Random Thought I Had: People Don't Appreciate How Important the 1832 Election Was

In general, we think of the 1800, 1860, 1876, 1912, 1932, 1968, and 1980 elections as the most important in US history. And while this post in no way exists to dispute their importance, it's really insane to think of how influential the 1832 election was, yet it's pretty obscure compared to even its neighbor in the 1828 election. For starters, the modern nomination procedure was invented in this race. The Anti-Masonic Party hosted the first nomination convention in American history, inspiring the National Republican and Democratic Parties to do the same. The Democrats, in particular, created the 2/3 rule now used for selecting a party's presidential and vice presidential nominees.

Furthermore, the defeats faced by the National Republican and Anti-Masonic Parties that year were major factors in those parties collapsing. The National Republicans, of course, went on to become the Whigs, who evolved into the Republican Party, founded in 1854 and a member of the two-party system since the days of Abraham Lincoln. The 1832 election also led to the Bank War. Henry Clay, trying to embarrass Andrew Jackson just before an election, presented him with a catch-22 where he could either veto the bank recharter and upset northern voters or sign the recharter and look inconsistent. This touched off the Bank War, which soured our view of national banking until the civil war. Also, Jackson's veto of the recharter was the first time a veto was based on policy disagreements, rather than Constitutional concerns, permanently reshaping the president's veto power.