United States presidential election, 1840

United States presidential election, 1840

1836 ← October 30 - December 2, 1840 → 1844

Nominee William H. Harrison Martin Van Buren Party Whig Democratic Home state Ohio New York Running mate John Tyler none Electoral vote 234 60 States carried 19 7 Popular vote 1,275,390 1,128,854 Percentage 52.9% 46.8%

Presidential election results map. Orange denotes states won by Harrison/Tyler, Blue denotes those won by Van Buren & one of his three running mates. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Martin Van Buren Democratic Elected President William Henry Harrison Whig

The United States presidential election of 1840 was the 14th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 30, to Wednesday, December 2, 1840. It saw President Martin Van Buren fight for re-election during a time of economic depression against a Whig Party unified for the first time behind war hero William Henry Harrison and his "log cabin campaign." Rallying under the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," the Whigs easily defeated Van Buren.

This election was unique in that electors cast votes for four men who had been or would become President of the United States: current President Martin Van Buren; President-elect William Henry Harrison; Vice-President-elect John Tyler, who would succeed Harrison upon his death; and James K. Polk, who received one electoral vote for vice-president, and who would succeed Tyler in 1845.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1840 Democratic National Convention

Democratic candidates

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  President Martin Van Buren of New York

Van Buren, the incumbent president, was re-nominated in Baltimore in May 1840. The party refused to re-nominate his sitting vice-president, Richard Mentor Johnson. In the electoral college, the Democratic vice-presidential votes were divided among Johnson, Littleton W. Tazewell, and James K. Polk.

Whig Party nomination

Whig candidates

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  Former Senator William Henry Harrison from Ohio

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  Senator Henry Clay from Kentucky

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  Major General Winfield Scott from New Jersey

For the first time in their history, the Whigs held a national convention to determine their presidential candidate. It opened in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on December 4, 1839, almost a full year before the general election. The three leading candidates were William Henry Harrison, a war hero and the most successful of Van Buren's opponents in the 1836 election, who had been campaigning for the Whig nomination ever since; General Winfield Scott, a hero of the War of 1812 who had been active in skirmishes with the British in 1837 and 1838; and Henry Clay, the Whigs' congressional leader and former Speaker of the House.

Clay led on the first ballot, but circumstances conspired to deny him the nomination. First of all, the convention came on the heels of a string of Whig electoral losses. Harrison managed to distance himself from the losses, but Clay, as the party's philosophical leader, could not. Had the convention been held in the spring, when the economic downturn led to a string of Whig victories, Clay would have had much greater support. Secondly, the convention rules had been drawn up so that whoever won the majority of delegates from a given state would win all the votes from that state. This worked against Clay, who had solid majority support in almost all of the Southern delegations (with little potential for opponents to capitalize on a proportional distribution of delegates), and a large minority support in Northern delegations (with the potential for substantial proportional distributions in his favor eliminated). In addition, several Southern states whose Whig chapters supported Clay abstained from sending delegates to the convention. As a result, the nomination went to Harrison.

The state-by-state roll call was printed in the newspaper the Farmer's Cabinet on 13 December 1839:

Convention vote

Presidential vote	1	2	3	4	5	Vice Presidential Vote	1
William H. Harrison OH	94	94	91	91	148	John Tyler	231
Henry Clay KY	103	103	95	95	90	Abstaining	23
Winfield Scott NJ	57	57	68	68	16

Because Harrison (born in Virginia) was considered a Northerner (as a resident of Ohio), the Whigs needed to balance the ticket with a Southerner. They also sought a Clay supporter to help unite the party. After being turned down by several Southern Clay supporters, the convention finally found a Southern nominee who had faithfully supported Clay throughout the convention and who would agree to run: former Senator John Tyler of Virginia.

Anti-Masonic Party nomination

During the Van Buren administration, the Anti-Masonic Party had continued to disintegrate, as its leaders moved one by one to the Whig party. Party leaders met in September 1837 in Washington, D.C., and agreed to maintain the party. The third Anti-Masonic Party National Convention was held in Philadelphia in November 1838. The delegates voted to nominate William Henry Harrison for president and Daniel Webster for vice-president.

