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APPENDIX

APPENDIX.

Formation of National Conventions.

The meeting of a National Convention is provided for by the assembling of the National Committee of the party at some period usually about six months prior to the meeting of the convention, at which time the National Committee formulates a call for the National Convention and publishes the ratio and number of delegates to which each state is entitled in the same, together with the manner of choosing them. It is usual for the committee at this time also to select the place where the National Convention shall be held and to appoint an executive committee to take charge of the arrangements incident to the meeting of the convention. A few days before the meeting of the convention the National Committee, or its Executive Committee, meets for the purpose of arranging the program of the proceedings. The selection of the persons to be presented as officers of the convention is made at this time -namely, the temporary and permanent chairmen, and the secretary. The convention usually ratifies the selections of the National Committee, although instances are known where others have been selected by the convention.

The temporary organization of the National Convention is intended to prepare the way for the permanent organization, which preliminary work consists of the appointment of the standing committees of the convention, the Committee on Credentials being the most important, as it reports a roll of delegates entitled to seats in the convention. After this has been accomplished the permanent organization takes place, and the business of the convention is proceeded with. The contesting delegations in nearly all National Conventions consume one or two days, and sometimes more, in pressing their claims before the Committee on Credentials. All notices of contest are filed with the National Committee, in writing, which papers are passed to the Committee on Credentials with the official roll as reported by the National Committee.

It is usual at the close of the convention, or at some time during its meeting, for each state delegation to select some person as the state member of the National Committee. These, when reported to the convention, are usually summoned to meet before the convention closes its business. At this meeting the committee organizes and the National Chairman and Secretary are chosen, unless for some reason the matter is deferred to some future day. The members of the National Committee are chosen for four years, or until the meeting of the next National Convention, when the same process brings about a new organization.

Democratic Conventions.

In Democratic National Conventions the state has always been the normal voting unit. The casting of the vote of the state as a unit, by the will of a majority of the delegation, has always been recognized as legitimate and regular; and when the vote of a state has been divided and the minority of the delegation allowed a voice, it has been by the will of the delegation, not of the convention. In this there is the probability that an unavailable candidate might be nominated by the concurrent vote of a number of states none of which could possibly be carried by any Democratic candidate. In order to prevent this, the celebrated "two-thirds rule" has always been the law of Democratic National Conventions: it requires two thirds of the vote to secure the nomination of a candidate. It has never been formally settled whether the two thirds is of all the delegates present or of all the delegates admitted; but in the nominations of Douglas and Breckinridge in 1860 the former method was employed. Each state is entitled to two delegates for each electoral vote. Delegates are also admitted from each one of the territories and from the District of Columbia, but with no right to vote, unless granted by the convention; since their constituents cannot vote at the elections. The parliamentary rules of the National House of Representatives usually govern the action of the convention, when not in conflict with its own orders.

Republican Conventions.

A Republican National Convention consists of two delegates for each electoral vote in the states; and delegates are also admitted from each one of the territories and from the Dis

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trict of Columbia, but with no right to vote, unless granted by the convention; since their constituents cannot vote at the elections. The voting unit has always been the congressional districts or the individual delegate. Among party managers there has always been a lurking desire to introduce the Democratic unit system of a state voting and the two-thirds rule," but only one serious attempt has been made to enforce it. In 1876 the state conventions of Pennsylvania, New York, and Illinois instructed their delegations to vote as a unit, though a strong minority had been elected under instructions from their local conventions to vote for other candidates. The National Convention sustained the minority in their claim of a right to cast their votes without regard to the instructions of the state conventions. Since the call for the convention of 1888 was issued by the National Convention, it may be laid down as the Republican theory that the local conventions in the congressional districts are to select delegates, instructing them, but not irrevocably; and that the state conventions are only to select the four delegates corresponding to the state's senatorial share of the electoral votes, with two additional delegates if the state elects a congressman-at-large. Any usurpation of powers by the state convention is usually summarily set aside by the National Convention. The rules of the National House of Representatives are usually adopted for the government of the convention, when not in conflict with its own orders.

Other Conventions.

The conventions of other parties which appeared from time to time have usually followed the Republican rather than the Democratic model. Many reasons may be assigned for this, the principal one being that most new party organizations fail to appoint or choose delegates in regularly organized conventions. As a rule they are appointed or chosen at massmeetings or public gatherings, and it would be hard to define or enforce a two-thirds rule in such bodies, majority rule and individual freedom being more popular.

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