e continued,
though modified to suit the needs of the new party alignments. In this
informal manner, local and even congressional candidates were named.

Washington was the unanimous choice of the nation. In the third
presidential election, John Adams was the tacitly accepted candidate
of the Federalists and Jefferson of the Democratic-Republicans, and no
formal nominations seem to have been made. But from 1800 to 1824 the
presidential candidates were designated by members of Congress in
caucus. It was by this means that the Virginia Dynasty fastened itself
upon the country. The congressional caucus, which was one of the most
arrogant and compact political machines that our politics has produced,
discredited itself by nominating William H. Crawford (1824), a machine
politician, whom the public never believed to be of presidential
caliber. In the bitter fight that placed John Quincy Adams in the White
House and made Jackson the eternal enemy of Clay, the congressional
caucus met its doom. For several years, presidential candidates were
nominated by various informal methods. In 1828 a number of state
legislatures formally nominated Jackson. In several States the party
members of the legislatures in caucus nominated presidential candidates.
DeWitt Clinton was so designated by the New York legislature in 1812
and Henry Clay by the Kentucky legislature in 1822. Great mass meetings,
often garnished with barbecues, were held in many parts of the
country in 1824 for indorsing the informal nominations of the various
candidates.

But none of these methods served the purpose. The President was a
national officer, backed by a national party, and chosen by a national
electorate. A national system of nominating the presidential candidates
was demanded. On September 26, 1831, 113 delegates of the Anti-Masonic
party, representing thirteen States, met in a national convention in
Baltimore. This was the first national nominating convention held in
America.

In February, 1831, the Whig members of the Maryland legislature issued
a call for a national Whig convention. This was held in Baltimore the
following December. Eighteen States were represented by delegates, each
according to the number of presidential electoral votes it cast. Clay
was named for President. The first national Democratic convention met in
Baltimore on May 21, 1832, and nominated Jackson.

Since that time, presidential candidates have been named in national
conventi