task, which consisted in filling up such a number of
places, and which was continually recurring? The
system of nominating conventions, established on the
basis of party, provided a way out of the difficulty.
By preparing the election business beforehand, by
putting it cut and dried before the elector, the party
Organization enabled the citizens to discharge their
duty in an automatic way, and thus kept the gov-
ernment machine constantly going. Far from being
embarrassed by the growing number of the electors,
the party Organization made room for them, installed
them in the State. In the case of electors of for-
eign extraction it did more; it was the first to assimi-
milate the immigrants from the four quarters of the
globe with the American population; by sweeping them,
almost on their arrival, into its net, it forthwith made
these aliens sharers in the struggles and the passions
which were agitating the country in which they had just
landed. It brought together and sorted, well or ill,
all the elements of the political community, but in the
end everything found its place and settled down.

This result, a very important one, was obtained at a
very high price. The party system has seriously weak-
ened the citizen's hold on the government, diminished
the efficacy of the machinery of government provided by
the Constitution, and has hampered the living forces
which are its real motive powers.

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