The 1848 United States presidential election was the 16th quadrennial

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1848. In the aftermath of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

, General

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

of the Whig Party defeated Senator Lewis Cass of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. Despite Taylor's unclear political affiliations and beliefs, and the Whig opposition to the Mexican–American War, the

1848 Whig National Convention The 1848 Whig National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held from June 7 to 9 in Philadelphia. It nominated the Whig Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1848 election. The convention selected General Za ...

nominated the popular general over party stalwarts such as Henry Clay and

Daniel Webster Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the U.S. Congress and served as the U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison ...

. For vice president, the Whigs nominated

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

, a New York Whig known for his moderate views on

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. Incumbent President

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

, a Democrat, honored his promise not to seek re-election, leaving his party's nomination open. The

1848 Democratic National Convention The 1848 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that met from Monday May 22 to Thursday May 25 in Baltimore, Maryland. It was held to nominate the Democratic Party's candidates for President and Vice president i ...

nominated Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan after former President

Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...

withdrew his bid for a second term over a platform dispute. Van Buren broke from his party to lead the ticket of the

Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery int ...

, which opposed the extension of slavery into the

territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. The Whig choice of Zachary Taylor was made almost out of desperation; he was not clearly committed to Whig principles, but he was popular for leading the war effort. The Democrats had a record of prosperity and had acquired the Mexican cession and parts of Oregon country. It appeared almost certain that they would win unless the Whigs picked Taylor. Taylor won a plurality of the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote, while Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote, a strong showing for a

third party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a V ...

candidate. Taylor's victory made him the second of two Whigs to win a presidential election, following

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...

's victory in the 1840 presidential election. Like Harrison, Taylor died during his term, and he was succeeded by Fillmore.

Nominations

Whig Party nomination

The Whig Party held its

national convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...

in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with delegates from every state except for Texas although the Texas Whigs had selected to make the Louisiana delegates their proxies. Henry Clay,

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...

, and

sought the presidential nomination and Taylor led on every ballot before winning on the fourth ballot. After Webster turned down the vice presidential candidacy,

received the party's vice-presidential nomination on the second ballot after defeating

Abbott Lawrence Abbott Lawrence (December 16, 1792, Groton, Massachusetts – August 18, 1855) was a prominent American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was among the group of industrialists that founded a settlement on the Merrimack River that ...

, a Massachusetts politician whose mild opposition to slavery led him to be dubbed a "Cotton Whig". An attempt was made to make both nominations unanimous, but it was unsuccessful due to Taylor's support for the Whig Party being seen as dubious.

Democratic Party nomination

The Democratic Party held its

in Baltimore, Maryland. There was a credentials dispute over the New York delegation between the

Barnburners and Hunkers The Barnburners and Hunkers were the names of two opposing factions of the New York Democratic Party in the mid-19th century. The main issue dividing the two factions was that of slavery, with the Barnburners being the anti-slavery faction. Whi ...

factions with the Barnburners being anti-slavery. The delegates voted 126 to 125 to seat both delegations and share their control of New York's votes, but the Barnburners left the convention in disagreement with the compromise while the Hunkers refused to vote. As a result of Van Buren's withdrawal, U.S. Senator Lewis Cass and Secretary of State James Buchanan were seen as the only serious contenders for the presidential nomination, with a draft effort also focusing on Supreme Court associate justice

Levi Woodbury Levi Woodbury (December 22, 1789September 4, 1851) was an American attorney, jurist, and Democratic politician from New Hampshire. During a four-decade career in public office, Woodbury served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the U ...

. In stark contrast to the highly contested and protracted convention at the previous election, Cass held a wide lead on all four ballots, only being denied victory on the third due to the convention rules requiring a two-thirds majority, before the Buchanan and Woodbury campaigns quietly released enough delegates to allow Cass victory on the fourth ballot.

William Orlando Butler William Orlando Butler (April 19, 1791 – August 6, 1880) was a U.S. political figure and U.S. Army major general from Kentucky. He served as a Democratic congressman from Kentucky from 1839 to 1843, and was the Democratic vice-presidentia ...

won the vice-presidential nomination on the second ballot against John A. Quitman.

