[121]. During the past year or two a group of congressmen, both senators and representatives, from the agricultural states has been voting solidly and without regard to party affiliations on many important measures. This group is known as the “agricultural bloc”. Its avowed aim is to see that the interests of the farmers are properly safeguarded in all legislation. For a brief discussion of this topic from a different angle, see p. [350].
[122]. James Bryce, American Commonwealth, Vol. I, Ch. VII.
[123]. When the constitution was finally drawn and made public many features of it were strongly criticized, but nowhere was there any objection to this method of electing the President. Everyone seemed to feel that this method of choice by an electoral college was an admirable one. Yet curiously enough it turned out to be one of the poorest things that the convention did. It has completely failed to work out as the convention intended. Direct popular election, which the constitution endeavors to avoid, is exactly what we have. The convention, moreover, placed no limit upon the number of terms which a President might have. But Washington set the example by declining a third consecutive term and no President since his time has ever served three terms. From time to time it has been suggested that the President’s term should be lengthened to six years and that he should then be made ineligible for re-election, just as, in some of our larger cities, the mayor is ineligible to succeed himself. This suggestion, however, has never found much favor.
[124]. If the original plan were now followed, this is about what would happen: After the presidential election in November the people and the newspapers would be discussing the probable attitude of the electors, wondering whom they would choose and making various suggestions to them. Some electors would be announcing their preferences; others would be keeping silent. With great interest we should await the meetings of the electors in January; the newspaper reporters would crowd outside the door to gain the first inkling of their decisions in each state; the returns would come in one by one from the forty-eight state capitals and would be figured up with breathless interest. But what actually does happen is very different from this. On the evening of the presidential election the fight is all over. Nobody knows, and nobody cares who the electors are. We only know that a majority of them will vote for the Republican or for the Democratic candidate when the time comes. In January they meet, almost unnoticed, cast their votes as a matter of form, and get a small paragraph somewhere on the inside pages of the newspapers.
[126]. The House votes by states; the Senate by individual members. See Amendment XII. In 1800 there was a tie, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, each having an equal number of votes. The House of Representatives decided the tie by electing Jefferson. Then the Twelfth Amendment was adopted. In 1824 no candidate received a majority, and on this occasion the House chose John Quincy Adams as President. The system worked thereafter without mishap for over fifty years, but in 1876 there was a serious muddle because twenty-two electoral voters were in dispute, namely, the votes of Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida. From each of these states two sets of electors claimed to have been chosen. The controversy was decided by a special commission of fifteen members, five from the Senate, five from the House, and five from the Supreme Court. By a vote of 8 to 7 this commission decided in favor of Rutherford B. Hayes and he became President.
[127]. In the Republican national convention of 1920, for example, General Leonard Wood and Governor Lowden polled the largest number of votes on the first ballot. Senator Hiram Johnson of California was third and Senator Harding of Ohio was fourth. But neither of the two leading candidates could obtain a majority although ballot after ballot was taken. Finally, when the delegates were becoming tired and impatient, some of their leaders came together and agreed to unite on Senator Harding. They advised their supporters to swing over to him and on a subsequent ballot he was nominated.
[128]. The delegates sometimes resent this attitude on the part of the leaders. They may make a strenuous fight in the convention or they may bolt altogether. Thus, in 1912, the leaders of the Republican convention decided to renominate President Taft and, after a hard fight, managed to get a majority of the delegates recorded in his favor. But a very strong minority desired to nominate ex-President Roosevelt, who was believed to be far more acceptable to the rank and file of the party throughout the country. When they failed in the convention they left the hall, formed a new party, and nominated Colonel Roosevelt as the Progressive candidate. But this merely split the Republican ranks wide open and made certain the success of the Democrats at the forthcoming election.
[129]. During the past fifty years there have been eleven presidents. Of these, six came from Ohio and three from New York. One came from Indiana (but was a native of Ohio), and one from New Jersey. Only four states, therefore, have contributed occupants to the presidential office during half a century.
[130]. England is a monarchy and the United States a republic, yet the English monarch has no veto power like that of the President. By usage the king must sign every bill that is laid before him. Someone has said that the king of England would be under obligations to sign his own death warrant if parliament should send it up to him. The President of the United States is given his far-reaching power to override the wishes of a majority in Congress because he is an elective officer and in the exercise of his veto acts for the people, not for himself.