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Show THE TWO-THIRDS RULE. A writer in the June number of the American Review of Reviews gives the history of the two thirds rule winch has always been in effect in the Democratic Demo-cratic party's National conventions. It was the two-thirds rule which deprived Douelas of his nomination by the National Na-tional Democratic convention in Charleston in I860, and it has been used from time to time to kill off prominent prom-inent Democrats who were obnoxious to other leaders of the party. As recited, the first National Democratic Demo-cratic conygjition ever held, which was in Baltimore in 3832, adopted this rule without thinkme much about it. The convention was held chiefly to nomi nate a candidate for Vice-President, the nomination of Jackson for President Presi-dent being universally conceded. Jack son's influence was sufficient to give Van Buren the nomination for the Vice Presidency. But four years later there was a strenuous fight aeainst the adoption of the two-thirds rule, and on the first test it was defeated, 231 to 210 votes. The next day, however, a motion to reconsider prevailed, and the two-thirds rule was pgain adopted. The argument in favor of the adoption of the rule was that the nomination by a two-thirds vote "would yive a more impo&ine effect" than a nomination nomina-tion hv a mere majority, and inasmuch fts 'it was to be presumed that no one had the most remote design to frustrate the proceedings and provided a majority should on the first or second ballot fix r,on the- individual, it. un reasonably to be expected that the minority mi-nority would be disposed to yield and unite with the majority so as to produce pro-duce the effect contemplated." So far from this assumption proving to be true in the long run, however, the two-thirds rule was used to kill off ihe most popular candidate in sev er;il of the conventions. "alhoun attacked at-tacked the whole convention system but not on account of the difllcuity of nomination under the two-thirds rule, and Thomas H. Benton, in his "Thirty Years' View" areued thus. One other obje'.ion tr, thes flfEon'-rafp eomv;nttor,s .Mr. Calhoun '!i'J r,,,i mention, men-tion, but It has become since he made u s address H prominent one. and an abuse in itself. iyioh Insures bu to tne train -band morcanarlea whose profliKatf p: art !-.,. he ... -a -!! ,,.vr!lH: This is the two-tli'Ms rule -An It ts called; the rule that requires' vote r,'f two-thirds of the convention ! make nom nation This put I. In ihe power L n"r;, u' twern the majority ami enables a few veteran intriguers to mnnape a. they please. TTow well Renton's forecast that 'the two-thirds rule "puts in the power of the minority to govern the majority" major-ity" was provod IT) practice, one needs but to rer-.d the hitor of the Dexno-crntie Dexno-crntie convention of IjgjJO to prov. This two thirds rule will, of course, be adopted again bv the comin Demo-cratic Demo-cratic National Convention to be held in Baltimore on June 25th. That it J will be ii"cd to kill off the mot popular popu-lar candidate, instead of inducing the I pinoritv to yield, as Several Saundcr of North Carolina sugL'eited when he presumed that "it was reasonably to be expected that the minority would be disposed to yield" is A foregone leoncluaion even before the convention meets. The minority, so far from bi line disposed to yield under euch cr Jcumstances. becomes all the more res-o I lot to deiY.at the candidate who has merely -, majority and lacks the nc-sarv nc-sarv two. thirds. So that, while it is certain that the R:mMican National Convention which onens in 'hicago a fortnight from tomorrow, to-morrow, will be contentious and will show immense strenuoity. it is equally certain that the Democratic convention which meets in Baltimore a we-k later will show its own bitter content. or.s, perhaps in quite as strong and extreme degree. |