Over the first half-century of presidential elections from 1788-1844, America witnessed a dramatic democratization and modernization due to three pivotal changes: the development of competing political parties mobilizing voters, expanded voting rights empowering common citizens, and the adoption of national party conventions reflecting popular input. In 1788, George Washington was elected president without campaigns or promises, reflecting a view of the president as a nonpartisan, disinterested statesman. However, tensions emerged between Federalists like Alexander Hamilton and Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, fueling partisan competition. Voting rights expanded from only 6 of 13 states in 1788 to nearly universal white manhood suffrage by 1844. National nominating conventions likewise reduced elite influence over selections. As candidates actively campaigned for democratically nominated tickets, elections transformed from the closed, deferential affairs imagined by founders into the mass partisan democracy embodied by Andrew Jackson’s populist movement[1]. This laid essential groundwork for the distinctly modern presidential elections that soon followed between party nominees chosen by engaged citizens.
Development of Partisan Politics
The earliest presidential elections envisioned a nonpartisan process centered around selecting esteemed national politicians based on character and service, not political affiliation. George Washington’s unanimous election in 1788 reflected this: he ran unopposed without overt campaigning, partisan promises, or criticism of rivals. However, sharp disagreements emerged within Washington’s cabinet between Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton’s Federalists favoring pro-business policies and an energetic federal government versus Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican supporters of agricultural interests and states’ rights.
This growing factionalism produced America’s first partisan showdown for the presidency in 1796 between Federalist Vice President John Adams and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson. Neither overtly campaigned themselves, with direct vote soliciting still taboo. However, an inner circle of key surrogates from the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties became heavily involved in voter mobilization and persuasion efforts behind the scenes. Partisans on each side distributed campaign biographies detailing their nominee’s virtues and accomplishments; sponsored community debates, lectures and events; and flooded the press with letters and essays advocating their candidate in sympathetic newspapers. These organized parties became even more instrumental in 1800 with Jefferson’s barest of victories over Adams, establishing the Democratic-Republicans as the nation’s first ruling political dynasty over the next quarter century.
Despite emergent partisanship, negative campaigning and power-seeking by presidents remained frowned upon. Candidates were expected to publicly disavow interest in running while parties focused more attacks anonymously on rivals’ policies vs personal shortcomings. And presidents still shed open factional affiliation once elected in favor of conciliatory governance aimed at forging national unity from political divisions—an expectation of nonpartisan leadership Washington himself had modeled.
Expansion of Voting Rights
Early presidential elections severely restricted political participation to a narrow elite, with voting rights limited only to white male property owners in many states during the late 18th and early 19th century. This shrunk the portion of the adult population eligible to directly vote for presidential electors down to an estimated 1-10%, disenfranchising nearly all ordinary citizens including small farmers, laborers, and frontier settlers[2]. For example, only 6 of the original 13 states even permitted presidential elections when George Washington ran unopposed in 1788 due to such voting prerequisites. But dramatic expansion of suffrage occurred at the state level over subsequent decades as property-ownership tests were successively eliminated in the first decades of the 19th century, replaced with universal white manhood suffrage in almost every state by 1844.
As a direct result of discarded ownership mandates and extended voting privileges, voter turnout skyrocketed from less than 10% of the adult population casting ballots in 1796 to nearly 80% voter participation recorded in the pivotal election of 1840[3]. This represented an eight-fold increase in engagement over five decades, thoroughly transforming elections from closed, narrow affairs among elites in 1788 to mass democratic events with broad working-class involvement by the 1840s. New political power and influence was granted to small agrarian farmers in rural areas as well as urban laborers and mechanics in growing port and market cities who had largely been disenfranchised earlier.
Many newly empowered lower- and middle-class citizens flocked to the populist banner of Andrew Jackson, finding his movement’s rhetoric of expanding opportunities and challenging entrenched establishment interests deeply appealing. The Democratic Party’s rejection of incumbent President John Quincy Adams in 1828 signaled the national coming of age of a political force mobilizing the enthusiasms and numbers of ordinary Americans against traditional aristocratic elites. Democrats also strategically integrated common citizens directly into campaigns themselves through partisan newspapers edited by local printers, mass rallies and barbecues mixing politics and entertainment, distribution of short campaign biographies highlighting candidates’ humble frontier origins, and rousing political songsters set to familiar melodies.
This democratization and incorporation of average voters shifted elections down the social scale in tone and energies, replacing the genteel, aspirational politics of the early republic aimed at elite opinion-makers with a more populist, grassroots and raucous style well-represented by the noisy “Huzzah!” campaign cheers and brawling public gatherings characteristic of Jacksonian democracy. Presidential contests transformed from closed, privilege-based interactions among societal notables to more participatory and competitive battles for the backing of newly mobilized masses of common citizens empowered as the primary stakeholders selecting America’s leaders.
