Chapter P. Government (Series P 1-277) Elections and Politics: Series P 1~61 U. S. Congress, Veto Messages . .. ,49th Congress, 2d Session, Miscellaneous Document No. 53. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AND VETOES (P 1-39) The Constitution provides, article I, section 7, that nolegisla­ P 1-26. Methods of electing presidential electors, 1788-1836. tive bill may become law until approved by the President or, if SOURCE: Paullin, Charles 0., Atlas of the Historical Geography of disapproved and returned to the House of its origin, it is repassed the United States, Carnegie Institution of Washington and Ameri­ in each House by a two-thirds vote. A bill may also become law Can Geographical Society of New York, 1932, p. 89. The electors, if the President fails to return it to the House of its origin within now elected by popular vote in all States, are selected, according 10 days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to to the Constitution, "in such manner as the legislature thereof him. If the Congress adjourns within the interval of 10 days, a bill may direct." The development of political-party direction of the disapproved by the executive does not become law and is said to electoral coilege was not anticipated in the Constitution, and dur­ be Hpocket vetoed." ing the early years of the republic, electors were chosen in the sever·al States by a number of different devices. The principal CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY AND PARTY AFFILIATIONS (P 40-56) devices were: Election by the State legislature itself in some P 40-49. Congressional bills, acts, and resolutions, 1789-1946. States, by State electors popularly chosen to elect presidential SOURCES: U. S. Congress, Calendars of the United States House of electors, and by direct popular vote for the electors. With few ex­ Representatives and History of Legislation, final edition, 79th Con­ ceptions, presidential electors have been elected by popular vote gress, pp. 303-309; also the following typewritten tabulations since 1828. The legislature of South Carolina, however, continued furnished by Library of Congress, Leg~slative Reference Service: to elect presidential electors until 1860. "Number of Laws Enacted by Congress Since 1789 (Revised to P 27-31. Electoral and popular vote for President, by political Jan. 1947}"; "Total Number of Bills and Resolutions Introduced party, 1789-1944. SOURCE: The following references were em­ in Congress, 1st to 76th Congresses"; "Number of Laws Passed by ployed individually and also in combination. Where sources dif­ Congress, 1933 (March 9)-1944 (through March 22)." Some fered,figures were selected by the Bureau of the Census staff. U. S. measure of the activities of the United States Congress can be Congress, Clerk of the House of Representatives, Platforms of the gained from the number of bills and resolutions which have 'been Two Great Political Parties, 1932 to 1944, pp. 437-447; Prufer, introduced in Congress and from the number of public and private Julius F., alid Folmesbee, Stanley J., American Political Parties laws which have been passed. The abrupt reduction in the number and Presidential Elections, McKinley Publishing Company, Phila­ of private bills enacted in,~o law beginning with the 60th Congress delphia, 1928; Paullin, Charles 0., Atlas of the Historical Geography was the result of combining many private bills, particularly pen­ of the United States, Carnegie Institution of Washington and Amer­ sion bills, into omnibus enactments. ican Geographical Society of New York,'1932, pp. 88-104; Bureau P 50-56. Political party affiliations in Congress and the Presi~ of the Census, Vote Cast in Presidential and Congressional Elec­ dency, 1789:-1946. SOURCE: For 1st to 74th Congresses, type­ tions, 1928-1944; U. S. Congress, Clerk of the House of Repre­ written tabulation from Library of Congress, Legislative Reference sentatives, Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Elections, Service, "Political Trends-Both Houses of Congress-1789- issues for elections of 1928-1944. 1944," based on Encyclopedia Americana, 1936 ed., vol. 7, pp. 516- The election of the President of the United States is provided 518 (1st to 69th Congresses), and Bruce, Harold R., American for in the Constitl!-tion, article II, section 1, through the establish­ Parties and Politics, 3d ed., Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1936, ment .of an electoral college in each State, for each Presidential pp. 174-179 (70th to 74th Congresses); for 75th to 79th Con­ election. The method of casting the electoral vote was modified in gresses, see Congressional Directory. For party affiliation of the 1804 by the adoption of the 12th amendment to the Constitution. President (series P 56), see U. S. Congress, Clerk of the House of The number of electors, and therefore of electoral votes, is "equal Representatives, Platforms of the Two Great Political Parties, 1932 to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the to 1944, pp. 435-436. It is generally recognized today that popular State may be