as well as Philadelphia, had its machine which was carefully
geared to Quay's state machine. The connection was made clear by the
testimony of William Flinn, a contractor boss, before a committee of the
United States Senate. Flinn explained the reason for a written agreement
between Quay on the one hand and Flinn and one Brown in behalf of Chris
Magee, the Big Boss, on the other, for the division of the sovereignty
of western Pennsylvania. "Senator Quay told me," said Flinn, "that
he would not permit us to elect the Republican candidate for mayor
in Pittsburgh unless we adjust the politics to suit him." The people
evidently had nothing to say about it.

The experiences of New York and Pennsylvania are by no means isolated;
they are illustrative. Very few States have escaped a legislative
scandal. In particular, Rhode Island, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado,
Montana, California, Ohio, Mississippi, Texas can give pertinent
testimony to the willingness of legislatures to prostitute their great
powers to the will of the boss or the machine.

CHAPTER VIII. THE NATIONAL HIERARCHY

American political maneuver culminates at Washington. The Presidency and
membership in the Senate and the House of Representatives are the great
stakes. By a venerable tradition, scrupulously followed, the judicial
department is kept beyond the reach of party greed.

The framers of the Constitution believed that they had contrived a
method of electing the President and Vice-President which would preserve
the choice from partizan taint. Each State should choose a number of
electors "equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to
which the State may be entitled in the Congress." These electors were to
form an independent body, to meet in their respective States and "ballot
for two persons," and send the result of their balloting to the Capitol,
where the President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and the
House of Representatives, opened the certificates and counted the
votes. The one receiving the greatest number of votes was to be declared
elected President, the one receiving the next highest number of votes,
Vice-President. George Washington was the only President elected by such
an autonomous group. The election of John Adams was bitterly contested,
and the voters knew, when they were casting their ballots in 1796,
whether they were voting for a Federalist or a Jeffersonian. From that
day forward this greatest of polit