The 1839 Whig National Convention was a
presidential nominating convention held from December 4 to December 8 in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first national convention ever held by the
Whig Party, and was organized to select the party's nominee in the
1840 presidential election. The convention nominated former Senator
William Henry Harrison of Ohio for
president
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and former Senator
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 in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticke ...
of Virginia for
vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...
.
After
Daniel Webster dropped out of the race, the three leading candidates for the Whig nomination were General Harrison, who had been the most successful Whig candidate in the
1836 presidential election; General
Winfield Scott, a hero of the
War of 1812; and Senator
Henry Clay
Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
, the Whigs' congressional and philosophical leader. With
Southern
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delegates united behind him, Clay led on the first presidential ballot, but failed to win a majority. Harrison won the nomination on the fifth ballot after several delegates switched from supporting Clay or Scott. The convention chose Tyler, a Southerner and Clay supporter, to serve as Harrison's running mate. The Whig ticket went on to win the 1840 election, defeating incumbent
Democratic President
Martin Van Buren.
Presidential balloting
Clay led on the first ballot, but circumstances conspired to deny him the nomination. First, the convention came on the heels of a string of Whig electoral losses, and party members were anxious to reverse the trend. 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 of 1840, when the continuing economic downturn caused by the
Panic of 1837 led to a string of Whig victories, Clay would have had much greater support. Second, 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 could have combined solid majority support in almost all the Southern delegations (with little potential for opponents to capitalize on a proportional distribution of delegates), and a large minority support in Northern delegations if the rules allowed counting of individual delegate votes. Third, several Southern states whose Whig party organizations supported Clay abstained from sending delegates to the convention.
Harrison won on the fifth ballot after Clay delegates from Illinois and Scott delegates from Michigan, New York, and Vermont combined to switch their support to Harrison. Writer and activist
John Neal, who chaired the delegation from Maine, claimed to have been instrumental in convincing the powerful New York delegation to back Harrison prior to the final vote.
The state-by-state roll call was printed in the newspaper the ''Farmer's Cabinet'' on December 13, 1839:
File:1839WhigPresidentialNomination1stBallot.png, 1st Presidential Ballot
File:1839WhigPresidentialNomination3rdBallot.png, 3rd Presidential Ballot
File:1839WhigPresidentialNomination5thBallot.png, 5th Presidential Ballot
File:1839WhigVicePresidentialNomination1stBallot.png, 1st Vice Presidential Ballot
Vice presidential nominee
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 potential candidates, including
John J. Crittenden
John Jordan Crittenden (September 10, 1787 July 26, 1863) was an American statesman and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and twice served as United ...
,
John Bell, and
Willie Person Mangum, the convention finally found its Southerner who had faithfully supported Clay and would accept: former Senator
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 in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticke ...
. Tyler was well known to the delegates, having previously been the running mate of
Hugh Lawson White and
Willie Person Mangum during the four-way Whig campaign of 1836.
He was easily nominated on the first ballot.
Aftermath
During the balloting, Clay and Scott played cards with Whig politicians
John J. Crittenden
John Jordan Crittenden (September 10, 1787 July 26, 1863) was an American statesman and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and twice served as United ...
and
George Evans at the
Astor House
The Astor House was a luxury hotel in New York City. Located on the corner of Broadway and Vesey Street in what is now the Civic Center and Tribeca neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan, it opened in 1836 and soon became the best-known hotel in Amer ...
hotel in
New York City. When the group received word of Harrison's victory, Clay blamed his loss on Scott and struck him, with the blow landing on the shoulder which had been wounded during Scott's participation in the
Battle of Lundy's Lane
The Battle of Lundy's Lane, also known as the Battle of Niagara, was a battle fought on 25 July 1814, during the War of 1812, between an invading American army and a British and Canadian army near present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario. It was one o ...
. Afterwards Clay had to be physically removed from the hotel room. Scott then sent Crittenden to Clay with Scott's challenge for a duel, but Crittenden reconciled them by convincing Clay to apologize.
See also
*
1840 Democratic National Convention
*
U.S. presidential nomination convention
*
1840 United States presidential election
The 1840 United States presidential election was the 14th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 30 to Wednesday, December 2, 1840. Economic recovery from the Panic of 1837 was incomplete, and Whig nominee William Henry Har ...
References
Further reading
* Holt, Michael F. ''The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War'' (1999)
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
External links
Proceedings of the Democratic Whig National Convention (1839)
{{Authority control
1840 United States presidential election
Whig National Conventions
1839 in Pennsylvania
1839 conferences
Whig National Convention