“Several positions connected with the court were at the disposal of the judge to be elected; the Democratic nomination was equivalent to the certificate of election. There were 177 delegates in all, and although many of them had the appearance of independent men, yet every one of them was there as an automaton to be set in motion and shifted hither and thither at the whim of the local boss. Free born citizens, though they were, with the sacred right of the ballot, they were there merely to register his will and obey his orders without question. Not only this, but they seemed to revel in their subserviency, and to feel joyous and even proud of the distinction of being political slaves. Nor was this degradation confined to the ignorant. Men of education, men who were members of the learned professions, were in that body, and vied with the worst in snivelling sycophancy. They knew, as every one knew, that the person who was to be nominated for a seat on the bench was wholly incompetent, in point of education and training, to fill the office, not to speak of other disqualifications. Yet they were there to obey pliantly the mandates of a deputy boss and stifle their conviction and their conscience.” (_Thirty Years of New York Politics_, pp. 205, 206, 207.) Here you have a veracious picture made by an expert of the actual operation of manhood suffrage, which according to the twaddlers is so effective in stimulating the manly character of the citizens of a free republic. Bryce visited one of these conventions, and this is what he saw: “During the morning, a tremendous coming and going and chattering and clattering of crowds of men who looked at once sordid and flashy, faces shrewd but mean and sometimes brutal, vulgar figures in good coats forming into small groups and talking eagerly, and then dissolving to form fresh groups; a universal _camaraderie_, with no touch of friendship about it; something between a betting-ring and the flags outside the Liverpool Exchange. It reminded one of the swarming of bees in tree boughs, a ceaseless humming and buzzing which betokens immense excitement over proceedings which the bystander does not comprehend. After some hours all this settled down; the meeting was duly organized; speeches were made, all dull and thinly declamatory, except one by an eloquent Irishman; the candidates for State offices were proposed and carried by acclamation; and the business ended. Everything had evidently been pre-arranged; and the discontented, if any there were, had been talked over during the swarming hours.” (_American Commonwealth_, Vol. II, p. 105.)