ABSTRACT

The choice of candidates for the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency of the Republic is always invested with exceptional importance. The citizen who pays no heed to the affairs of his State and of his city, fires up on the approach of the national conventions; but, by a singular piece of inconsistency, he does not on that account trouble himself more about the operations which pave the way for them, which determine their character. He takes hardly any interest in the primaries and in the local conventions from which the national convention will issue like a cast from a mould. This great gathering appeals rather to the American elector's naturally excitable temperament than to his public spirit. The formation of the national conventions is, therefore, left to the professional politicians. Every national convention is confronted with half-a-dozen or more "favourite sons" of somewhat unequal merit and reputation.