The first national convention of the Democratic Party began in Baltimore on May 21 , 1832 . In that year the 2/3 rule was created , requiring a 2/3 vote to nominate a candidate , in order to show the party 's unanimous support of Martin Van Buren for vice president . Although this rule was waived in the 1836 and 1840 conventions , in 1844 it was revived by opponents of former President Van Buren , who had the support of a majority , but not two-thirds , of the delegates , in order to prevent him from receiving the nomination . The rule then remained in place for almost the next hundred years , and often led to Democratic National Conventions which dragged on endlessly , most famously at the 1860 convention , when the convention adjourned in Charleston without making a choice and reconvening in separate groups a short time later , and the 1924 convention , when " Wets " and " Drys " deadlocked between preferred candidates Alfred E. Smith and William G. McAdoo for 103 ballots before finally agreeing on John W. Davis as a compromise candidate . At the 1912 convention , Champ Clark was the first person to receive a majority of the votes who did not go on to achieve a two-thirds vote and the nomination . The 2/3 rule was finally abolished in 1936 , when the unanimity in favor of the renomination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt allowed it finally to be put to rest . In the years that followed only one convention ( the 1952 Convention ) actually went beyond a single ballot
1952 Convention
1952 Democratic National Convention
Democratic National Convention