Convention vote

Presidential vote		Vice Presidential vote
William Henry Harrison	119	Daniel Webster	119

General election

Campaign

Caricature on the aftermath of the panic of 1837.

In the wake of the Panic of 1837, Van Buren was widely unpopular, and Harrison, following Andrew Jackson'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" 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 Indians 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 [dollars] a year ... and ... he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin."

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 Martin Van Buren, as a wealthy snob who was out of touch with the people. In fact, it was Harrison who came from a wealthy, prominent family while Van Buren was from a poor, working family.

Nonetheless, the election was held during the worst economic depression in the nation's history, and voters blamed Van Buren, seeing him as unsympathetic to struggling citizens. Harrison campaigned vigorously and won.

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of yellow are for Harrison (Whig) and shades of blue are for Van Buren (Democrat).

Results

Harrison won the support of western settlers and eastern bankers alike. The extent of Van Buren's unpopularity was clearly demonstrated in Harrison's victories in New York, the president's home state, and in Tennessee, where that state's aging hero Andrew Jackson came out of retirement to stump for his former vice-president.

Few Americans were surprised when Van Buren lost by an electoral vote of 234 to 60. But many were amazed by the close popular vote. Of 2,400,000 votes cast, Van Buren lost by only 147,000. Given the circumstances, it is surprising that the Democrats did as well as they did.

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 (about 1 hour, 45 minutes, in freezing cold weather), Harrison served only one month as president before dying of pneumonia on April 4, 1841.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a)		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote
William Henry Harrison	Whig	Ohio	1,275,390	52.9%	234	John Tyler	Virginia	234
Martin Van Buren	Democratic	New York	1,128,854	46.8%	60	Richard Mentor Johnson	Kentucky	48
						Littleton W. Tazewell	Virginia	11
						James Knox Polk	Tennessee	1
James G. Birney	Liberty	New York	6,797	0.3%	0	Thomas Earle	Pennsylvania	0
Other			767	0.0%	—	Other		—
Total			2,411,808	100%	294			294
Needed to win					148			148

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1840 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005). Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (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.

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  Results explicitly indicating the percentage for the Whig candidate in each county.

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  Results explicitly indicating the percentage for the Democratic candidate in each county.

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  Results explicitly indicating the percentage for the Liberty candidate in each county.

Results by state

		William Henry Harrison Whig			Martin Van Buren Democratic			James G. Birney Liberty			State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#
Alabama	7	0001361828,515	45.62	-	0004866933,996	54.38	7	no ballots			62,511	AL
Arkansas	3	5,160	43.58	-	6,679	56.42	3	no ballots			11,839	AR
Connecticut	8	31,598	55.55	8	25,281	44.45	-	no ballots			56,879	CT
Delaware	3	5,967	54.99	3	4,872	44.89	-	no ballots			10,852	DE
Georgia	11	40,339	55.78	11	31,983	44.22	-	no ballots			72,322	GA
Illinois	5	45,574	48.91	-	47,441	50.92	5	160	0.17	-	93,175	IL
Indiana	9	65,302	55.86	12	51,604	44.14	-	no ballots			116,906	IN
Kentucky	15	58,488	64.20	15	32,616	35.80	-	no ballots			116,865	KY
Louisiana	5	11,296	59.73	5	7,616	40.27	-	no ballots			18,912	LA
Maine	10	46,612	50.23	10	46,190	49.77	-	no ballots			92,802	ME
Maryland	10	33,528	53.83	10	28,752	46.17	-	no ballots			62,280	MD
Massachusetts	14	72,852	57.44	14	52,355	41.28	-	1,618	1.28	-	126,825	MA
Michigan	3	22,933	51.71	3	21,096	47.57	-	321	0.72	-	44,350	MI
Mississippi	4	19,515	53.43	4	17,010	46.57	-	no ballots			36,525	MS
Missouri	4	22,954	43.37	-	29,969	56.63	4	no ballots			52,923	MO
New Hampshire	7	26,310	43.88	-	32,774	54.66	7	872	1.45	-	59,956	NH
New Jersey	8	33,351	51.74	8	31,034	48.15	-	69	0.11	-	64,454	NJ
New York	42	226,001	51.18	42	212,733	48.18	-	2,809	0.64	-	441,543	NY
North Carolina	15	46,567	57.68	15	34,168	42.32	-	no ballots			80,735	NC
Ohio	21	148,157	54.10	21	124,782	45.57	-	903	0.33	-	273,842	OH
Pennsylvania	30	144,010	50.00	30	143,676	49.88	-	340	0.12	-	288,026	PA
Rhode Island	4	5,278	61.22	4	3,301	38.29	-	42	0.49	-	8,621	RI
South Carolina	11	no popular vote			no popular vote		11	no popular vote			-	SC
Tennessee	15	60,194	55.66	15	47,951	44.34	-	no ballots			108,145	TN
Vermont	7	32,445	63.90	7	18,009	35.47	-	319	0.63	-	50,773	VT
Virginia	23	42,637	49.35	-	43,757	50.65	23	no ballots			86,394	VA
TOTALS:	294	1,275,583	52.87	234	1,129,645	46.82	60	7,453	0.31	-	2,412,694	US
TO WIN:	148

