[Footnote 15:  Stanwood, History of Presidential Elections, pp. 80-83.]

[Sidenote:  Nomination conventions.] [Sidenote:  The “primary.”] These conventions, as fully developed, are representative bodies chosen for the specific purpose of nominating candidates and making those declarations of principle and policy known as “platforms.”  Each state is allowed twice as many delegates as it has electoral votes.  The delegates are chosen by local conventions in their several states, viz., two for each congressional district by the party convention of that district, and four for the whole state (called delegates-at-large) by the state convention.  As each convention is composed of delegates from primaries, it is the composition of the primaries which determines that of the local conventions, and it is the composition of the local conventions which determines that of the national.[16] The “primary” is the smallest nominating convention.  It stands in somewhat the same relation to the national convention as the relation of a township or ward to the whole United States.  A primary is a little caucus of all the voters of one party who live within the bounds of the township or ward.  It differs in composition from the town-meeting in that all its members belong to one party.  It has two duties:  one is to nominate candidates for the local offices of the township or ward; the other is to choose delegates to the county or district convention.  The primary, as its name indicates, is a primary and not a representative assembly.  The party voters in a township or ward are usually not too numerous to meet together, and all ought to attend such meetings, though in practice too many people stay away.  By the representative system, through various grades of convention, the wishes and character of these countless little primaries are at length expressed in the wishes and character of the national party convention, and candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency are nominated.

[Footnote 16:  Bryce, American Commonwealth, vol. ii. p. 145; see also p. 52.]

[Sidenote:  Qualifications for the presidency.] The qualifications for the two offices are of course the same.  Foreign-born citizens are not eligible, though this restriction did not include such as were citizens of the United States at the time when the Constitution was adopted.  The candidate must have reached the age of thirty-five, and must have been fourteen years a resident of the United States.

[Sidenote:  The term of office] The president’s term of office is four years.  The Constitution says nothing about his re-election, and there is no written law to prevent his being re-elected a dozen times.  But Washington, after serving two terms, refused to accept the office a third time.  Jefferson in 1808 was “earnestly besought by many and influential bodies of citizens to become a candidate for a third term;” [17] and had he consented there is scarcely a doubt that he would have been elected.  His refusal established a custom which has never been infringed, though there were persons in 1876 and again in 1880 who wished to secure a third term for Grant.