The first national political campaign conventions were held in December of 1831 for the National Republican party. Their nominee for the presidency was Henry Clay. Five months later, 334 Democrats met in Baltimore. They represented every state except Missouri, and their unanimous choice for the nomination was incumbent President Andrew Jackson, with Martin Van Buren as his running mate.
This political campaign convention was an important milestone for the Democratic Party. Procedures were set up for future conventions and future nominations, ensuring that this was not Jackson’s party, but a party that would endure beyond a single election or a single candidate. Majority rule dictated which candidate would be chosen. Two-thirds of the delegates needed to approve not only the presidential but also the vice-presidential nominee.
Jackson easily won the political campaign and the election, and the Democratic Party was established not as a branch of the Republican Party but as a political party in its own right. Thanks to Jackson,it was identified as the party of the common man; the wealthy and the elite were labeled its opponents. The Democratic Party still retains some of this image today.
Following the political campaign of 1832, Jackson challenged the national bank system, shifting federal money from the national bank to a series of state banks. The banking issue prompted a group of businessmen and opponents of Jackson’s to band together to oppose the man they labeled “King Andrew I.”
They called themselves “Whigs,” after the British political party formed to oppose the king of England in the 1700s. Soon, they would develop into a political force, particularly in New England.
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