1889-1890. Jas. P. Foster, New York. 1890-1892. John M. Thurston, Nebraska. 1892-1893. John S. Clarkson, Iowa. 1893-1895. W. W. Tracy, Illinois. 1895-1896. E. A. McAlpin, New York. 1896-1897. D. D. Woodmansee, Ohio. 1897-1898. L. J. Crawford, Kentucky. 1898-1900. Wm. Stone, California. 1900-1902. I. N. Hamilton, Illinois. 1902. J. Hampton Moore, Pennsylvania.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTIONS.
TIME. PLACE. NOMINEES.
June 17-18, 1856. Philadelphia, Pa. { John C. Fremont, Cal.
{ Wm. L. Dayton, N. J.
May 16-18, 1860. Chicago, Ill. { Abraham Lincoln, Ill.
{ Hannibal Hamlin, Me.
June 7-8, 1864. Baltimore, Md. { Abraham Lincoln, Ill.
{ Andrew Johnson, Tenn.
May 20-22, 1868. Chicago, Ill. { Ulysses S. Grant, Ill.
{ Schuyler Colfax, Ind.
June 5-6, 1872. Philadelphia, Pa. { Ulysses S. Grant, Ill.
{ Henry Wilson, Mass.
June 14-16, 1876. Cincinnati, O. { Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio.
{ Wm. A. Wheeler, N. Y.
June 2-8, 1880. Chicago, Ill. { Jas. A. Garfield, Ohio.
{ Chester A. Arthur, N. Y.
June 3-6, 1884. Chicago, Ill. { James G. Blaine, Me.
{ John A. Logan, Ill.
June 19-25, 1888. Chicago, Ill. { Benj. Harrison, Ind.
{ Levi P. Morton, N. Y.
June 7-11, 1892. Minneapolis, Minn. { Benj. Harrison, Ind.
{ Whitelaw Reid, N. Y.
June 16-18, 1896. St. Louis, Mo. { Wm. McKinley, Ohio.
{ Garret A. Hobart, N. J.
June 19-21, 1900. Philadelphia, Pa. { Wm. McKinley, Ohio.
{ Theodore Roosevelt, N. Y.
June 21, 1904. Chicago, Ill.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
The Constitution requires each State to appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The original clause in the Constitution provided that after the electors had been chosen they should elect the President as follows: The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. A list of the votes shall then be sent to the President of the Senate; the person having the greatest number of votes shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; but in the event of no person having a majority, or in case of a tie vote, the House of Representatives shall immediately choose the President. In every case, after the choice of President, the person having the greatest number of votes shall be Vice-President. But, if there should remain two or more having equal votes, then the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.
Under this clause in the original Constitution there were four elections: Washington (two terms), John Adams and Jefferson. The last election (Jefferson) brought on a contest that resulted in the Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution. It will be noticed that the original clause did not require the electors to name the person they voted for as President and the person voted for as Vice-President; they were simply to vote for two persons. On counting the electoral votes as a result of the election of 1800, it was found that Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, and Aaron Burr, of New York, had an equal electoral vote—73. This threw the election into the House, and a bitter contest followed, which resulted in the victory of Jefferson, making Burr Vice-President; and the curious situation was present of an aspirant to the presidency occupying the subordinate position of Vice-President.
To correct this evil, the Twelfth Amendment was proposed, ratified by a sufficient number of States, and went into effect in 1804, and has governed the presidential elections to this day. This amendment provides that the electors, instead of voting for two candidates for President, shall distinctly name in their ballots the person voted for as President and the person voted for as Vice-President. The certificates of the ballots are opened by the President of the Senate in the presence of the Senate and the House. If no person have a majority, then the House chooses the President, each State having one vote. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President shall be Vice-President. But if no person has a majority, then the Senate chooses the Vice-President. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President is eligible to the vice-presidency.
Since the Jefferson-Burr contest there has been but one election by the House of Representatives, that of 1824, when none of the candidates having received a majority of the electoral vote, the House, between Andrew Jackson, John Q. Adams and William H. Crawford, selected John Q. Adams as President. John Q. Adams was a son of John Adams, the second President, and this has been the only time in the history of the nation that father and son have occupied the Presidential chair. There has been but one instance of an election of a Vice-President by the Senate, that of R. M. Johnston, in 1837.
Two methods of choosing the presidential electors preceded the present system. It will be remembered that the Constitution gives the various Legislatures the power of naming the manner in which the electors shall be chosen. Originally, the Legislatures exercised this power themselves; then the district system was tried; that is, each voter cast a ballot for three electors, two for the State at large (representing the Senators) and one for the Congressional district in which he lived. The system now in vogue is an election by a "general ticket;" that is to say, each voter uses a ballot on which are printed the names of all the electors to which his State is entitled.