There's two things about the Anti-Masonic party in 1831-32 that should be noted: first, their party convention in late 1831 was the first ever modern party convention, which was shortly followed by the National Republican Convention of 1832 (which party nominated Clay and two years later became the Whig Party); and second, Supreme Court Justice John McLean was strongly considered for the Anti-Masonic nomination. If McLean of Ohio, instead of William Wirt of Virginia (in the South, where the party was very weak), had been nominated, he would've certainly done better in the electoral vote (carrying not only Vermont, but also Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, which, considering that New York and Pennsylvania were the most populated states back then, that would've put McLean far ahead of Andrew Jackson, if still somewhat behind Henry Clay! In subsequent elections, McLean would try to win either the Whig or Republican nomination (and, in 1848, he apparently also tried to win the Free Soil nomination, as well as a rumored try for the Constitutional Union nomination in 1860). Also, McLean probably would've also carried, if nominated, Connecticut and Massachusetts. One more thing: How could Andrew Jackson go from being in first place in both the popular and electoral vote (albeit, mainly because of the presence of the Anti-Masonic ticket, with slightly less of the popular vote than in 1828), to being in a distant second in both the popular and electoral vote, with the Anti-Masonic ticket (headed by William Wirt) slightly behind Jackson in third?
