United States presidential election, 1836
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All 294 electoral votes of the Electoral College 148 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout |
57.8%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Van Buren and Johnson or Smith, pale grey-purple denotes those won by Harrison and Granger or Tyler, purple denotes those won by White/Tyler, coral pink denotes those won by Webster/Granger, and bluegrass green denotes those won by Mangum/Tyler. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The United States presidential election of 1836 was the 13th quadrennial presidential election, held from Thursday, November 3, to Wednesday, December 7, 1836. In the third consecutive election victory for the Democratic Party, incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren defeated four candidates fielded by the nascent Whig Party.
Under the leadership of Andrew Jackson, the Democrats had established a stable party, but the Whigs had only recently emerged and were primarily united by their opposition to Jackson. Unable to agree on a single candidate, and hoping to compel a contingent election in the House of Representatives by denying the Democrats an electoral vote majority, the Whigs ran two primary tickets. Northern and border state Whigs supported the ticket led by former Senator William Henry Harrison of Ohio, while Southern Whigs supported the ticket led by Senator Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee. Two other Whigs, Daniel Webster and Willie Person Mangum, also received electoral votes. The 1835 Democratic National Convention chose a ticket of Van Buren, who was Jackson's handpicked successor, and Congressman Richard Mentor Johnson.
The Whig strategy failed, as Van Buren won a majority of the electoral and popular vote. Van Buren's victory made him the third sitting vice president to win election as president, a feat that was not duplicated until the 1988 presidential election. Harrison finished in second place in both the popular and electoral vote, and his strong showing in the election helped him win his party's nomination in the 1840 presidential election. As Virginia's electors refused to vote for Johnson, the vice president was elected by the United States Senate, marking the first and (to date) only such occurrence. The Senate decided between Johnson and Francis Granger, who were the top two vice presidential electoral vote winners. Johnson was elected on the first ballot.
The election of 1836 marked an important turning point in American political history because of the part it played in establishing the Second Party System. In the 1830s the political party structure was still changing. The Democratic Party was organized, but factional and personal leaders still played a major role in politics. By the end of the campaign of 1836, the new party system was almost complete, as nearly every faction had been absorbed by either the Democrats or the Whigs.[2]
Nominations
Democratic Party nomination
Democratic Party Ticket, 1836 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Martin Van Buren | Richard M. Johnson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8th Vice President of the United States (1833–1837) |
U.S. Representative for Kentucky's 13th District (1833–1837) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Campaign | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Incumbent President Andrew Jackson decided to retire after two terms. Jackson publicly endorsed a ticket consisting of Vice President Martin Van Buren of New York and Representative Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky, the latter of whom had gained national notoriety for his role in the War of 1812. Several Southerners opposed Johnson's nomination due to Johnson's relationship with his African-American slave, and the Virginia delegates supported Senator William Cabell Rives against Johnson. Rives's candidacy failed to galvanize support, and Jackson's preferred ticket was nominated at the 1835 Democratic National Convention held in Baltimore, Maryland.[3]
Presidential vote | Vice Presidential vote | ||
---|---|---|---|
Martin Van Buren | 265 | Richard M. Johnson | 178 |
William C. Rives | 87 |
Whig Party nomination
The Whig Party emerged during the 1834 mid-term elections as the chief opposition to the Democratic Party. The party was formed from members of the National Republican Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, disaffected Jacksonians, and small remnants of the Federalist Party (people whose last political activity was with them a decade before). Some Southerners who were angered by Jackson's opposition to states' rights, including Sen. John C. Calhoun and the Nullifiers, also temporarily joined the Whig coalition.[3]
