Presidential elections 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 ...

were held in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from October 30 to December 2, 1840. In the shadow of an incomplete economic recovery from the

Panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that began a major depression (economics), depression which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages dropped, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment rose, and pes ...

, Whig nominee

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...

defeated incumbent President

Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as Attorney General o ...

of the Democratic Party. The election marked the first of two Whig victories in presidential elections, but was the only one where they won a majority of the popular vote. This was also the third rematch in American history. In 1839, the Whigs held a national convention for the first time. The 1839 Whig National Convention saw 1836 nominee William Henry Harrison defeat former Secretary of State

Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seventh Spea ...

and General

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 to 1861, and was a veteran of the War of 1812, American Indian Wars, Mexica ...

. Van Buren faced little opposition at the 1840 Democratic National Convention, but controversial Vice President

Richard Mentor Johnson Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was an American lawyer, military officer and politician who served as the ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren. He is ...

was not renominated. The Democrats thus became the only major party since 1800 to fail to select a vice presidential nominee. Referencing vice presidential nominee

John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president of the United States, vice president in 1841. He was elected ...

and Harrison's participation in the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between United States Armed Forces, American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and tribal forces associated with Sh ...

, the Whigs campaigned on the slogan of " Tippecanoe and Tyler Too." With Van Buren weakened by economic woes, Harrison won a popular majority and 234 of 294 electoral votes. Voter participation surged as white male suffrage became nearly universal, and a contemporary record of 42.4% of the voting age population voted for Harrison.Between 1828–1928: Van Buren's loss made him the third president to lose re-election. The Whigs did not enjoy the benefits of victory. The 67-year-old Harrison, the oldest U.S. president elected until

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

won the 1980 election, died a little more than a month after inauguration. Harrison was succeeded by John Tyler, who unexpectedly proved not to be a Whig. While Tyler had been a staunch supporter of Clay at the convention, he was a former Democrat, a passionate supporter of states' rights, and effectively an independent. As President, Tyler blocked the Whigs' legislative agenda and was expelled from the Whig Party, subsequently the second independent (after Washington) to serve as president. Van Buren would be the last incumbent president to lose his reelection bid in a general election until fellow Democrat

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

in 1888. This was also the last time a challenger to an incumbent President got a majority of the vote until

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

. This was also the last time as of 2024 where the incumbent president seeking re-election flipped a state yet failed to secure re-election, with Van Buren winning South Carolina, despite losing it four years earlier, and losing re-election to Harrison.

Nominations

Whig Party nomination

The first national convention of the Whig Party was called for by members of the party in Congress and it was attended by almost 250 delegates in

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

, William Henry Harrison, and

ran for the party's presidential nomination. The delegations of each state balloted separately before meeting together with the other representatives of the states. Clay initially led on the first ballot, but Harrison won on the final ballot with 148 votes compared to Clay's 90 votes and Scott's 16 votes after supporters from Scott switched to Harrison.

was selected as a factional and geographical balance to Harrison.

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic members of the

New Hampshire General Court The General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The lower house is the New Hampshire House of Representatives with 400 members, and the upper house is the New Hampshire Senate with 24 me ...

made a call for the 1840 Democratic National Convention which was held in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

in May 1840. Delegates from twenty-two states attended the convention, but the sizes of the delegations varied with New Jersey having fifty-nine delegates to cast its eight votes while Massachusetts only had one delegate to cast its fourteen votes. A committee was formed to make recommendations for the nominations and the committee supported Van Buren for renomination which was approved by acclamation. However, the vice-presidential nomination was left vacant due to opposition to Vice President

Richard M. Johnson Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was an American lawyer, military officer and politician who served as the ninth vice president of the United States from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren. He is ...

's personal life.

