_Early Methods._--With the rise of political parties, however, the method of nomination by congressional caucus was introduced; that is, the members of Congress belonging to each political party assumed the power of selecting its candidate in secret conclave. In this way Jefferson was nominated by the Republican members of Congress in 1800 and 1804, Madison in 1808 and 1812, and Monroe in 1816 and 1820. In the same way the Federalist members put forward their candidates. In some cases, however, presidential candidates were nominated by state legislatures. In the course of time, strong opposition grew up against the method of nomination by members of Congress, and after 1824 the caucus system was never again resorted to. The new nominating machinery which took its place was the national convention, which came into use between 1831 and 1840. =The National Convention.=--A national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice President is composed of delegates from each state and territory in the Union, the number to which each is entitled being usually twice its number of senators and representatives in Congress.[67] Altogether the national convention consists of about 1,000 delegates. For each delegate there is an alternate who attends the convention and in case of the absence of the delegate, takes his place. [67] Apportionment of delegates among the states on the basis of their representation in Congress bears no relation to the party strength. For some years there has been a growing sentiment in the ranks of the Republican party in favor of reducing the representation in the national convention of the Southern states where the Republican party is practically nonexistent. In December, 1913, the Republican national committee adopted a resolution prescribing that representation in the national convention of 1916 should to a certain extent be based on the number of the voters of the party in each congressional district. The effect was to reduce the number of southern delegates by eighty-seven, and the number of northern delegates by seven. The basis of representation in the Democratic convention, however, remains unchanged.