1808 United States presidential election

The 1808 United States presidential election was the sixth quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 4, to Wednesday, December 7, 1808. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively. Madison's victory made him the first individual to succeed a president of the same party.

For related races, see 1808 United States elections.

1808 United States presidential election
November 4 – December 7, 1808
175 members of the Electoral College
88 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout36.8%[1] 13.0 pp
 
Nominee James Madison Charles C. Pinckney
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Home state Virginia South Carolina
Running mate George Clinton Rufus King
Electoral vote 122 47
States carried 12 5
Popular vote 124,732 62,431
Percentage 64.7% 32.4%
1808 United States presidential election in Connecticut1808 United States presidential election in New York1808 United States presidential election in Vermont1808 United States presidential election in New Jersey1808 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania1808 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Madison, burnt orange denotes states won by Pinckney, and light green denotes states won by Clinton. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state.
President before election

Thomas Jefferson
Democratic-Republican

 Elected President

James Madison
Democratic-Republican

Madison had served as Secretary of State since President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who had declined to run for a third term, threw his strong support behind Madison, a fellow Virginian. Sitting Vice President George Clinton and former Ambassador James Monroe both challenged Madison for leadership of the party, but Madison won his party's nomination and Clinton was re-nominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's 1804 nominee.

Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807, Madison won the vast majority of electoral votes outside of the Federalist stronghold of New England. Clinton received six electoral votes for president from his home state of New York. This election was the first of two instances in American history in which a new president was selected but the incumbent vice president won re-election, the other being in 1828.

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination
Democratic-Republican Party
Democratic-Republican Party Ticket, 1808
James Madison George Clinton
for President for Vice President
5th
U.S. Secretary of State
(1801–1809)		 4th
Vice President of the United States
(1805–1812)
Campaign

Presidential candidates

Vice-presidential candidates

Caucus

Nominations for the 1808 presidential election were made by congressional caucuses. With Thomas Jefferson ready to retire, supporters of Secretary of State James Madison of Virginia worked carefully to ensure that Madison would succeed Jefferson. Madison's primary competition came from former diplomat James Monroe of Virginia and Vice President George Clinton. Monroe was supported by a group known as the tertium quids, who supported a weak central government and were dissatisfied by the Louisiana Purchase and the Compact of 1802. Clinton's support came from Northern Democratic-Republicans who disapproved of the Embargo Act (which they saw as potentially leading towards war with Great Britain) and who sought to end the Virginia Dynasty. The Congressional caucus met in January 1808, choosing Madison as its candidate for president and Clinton as its candidate for vice president.[2]

Many supporters of Monroe and Clinton refused to accept the result of the caucus. Monroe was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans, and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race.[3] Clinton was also supported by a group of New York Democratic-Republicans for president even as he remained the party's official vice presidential candidate.[4]

Balloting
Presidential Ballot Total Vice Presidential Ballot Total
James Madison 83 George Clinton 79
James Monroe 3 John Langdon 5
George Clinton 3 Henry Dearborn 3
John Quincy Adams 1

Federalist Party nomination
Federalist Party
Federalist Party Ticket, 1808
Charles C. Pinckney Rufus King
for President for Vice President
Former U.S. Minister
to France
(1796–1797)		 Former U.S. Minister
to Great Britain
(1796–1803)
Campaign

The Federalist caucus met in September 1808 and re-nominated the party's 1804 ticket, which consisted of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina and former Senator Rufus King of New York.[5]

General election

Campaign

The election was marked by opposition to Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurt New England merchants and was perceived as favoring France over Britain. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Americans generally and Pinckney was soundly defeated by Madison, though not as badly as in 1804. Pinckney received few electoral votes outside of New England.

Results

Pinckney retained the electoral votes of the two states that he carried in 1804 (Connecticut and Delaware), and he also picked up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and three electoral districts in North Carolina besides the two electoral districts in Maryland that he carried earlier. Except for the North Carolina districts, all of the improvement was in New England.

Monroe won a portion of the popular vote in Virginia and North Carolina,[3] while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.[4]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote(a), (b) Electoral
vote(c)		 Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote(c)
James Madison Democratic-Republican Virginia 124,732 64.7% 122 George Clinton (incumbent) New York 113
John Langdon New Hampshire 9
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Federalist South Carolina 62,431 32.4% 47 Rufus King New York 47
George Clinton Democratic-Republican New York — — 6 James Madison Virginia 3
James Monroe Virginia 3
James Monroe Democratic-Republican Virginia 4,848 2.5% 0 None N/A 0
Unpledged electors None N/A 680 0.4% 0 N/A N/A 0
Total 192,691 100% 175 175
Needed to win 88 88

Source (Popular Vote): U.S. President National Vote. Our Campaigns. (February 10, 2006).
Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825[6]
 Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

(a) Only 10 of the 17 states chose electors by popular vote.
(b) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
(c) One Elector from Kentucky did not vote.

Popular vote
Madison
 
 64.7%
Pinckney
 
 27.2%
Electoral vote—President
Madison
 
 69.3%
Pinckney
 
 26.7%
Clinton
 
 3.4%
Electoral vote—Vice President
Clinton
 
 64.2%
King
 
 26.7%
Langdon
 
 5.1%
Madison
 
 1.7%
Madison
 
 1.7%
Unpledged electors
 
 0.6%

Electoral college selection
Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Madison (Democratic-Republican), shades of yellow are for Pinckney (Federalist), and shades of green are for Monroe (Democratic-Republican).
Method of choosing electors State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature Connecticut
Delaware
Georgia
Massachusetts
New York
South Carolina
Vermont
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide New Hampshire
New Jersey
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Virginia
State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district Kentucky
Maryland
North Carolina
Tennessee

See also

References
  1. "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016.
  2. Sabato, Larry; Ernst, Howard (January 1, 2009). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. pp. 302–304.
  3. Ammon, Harry (1963). "James Monroe and the Election of 1808 in Virginia". The William and Mary Quarterly. 20 (1): 33–56. JSTOR 1921354.
  4. Kaminski, John P. (1993). George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 281–288. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  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. 49–50.
  6. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on May 13, 2018.

Further reading
  • Brant, Irving, "Election of 1808" in Arthur Meier Schlesinger and Fred L. Israel, eds. History of American presidential elections, 1789-1968: Volume 1 (1971) pp 185-249
  • Carson, David A. "Quiddism and the Reluctant Candidacy of James Monroe in the Election of 1808," Mid-America 1988 70(2): 79–89
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