Tuesday saw the usual first-week-of-June gaggle of state primary elections. It’s a feature of the American federal system that states choose when to hold primary and local elections. 

Back in the 1850s, as historian Roy Franklin Nichols noted, there was an election in all but one or two of the 24 months in the two-year congressional election cycle. From the results, in those pre-polling days, politicos and pundits drew conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the Democratic and Republican political parties and their various candidates.