Unlike the Democrats, the Whigs did not hold a national convention. Instead, state legislatures and state conventions put forward candidates. Southern Nullifiers placed Tennessee Senator Hugh Lawson White into contention for the presidency in 1834 soon after his break with Jackson. White was a moderate on the states' rights issue, which made him acceptable in the South, but not in the North. The state legislatures of Alabama and Tennessee officially nominated White. The South Carolina state legislature nominated Senator Willie Person Mangum of North Carolina. By early 1835, Whigs in the North were lining up behind Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster. Both Webster and White used debates in the Senate to establish their positions on the issues of the day, and newspapers nationwide carried the text of their speeches. The Pennsylvania legislature nominated popular former general William Henry Harrison, who had led American forces at the Battle of Tippecanoe. The Whigs hoped that Harrison's reputation as a military hero could win their party votes. Harrison quickly gained the backing of other Northern Whigs, and by mid 1836, the Northern free states except for Massachusetts and three border states supported Harrison as the Whig candidate. State legislatures, especially in larger states, also nominated various vice presidential candidates.[3]
Despite the large number of candidates, there was only one Whig ticket in each state. The Whigs ended up with two primary tickets: William Henry Harrison for president and Francis Granger for vice-president in the North and the border states, and Hugh Lawson White for president and John Tyler for vice-president in the middle and lower South. In Massachusetts, the ticket was Daniel Webster and Granger. In South Carolina, the ticket was Mangum for president and Tyler for vice-president.[3]
Anti-Masonic Party nomination
After the negative views of Freemasonry among a large segment of the public began to wane in the mid 1830s, the Anti-Masonic Party began to disintegrate. Some of its members began moving to the Whig Party, which had a broader issue base than the Anti-Masons. The Whigs were also regarded as a better alternative to the Democrats.
A state convention for the Anti-Masonic Party was held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from December 14–17, 1835, to choose Presidential Electors for the 1836 election. The convention unanimously nominated William Henry Harrison for President and Francis Granger for Vice President. The Vermont state Anti-Masonic convention followed suit on February 24, 1836. Anti-Masonic leaders were unable to obtain assurance from Harrison that he was not a Mason, so they called a national convention. The second national Anti-Masonic nominating convention was held in Philadelphia on May 4, 1836. The meeting was divisive, but a majority of the delegates officially stated that the party was not sponsoring a national ticket for the presidential election of 1836 and proposed a meeting in 1837 to discuss the future of the party.
General election
Campaign
In the aftermath of the Nat Turner slave rebellion and other events, slavery emerged as an increasingly prominent political issue. Calhoun attacked Van Buren, saying that he could not be trusted to protect Southern interests and accusing the sitting Vice President of affiliating with abolitionists.[3] Van Buren defeated Harrison by a margin of 51.4% to 48.6% in the North, and he defeated White by a similar margin of 50.7% to 49.3% in the South.
Disputes
A dispute similar to that of Indiana in 1817 and Missouri in 1821 arose during the counting of the electoral votes. Michigan only became a state on January 26, 1837, and had cast its electoral votes for president before that date. Anticipating a challenge to the results, Congress resolved on February 4, 1837, that during the counting four days later the final tally was read twice, once with Michigan and once without Michigan. The counting proceeded in accordance with the resolution. The dispute had no bearing on the final result: either way Van Buren was elected, and either way no candidate had a majority for vice-president.[4]
Results
The Whigs' strategy ultimately failed to prevent Van Buren's election as President, though he earned a somewhat lower share of the popular vote, and fewer electoral votes, than Andrew Jackson had in either of the previous two elections. The key state in this election was ultimately Pennsylvania, which Van Buren won from Harrison with a narrow majority of just 4,000 votes. Had Harrison been able to win the state, Van Buren would have been left eight votes short of an Electoral College majority, meaning that the Whig goal to force the election into the House of Representatives would have succeeded, and the House would have been forced to choose between Van Buren, Harrison, and White, as the three candidates with the most electoral votes. Given that the Democrats still held a majority in the House, however, Van Buren would likely still have been victorious.
Virginia's 23 electors were all pledged to Van Buren and his running mate, Richard Mentor Johnson. However, all 23 of them became faithless electors due to dissension related to his interracial relationship with a slave[5] and refused to vote for Johnson, instead casting their votes for former South Carolina senator William Smith. This left Johnson one electoral vote short of the 148-vote majority required to be elected. Thus, in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Senate decided between the top two vote recipients, and chose Johnson over Francis Granger.
This was the last election in which the Democrats won Connecticut, Rhode Island, and North Carolina until 1852. This was also the only election where South Carolina voted for the Whigs and the last time it voted against the Democrats until 1868.
Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote(a) | Electoral vote | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Count | Percentage | ||||
Martin Van Buren | Democratic | New York | 764,176 | 50.83% | 170 |
William Henry Harrison | Whig | Ohio | 550,816 | 36.63% | 73 |
Hugh Lawson White | Whig | Tennessee | 146,107 | 9.72% | 26 |
Daniel Webster | Whig | Massachusetts | 41,201 | 2.74% | 14 |
Willie Person Mangum | Whig | North Carolina | —(b) | — | 11 |
Other | 1,234 | 0.08% | 0 | ||
Total | 1,503,534 | 100.0% | 294 | ||
Needed to win | 148 |
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1836 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005. Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.
(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.
(b) Mangum received his electoral votes from South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote.
Vice Presidential candidate | Party | State | Electoral vote |
---|---|---|---|
Richard M. Johnson | Democratic | Kentucky | 147 |
Francis Granger | Whig | New York | 77 |
John Tyler | Whig | Virginia | 47 |
William Smith | Democratic | Alabama | 23 |
Total | 294 | ||
Needed to win | 148 |
Source: "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.
Geography of results
Cartographic gallery
- Map of presidential election results by county
- Map of Democratic presidential election results by county
- Map of Harrison Whig presidential election results by county
- Map of White Whig presidential election results by county
- Map of Webster Whig presidential election results by county
Results by state
Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836-1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247-57.
Martin Van Buren Democratic |
William H. Harrison Whig |
Hugh L. White Whig |
Daniel Webster Whig |
Willie Person Mangum Whig |
Margin | Total | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
State | electoral votes |
Votes cast | % | electoral votes |
Votes cast | % | electoral votes |
Votes cast | % | electoral votes |
Votes cast | % | electoral votes |
electoral votes |
# | % | # | |
Alabama | 7 | 20,638 | 55.34 | 7 | no ballots | 16,658 | 44.66 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 3,980 | 10.68 | 37,296 | AL | ||||
Arkansas | 3 | 2,380 | 64.08 | 3 | no ballots | 1,334 | 35.92 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 1,046 | 28.16 | 3,714 | AK | ||||
Connecticut | 8 | 19,294 | 50.65 | 8 | 18,799 | 49.35 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 495 | 1.30 | 38,093 | CT | ||||
Delaware | 3 | 4,154 | 46.70 | 0 | 4,736 | 53.24 | 3 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -582 | -6.54 | 8,895 | DE | ||||
Georgia | 11 | 22,778 | 48.20 | 0 | no ballots | 24,481 | 51.80 | 11 | no ballots | no ballots | -1,703 | -3.60 | 47,259 | GA | ||||
Illinois | 5 | 18,369 | 54.69 | 5 | 15,220 | 45.31 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 3,149 | 9.38 | 33,589 | IL | ||||
Indiana | 9 | 32,478 | 44.03 | 0 | 41,281 | 55.97 | 9 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -8,803 | -11.94 | 73,759 | IN | ||||
Kentucky | 15 | 33,229 | 47.41 | 0 | 36,861 | 52.59 | 15 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -3,632 | -5.18 | 70,090 | KY | ||||
Louisiana | 5 | 3,842 | 51.74 | 5 | no ballots | 3,583 | 48.26 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 259 | 3.48 | 7,425 | LA | ||||
Maine | 10 | 22,825 | 58.92 | 10 | 14,803 | 38.21 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 8,022 | 20.71 | 38,740 | ME | ||||
Maryland | 10 | 22,267 | 46.27 | 0 | 25,852 | 53.73 | 10 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -3,585 | -7.46 | 48,119 | MD | ||||
Massachusetts | 14 | 33,486 | 44.81 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 41,201 | 55.13 | 14 | no ballots | -7,715 | -10.32 | 74,687 | MA | ||||
Michigan | 3 | 7,122 | 56.22 | 3 | 5,545 | 43.78 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 1,577 | 12.44 | 12,667 | MI | ||||
Mississippi | 4 | 10,297 | 51.28 | 4 | no ballots | 9,782 | 48.72 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 515 | 2.56 | 20,079 | MS | ||||
