The election of 1824 brought a massive change to how parties functioned in the U.S. The Jacksonian Age is highlighted by the growth of democracy. Whereas before only property-owning men could vote, by 1824 most states had dropped property requirements allowing all white men the vote. (Most states did not add racial requirements before the 1820s. While land requirements restricted most Blacks, some did vote. It wasn’t until the 1820s when free Black men could vote that states began enforcing new racial rules.) The principal reason for the change was that new western states like Kentucky and Tennessee did not have property requirements. Landless men in states like Virginia realized that all they needed to do was move further west and they could have a voice. Suddenly the original states began losing population as the poor migrate in masse forcing the original states to change their laws or risk population drain.The other big change by 1824 was how electors to the Electoral College were chosen. Before 1824, presidential candidates were chosen by party caucus where the party leaders gathered or wrote letters and decided who to run. Electors to the College were then chosen by the state. This system went back to the Founders’ fear of the population choosing the president. A popularly chosen president would wield too much power and could become a demagogue like Caesar. Yet by 1824, every state except for South Carolina began voting for electors to the College, giving the people much more say in the president. With mass democracy and electing electors, the nation suddenly had a new type of politician who had a new way of looking at parties.Up to that point elected officials were supposed to be our betters. We purposely chose a republic over a democracy because the Founders did not trust the masses. Instead, the people were supposed to choose someone smarter than them to make the decisions. In reality, elected officials are not supposed to poll their constituents; we elect them to make the decisions. Remember, when discussing classical conservatives, the idea’s founder Edmund Burke, said, “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays you instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”That system worked for the landed population. But now the new voter decided that instead of someone better, they wanted someone who knew them, someone like them. They ...
