provided that all votes for representatives in Congress should be by written or printed ballots. The next year, in 1872, the time for holding the elections was fixed for the Tuesday after the first Monday of November; and this provision was made to apply throughout the Union and to go into effect in 1876. But before this date-namely, in 1875 -States that had through their constitutions established a different date for voting for representatives in Congress were exempted from the operation of this law; and in 1899 the use of the voting machine was made lawful, as well as the use of written or printed ballots. This action was taken under the constitutional provision which prescribed that "the times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators."1 The exception concerning the places of choosing senators was inserted because it was not thought desirable that the Congress should have the right to determine where the State legislatures should meet.

The representatives are elected for two years. Although elected in November, they do not meet until December of the following year, unless summoned to an extra session. This arrangement gives the newly elected representative opportunity and incentive to become familiar with the details of procedure in the House and with the methods of acquiring in the executive departments and elsewhere, the special information which he will need from time to time in his legislative work. On the other hand, if he is elected as the champion of an idea or policy, in which his constituents are especially interested, he will have no opportunity for a year after his election to advocate that policy; and in the meantime the people thus interested are powerless to in

See $37.

tervene by legislation in matters that vitally concern them. But it may, perhaps, still be urged that any cause or policy that is not of sufficient importance to keep itself alive for more than a year is likely to partake of the nature of a popular whim, and ought not to be represented in permanent legislation. The government is not formed to give immediate expression to gusts of popular passion, but to embody in laws, and carry out executively, the mature and abiding wishes of the nation.

Only eleven extra sessions were held in the first one hundred and fifteen years under the Constitution. As the representative's term is only half as long as that for which the President is elected, the people have an opportunity to indicate their views on important phases of the President's policy in the middle of his administration. "When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies."1 The governor of the State has no power to fill such vacancy by appointment. Formerly, in some of the States, a majority of all the votes cast was necessary for an election; but since 1894 only a plurality has been required in all States. The short term of two years for which representatives are elected, and the failure of many of them to secure reëlection more than once or twice, renders the House less effective than it would be if the members generally served for longer periods; for by longer service they would become familiar with the necessary methods of legislation, and thus more useful both to their constituents and to the nation as a whole.

Topics.-Congressional districts.-Steps toward control of elections by Congress.-Constitutional authority for this action.Period between election and meeting of representatives.-Advantages and disadvantages of short term.-Vacancies in the House.

1 Constitution, Art. I, § 2.

References.-Bryce, American Commonwealth, i, 121-137; Dawes, How We Are Governed, 78; Ford, American Citizen's Manual, Part I, 15-17; Hinsdale, American Government, 155-159, 164-166.

33. Gerrymander.-Before 1842 the representatives from any State might be elected by a general ticket of the whole State, the voters in all parts of the State voting for the whole list of persons to be elected. Since that date the several representatives have been elected from congressional districts. There is a conspicuous exception to this rule. After a new census it becomes necessary to make a new apportionment of the representation. If a State under a new apportionment act is allotted an increase in the number of its representatives, and the congressional election occurs before the new districts have been formed, the additional member or members are chosen by voters from all parts of the State. They are elected on what is known as a general ticket. They are called "congressmen at large.” It is sometimes said that election by general ticket is likely to secure a better class of officers than election in small districts. The ground of this opinion is found in the fact that in order to attract the approving attention of a whole State or of a very large district, stronger qualities are required than would be needed to bring one prominently before the inhabitants of a small district. On the other hand, in a very large district the individual voter can know only imperfectly the candidate for whom or against whom he is expected to vote. He is obliged to regard the nomination by his party convention as a guarantee that the candidate is worthy of his support. This arrangement, however, throws upon the party committee, or party managers, a greater power than it was originally intended any such persons should exercise.

When members of the House of Representatives are elected, each in his individual district, the party in power

in a State, on redistricting the State, is moved to lay out the districts in such a way as to insure for itself the election of the largest possible number of congressmen. The method that has sometimes been employed to reach this end is to draw the lines of district boundaries in such a way as to make majorities for the party in charge of redistricting in as many districts as possible, but to make these majorities as small as may be safely done, and to make majorities for the opposing party in as few districts as possible, but to make them as large as possible. This arrangement has caused the party in power to waste the fewest votes possible, and the opposite party the most possible; for all votes given in any district over the number necessary to make a safe majority are thrown away. If the region where these surplus voters mainly reside can be added to another district, where they are needed to make a majority, another representative is gained for the party interested in making the change. In attempting to accomplish this purpose districts have sometimes been made very irregular in shape, as may be seen by a glance at the outlines of the congressional districts of South Carolina. The light, broken lines represent the boundaries of counties; the heavy, solid lines, the boundaries of the congressional districts.

The trick was invented in Virginia, and was there applied for the purpose of preventing the election of James Madison to the first Congress. It was later introduced into Massachusetts. Under Governor Gerry it was applied to secure the largest possible number of State senators for the party to which he belonged. A number of towns that were brought together into one district made a strange figure, which, through a combination of part of the word salamander with the name of Gerry, was designated “Gerrymander." The terms gerrymander and gerrymandering have remained in the language of American politics; and, unfortunately, the practice designated also has remained.