Free Soil Party nomination

Members of the Whig Party who opposed slavery, New York Barnburners, and member of the Liberty Party met in August 1848 in Buffalo, New York, to found a new political party. The Barnburners made a call for the formation of an anti-slavery party at their conclave in June, and by the People's Convention of Friends of Free Territory, which was organized by

Salmon P. Chase Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...

, in Columbus, Ohio. The convention was attended by 165 delegates from eight states to form the

. Van Buren won the party's presidential nomination against John P. Hale on the first ballot with 244 votes against Hale's 181 votes. Hale had been nominated by the Liberty Party in October 1847, but withdrew from the election after the Free Soil Party gave its presidential nomination to Van Buren. Charles Francis Adams Sr. won the party's vice-presidential nomination. Van Buren knew that the Free Soilers had not the slightest chance of winning, rather that his candidacy would split the Democratic vote and throw the election to the Whigs. Bitter and aging, Van Buren did not care despite the fact that his life had been built upon the rock of party solidarity and party regularity. He loathed Lewis Cass and the principle of

popular sovereignty Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political power. Popular sovereignty, being a principle, does not imply any ...

with equal intensity.

Liberty Party nomination

Despite their significant showing in the prior presidential election, certain events would conspire to remove the Liberty Party from political significance. Initially, the party's presidential nomination was to be decided in the fall of 1847 at a Convention in Buffalo, New York. There, Senator John P. Hale was nominated for president over

Gerrit Smith Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), also spelled Gerritt Smith, was a leading American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidat ...

, brother-in-law to the party's previous presidential nominee James G. Birney. Leicester King, a former judge and state senator in Ohio, was nominated for vice president. Anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs, disappointed with their respective nominees, would form a new movement in conjunction with members of the Liberty Party such as John Hale and Salmon Chase to form the Free Soil Party that summer. At this point, both Hale and King withdrew in favor of a Free Soil ticket led by former President Martin Van Buren, and the great majority of members of the Liberty Party followed them into the new political party. A small faction refused to support Van Buren for the presidency, however. They held another convention in June 1848 as the ''"National Liberty Party."'' Gerrit Smith was nominated for president almost unanimously with Charles Foote, a religious minister from Michigan, as his vice presidential running mate.

Other nominations

The Native American Party, a precursor to the Know Nothings, which had split from the Whig Party in 1845, met in September 1847 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, where they nominated

for president and Henry A. S. Dearborn of Massachusetts for vice president. However, when the Whig Party nominated Taylor for the presidency with Millard Fillmore as his running mate the following year, this rendered his previous nomination moot and the Native American Party failed to make an alternate nomination. The Industrial Congress held in Philadelphia on June 13, 1848, nominating

, nominee of the Liberty Party, as their Presidential candidate, and William S. Wait of Illinois for Vice President. This meeting, inspired by the National Reform Association, was primarily focused on workers rights. It established a platform that included planks on land limitation, the reduction of public official's salaries, abolition of the standing army, tariff reduction, and a reduced work week.

General election

Campaign

The campaign was fought without much enthusiasm, and practically without an issue. Neither of the two great parties made an effort to rally the people to the defense of any important principle. Whig campaigners, who included

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

and

Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governo ...

, talked up Taylor's "antiparty" opposition to the Jacksonian commitment to the

spoils system In politics and government, a spoils system (also known as a patronage system) is a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives government jobs to its supporters, friends (cronyism), and relatives (nepotism) as a reward ...

and yellow-dog partisanship. In the South, they stressed that he was a Louisiana slaveholder, while in the North they highlighted his Whiggish willingness to defer to Congress on major issues (which he subsequently did not do). Democrats repeated, as they had for many years, their opposition to a national bank, high tariffs, and federal subsidies for local improvements. The Free Soilers branded both major parties lackeys of the Slave Power, arguing that the rich planters controlled the agenda of both parties, leaving the ordinary white man out of the picture. They had to work around Van Buren's well-known reputation for compromising with slavery. The Whigs had the advantage of highlighting Taylor's military glories. With Taylor remaining vague on the issues, the campaign was dominated by personalities and personal attacks, with the Democrats calling Taylor vulgar, uneducated, cruel and greedy, and the Whigs attacking Cass for graft and dishonesty. The division of the Democrats over slavery allowed Taylor to dominate the Northeast. The Free Soilers were on the ballots in only 17 of the 29 states with the popular vote, making it mathematically possible for Van Buren to win the presidency, but he had no real chance. Still, the party campaigned vigorously, particularly in the traditional Democratic strongholds in the northeast. While some Free Soilers were hopeful of taking enough states to throw the election into the House of Representatives, Van Buren himself knew this was a long shot and that the best that his party could do was lay the groundwork for a hopefully improved showing in 1852.

