Let's not have conventions and say we did
We can just blame Andrew Jackson and move on
Welcome back to the This Day In Esoteric Political History newsletter. Each week, a member of our team (or a friend of the show) gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.
Today, you’re in the steady hands of This Day researcher Jacob Feldman.
Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American history…
May 17
1844: The Mormon church founded The Reform party and held a convention where they nominated leader Joseph Smith as a candidate for the presidential election. His campaign ended abruptly a month later when Smith was killed while in jail awaiting trial for treason
1954 : Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivers a unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
2004: Massachusetts becomes the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage
May 18
1652: Slavery in Rhode Island is abolished, though the policy is not rigorously enforced
1860: Abraham Lincoln is nominated for the presidency on the third ballot
1896: The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine is constitutional
May 19
1856 : Senator Charles Sumner begins his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, which would lead a political opponent to beat him inside the Congressional chamber
1917: The Webb-Hartley Law (AKA the California Alien Land Law of 1913) is signed, forbidding Japanese people and others “ineligible for citizenship” from owning agricultural land
May 20
1775: The Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence is supposedly signed in Charlotte, North Carolina by a committee of citizens who declared independence from Great Britain, preceding the Declaration of Independence by more than a year. The story is now heavily disputed
1901: Connecticut passes the first ever speed limit law for automobiles in the United States
May 21
1832: The first Democratic National Convention (DNC) is held in Baltimore
1918: The U.S. House of Representatives passes an amendment allowing women to vote
1934: William Burns resigns from the Bureau of Investigations in scandal, to be replaced by J Edgar Hoover
1954: An amendment to give 18-year-olds the right to vote is defeated
May 22
1950: East German farmers begin to report that the Colorado Potato Beetle has invaded their crops, causing devastation and fueling rumors that the infestation is part of an American plot
In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more.
We don’t have to have conventions
The 1832 DNC wasn’t the first nominating convention—a few rival parties held similar gatherings the previous year—but Andrew Jackson’s decision to gather Democrat leaders in Baltimore established an everlasting political tradition… for now.
Jackson, ever the marketer, pitched the convention as an extension of his populism, though historians agree he was likely more motivated to get electors together in one place so he could *nudge nudge* ensure that pesky VP John C. Calhoun would be dropped from the ticket, rather than leave that decision in the hands of state legislatures.
While the ambitious and shameless have been gathering every four years since, the purpose of conventions has evolved over time.
Initially, candidates were too modest (at least outwardly) to show up to the affairs. F.D.R. changed that in 1932. After 100 years of backroom dealing, conventions’ second century would be dominated by public messaging.
Since emphasis was put on primary contests starting in 1968, no presidential candidate has been actually selected at the gathering. Meaningful platform debates have also slowly disappeared, leaving a husk of a tradition—and hours of TV content that occasionally rises to the level of 3 a.m. infomercial.
Not since social media emerged has a convention speech truly lifted a little-known pol into national status (except maybe as a meme). As conventions near 200 years old, it seems time to accept that, if a party’s goal is to unify its various factions and grow its tent, gathering various leaders in a mid-sized city for a week with nothing to do besides gossip and bicker probably isn’t the best way to go about it.
Maybe a roast instead? Those seem popular.
— Jacob Feldman
A Litte More Esoterica
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Living in Ohio where there is a possibility that Biden won’t be on the ballot because of the timing of the convention, I would be fine dropping them.
Also, this is the best typo ever: he was likely more motivated to get electors together in one place so he could *nudge nude* ensure that pesky VP John C. Calhoun would be dropped from the ticket
I can imagine Old Hickory nudging someone in his birthday suit.