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the Legislature in 1824 and secure electors pledged to Crawford aroused their opponents to found a "People's Party" and demand that in 1824 the choice of the electors of President should be by vote of the people. On this demand the election of 1823 turned, and, many seats in the Legislature having been obtained by candidates of the People's Party, a bill providing for the popular choice of electors was laid before the Assembly in January, 1824. By that body, after a long and bitter struggle, it was passed; but the Senate defeated it by a majority of three votes.

Had the Albany Regency been content to stop with this, all might have gone well. But they went out of their way to aid the People's Party, and a few hours before the session closed rushed through both Houses a resolution removing De Witt Clinton from the office of Canal Commissioner. This was too much. Everywhere the people cried out in indignation. Public meetings were held all over the State, addresses of thanks poured in upon Mr. Clinton, and threats of vengeance grew so fierce that the Governor in alarm called a special session of the Legislature to begin on August second, and urged the passage of the electoral law. As the day of meeting drew near the interest shown by the public was intense. Men who were not politicians came from all parts of the State, for the feeling was general that the contest was not so much one between the friends of Adams and Clay as between the people and the Albany Regency. Long before the hour of noon on the day the Legislature was to meet the members were in their seats, and the lobbies, the galleries, even the space within the bar, were crowded with visitors. In the Assembly room, says one report, there was a solid mass of heads from the Speaker's chair to the topmost seat in the gallery.

When the Speaker had rapped for order and the chaplain, as the report states, had "offered one of the most fervent and appropriate prayers ever delivered within the walls of the Capitol," the Governor's proclamation summoning the members was read, and a committee sent to inform his Excellency that the House was ready to receive his message. The message came at once, and was no sooner read

than a violent contest began. The friends of Crawford took the stand that nothing had occurred of such importance as to make an extra session necessary; that the proclamation of the Governor was therefore unconstitutional; that any proceedings of a Legislature so convened would be illegal; and that, the Senate concurring, it was the duty of the Assembly to immediately adjourn. The friends of Adams insisted that the message should go to a committee, and brought in resolutions declaring that a bill giving the choice of electors to the people ought to pass; and when a concurrent resolution to adjourn came down from the Senate, laid it on the table by a handsome majority amid shouts from the gallery and the lobbies. Next day a joint resolution was passed for the enactment of an electoral law, and sent to the Senate. But the Senate took no action, and when the Assembly asked why, the answer was returned that the session was illegal, and, being illegal, it was improper to legislate. This ended the matter, and both branches adjourned till the regular time of meeting, November second.

Before that day, however, the people had made good their threats, and had nominated and elected De Witt Clinton Governor of New York. The State rang with the cries, "No more congressional caucuses!" "No more Legislative nominations!"

The people must be heard!" The names of the seventeen senators who voted against the electoral law were printed, in glaring letters surrounded by a broad black border, on a poster, which was hung up in bar-rooms and country taverns, was nailed on trees by the roadside, was fastened on court-house doors, and was displayed in the windows of city shops and cross-road grocery stores all over the State. But one of the seventeen dared to run for re-election, and he was beaten. In a total vote of 190,000, Clinton had a majority of 16,000.

In this condition of the public mind the old Legislature reassembled on November second.

The day for the joint meeting of the Houses to choose thirty-six electors was Wednesday, the tenth of November, and as the members took their seats on the morning of the ninth each found on his desk three printed slips of paper, which proved to be an Adams, a Clay, and a Crawford ticket. As

