ABSTRACT
The change of parties in power, effected by the election of 1840, only made it more evident that the political manners and methods brought into fashion by the Jacksonian Democracy were not a transitory manifestation. The people were helpless. Imprisoned in the convention system and the dogma of "regularity," they could only ratify unconditionally the selections made for them and Benton. The democratic evolution appeared to contradict these apprehensions; in face of the convention system, the elective principle was continually extending in the government, it was applied even to judicial functions. But the number of elective offices increased, and the more the short duration of the terms made elections of frequent occurrence, the wider became the sphere of activity of the conventions and the greater their electoral monopoly, was admitted by all thoughtful citizens. Thus the more the theory of radical democracy added to the prerogatives of the people, the more their power diminished in reality, under the convention system.