The extensive expansion of voting rights and membership over five decades fundamentally changed the culture and contours of running for the nation’s highest office. Whereas the election of 1788 was characterized by elite deferential politics with citizens expected to uncritically respect candidates put forward by social superiors, the opening up of elections to near universal participation fostered a more egalitarian ethos of mass democracy. Campaigners were suddenly accountable to respond to the urgent priorities of average workers and settlers through promises of reforms on issues like banking policy, land access, infrastructure projects and tariffs.
Candidates likewise developed modern mass communication and voter engagement strategies to appeal to the working class, including restless stumping across states to directly interact with people, careful crafting of populist images emphasizing humble origins and battlefield glories, and new mediums like campaign biographies and partisan newspapers to relay messages. By incorporating and enfranchising the average citizen as the primary selector of presidents, America witnessed the birth of distinctly modern democratic electioneering still recognizable in our contemporary politics.
Adoption of National Party Conventions
The Constitution did not mention political parties or nominating procedures, with presidential elections envisioned as referendums on the character of esteemed statesmen put forward by elite political opinion-makers. In early contests from 1788-1820, presidential candidates accordingly emerged through informal legislative caucuses and consultations among members of Congress and state legislatures[4]. But these closed-door nomination dealings lacked both structure and input from ordinary citizens without access to closed congressional meetings.
This changed most dramatically with the pivotal 1800 election when Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican supporters-initiated America’s first national presidential nominating convention. They strategically gathered hundreds of party delegates together into Congressional Caucus in order to build enthusiasm and legitimacy around Jefferson and Aaron Burr’s bid to unseat Federalist president John Adams. The public gathering of delegates from across the country allowed for more structured rules, open deliberation, and transparency compared to earlier opaque legislative nominations. It also gave average citizens a greater stake through the delegates representing their interests[5]. The Democratic-Republican ticket’s nailbiter victory over Adams demonstrated the success of the national convention model.
Other evolving parties like the National Republicans and Whigs soon followed suit every four years, using similar large-scale anti-caucus conventions to inject drama, suspense and democratic participation into presidential nominations. Party gatherings in 1832 and 1840 chose longtime Whig leader Henry Clay as their unsuccessful challenger to Democrat Andrew Jackson. But the conventions generated grassroots excitement and applied more mass pressure on elites to adopt reform platforms against Jackson’s controversial policies[6]. This shift to formal delegate nomination conventions reduced the control of sitting politicians over the selection process while increasing genuine input from ordinary citizens around the country. The result was a milestone in the modern, participatory democratization of how presidential candidates were determined every four years—a legacy still seen today in party national conventions.
Conclusion
From 1788 to 1844, presidential elections were transformed by the emergence of political parties mobilizing common voters, expanded voting rights empowering small farmers and laborers, and national party conventions reflecting more grassroots input. As presidential hopefuls actively campaigned for loyalties within an inclusive and participatory electoral system, elections evolved significantly from the elitist and deferential affairs envisioned by the founders. The raucous populist democracy of Andrew Jackson built directly upon these changes over the early decades. The result was a distinctly modern and partisan democratic process by 1844 centered around political parties promoting candidates selected by conventions and voted on by engaged citizens.
Bibliography
Brewer, M. D. (2019). The Rise of Partisanship and the Expansion of Partisan Conflict within the American Electorate. Political Research Quarterly, 58(2), 219. https://doi.org/10.2307/3595624
Miller, J. (2020, September 17). National Nominating Convention. Tutor2u. https://www.tutor2u.net/politics/reference/national-nominating-convention
The Evolution of Party Conventions. (2019). Nationalaffairs.com. https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-evolution-of-party-conventions
Voting Rights. (2022, August 31). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/voting-rights
Voting Rights Throughout United States History | National Geographic Society. (2023, October 19). Education.nationalgeographic.org. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/voting-rights-throughout-history/
[1] Brewer, M. D. (2019). The Rise of Partisanship and the Expansion of Partisan Conflict within the American Electorate. Political Research Quarterly, 58(2), 219. https://doi.org/10.2307/3595624
[2]Voting Rights Throughout United States History | National Geographic Society. (2023, October 19). Education.nationalgeographic.org. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/voting-rights-throughout-history/
[3]Voting Rights. (2022, August 31). National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/voting-rights
[4] Brewer, M. D. (2019). The Rise of Partisanship and the Expansion of Partisan Conflict within the American Electorate. Political Research Quarterly, 58(2), 219. https://doi.org/10.2307/3595624
[5]The Evolution of Party Conventions. (2019). Nationalaffairs.com. htts://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-evolution-of-party-conventions
[6] Miller, J. (2020, September 17). National Nominating Convention. Tutor2u. https://www.tutor2u.net/politics/reference/national-nominating-convention
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