1848 campaign artwork

Records

This was the first election where the two leading candidates each carried half of the states. As of 2022, it has subsequently happened twice, in

1880 Events January–March * January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. * January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. * February � ...

and again in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. This was the first time in the

Second Party System Historians and political scientists use Second Party System to periodize the political party system operating in the United States from about 1828 to 1852, after the First Party System ended. The system was characterized by rapidly rising levels ...

in which the victorious party failed to gain at least a plurality of the counties as well as of the popular vote. This was the last election in which Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island voted for the Whigs. It was also the last time that Georgia voted against the Democrats until 1964, the last time Delaware and Louisiana did so until 1872, and the last time Florida and North Carolina did so until 1868. Discounting

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

Abraham Lincoln's 1864 re-election on the National Union ticket, Taylor is the most recent individual who was not a member of the Democratic or Republican parties to win a presidential election. The contest was the first presidential election that took place on the same day in every state, and it was the first time that Election Day was statutorily a Tuesday. It is also the first election in which the two candidates that received electoral votes carried the same number of states and the only time that it happened between Democrat and Whig candidates. This would only happen again twice, in

and

Results

With Taylor as their candidate, the Whigs won their second and last victory in a Presidential election. Taylor won the electoral college by capturing 163 of the 290 electoral votes. Taylor out-polled Cass in the popular vote by 138,000 votes, winning 47% of the popular vote, and was elected president. A shift of less than 6000 votes to Cass in Georgia and Maryland would have left the electoral college in a 145–145 tie, while a shift of less than 27,000 votes to Van Buren in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts would have left both Taylor and Cass short of the 146 electoral votes required to win, forcing a contingent election in the House of Representatives. A study of the county returns reveals that Free Soil strength drawn at the expense of the major parties differed by region. In the

East North Central States The East North Central states form one of the nine geographic subdivisions within the United States which are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau. These states border the Great Lakes. The division contains five states: Illi ...

, it appears at least the majority of the Free Soil strength was drawn from the Whig Party. Conversely, in the Middle Atlantic region, Free Soil bases of strength lay in the areas which had hitherto been Democratic, particularly in New York and

northern Pennsylvania The Northern Tier is a geographic region consisting of five rural counties in north-central Pennsylvania. Geography The region is bordered to the north by the Southern Tier of New York state. Together, these regions are known as the Twin Tiers ...

. The Free Soil Democrats nomination of Van Buren made the victory of Taylor nearly certain in New York. On election day, enough Democratic votes were drawn away by Van Buren to give the Whig ticket all but two Democratic counties, thus enabling it to carry hitherto impregnable parts of upper New York state. The Democrats, confronted with an irreparable schism in New York, lost the election. In

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

, the Democratic vote declined by 33,000 from its 1844 level, while the Whig vote likewise declined by 15,000 votes. The third-party vote tripled, and the total vote remained nearly stationary: a partial indication, perhaps, of the derivation of the Free Soil strength in this section. For the first time since the existence of the Whig Party, the Whigs failed to gain an absolute majority of the vote in Massachusetts and Vermont. In addition, the Democrats failed to retain their usual majority in Maine; thus only New Hampshire (Democratic) and Rhode Island (Whig) of the states in this section gave their respective victorious parties clear-cut majorities. Of the 1,464 counties/independent cities making returns, Cass placed first in 753 (51.43%), Taylor in 676 (46.17%), and Van Buren in 31 (2.12%). Four counties (0.27%) in the West split evenly between Taylor and Cass. The election has sometimes been described as "a contest without an issue," as both major candidates sought to steer clear of divisive subjects. The historian George Pierce Garrison famously quipped that "practically the only thing it decided was that a Whig general should be made President because he had done effective work in carrying on a Democratic war." Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote): ^(a) ''The popular vote figures exclude

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.''

