United States presidential election, 1812

United States presidential election, 1812

1808 ← 1812 → 1816

Nominee James Madison DeWitt Clinton Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Home state Virginia New York Running mate Elbridge Gerry Jared Ingersoll Electoral vote 128 89 States carried 11 7 Popular vote 140,431 132,781 Percentage 50.4% 47.6%

Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Madison, orange denotes states won by Clinton. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election James Madison Democratic-Republican Elected President James Madison Democratic-Republican

The United States presidential election of 1812 took place in the shadow of the War of 1812. It featured an intriguing competition between incumbent Democratic-Republican President James Madison and a dissident Democratic-Republican, DeWitt Clinton, nephew of Madison's late Vice President. The Federalist opposition threw their support behind Clinton. Nonetheless, Madison was re-elected with 50.4 percent of the popular vote, making the 1812 election the closest up to that point in history.

Background

Residual military conflict resulting from the Napoleonic Wars in Europe had been steadily worsening throughout James Madison's first term, with the British and the French both ignoring the neutrality rights of the United States at sea and seizing American ships. The British provided additional provocations by impressing American seamen, maintaining forts within United States territory in the Northwest, and supporting American Indians at war with the United States in both the Northwest and Southwest.

Meanwhile, expansionists in the south and west of the United States coveted British Canada and Spanish Florida and wanted to use British provocations as a pretext to seize both areas. The pressure steadily built, and the United States declared war on the United Kingdom on June 12, 1812. This occurred after Madison had been nominated by the Democratic-Republicans, but before the Federalists had made their nomination.

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination

Democratic-Republican candidates

• James Madison (Virginia), President of the United States

Candidates gallery

• 

  James Madison
  (Virginia)

On May 18, a Democratic-Republican Congressional nominating caucus nominated President James Madison of Virginia. Seeking a New Englander for a running mate, the caucus initially chose New Hampshire governor John Langdon to balance the ticket, but after Langdon declined due to his age, a second caucus nominated Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts for the Vice Presidency, which had been vacant since George Clinton's death a month earlier.

First Caucus Balloting

Presidential Ballot		Vice Presidential Ballot
James Madison	81	John Langdon	64
Abstaining	1	Elbridge Gerry	16
		Scattering	2

Second Caucus Balloting

Vice Presidential Ballot
Elbridge Gerry	74
Scattering	3

Dissident Democratic-Republican nomination

Dissident Democratic-Republican candidate:

• DeWitt Clinton (New York), Lieutenant Governor of New York, Mayor of New York City, former United States Senator from New York

Candidates gallery

• 

  DeWitt Clinton
  (New York)

On May 29, a caucus of dissident Democratic-Republicans in the New York legislature nominated DeWitt Clinton, the nephew of the late Vice President, who had served as Senator and now was Mayor of New York City and Lieutenant Governor of New York, for president. Clinton's campaign tailored their pamphlets and speeches by region. In the Northeast, Clinton was portrayed as the anti-war candidate. Meanwhile, in the South and West, where there were few people opposed to the war, Clinton ran on the basis of a more vigorous prosecution of the war.

In September, after fierce debate, a Federalist nominating caucus in New York City decided to support Clinton as their best chance to defeat the Democratic-Republicans since the election of 1800. The caucus then picked former United States Attorney Jared Ingersoll of Pennsylvania as his running mate.

General election

Campaign

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Madison (Democratic-Republican) and shades of yellow are for Clinton (Federalist).

Clinton continued his regional campaigning, anti-war in a Northeast most harmed by the war, and pro-war in the South and West. Although the Federalists made gains in Congress and although Clinton did better than any Federalist candidate since Adams, taking New York and New Jersey, Madison still won the Presidency by a comfortable margin. Madison, along with Woodrow Wilson, are the only US Presidents to win re-election with a lower percentage of the electoral vote than in their first election (Madison won 69.3% of the electoral vote in 1808, but only won 58.7% of the electoral vote in 1812).

Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote(a), (b)		Electoral Vote(c)
			Count	Percentage
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	140,431	50.4%	128
DeWitt Clinton	Federalist	New York	132,781	47.6%	89
Rufus King	Federalist	New York	5,574	2.0%	0
Total			278,786	100.0%	217
Needed to win					109

Source (Popular Vote): U.S. President National Vote. Our Campaigns. (February 10, 2006).
Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 30, 2005).

^(a) Only 9 of the 18 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 Ohio did not vote.

Vice Presidential Candidate	Party	State	Electoral Vote
Elbridge Gerry	Democratic-Republican	Massachusetts	131
Jared Ingersoll	Federalist	Pennsylvania	86
Total			217
Needed to win			109

Source: Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 30, 2005).

Breakdown by ticket

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Electoral Vote
James Madison	Elbridge Gerry	128
DeWitt Clinton	Jared Ingersoll	89
DeWitt Clinton	Elbridge Gerry	3

The split-party ticket of the Federalist DeWitt Clinton and the Democratic-Republican Elbridge Gerry was the result of two Federalist Electors in Gerry's home state of Massachusetts and one in New Hampshire voting for the New England region's favorite.

Electoral college selection

Method of choosing Electors	State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Louisiana New Jersey New York North Carolina South Carolina Vermont
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide	New Hampshire 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 Tennessee
Two Electors chosen by voters statewide One Elector chosen per Congressional district by the voters of that district	Massachusetts

See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)
• United States House elections, 1812

References

• Boller, Paul F., Jr. (2004). Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 26–28. ISBN 0195167163. 
• Siry, Steven Edwin (1985). "The Sectional Politics of "Practical Republicanism": De Witt Clinton's Presidential Bid, 1810-1812". Journal of the Early Republic (Society for Historians of the Early American Republic) 5 (4): 441–462. doi:10.2307/3123061. JSTOR 3123061. 

External links

• "A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Hx/ElectoralCollege.html. Retrieved March 20, 2005. 
• "DeWitt Clinton Candidacy". OurCampaigns.com. http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=263178. Retrieved February 16, 2007. 
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825