elections. The first mention of such gatherings relates
to a period preceding the American Revolution by
more than half a century.

The Caucus of Boston played an important part
during the Revolution. To the initiative of its
members, and especially of one of them, Samuel Adams,
was due the creation of the "corresponding com-
mittees," of that formidable organization of the pa-
triotic party which paved the way for the Revolution
and independence. The secession of the colonies put
an end to the task of the corresponding committees.
A few years later, the contagion of the French Revolu-
tion produced in the United States political organiza-
tions in the form of "Democratic Societies," which were
an imitation of the Paris Jacobin Club. They soon
spread into all the States, into the cities and the towns.
But as they followed too closely their model of Paris,
they became an element of disturbance and a menace
to public order, so much so that President Washington
felt obliged to denounce to the country these "self-
created societies," and after a time they vanished under
the disapproval of public opinion.

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