In selecting the candidates to be voted for, the people had still less power. After Washington's term, candidates had been selected by a caucus of members of Congress of each party called together at the seat of government. Since 1800, each President had been influential in bequeathing the office to his Secretary of State. Virginia, it was said, had thus been able to retain the Presidency for twenty out of the twenty-four years during which the Government under the Constitution had existed. Some claimed that Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe in the beginning held a conference and agreed upon a protracted retention of the chief executive position. New York was said to have assisted in this monopoly of the "mother of Presidents." It had been accomplished mainly through the caucus system and legislative election. Men like Hezekiah Niles, editor of the _Register_, now led a revolt against the "regency at Richmond," and the subordinate "regency at Albany." Niles claimed that the State Legislatures were created for the purpose of making laws and not for choosing presidential electors; that in some cases members were elected far in advance of the presidential election and could not possibly represent the present wish of the people. These reformers were unable to secure a popular nomination for presidential candidates in the election of 1824. Precedent and the office-holders were too strong. Nominations were made as before by congressional caucus and State Legislatures; but this agitation, dating directly from the rebirth of Americanism, bore full fruit within a score of years.