Background
In the Summer of 1822, "Richmond Junto" leader Thomas Ritchie of Virginia began raising the idea of a national convention to resolve the issue of nomination; ultimately, the Congressional nominating caucus was appealed to by the devotees of Treasury Secretary William H. Crawford's candidacy. Following that defeat in the election of 1824, early in 1827, Van Buren privately made the argument to Ritchie for an exclusive national convention of Republicans to ensure Jackson's nomination. However, it did not immediately come to fruition while state conventions and legislatures took up Jackson as their presidential candidate for the election of 1828 with Vice President John C. Calhoun as his running mate. Such a type of national convention would occur after the election.
In 1830, Calhoun had fallen out of President Jackson's favor in part from a letter written by Crawford that stated that Calhoun as Secretary of War in President James Monroe's Cabinet pushed for a reprimand of General Jackson over his actions in the Invasion of Florida in 1818; the Petticoat affair in which Calhoun's wife, Floride was a central figure further alienated Jackson from the Vice President and his supporters. The final blow to the relationship came when Calhoun sank Van Buren's nomination to be Minister to England by casting a tie-breaking vote in the United States Senate. Calhoun resigned from the vice presidency in 1832 and became a Senator of South Carolina, where he continued to be a proponent of the doctrines of nullification in opposition to Jackson.
The plan for the convention was carried out among members of Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," his coterie of informal advisers and confidants. Major William Berkeley Lewis wrote on May 25, 1831, to Amos Kendall, who was then in New Hampshire. He suggested the legislature of New Hampshire call for a national gathering of Republican supporters of the Jackson administration to nominate a candidate for the vice presidency, and for Kendall to pass the idea to Isaac Hill. After the call for a general convention was adopted by members of the legislature, the Globe newspaper seconded their remarks and recommendation on July 6, 1831: "The recommendation of a Convention at Baltimore to nominate a candidate for the Vice-Presidency deserves a serious consideration. It is probably the best plan which can be adopted to produce entire unanimity in the Republican party, and secure its lasting ascendancy."
Lewis later recalled warning former Secretary of War and delegate John Eaton the day before the convention not to vote for anyone there except Van Buren unless he was prepared to "quarrel with the General ."
Read more about this topic: 1832 Democratic National Convention
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