The Founding Fathers wanted to create a limited government where the rights of the people would be secure. They chose create a republican form of government and feared the danger of democracy.
The Constitution gave the states the right to decide how their state electors would be chosen. With the republican model, the electors could be chosen by the legislatures of the states or elected by the voters in the Congressional Districts. The state legislatures were not given the authority to allow political parties to choose the Presidential Electors, The electors were to be chosen by the people directly or by the state legislature. It was unconstitutional for the legislatures to transfer this authority to political parties.
In the democratic model the people are allowed to directly vote for the states electors
Choosing Electors 1820
Choosing Electors 1824
In 1820 James Monroe ran un-opposed for President as the Federalist Party failed to nominate a candidate. In the 1824 election all four of the candidates, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford and Henry Clay were members of the Democratic Republican Party. The party realized that it would be to their advantage to have just one candidate.
When Andrew Jackson lost the election of 1824 the Democratic Party was born on January 8, 1828. They decided to nominate Andrew Jackson for President in 1828 and they became unified behind one candidate.
The 1832 Democratic National Convention was held from May 21 to May 23, 1832, in Baltimore, Maryland. In the first presidential nominating convention ever held by the Democratic Party, incumbent President Andrew Jackson was nominated for a second term, while former Secretary of State Martin Van Buren was nominated for vice president.
The Whig Party was a political party active in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. ... The Whigs emerged in the 1830s in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, pulling together former members of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, and disaffected Democrats.
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