power, are among the devices intended to free the people from the
machinations of their wilful representatives.

Now, most of the evils which these heroic measures have sought to
remedy can be traced directly to the partizan ownership of the
state legislature. The boss controlling the members of the
legislature could not only dole out his favors to the privilege
seekers; he could assuage the greed of the municipal ring; and
could, to a lesser degree, command federal patronage by an
entente cordiale with congressmen and senators; and through his
power in presidential conventions and elections he had a direct
connection with the presidential office itself.

It was in the days before the legislature was prohibited from
granting, by special act, franchises and charters, when banks,
turnpike companies, railroads, and all sorts of corporations came
asking for charters, that the figure of the lobbyist first
appeared. He acted as a middleman between the seeker and the
giver. The preeminent figure of this type in state and
legislative politics for several decades preceding the Civil War
was Thurlow Weed of New York. As an influencer of legislatures,
he stands easily first in ability and achievement. His great
personal attractions won him willing followers whom he knew how
to use. He was party manager, as well as lobbyist and boss in a
real sense long before that term was coined. His capacity for
politics amounted to genius. He never sought office; and his
memory has been left singularly free from taint. He became the
editor of the Albany Journal and made it the leading Whig
"up-state" paper. His friend Seward, whom he had lifted into the
Governor's chair, passed on to the United States Senate; and when