ABSTRACT
The first permanent national committee was created by the 1848 Democratic presidential nominating convention in Baltimore. The development of a national party system between 1820 and 1860 required among other things the growth of agencies which could claim to be representative of the whole country. The national committees of the parties were created to perform three national tasks— the organization and direction of the presidential campaign, the promulgation of the Gall for the next convention, and the arrangement of the physical details of the convention. The convention method of nomination and the federal nature of the electoral system forced national campaigners to use interstate committees. As the convention system of presidential nomination demanded a ready campaign organization capable of quickly launching the electioneering machinery, so federalism and the electoral system required equality of membership for the national committees. The most common method of selecting national committee members is by state party convention.
