Conventions are Born

Jeff Alworth

From 1836 through 1968, conventions were not mere celebrations to welcome the already-elected nominee.  They were nominating conventions; when delegates gathered, no one knew who the nominee would be.  Although some states held caucuses and primaries before the convention, delegates felt not the slightest compunction to follow voters’ will (or even the wishes of stalwart rank-and-file members back home).  Instead, conventions became the quintessential “smoke-filled rooms” as party bosses and up-and-comers and dissenters and regional power-players all battled to get their candidate nominated.  Sometimes the battles lasted through dozens of votes, running on into the wee hours—or sometimes for days.  Conventioneers also decided on the vice-presidential selection; often this was the candidate who finished second--his elevation to the ticket designed to placate the losing minority (something voters in the year of Obama v. Clinton can instinctively understand.)

1832 and 1836 – Conventions are Born
The first national party conventions were held in 1832.  The very first US party convention was actually held by Anti-Masonic Party (remember them?), whose members were opposed to everything Freemasonic.  They nominated William Wirt to lead their charge (remember him?), and were followed by the National Republicans (the GOP)The Democratic Republicans (Dems) met third, like the earlier two, in Baltimore.  For the Democrats, the convention wasn’t much more than the formality it is today—sitting president Andrew Jackson had already been nominated by many state legislatures, so at the convention, delegates merely concurred.  The only interest was when delegates made Martin Van Buren the VP nominee.

The convention in 1832 was the first real convention for the Democratic Party.  Outgoing president Andrew Jackson, the man who reconstituted the party, wanted his vice president, New York’s Martin Van Buren.  More controversially, he wanted Kentucky’s Richard Johnson to be the VP candidate—even though Johnson’s common-law wife was a former slave and mother to his two children.  At the convention, again in Baltimore, the entire Virginia delegation walked out when it became clear Van Buren would carry the day.  He did, on the first ballot, and promptly selected Johnson as his running mate.  Already, the tensions that mounted into a civil war and the schism in the Democratic Party were starting to appear.

I'll pick that up later in the week as I give a historical context for the convention we're now covering.

By Jeff Alworth Aug. 25, 2008