entitled in Congress." Because of the varied prac­ government operates only through the agency of organized politi­ tices in choosing electors in earlier years, the record of popular cal parties. During the early development of the United States, votes is inadequate to explain the elections until after 1824. party alignments and the function of political parties were neither In four elections the entire electoral vote of certain States re­ fully appreciated nor provided for. During the formative period mained uncast: (1) 1872-The vote of Arkansas was rejected, the party alignments developed, but designations for the different count of the popular vote in Louisiana was disputed, and the votes groups were not firmly fixed. of both sets of electors were rejected by Congress; (2) 1868-N0 In the classification by party in series P 50-56, the titles of vote in Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia because these States had parties during early years have been so designated as to be recog­ not been "readmitted" to the Union; (3) 1864-No vote in seces­ nizable in the records of the periods concerned and also to show the sion States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, thread of continuity which tends to run from early alignments Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Vir­ into the present two-party system. Inasmuch as the party of ginia; (4) 1789--.-No New York electoral vote because the legis­ Thomas Jefferson (generally known at the time as the Republican lature failed to agree on electors. See also text of series P 50-56, party) has with a considerable measure of continuity survived to below. the present time as the Democratic party, the name later accepted P 32-39. Number of Congressional bills vetoed, 1789-1946. by the Jeffersonian Republicans of "Democratic Republican" is SOURCES: U. S. Congress, Calendars of the United States House of used in the tables to avoid any confusion of the early Jeffersonian Representatives and History of Legislation, final edition, 79th Con­ Republican with the present-day Republican party. Opposed to gress, pp. 96-98, 303-308; U. S. Congress, Senate Library, Veto the early Republican party was the Federalist party which was Messages . .. 1889-1944; U. S. Congress, House of Representatives, dominant in the first national administration and which, with Report on Pocket Veto, 70th Congress, 2d Session, Doc. No. 493; interruptions, can be traced tenuously by elements of popular sup- 283 Text: P 590-3 GOVERNMENT port through the Whig, the National Republican, and the Free the President, or by Executive orders covering groups of em- Soil parties to the Republican party of today. ployees with their positions into the competitive classified service, or authorizing the appointment of individuals to positions within Party affiiliations of other than major-party presidential candi­ such service. It shall include all positions now existing or hereafter dates are also shown in series P 29. If a minor, or a sectional party, created by legislative or executive action, of whatever function has supported one of the major-party candidates, such support is or designation, whether compensated by a fixed salary or other­ . indicated after that of the name of the principal nominating party-. wise, unless excepted from classification by specific affirmative legislation or executive action. No right of classification shall Minor-party candidates frequently have had several such endorse­ accrue to persons whose appointment or assignment to classified ments, sometimes because similar groups in different sections of duties is in violation of the civil-service rules." (57th Annual Report, the country were known by different names. U. S. Civil Service Commission, 1940, pp. 43-44.) P 69-88. Number of public employees and monthly public pay APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES (P 57-61) rolls, 1929-1945 •. SOURCE: Basic data are from records and vari­ P 57-61. Apportionment of Representatives among the States, ous publications of the U. S. Civil Service Commission, Bureau of 1790~1940. SOURCE: Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census, Labor Statistics, and Bureau oi the Census, with adjustments and 1940, Population, vol. I, p. 8, and records; Congressional Directory, revisions. In particular, see Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly 80th Congress, 1st Session, February 1947, pp. 237-241. The num­ Labor Review, "Public Employment and Pay Rons in the United ber of members in the House of Representatives was fixed by the States, 1929 ....B9, ... ," February 1945; and Bureau of the Census, Congress at the time of each apportionment; since 1912 it has re­ Government Employment, various issues, and Statisiical Abstract mained constant. The 14th amendment to the Constitution, in of the United States, 1948, pp. 207 and 216. effect at the present time, provides that "Representatives shall be . The designations Aand B in the column heads reflect two differ­ apportioned among the several States according to their respective ent approaches.