CAUCUS (short for 'caucus club"), a po litical party gathering for nominations or con ference on party policy, as distinguished from a merely hortatory one. It may be a town or ward meeting, to nominate local candidates or delegates to higher nominating conventions (the latter sort are also called 'primaries') ; or a party conference of members of Congress or a legislature, to decide on members or confirma tions to office. Originally, a secret gathering on the model of the Caucus Club of Boston, whose leading business was the making of 'slates" for local offices, it incidentally came to be the molding of a policy of local autonomy in oppo sition to British influence. The etymology of the name is pure guesswork. The usual deri vation from "caulkers" (sc. club), or an imag inary 'caulk-house,' is most improbable. More plausible would be that from Lat. caucus, Gr. kaukos, a cup, as originally a convivial society, most secret societies of that day having classical names or initials; the words, however, are not classical, but medieval, and so are less likely to have come under their notice. Possibly, though not probably, it is mere alliterative comic jargon. Most probable of all is the adoption of an Algonldn word, to consult: —if the word is real: cf. "pow-wow." At all events, the club and the elements of the system originated in Boston during the 18th century. Samuel Adams' father was accredited as a founder and eminent master of the art, in which his son became immortal, and to which he owed his first election to the legislature. The prep aration and distribution of ballots before the election was one of its chief instrumentalities. The first mention of the original club is in John Adams' diary, February 1763: he says the town officers are 'regularly chosen there before they are chosen in the town," and intimates that the distribution of business favors as a quid pro quo was not absent, which might be assumed.
The system rapidly grew; indeed, in some form it is part of the inevitable machinery of majority rule, which in constitutional coun tries has supplanted the primitive decision of battle by merely counting the opposing hosts, it being assumed as a basis that the larger could outfight the smaller. But for common action of
that majority there must be some method of determining its will before the elections, as to both measures and men; and all countries with any measure of popular control have some shaping and testing mechanism of the sort. In England it has been formally established since 1880, by the so-called 'Birmingham system"; but in the higher lines of policy, even before that, the two great political clubs of London, the Carlton and the Reform, Conservative and Liberal, discharged many of the functions of informal caucuses. Nevertheless, the power of the caucus is greatly affected by local and national circumstances. In England and most Continental countries, it is restrained by the still powerful aristocratic system, which forms a counterpoise and provides natural leaders; in France, by the centralized government sys tem. In no other country has it the same au thoritative power as in the United States. Early in our history it became universal. Said Adams in 1814: 'We have Congressional cau cuses, State caucuses, county caucuses, city caucuses, district caucuses, town caucuses, parish caucuses, and Sunday-school caucuses at the church doors.' This is primarily due to the entire legal equality of all classes; that absence of prescriptive privileges furnishing a shelter for minorities and independent action, which is considered the chief glory or the chief danger of democracy, according to the point of view. The gradations of the American political system into national, State, district and munici pal powers have produced a corresponding hierarchy of caucuses, each sending delegates to the next higher caucus or convention, and constituting a "machine" of great efficiency and formidableness.