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 The Anti-Masonic Party was the earliest Third party (United States), third party in the United States. Formally a Single-issue politics, single-issue party, it strongly opposed Freemasonry in the United States. It was active from the late 1820s, ...

disintegrated. Many leaders began to move to the Whig party. Remaining leaders met in September 1837 in Washington, and agreed to maintain the party. The third Anti-Masonic Party National Convention was held in Philadelphia on November 13–14, 1838. By this time, the party had been almost entirely supplanted by the Whigs. The delegates unanimously voted to nominate William Henry Harrison for president (who the party had supported for president the previous election along with Francis Granger for vice president) 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 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State, U.S. secretary o ...

for vice president. However, when the Whig National Convention nominated Harrison with John Tyler as his running mate, the Anti-Masonic Party did not make an alternate nomination and ceased to function and was fully absorbed into the Whigs by 1840.

Liberty Party nomination

James G. Birney, Myron Holley, Joshua Leavitt, and

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

proposed the creation of an anti-slavery party. In July 1839, two resolutions proposed by Holley at the

American Anti-Slavery Society The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) was an Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist society in the United States. AASS formed in 1833 in response to the nullification crisis and the failures of existing anti-slavery organizations, ...

's meeting in Cleveland, called for the creation of an abolitionist party. They failed. Nevertheless, the supporters nominated Birney and Francis Julius LeMoyne as a presidential ticket at a meeting in

Warsaw, New York Warsaw is a town in Wyoming County, in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 5,316 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately 37 miles east southeast of Buffalo and approximately 37 miles southwest of Rochester. The town ma ...

. However, Birney declined the presidential nomination as he preferred a nomination to be made by a regular body of abolitionists and LeyMoyne also declined the vice-presidential nomination. Smith and Holley made a call for an abolitionist nominating convention to be held on April 1, 1840, in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

. 121 delegates attended the delegation and selected a presidential ticket of Birney and Thomas Earle. which was accepted. It took the name Liberty Party. Birney was unable to campaign during the election as he was in England until November. The Liberty Party received opposition from followers of

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

and abolitionist Whigs. The Liberty Party received 7,453 votes.

General election

Campaign

In the wake of the

, Van Buren was widely unpopular, and Harrison, following

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...

's strategy, ran as a war hero and man of the people while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy snob living in luxury at the public expense. Although Harrison was comfortably wealthy and well educated, his "

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

" image caught fire, sweeping all sections of the country. Harrison avoided campaigning on the issues, with his Whig Party attracting a broad coalition with few common ideals. The Whig strategy overall was to win the election by avoiding discussion of difficult national issues such as slavery or the national bank and concentrate instead on exploiting dissatisfaction over the failed policies of the Van Buren administration with colorful campaigning techniques.

Log cabin campaign of William Henry Harrison

Harrison was the first president to campaign actively for office. He did so with the slogan " Tippecanoe and Tyler too". Tippecanoe referred to Harrison's military victory over a group of

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

Native Americans at a river in Indiana called Tippecanoe in 1811. For their part, Democrats laughed at Harrison for being too old for the presidency, and referred to him as "Granny", hinting that he was senile. Said one Democratic newspaper: "Give him a barrel of hard cider, and ... a pension of two thousand ollarsa year ... and ... he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin." PresidentialCounty1840ExtentColorbrewer

Whigs took advantage of this quip and declared that Harrison was "the log cabin and hard cider candidate", a man of the common people from the rough-and-tumble West. They depicted Harrison's opponent, President

, as a wealthy snob who was out of touch with the people. In fact, it was Harrison who came from a family of wealthy planters, while Van Buren's father was a tavernkeeper. Harrison however moved to the frontier and for years lived in a log cabin, while Van Buren had been a well-paid government official. Nonetheless, the election was held in the wake of the Panic of 1837, one of the worst economic depressions in the nation's history, and voters blamed Van Buren, seeing him as unsympathetic to struggling citizens. Harrison campaigned vigorously and won.