Missouri | 4 | 10,995 | 59.98 | 4 | no ballots | 7,337 | 40.02 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 3,658 | 19.96 | 18,332 | MO | ||||
New Hampshire | 7 | 18,697 | 75.01 | 7 | 6,228 | 24.99 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 12,469 | 50.02 | 24,925 | NH | ||||
New Jersey | 8 | 25,592 | 49.47 | 0 | 26,137 | 50.53 | 8 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -545 | -1.06 | 51,729 | NJ | ||||
New York | 42 | 166,795 | 54.63 | 42 | 138,548 | 45.37 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 28,247 | 9.26 | 305,343 | NY | ||||
North Carolina | 15 | 26,631 | 53.10 | 15 | no ballots | 23,521 | 46.90 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 3,110 | 6.20 | 50,153 | NC | ||||
Ohio | 21 | 96,238 | 47.56 | 0 | 104,958 | 51.87 | 21 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -8,720 | -4.31 | 202,333 | OH | ||||
Pennsylvania | 30 | 91,457 | 51.18 | 30 | 87,235 | 48.82 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 4,222 | 2.36 | 178,692 | PA | ||||
Rhode Island | 4 | 2,964 | 52.24 | 4 | 2,710 | 47.76 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | 254 | 4.48 | 5,674 | RI | ||||
South Carolina | 11 | no popular vote | no popular vote | no popular vote | no popular vote | 11 | - | - | 0 | SC | ||||||||
Tennessee | 15 | 26,170 | 42.08 | 0 | no ballots | 36,027 | 57.92 | 15 | no ballots | no ballots | -9,857 | -15.84 | 62,197 | TN | ||||
Vermont | 7 | 14,037 | 40.07 | 0 | 20,994 | 59.93 | 7 | no ballots | no ballots | no ballots | -6,957 | -19.86 | 35,031 | VT | ||||
Virginia | 23 | 30,556 | 56.64 | 23 | no ballots | 23,384 | 43.35 | 0 | no ballots | no ballots | 7,172 | 13.29 | 53,940 | VA | ||||
TOTALS: | 294 | 763,291 | 50.79 | 170 | 549,907 | 36.59 | 73 | 146,107 | 9.72 | 26 | 41,201 | 2.74 | 14 | 11 | 213,384 | 14.20 | 1,502,811 | US |
TO WIN: | 148 |
Breakdown by ticket
Candidate | Total | Martin Van Buren Democratic |
William H. Harrison Whig |
Hugh L. White Whig |
Daniel Webster Whig |
Willie P. Mangum Whig |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Electoral Votes for President | 294 | 170 | 73 | 26 | 14 | 11 |
For Vice President, Richard Mentor Johnson | 147 | 147 | ||||
For Vice President, Francis Granger | 77 | 63 | 14 | |||
For Vice President, John Tyler | 47 | 10 | 26 | 11 | ||
For Vice President, William Smith | 23 | 23 |
1837 contingent election
Since no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the vice-presidential election was thrown into a contingent election in the U.S. Senate. Following the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate was required to choose between Richard Johnson and Francis Granger as the next vice president. On February 8, 1837, Johnson was elected easily on the first ballot by a vote of 33 to 16.[6]
Electoral college selection
Method of choosing electors | State(s) |
---|---|
Each Elector appointed by state legislature | South Carolina |
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide | (all other States) |
See also
References
- ↑ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on January 12, 2017.
- ↑ Cole, Donald B. (1984). Martin Van Buren and the American Political System. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 279. ISBN 0-691-04715-4. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press. pp. 106–107.
- ↑ United States Congress (1837). Senate Journal. 24th Congress, 2nd Session, February 4. pp. 203–204. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2006.
- ↑ Burke, Window To The Past
- ↑ "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875". memory.loc.gov. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018.
Bibliography
- "A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2005.
- "U.S. President - Whig Nominees 1836". OurCampaigns.com. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
- How close was the 1836 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Presidential Election of 1836: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
- Henry Robert Burke. "Window to the Past", Lest We Forget Communications. Retrieved on January 3, 2008.
External links
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