Election of 1832: Jackson’s Populist Appeal on Trial
Democratic Party: Andrew Jackson (Tennessee) and Martin Van Buren (New York)
National Republican Party: Henry Clay (Kentucky) and John Sergeant (Pennsylvania)
Anti-Mason Party: William Wirt (Maryland) and Amos Ellmaker (Pennsylvania)
Election Results:
Jackson and Van Buren: 701,000 popular votes, 219 electoral votes.
Clay and Sergeant: 484,205 popular votes, 49 electoral votes.
Wirt and Ellmaker: 100,715 popular votes, 7 electoral votes.
(Eleven electoral votes were cast for Virginian John Floyd and two electoral votes were not cast).
Summary:
The introduction of the nominating convention in the 1832 presidential election is perhaps one of the great innovations in American politics. The 1824 election led to the end of the congressional caucus system, whereby congressional members of the particular party voted on a presidential nominee. Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams were nominated by state parties in 1828 but the idea for the nominating convention came from the unusual third party movement of the Anti-Masons. The Anti-Masons were built around opposition to the secretive fraternal order of the Free Masons, which counted as members many of the nation’s most prominent politicians. The Anti-Masons were worried about the undemocratic and corrupt manner in which Free Masons were infiltrating society and government. Their campaign called out 1832 candidates Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay for being members of the society, though the Anti-Masons tried to align with both of the major parties before becoming privy to this information. Nonetheless, their lasting contribution was the first nominating convention, which led to the choice of former attorney general William Wirt as the Anti-Mason standard bearer.
The National Republicans copied the convention idea, holding their convention in the summer of 1832. Their choice for president, Henry Clay, had been involved in the 1824 “corrupt bargain” with John Quincy Adams and was a strong proponent of the so-called American System. The American System consisted of federal support of education, transportation, and internal developments that would quickly develop the untamed West. The Democratic Party met in Baltimore in the summer of 1832 to renominate Jackson and to nominate party favorite Martin Van Buren as vice president. Along with the nominating convention, the Democrats contributed their own piece of political history by adding a two-thirds delegate rule which would force frontrunners to win two-thirds of the party delegates to win nomination. Jackson had already proven to be a strong opponent of the American system as a waste of taxpayer money and flashed his populist side by railing against the second Bank of the United States, a federal body that would control currency and federal finances. Jackson felt that the Bank would make the rich richer and embraced the Democratic slogan, “Let the People Rule.” The main issue of the campaign proved to be the American System and Jackson proved to be more compelling in his arguments against expanding the federal budget while he was a poster boy for strengthening the executive branch.
Jackson made the prediction that Clay would not win any of the states south of the Potomac River and west of the Appalachians, because he did not have broad enough support outside of the Northeast. Jackson’s bravado proved correct, as Clay only won his own state of Kentucky. Jackson was able to prove the dominance of the new Democratic Party and promised four more years of strong presidential leadership against unconstitutional measures by the Congress.