Results

31.9% of the voting age population and 80.3% of eligible voters participated in the election. This was the first time that a majority of southern voters participated in the election. (A majority in the north had first participated in an election in 1828.) Harrison won the support of western settlers and eastern bankers alike. Of the 1,179 counties/independent cities making returns, Harrison won in 699 (59.29%) while Van Buren carried 477 (40.46%). Three counties (0.25%) in the South split evenly between Harrison and Van Buren. The extent of Van Buren's unpopularity was evident in Harrison's victories in New York, the president's home state, and in Tennessee, where Andrew Jackson himself had come out of retirement to stump for his former vice-president. This was the first time a Democratic president lost re-election, as well as the first of only two times (the other being 1980) that a Democratic president lost re-election and lost the popular vote. This was also the first election in U.S. history in which a candidate won more than a million popular votes. This was the last election where Indiana voted for the Whigs. It was also the only election where the Whigs won Maine, Michigan, and Mississippi. The election was also the last time that a majority of voters in Mississippi voted against the Democrats until 1872, the last in which a majority of voters in Indiana voted against Democrats until 1860, and the last in which a majority of voters in Maine and Michigan voted against Democrats until 1856. This is the only election in American history in which a majority of voters in Alabama and a majority of voters in Mississippi voted for different candidates. The 1840 presidential election was the only time in which four people who either had been or would become a U.S. President (Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, and Polk) received at least one vote in the Electoral College when it voted for president and vice-president. Harrison's victory won him precious little time as chief executive of the United States. After giving the longest inauguration speech in U.S. history (lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes, in cold weather and rain), Harrison served only one month as president before dying of pneumonia on April 4, 1841. Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote): ^(a) ''The popular vote figures exclude

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

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

Geography of results

Cartographic gallery

PresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Map of presidential election results by county WhigPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Whig presidential election results by county DemocraticPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Democratic presidential election results by county LibertyPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Map of Liberty presidential election results by county OtherPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Map of "Other" presidential election results by county CartogramPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.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 Proportionality (math ...

of presidential election results by county CartogramWhigPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Whig presidential election results by county CartogramDemocraticPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county CartogramLibertyPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of Liberty presidential election results by county CartogramOtherPresidentialCounty1840Colorbrewer.gif, Cartogram of "Other" presidential election results by county

Results by state

Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, ''Presidential ballots, 1836–1892'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–257.

States that flipped from Democratic to Whig

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

States that flipped from Whig to Democratic

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 1%: #Pennsylvania 0.12% (334 votes) #Maine 0.46% (422 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 5%: #Virginia 1.3% (1,120 votes) #Illinois 2.01% (1,867 votes) #New York 3.0% (13,268 votes) #New Jersey 3.59% (2,317 votes) (tipping point state) #Michigan 4.14% (1,837 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 10%: #Mississippi 6.86% (2,505 votes) #Maryland 7.66% (4,776 votes) #Ohio 8.53% (23,375 votes) #Alabama 8.76% (5,481 votes)

Method of Electoral college selection

Campaign songs/slogans

Harrison

" Tippecanoe and Tyler too"

Van Buren

Election paraphernalia and history

Image:TippecanoeClubRibbonWilliamHenryHarrisonPrezCampaign1840.jpg, Harrison "Tippecanoe Club" ribbon Image:WilliamHenryHarrisonCampaignRallySilkRibbon09101840.jpg, Ribbon for Harrison political rally Image:1840 HarrisonConvention DanversMA engr byGGSmith DanversPublicLibrary.png, Ribbon for Danvers, Mass. delegation to Harrison Rally, Bunker Hill, 1840; engraved by George Girdler Smith Image:DelegateRibbonMassachusettsNatlDemConvention1840.jpg, Delegate badge, Democratic convention Image:1840 Boston Harrison Club.png, Cover of Boston Harrison Club's ''Harrison Melodies,'' 1840 In the 1997 film '' Amistad'', Van Buren (played by

Nigel Hawthorne Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom ''Yes Minister'' and the Cabinet Secre ...

) is seen campaigning for re-election. These scenes have been criticized for their historical inaccuracy. Foner, Eric (March 1998)
"The Amistad Case in Fact and Film"

Notes

References

Works cited

* *

External links

from the Library of Congress
"The Campaign of 1840: William Henry Harrison and Tyler, Too"
high school level lesson plans and documents

Election of 1840 in Counting the Votes
{{Authority control Presidency of William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison Martin Van Buren John Tyler Richard Mentor Johnson