First Democratic National Convention convenes in Baltimore 190 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (May 21 1832)

(Monday, May 21, 1832, 11:00 a.m. local time) — The 1832 Democratic National Convention, the first presidential nominating convention ever held by the Democratic Party, convened this morning at The Athenaeum in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Anti-Masonic Party and the National Republican Party had held the first presidential nominating conventions in 1831, and President Andrew Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet” helped organize a Democratic convention in 1832.

As the party leaders assumed that Jackson would be nominated for a second term as president, the primary purpose of the convention was to find a new running mate: Vice President John C. Calhoun had fallen out with Jackson following the Petticoat affair and the Nullification Crisis, and subsequently resigned the office in order to take a Senate seat.

With Jackson’s strong endorsement, former Secretary of State Martin Van Buren easily won the vice-presidential nomination on the first ballot with 208 votes, defeating former Representative Philip P. Barbour of Virginia (who received 49 votes) and Representative Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky (who received 26 votes).

The Jackson-Van Buren ticket would face the National Republican Party ticket of Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky for president and former Representative John Sergeant of Pennsylvania for vice president (nominated in December 1831) in the 1832 United States presidential election.