The sinews of war, part one: The development of the first campaign finance regulatory regime, 1888 to 1948

This thesis examines the creation and the evolution of the first campaign finance regulatory regime from the 1888 presidential campaign, when corporate contributions first became a significant source of money, to the 1948 presidential election which was the last New Deal era election. Specifically, the work focuses on four major themes: understanding how and why fundraising patterns in presidential elections changed over the course of the first half of the twentieth century; what promoted the passage of particular laws; the constitutional limitations on Congress' power to regulate campaign finance as promulgated in various Supreme Court decisions; and an evaluation of whether these early regulatory efforts were successful or not and why.