1820 United States presidential election: Difference between revisions

United States presidential election, 1820
All 229/232 electoral votes of the Electoral College; 115/117 electoral votes needed to win
	Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Monroe, light yellow denotes New Hampshire elector William Plumer's vote for John Quincy Adams. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. Missouri's statehood status and subsequent electoral votes disputed.
President before election; James Monroe; Democratic-Republican	Elected President ; James Monroe; Democratic-Republican

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The United States presidential election of 1820 was the ninth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Wednesday, November 1, to Wednesday, December 6, 1820. It was the third and last United States presidential election in which a candidate ran effectively unopposed (the previous two unopposed presidential elections were those of 1788–89 and 1792, in which George Washington ran without serious opposition). President James Monroe and Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins were re-elected effortlessly and captured all but one electoral vote. The failing Federalist Party did participate in the election of 1820 by fielding a serious vice-presidential candidate (Richard Stockton), but was unable to nominate a national candidate for president. It was never able to participate again in any federal election.

Background

Despite the continuation of single party politics (known in this case as the Era of Good Feelings), serious issues emerged during the election in 1820. The nation had endured a widespread depression following the Panic of 1819 and momentous disagreement about the extension of slavery into the territories was taking center stage. Nevertheless, James Monroe faced no opposition party or candidate in his re-election bid, although he did not receive quite all of the electoral votes (see below).

Massachusetts was entitled to 26 electoral votes four years earlier, but cast only 15 in 1820. The decrease was brought about by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which made the region of Maine—long part of Massachusetts—a free state to balance the pending admission of slave state Missouri.

Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Mississippi each cast one fewer electoral vote than they were entitled to, on account of one elector from each state dying before the electoral meeting. This explains the anomaly of Mississippi casting only two votes, when any state is always entitled to a minimum of three.

Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Missouri participated in their first presidential election in 1820, Missouri with controversy, since it was not yet officially a state (see below). No new states would participate in American presidential elections until 1836, after the admission to the Union of Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837 (after the main voting, but before the counting of the electoral vote in Congress).^[1]

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination

Democratic-Republican candidates

James Monroe (Virginia), President of the United States

President
James Monroe

Since President Monroe's re-nomination was never in doubt, few Republicans bothered to attend the nominating caucus in April 1820. Only 40 delegates attended, with few or no delegates from the large states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Rather than name the president with only a handful of votes, the caucus declined to make a formal nomination. Richard M. Johnson offered the following resolution: "It is inexpedient, at this time, to proceed to the nomination of persons for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States." After debate, the resolution was unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned. President Monroe and Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins thus became de facto candidates for re-election.

Informal Ballot
Presidential Ballot		Vice Presidential Ballot
James Monroe	40	Daniel D. Tompkins	40

General election

Campaign

Effectively there was no campaign, since there was no serious opposition to Monroe and Tompkins.

Disputes

On March 9, 1820, Congress had passed a law directing Missouri to hold a convention to form a constitution and a state government. This law stated that "the said state, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever."^[2] However, when Congress reconvened in November 1820, the admission of Missouri became an issue of contention. Proponents claimed that Missouri had fulfilled the conditions of the law and therefore was a state; detractors contended that certain provisions of the Missouri Constitution violated the United States Constitution.

By the time Congress was due to meet to count the electoral votes from the election, this dispute had lasted over two months. The counting raised a ticklish problem: if Congress counted Missouri's votes, that would count as recognition that Missouri was a state; on the other hand, if Congress failed to count Missouri's vote, it would count as recognition that Missouri was not a state. Knowing ahead of time that Monroe had won in a landslide and that Missouri's vote would therefore make no difference in the final result, the Senate passed a resolution on February 13, 1821 stating that if a protest were made, there would be no consideration of the matter unless the vote of Missouri would change who would become president. Instead, the President of the Senate would announce the final tally twice, once with Missouri included and once with it excluded.^[3]

The next day this resolution was introduced in the full House. After a lively debate, it was passed. Nonetheless, during the counting of the electoral votes on February 14, 1821, an objection was raised to the votes from Missouri by Representative Arthur Livermore of New Hampshire. He argued that since Missouri had not yet officially become a state, it had no right to cast any electoral votes. Immediately, Representative John Floyd of Virginia argued that Missouri's votes must be counted. Chaos ensued, and order was restored only with the counting of the vote as per the resolution and then adjournment for the day.^[4]

Results

Popular vote

The Federalists received a small amount of the popular vote despite having no electoral candidates. Even in Massachusetts, where the Federalist slate of electors was victorious, the electors cast all of their votes for Monroe.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote^(a)		Electoral vote
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Percentage	Electoral vote
James Monroe (Incumbent)	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	87,343	80.61%	228/231^(c)
No candidate	Federalist	N/A	17,465	16.12%	0
DeWitt Clinton	Independent	New York	1,893	1.75%	0
John Quincy Adams	Democratic-Republican	Massachusetts	^(b)	^(b)	1
Total			108,359	100.0%	229/232^(c)
Needed to win					115/117^(c)

Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

^(a) Only 15 of the 24 states chose electors by popular vote.
^(b) Adams received his vote from a faithless elector.
^(c) There was a dispute as to whether Missouri's electoral votes were valid, due to the timing of its assumption of statehood. The first figure excludes Missouri's votes and the second figure includes them.

Electoral vote

The sole electoral vote against Monroe came from William Plumer, an elector from New Hampshire and former United States senator and New Hampshire governor. Plumer cast his electoral ballot for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. While some accounts claim incorrectly that this was to ensure that George Washington would remain the only American president unanimously chosen by the Electoral College, that was not Plumer's goal. In fact, Plumer simply thought that Monroe was a mediocre president and that Adams would be a better one.^[5] Plumer also refused to vote for Tompkins for Vice President as "grossly intemperate", not having "that weight of character which his office requires," and "because he grossly neglected his duty" in his "only" official role as President of the Senate by being "absent nearly three-fourths of the time";^[6] Plumer instead voted for Richard Rush.

Even though every member of the Electoral College was pledged to James Monroe, there were still a number of Federalist electors who voted for a Federalist vice president. The votes for Richard Stockton came from Massachusetts. The entire Delaware delegation voted for Daniel Rodney for Vice President. Finally, Robert Goodloe Harper's vice presidential vote was cast by an elector from his home state of Maryland.

Vice presidential candidate	Party	State	Electoral vote
Daniel D. Tompkins	Democratic-Republican	New York	215/218^(a)
Richard Stockton	Federalist	New Jersey	8
Daniel Rodney	Federalist	Delaware	4
Robert Goodloe Harper	Federalist	Maryland	1
Richard Rush	Federalist	Pennsylvania	1
Total			229/232^(a)
Needed to win			115/117^(a)

Source: "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

^(a) There was a dispute over the validity of Missouri's electoral votes, due to the timing of its assumption of statehood. The first figure excludes Missouri's votes and the second figure includes them.

Breakdown by ticket

Presidential candidate	Running mate	Electoral vote
James Monroe	Daniel D Tompkins	215/218^(a)
James Monroe	Richard Stockton	8
James Monroe	Daniel Rodney	4
James Monroe	Robert Goodloe Harper	1
John Quincy Adams	Richard Rush	1