826. Tucker's Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i., App. 192.

These irregularities have, according to Mr. Justice Story, been productive of evils and "some inconveniences to the public service."* He, however, abstains from going into details, and merely adds that the existing system is maintained by the public opinion.

Far greater, however, than any of the inconveniences which Mr. Justice Story does, in a few words, touch upon, such as the occasional fact of a district, or even a whole State, being deprived of its vote at Congress by reason of the time of its holding its elections, is the evil which has been steadily gaining ground, of the whole machinery of the elections gradually falling into the hands of persons who devote themselves to the occupation of arranging them, of fixing upon and bringing forward the candidates, of creating for them a name and character by means of unceasing eulogies in the public press, of dictating to them their policy, of describing in its most minute details the course which it is expected of them that they will take on all the leading questions be

* § 826.

fore the public, whether of internal or external interest, and finally, when the elections have terminated in success, looking for their reward from the various sources within the means of the predominant political party, should their candidate happen to belong to it.

It cannot be doubted that this system is one of the results of the great frequency of elections. Persons of fixed and steady occupations, who compose nearly the whole community among a people so occupied with commerce and industry in its various forms as the people of the United States, may occasionally, under the pressure or excitement of some important question, give up their time and attention to the details of political contests; but in a country where the suffrage is so extended; where, except in the cities, the population is scattered over wide surfaces, dwelling in small villages distant from each other, or in insulated farms, with often very imperfect means of communication, along half-formed roads, it cannot be a matter of surprise that such persons should, in the ordinary course of things, leave the field of politi

cal agitation, and the difficulties and turmoils of election contests, open to those, who make it a matter of business, and can therefore devote to it the principal part of their time. This process, however, is manifestly not the one most calculated to bring forward for the service of the State, candidates who come up to the standard which Mr. Justice Story has, with a high sense of its truth and importance, held up before his countrymen.

I do not wish to imply that no such traffickers in political agitation, or in the "working of elections" exist among ourselves. Far from it. But as no human system is perfect, so neither has that of the United States escaped an evil incident to the peculiar political organisation it has chosen; and therefore we may feel assured that we should not escape it in a similarly aggravated degree, under a franchise unduly extended, and a greater frequency of elections.

But, if possible, a still greater and more grave departure from the theory of the Consti

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