Geography of results

Cartographic gallery

PresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of presidential election results by county WhigPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Whig presidential election results by county DemocraticPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Democratic presidential election results by county FreeSoilPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Free Soil presidential election results by county LibertyPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Liberty presidential election results by county OtherPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Map of "Other" presidential election results by county CartogramPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif,

Cartogram A cartogram (also called a value-area map or an anamorphic map, the latter common among German-speakers) is a thematic map of a set of features (countries, provinces, etc.), in which their geographic size is altered to be directly proportiona ...

of presidential election results by county CartogramWhigPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Whig presidential election results by county CartogramDemocraticPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county CartogramFreeSoilPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Free Soil presidential election results by county CartogramLibertyPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Liberty presidential election results by county CartogramOtherPresidentialCounty1848Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of "Other" presidential election results by county

Results by state

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%: #Alabama 1.12% (691 votes) #Mississippi 1.20% (634 votes) #Virginia 1.60% (1,474 votes) #Illinois 2.49% (3,099 votes) #Georgia 2.98% (2,747 votes) #Indiana 3.16% (4,838 votes) #Wisconsin 3.20% (1,254 votes) #''Pennsylvania 3.62% (13,337 votes) (tipping point state)'' #New Jersey 4.01% (3,114 votes) #Delaware 4.26% (530 votes) #Maryland 4.38% (3,174 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 10%: #Ohio 5.00% (16,414 votes) #Tennessee 5.04% (6,179 votes) #Connecticut 5.24% (3,267 votes) #Maine 5.62% (4,922 votes) #Iowa 5.87% (1,308 votes) #Louisiana 9.18% (3,108 votes)

Electoral college selection

* ''

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law provided that the state legislature would choose the Electors if no slate of Electors could command a majority of voters statewide. In 1848, this provision was triggered, although the legislature ultimately chose the electors of the plurality vote winner, Taylor.''

References

Bibliography

* Blue, Frederick J. ''The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848–54'' (1973). * Boritt, G. S. "Lincoln's Opposition to the Mexican War," ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'' Vol. 67, No. 1, Abraham Lincoln Issue (Feb. 1974), pp. 79–10
online
* Campbell, Randolph. "The Whig Party of Texas in the Elections of 1848 and 1852." ''Southwestern Historical Quarterly'' 73.1 (1969): 17-34
online
* Earle, Jonathan H. ''Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1828–1854'' (2004). * Eyal, Yonatan. "The 'Party Period' Framework and the Election of 1848", ''Reviews in American History'' Volume 38, Number 1, March 2010, in

Project MUSE Project MUSE, a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. Project MUSE contains digital humanities and social science content from over 250 univers ...

* Graebner, Norman A. "Thomas Corwin and the Election of 1848: A Study in Conservative Politics." ''Journal of Southern History'', 17 (1951), 162–79
in JSTOR
* Hamilton, Holman. ''Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House'' (1951) * Holt; Michael F. ''The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War.'' (1999)
online edition
* Mieczkowski, Yanek. "The Election of 1848." in ''The Routledge Historical Atlas of Presidential Elections'' (Routledge, 2013) pp. 45-46. * Morrison, Michael A. "New Territory versus No Territory": The Whig Party and the Politics of Western Expansion, 1846–1848," ''Western Historical Quarterly,'' Vol. 23, No. 1 (Feb. 1992), pp. 25–5
in JSTOR
* Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union: Volume I. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847–1852'' (1947). * Quist, John W. "The Election of 1848." in ''American Presidential Campaigns and Elections'' (Routledge, 2020) pp. 328-348. * Rayback, Joseph G. ''Free Soil: The Election of 1848''. (1970). * Silbey, Joel H. ''Party Over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848'' (2009). 205 pp.

Primary sources

* Chester, Edward W ''A guide to political platforms'' (1977
online
* Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. ''National party platforms, 1840-1964'' (1965
online 1840-1956
* Serio, Anne Marie. ''Political cartoons in the 1848 election campaign'' (1972
online

External links

from the Library of Congress

Election of 1848 in Counting the Votes
{{Authority control Martin Van Buren Millard Fillmore Zachary Taylor Presidency of Zachary Taylor November 1848 events