January 8, 1828

History of the Democratic Party (United States)

Jacksonian state conventions meet on the anniversary of New Orleans

The supposed birthday of the national Democratic Party was two separate state campaign conventions — one in a Columbus courthouse, one in Indianapolis.

What actually met that day

Jackson supporters from Ohio assembled at the courthouse in Columbus on 8 January 1828 to organise the state's presidential electoral ticket — 160 delegates from 54 counties.

Jackson supporters simultaneously opened an Indiana state convention at Indianapolis, 37 delegates from 20 counties, to form an electoral ticket and a statewide campaign organisation.

The date was chosen deliberately: it was the anniversary of Jackson's 1815 victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

Committees, tickets, and 2,000 German pamphlets

The Ohio convention appointed committees to recommend electors and prepare an address and resolutions, then reconvened on 9 January to adopt the reports and set up a statewide observation and vigilance committee. It authorised 2,000 copies of its proceedings in German.

Indiana's sessions ran through 10 January. It admitted ten Jackson-friendly legislators who had not been chosen as delegates, expanding to 47 participants from 25 counties, and selected five electors along with central, county and township committees.

Neither meeting was in Washington or Baltimore, and neither was a national convention.

No founding act to point at

No consulted primary, scholarly or official source documents a single nationwide act on 8 January that formally created the Democratic Party. Official institutional histories instead describe a Jackson coalition emerging over several years.

The Library of Congress dates the birth of the "Jackson party" to 1825, while the Senate describes the Democratic Party as the national coalition that backed Jackson when he won in 1828.

The first official Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore in May 1832, and the National Archives still lists Jackson as Democratic-Republican in its 1828 Electoral College table.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

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Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

January 8, 1828 is frequently given as a conventional founding date, but party formation was incremental and historians do not identify one universally authoritative act of creation.
The Library of Congress dates the birth of the 'Jackson party' to 1825, while the Senate describes the Democratic Party as the national coalition that backed Jackson when he won in 1828. The Library of Congress calls the 1832 Baltimore gathering the Democrats' first official national convention.
The documented January 8 events were separate state conventions in Columbus and Indianapolis. No reliable source consulted supports claims of a national founding convention in Washington or Baltimore that day.
Even official modern sources vary in their labels: the National Archives classifies Jackson as Democratic-Republican in its 1828 Electoral College table, illustrating that the party name had not yet stabilized.