ABSTRACT
Some scholars trace the origin of the delegate state convention to Pennsylvania. The honors for the first national convention went to an unlikely contestant, the Anti-Masonic party, when its members convened in Baltimore on September 26, 1831. The chapter discusses the candidates and make a reasonable choice–as useful and praiseworthy as it might seem, has today been effectively abandoned by the Democratic party and is on shaky ground under the rules of the Republican Convention. In May of the following year a National Republican Convention of young men, prompted by the December convention, met in Washington, named Clay, heard an acceptance speech by him, and drew up a party platform. Conventions are obviously a handy way to gather in the party leaders to chart a party’s course and to place a nominee’s name before the public.
