1840 Democratic National Convention
Baltimore, Maryland | |
Venue | The Assembly Rooms |
---|---|
Candidates | |
Presidential nominee | Martin Van Buren of New York |
Vice presidential nominee | None |
The 1840 Democratic National Convention was held in
Delegates
Delegates from 21 of 26 states were in attendance. States not in attendance were Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, South Carolina and Virginia.[2]
Platform
The 1840 convention was the first at which the party adopted a platform. Delegates reaffirmed their belief that the Constitution was the primary guide for each state's political affairs. To them, this meant that all roles of the federal government not specifically defined fell to each respective state government, including such responsibilities as debt created by local projects. Decentralized power and states' rights pervaded each and every resolution adopted at the convention, including those on slavery, taxes, and the possibility of a central bank.[3][4] Regarding slavery, the Convention adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, That congress has no power under the Constitution, to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several states, and that such states are the sole and proper judges of every thing appertaining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution: that all efforts of the abolitionists or others, made to induce congress to interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the stability and permanency of the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any friend to our political institutions.[5]
Vice presidential nomination
See also
- History of the United States Democratic Party
- 1839 Whig National Convention
- 1840 United States presidential election
- U.S. presidential nomination convention
- List of Democratic National Conventions
References
- ^ "Martin Van Buren". History.
- ^ Proceedings of the National democratic convention, held in the City of Baltimore, on the 5th of May, 1840. Baltimore, Maryland: The Office of the Republican. 1840. pp. 7–8.
- ^ "1840 Democratic Convention". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
- ^ Proceedings of the National democratic convention, held in the City of Baltimore, on the 5th of May, 1840. Baltimore, Maryland: The Office of the Republican. 1840. p. 9.
- .
- ^ Witcover, Jules (2014). The American Vice Presidency. Smithsonian Books. pp. 91–95.
- ^ "Electoral Votes for President and Vice President 1837–1853". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved June 29, 2013.
External links
- Democratic Party Platform of 1840 at The American Presidency Project
Preceded by Baltimore, Maryland
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Democratic National Conventions | Succeeded by Baltimore, Maryland
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