Consequences

Harrison, the oldest President second to Ronald Reagan, died little more than a month after his inauguration. The choice of Tyler for Vice President proved to be disastrous for the Whigs: while Tyler had been a staunch supporter of Clay at the convention, he was a former Democrat and a passionate supporter of states' rights who blocked the Whigs' political program in office.

Campaign songs/slogans

Harrison

"Tippecanoe and Tyler too"

Van Buren

Rockabye, baby, Daddy's a Whig

When he comes home, hard cider he'll swig

When he has swug

He'll fall in a stu

And down will come Tyler and Tippecanoe.

Rockabye, baby, when you awake

You will discover Tip is a fake.

Far from the battle, war cry and drum

He sits in his cabin a'drinking bad rum.

Rockabye, baby, never you cry

You need not fear of Tip and his Ty.

What they would ruin, Van Buren will fix.

Van's a magician, they are but tricks.

Election paraphernalia

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  Harrison "Tippecanoe Club" ribbon

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  Ribbon for Harrison political rally

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  Ribbon for Danvers, Mass. delegation to Harrison Rally, Bunker Hill, 1840; engraved by George Girdler Smith

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  Delegate badge, Democratic convention

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  Cover of Boston Harrison Club's Harrison Melodies, 1840

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)

In popular culture

In the film Amistad, Van Buren (played by Nigel Hawthorne) is seen campaigning for reelection. These scenes have been criticized for their historical inaccuracy.

See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)
• Second Party System
• United States House elections, 1840

Further reading

• Chambers, William Nisbet. "The Election of 1840" in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (ed.) History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968 (1971) vol 2; analysis plus primary sources
• Formisano, Ronald P. "The new political history and the election of 1840," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Spring 1993, Vol. 23 Issue 4, pp. 661–82 in JSTOR
• Gunderson, Robert Gray (1957). The Log-Cabin Campaign. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. 
• Greeley, Horace (1868). Recollections of a Busy Life. 
  • Greeley's description of the 1840 election is posted on Wikisource.
• Holt, Michael F. "The Election of 1840, Voter Mobilization, and the Emergence of the Second American Party System: A Reappraisal of Jacksonian Voting Behavior," in Holt and nd John McCardell, eds. A Master's Due: Essays in Honor of David Herbert (1986); emphasizes economic factors; See Formisano (1993) for criticism
• Holt, Michael F. (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505544-6. 
• Shade, William G. "Politics and Parties in Jacksonian America," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 110, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 483–507 online
• Zboray, Ronald J., and Mary Saracino Zboray. "Whig Women, Politics, and Culture in the Campaign of 1840: Three Perspectives from Massachusetts," Journal of the Early Republic Vol. 17, No. 2 (Summer, 1997), pp. 277–315 in JSTOR

External links

• Presidential Election of 1840: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• "The Campaign of 1840: William Henry Harrison and Tyler, Too" high school level lesson plans and documents
• "Overview of Whig National Convention of 1839". Our Campaigns.com. Retrieved 2006. 
• How close was the 1840 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology