The national convention cannot be said to have become a permanent part of the party or ganization until it had provided for its own perpetuation. This was accomplished first by the Democrats when, in 1848, a national cen tral committee, consisting of one member from each State, was appointed by the convention, one of its duties to be the calling of the next succeeding national convention. Similar ac tion by the Whigs in 1852 completed the or ganization of that party. Previous to that year Whig conventions had been called by a Con gressional caucus or by a legislative caucus of some one of the States. Tributary to the na tional convention, which is, in theory, the gathering up of the myriad expressions of political opinion throughout the whole country. is a long series of State conventions, district conventions, county conventions, city conven tions, until the unit of party organization is reached in the ward ,or township primary, or caucus, made up of individual voters. All this complex machinery is kept in condition for effective action by means of committees ap pointed in the various election areas. Details of the system vary widely in the several States, hut each State has its State central committee with a general supervision of the subordinate party agencies of the State. The national com mittee consists of one member from each State and Territory. It has general charge of the national interests of the party. Next in rank is the national Congressional committee, first appointed in 1866 by a Republican Congres sional caucus. A few years later the Congres sional caucus of the Democratic party took similar action. The Republican Congressional committee consists of one member of Con ...
gress from each State or Territory repre sented by a party member. In the Democratic Congressional committee a State or Terri tory having no party member of Congress is represented by an outside member .of the party. It is the duty of the Congressional committee to supplement the action of the State and na tional committees and more especially to take charge of the elections of members of the lower House which occur midway between two Presidential elections. In this matter the committee co-operates with local committees in the Congressional districts of the various States. The party committees hold a most im portant and responsible position in the organ ization. They are the permanent party officials who formulate the party rules, administer the enormous party funds and have general control over party business.
Since about the year 1880 the convention system has undergone considerable modification in the direction of legislative control of nomi nations. Under the fully developed system direct nomination is confined to the local offi cers in precinct, ward or township where the primaries are held. Here the individual mem bers of the party by their direct votes nomi nate the party candidates for local office. Can didates for the larger areas of city, county, judicial district, Congressional district and State are nominated indirectly by delegates chosen at the primaries. Two methods of pro cedure are in use at the primaries. The older is that of the mass meeting of party voters, most commonly called the caucus. It is or ganized by electing a chairman and a secretary and the voting for local candidates or for dele gates may be by ballot or by any method pre scribed by party rules or by vote of the mem bers present. The newer method is that of the
primary election, which substitutes for the mass meeting a regular election held under the control of party or State officers, where qualified members of the party cast their votes one by one, for candidates for office or for delegates to nominating conventions.
The adoption of the primary election sys tem does not necessarily do away with the nominating convention. Direct nomination may still he limited to local officials; but the primary election method admits of being indefinitely expanded, as the mass convention or caucus system does not. It may be so extended as to perform all the functions of the various con ventions within the State, and this it is which makes the introduction of direct election in the local areas of special significance. Instead of calling upon the primaries of a county to choose delegates to attend a county convention for the purpose of placing in nomination candidates for county offices, the county committee may notify the party electors to proceed, at a certain time and place, to vote directly for candidates of their own choice. In such a case the primary elections held in the several precincts of the county supplant the county convention and exercise its functions. In like manner a Con gressional district composed of several coun ties may provide for choosing the party candi dates for the House of Representatives by di rect vote at the local primaries of the district, thus doing away with the need of a Congres sional nominating convention. In the same di rect way candidates for judicial and State offices may be nominated and the convention within the State be wholly displaced.
The discontinuance of the convention in volves radical changes in party organization. The permanent committees, the platforms, the rules for the control of party conduct, have all been the product of party conventions. When the convention disappears all party functions devolve upon the primaries and the officers chosen by them.
It has been proposed also to abolish the national nominating convention and transfer to the primaries the additional duties of nomi nating candidates for the Presidency by direct vote, formulating quadrennially the national party platform and choosing the national com mittee. But there is a natural distinction be tween national and State politics. Issues arise within the States which have no direct rela tion to national affairs, and which furnish a natural line of cleavage for the parties. For the formulation of party issues and the de velopment of party policies the convention is found to be a more convenient agent than the primary. Some of the States in which direct nomination is extensively practised still retain the State convention for nominating State offi cers and promulgating the State party plat form. Where the State convention has yielded to the movement for direct nomination, party issues are formulated by party officeholders, by party candidates and party committees or by direct vote at the primary election, or by convention assembled for the purpose.