unanimously. The convention also recommended a general convention of Republicans friendly to the election of General Jackson, to consist of delegates equal to the number of electors of President in each State, to be holden at Baltimore on the third Monday of May, 1832, to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, and take such other measures in support of the reëlection of Andrew Jackson as may be deemed expedient.

The suggestion of a convention, thus put forth with approval in the newspaper which had been established for the express purpose of being the mouthpiece of the administration, was seconded by all the party organs; and the delegates were chosen. Most of them were ready to register the will of the President, and measures were taken to secure the acquiescence of such as were inclined to oppose it. Major Eaton, lately the Secretary of War, and the husband of the famous Mrs. Eaton, already referred to, was a delegate from Tennessee. He went to Baltimore determined to oppose Van Buren; but he found there a letter from Major Lewis, advising him to support that gentleman "unless he wished to quarrel with the general." He yielded, and voted for Van Buren. At the "Jackson state convention" of Pennsylvania, held in March, 1832, Mr. Van Buren had no supporters. The Democrats of the State were in favor of the Bank, and were angry at Van Buren because the New York legislature had adopted resolutions against the institution. There was a long contest in the convention between the friends of Mr. Dallas, Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Wilkins, which resulted in favor of Mr. Wilkins. So strong was the determination not to accept Mr. Van Buren that the electors nominated were pledged to vote for Mr. Wilkins, and, if he should be induced to withdraw, or if, for any other reason he should not be a candidate, to vote for Mr. Dallas. Yet when the convention was held, every vote of Pennsylvania was in favor of Van Buren. The electors nevertheless obeyed their instructions and gave Mr. Wilkins their

votes.

The convention met on the day named in the saloon of the Athenæum. Every State except Missouri was represented; and the number of delegates is reported to have been 326. But according to the rules the States represented were entitled to but 282 delegates. The number of votes cast for a candidate for Vice-President exceeded this number by one. General Robert Lucas, of Ohio, was the temporary and also the

permanent president. On the second day of the convention the Committee on Rules reported the following:

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 origin of the famous two-thirds rule, by which all subsequent Democratic conventions have governed themselves in making nominations. On the first ballot for a candidate for Vice-President, Martin Van Buren had 208 votes, Philip P. Barbour, of Virginia, 49, and Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, 26 votes. Virginia and South Carolina voted solidly for Mr. Barbour, who had also fifteen votes of delegates from Maryland, North Carolina, and Alabama. Colonel Johnson had the full vote of Kentucky and Indiana, and two votes from Illinois. Mr. Van Buren, having received more than two thirds of all the votes, was declared the nominee. General Jackson was recommended in the following resolution: :

Resolved, That the convention repose the highest confidence in the purity, patriotism, and talents of Andrew Jackson, and that we most cordially concur in the repeated nominations which he has received in various parts of the Union as a candidate for reëlection to the office which he now fills with so much honor to himself and usefulness to his country.

No other resolution was adopted. A committee was appointed to prepare an address to the people in support of the action of the convention; but on the last day of the session a report was made that the time had been too short to fulfil that duty; and this was accepted as satisfactory. Possibly the difficulty of saying anything upon the Bank question without sacrificing the electoral vote of Pennsylvania, and the absurdity of issuing an address in which no mention should be made of the Bank, had more to do than had the lack of time with the failure of the committee to put the principles of the party in a fitting form of words.

The convention accomplished the object for which it was held, although it did not wholly overcome the repugnance of Democrats in all the States to Mr. Van Buren, or suppress the movement in favor of rival candidates. A Jackson-Barbour

convention was held in Charlottesville, Virginia, in June, by which Mr. P. P. Barbour was formally nominated as the candidate for the vice-presidency in conjunction with General Jackson for President. Later in the same month a similar convention was held in North Carolina, in which delegates from eighteen counties participated. The candidacy of Mr. Wilkins was purely local in Pennsylvania, and that of Mr. Barbour came to nothing.

The tone of political discussion during the canvass which preceded and followed these nominations was unexampled for its violence and rancor. The veto by the President of the bill rechartering the Bank of the United States, which had been passed by both Houses of Congress in spite of executive opposition, although there was a Democratic majority in each' House, intensified the bitterness of the conflict. It also showed the strength of General Jackson's hold upon the people, that he could still retain, not only the support of the people, who were probably with him in his war on the Bank, but that of the politicians as well, including that of men who had even voted to pass the Bank bill over the veto. Mr. Dallas was one of this class. He had introduced the bill for a new charter in the Senate, had supported it at every stage, and voted for it after the veto; and yet, within a month after the failure of the bill, he was found addressing a meeting in Philadelphia which adopted a series of resolutions referring to the Bank veto and expressing thanks to the President for his fearless discharge of duty. Nothing was too severe for the opponents of Jackson to say of him; and the violence of their denunciations was equalled by the angry vituperation which the Democrats poured out upon the National Republicans and all other advocates of the Bank.

The early elections were not clearly indicative of the result in November. In the Kentucky election, which took place in August, a "Jackson" governor and a "Clay" lieutenant-governor were chosen, each by a small majority. Maine was carried for the Jackson ticket in September, but by a greatly reduced majority. The October elections also gave the opposition hope, which the result in the ensuing month was not to justify; for Ohio, though giving a plurality to the Jackson ticket, seemed capable of being captured by the opposition if it could be united; and Pennsylvania gave to Governor Wolf, the Democratic candidate, but a few thousand

majority, less, in fact, than a third of that two years before. New Jersey and Maryland gave anti-Jackson majorities. The chance of success in defeating the President led to fresh combinations and coalitions where there was not already union among the several elements of the opposition. The National Republicans adopted the Anti-Masonic electoral ticket in New York, and there was a combination of the same kind in Ohio and elsewhere. But the Democrats professed a serene confidence in the result, and they were not mistaken. The doubtful States, with the exception of Kentucky, gave majorities,— some of them small but all-sufficient, to the Jackson and Van Buren ticket. The Jackson party had, however, wisely determined not to put up a ticket in opposition to the Wilkins electors in Pennsylvania, and in South Carolina the contest for the legislature had been wholly between the Union men and the Nullifiers; the Nullifiers carried the legislature which

was to appoint the electors. On the whole it was a great vic tory for the Democrats.

As before, twenty-four States took part in this election, but the number of electors was enlarged by the new apportionment which had been made after the result of the census of 1830 was ascertained. Delaware joined the States which permitted the people to choose the electors. South Carolina alone followed the old system of appointment by the legislature; and she retained it until and including the election of 1860. Maine, New York, and Tennessee also abandoned at this time the district system of election. Maryland only