[101]. A good deal of the trouble is due to party leaders and to lobbyists who plague the members into voting for measures or against them. Lobbyists are paid agents of corporations, labor organizations, women’s leagues, reform associations, granges, and so on, who hang around the lobby and argue with the legislators, trying to influence their action by persuasion or threats as may seem likely to be most effective. At any state capitol one may count these lobbyists by the dozen.
[102]. In New York State the Supreme Court, paradoxically, is not supreme. Final authority among the state courts rests with a still higher court, known as the Court of Appeals.
[103]. The jurisdiction of the federal courts is explained on pp. [311-313]. All other cases besides those named in the constitution come within the authority of the state courts.
[104]. When a governor instructs these elective officials to do something, they frequently refuse. In one case a state treasurer kept large sums of money in banks which the governor and other high state officials believed to be unsafe. They urged him to withdraw these funds, but the treasurer declined to do so. A little later two of these banks were closed by order of the bank commissioner and half a million dollars of the state’s money was tied up.
[105]. See the diagram facing this page.
[106]. There were some notable absences. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were not there; both were serving their country as diplomatic representatives abroad, the one in France and the other in England. Nor was John Hancock, whose flashing signature first meets the eye among the signers of the Declaration. Neither was Patrick Henry present, for he was strongly opposed to the convention’s being held at all and declined to be a delegate from Virginia.
[107]. Three of these compromises, commonly known as “The Great Compromises”, stand out prominently and are fully described in all books of American history, so that they do not need to be given in detail here. There were compromises on many minor points as well.
[108]. North Carolina did not ratify, however, until 1789, and Rhode Island not until 1790.
[109]. A congressman who is elected in November does not take his seat until a year from the following December. This is because, although elected in November, his term does not begin until the ensuing fourth of March. By that time the winter session is over. Thus it happens that men who are defeated at the polls often continue to make the nation’s laws.
[110]. No one is eligible for election to the Senate unless he is at least thirty years of age. He must also have been a citizen of the United States for at least nine years and at the time of his election an inhabitant of the state from which he is chosen. The governor of the state may be empowered by the legislature to fill any vacancy which may occur through the death or resignation of a senator, this temporary appointment to be valid until a senatorial election is held.