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the law then stood, the two Houses must ballot separately, and when each had chosen electors they must meet in joint session and declare the results. The senators found no difficulty in making up a ticket on which were seven Clay and twenty-nine Crawford men. But in the House, on the first ballot, Adams had fifty votes, Crawford forty-three, Clay thirty-two, and Jackson one. After three days of balloting, with no change in the result, it became so apparent that a compromise must be effected that one was attempted. First, the Clay ticket was offered and rejected. Next, the Jackson ticket was moved, and received twenty-eight votes. A compromise ticket of twenty-one Crawford and fifteen Clay electors was then submitted. When this failed, the Adams ticket was offered and adopted by a vote of sixty-two to fifty-five, It was in no sense the choice of the Assembly, but was ac cepted in order that there might be a joint session with the Senate. The difficulty being removed, the two Houses met and proceeded to vote on the Adams ticket offered by the Assembly and the Crawford-Clay ticket offered by the Senate. One hundred and fifty-seven ballots were cast, so that seventy-nine were necessary to a choice. Seven men on the Crawford ticketmen who were supporters of Clay-received each ninety-five votes, and were declared by the President of the Senate elected. But three of the ballots were blank, and, it was held, ought not to be counted. If they were not, then seventyeight would be a majority, and twenty-five of the Adams ticket would be elected. A stormy debate now sprang up and continued till late in the afternoon, when the President suddenly left the chair and hurried from the room, calling on the Senate to follow him. Next day in its own chamber the Senate voted that the seven Clay men who had ninetyfive, and the twenty-five Adams men who had seventy-eight, were elected. The Assembly then adopted a like resolution, and once more met the Senate in joint session and chose four more electors, who were open advocates of Crawford. The college then stood twenty-five for Adams, seven for Clay, and four for Crawford.

It was not then the custom, as it is at present, to choose electors all over the country on the same day. Each State

fixed such time as best suited the convenience of the people, if they voted, or of the Legislature, if that body made the appointment. An election was therefore a slow process, made slower still by the absence of the telegraph, the railroad, the modern newspaper-of all the agents, in short, which we now possess for the gathering and spreading of information. By the middle of November, however, returns had come in from eleven of the seaboard States north of Virginia. In Rhode Island the election had not yet taken place. In New York the struggle in the Legislature was still raging. In Delaware a fine foundation had been laid for what promised to be a contest. The thirty members of the Legislature, according to law, assembled at Dover and balloted for three electors. Ten men were put in nomination, of whom one received twenty-one votes and two others each fifteen, or exactly half the whole number cast. Now, the law provided "that if an equal division of ballots shall appear for two or more persons not being elected by a majority of the votes, the Speaker of the Senate shall have an additional casting vote." Construing this to meet the case before him, the Speaker voted for the two who received fifteen votes apiece, and then declared them elected. The Adams men in the Legislature were furious, protested, and threatened to dispute the legality of the act. By Thanksgiving Day returns had arrived from all the Southern States, except South Carolina, where no election had been held, and from the nearby Western States. The poll then stood, Adams 80, Jackson 58, Crawford 40, Clay 7, and was made up on the supposition that every pledge would be kept and every elector would vote as he was expected to. But when the colleges began to meet and the results of their actions were known, it appeared that strange things had happened. In New York three of the seven Clay men deserted him and voted one each for Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. In North Carolina a fusion ticket had been arranged, which the friends of Adams and Jackson were to support. Each voter was to write across the ballot the name of his candidate, and the electoral votes were to be divided in proportion to the strength of the Adams party. From the returns it appeared that Adams had one third of

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all the ballots cast. He was therefore entitled to one third of the electors. But when the college assembled and proceeded to vote the pledge was utterly disregarded, and every elector voted for Andrew Jackson.

When the year drew to a close the poll stood, Jackson 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, Clay 37, provided Louisiana, the one State to be heard from, voted as it was supposed she would.* All eyes now turned to her, for, should her electors support Clay, his name and not Crawford's would come before the House. About the middle of December this last hope was destroyed, when a vessel from New Orleans reached New York with news that the Legislature, after six ballots, had chosen three electors for Jackson and two for Adams. Clay was shut out of the contest, for the Constitution limits the number of contestants for the Presidency that can appear before the House of Representatives to three. Had the three New York electors who deserted Clay been faithful, he would have