During this period Congress was divided politically as follows: Twenty-first Congress. Senate 38 Democrats, 10 Whigs. Twenty-second Congress. Senate 35 Democrats, 13 Whigs.. Election of 1832 For the first time, all presidential candidates were nominated by national conventions. DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION. Baltimore, Md., May 21, 1832. Chairman, ROBERT LUCAS, of Ohio. NOMINATED For President, Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee. For Vice-President, Martin Van Buren, of New York. Delegates were present from every state except Missouri. At this convention the Committee on Rules reported the following resolution: Resolved, That each state be entitled, in the nomination to be made of a candidate for the vice-presidency, to a number of votes equal to the number to which they will be entitled in the electoral colleges, under the new apportionment, in voting for President and Vice-President; and that two-thirds of the whole number of the votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice. This was the beginning of the two-thirds rule which has governed all subsequent Democratic conventions in making nominations. No platform was adopted. Andrew Jackson was renominated for President without opposition. Martin Van Buren was nominated for VicePresident by the following ballot: 49 Martin Van Buren, of New York, 208 votes. NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. 66 Baltimore, Md., December 12, 1831. Seventeen states were represented by 157 delegates. Henry Clay was nominated for President by a unanimous vote, and John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President, also by a unanimous vote. No platform was adopted. By recommendation of this convention a national gathering of young men met in Washington, D. C., May 11, 1832, and having accepted or ratified the nominations of Henry Clay and John Sergeant, they adopted the following reso lutions, which was the first platform ever issued by a national convention-to wit: 1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, although the fundamental principles adopted by our fathers, as a basis upon which to raise a superstructure of American independence, can never be annihilated, yet the time has come when nothing short of the united energies of all the friends of the American republic can be relied on to sustain and perpetuate that hallowed work. 2. Resolved, That an adequate protection to American industry is indispensable to the prosperity of the country; and that an abandonment of the policy at this period would be attended with consequences ruinous to the best interests of the nation. 3. Resolved, That a uniform system of internal improvements, sustained and supported by the general government, is calculated to secure, in the highest degree, the harmony, the strength, and the permanency of the republic. 4. Resolved, That the Supreme Court of the United States is the only tribunal recognized by the Constitution for deciding in the last resort all questions arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that upon the preservation of the authority and jurisdiction of that court inviolate depends the existence of the nation. 5. Resolved, That the Senate of the United States is pre-eminently a conservative branch of the federal government; that upon a fearless and independent exercise of its constitutional functions depends the existence of the nicely balanced powers of that government; and that all attempts to overawe its deliberations by the public press or by the national executive deserve the indignant reprobation of every American citizen. 6. Resolved, That the political course of the present executive has given us no pledge that he will defend and support these great principles of American policy and the Constitution; but, on the contrary, has convinced us that he will abandon them whenever the purposes of party require it. 7. Resolved, That the indiscriminate removal of public officers, for the mere difference of political opinion, is a gross abuse of power; and that the doctrine lately "boldly |