The 1840 United States presidential election was the 14th quadrennial

presidential election 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 pre ...

, held from Friday, October 30 to Wednesday, December 2, 1840. Economic recovery from the Panic of 1837 was incomplete, and Whig nominee William Henry Harrison defeated incumbent President

Martin Van Buren Martin Van Buren ( ; nl, Maarten van Buren; ; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American lawyer and statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A primary founder of the Democratic Party, he ...

of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. The election marked the first of two Whig victories in presidential elections. In 1839, the Whigs held a national convention for the first time. The

1839 Whig National Convention 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 ...

saw 1836 nominee William Henry Harrison defeat former Secretary of State Henry Clay and General

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early s ...

. Van Buren faced little opposition at the

1840 Democratic National Convention The 1840 Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland, from May 5 to May 6. The Democratic Party re-nominated President Martin Van Buren, but failed to select a nominee for vice president. Van Buren is the only major party presi ...

, 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, serving from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren ...

was not re-nominated. The Democrats thus became the only major party since 1800 to fail to select a vice presidential nominee. This election saw the third rematch in presidential history. 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 in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig tick ...

and Harrison's participation in the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecum ...

, the Whigs campaigned on the slogan of "

Tippecanoe and Tyler Too "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too", originally published as "Tip and Ty", was a popular and influential campaign song of the Whig Party's colorful Log Cabin Campaign in the 1840 United States presidential election. Its lyrics sang the praises of Whig ...

." 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. Van Buren's loss made him the third president, and the first outside the

Adams family The Adams family was a prominent political family in the United States from the late 18th through the early 20th centuries. Based in eastern Massachusetts, they formed part of the Boston Brahmin community. The family traces to Henry Adams of Bar ...

, 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 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. This is the only election where the Whigs won a majority of the vote, and the last time a non-Democratic or Republican candidate has done so.

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. Henry Clay, 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 fractional 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. The upper house is the New Hampshire Senate with 24 mem ...

made a call for the

which was held in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

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'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 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 Francis Granger (December 1, 1792 – August 31, 1868) was an American politician who represented Ontario County, New York, in the United States House of Representatives for three non-consecutive terms. He was a leading figure in the state and ...

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 U.S. Secretary of State under Presidents William Henry Harrison ...

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 Rev. Joshua Leavitt (September 8, 1794, Heath, Massachusetts – January 16, 1873, Brooklyn, New York) was an American Congregationalist minister and former lawyer who became a prominent writer, editor and publisher of abolitionist literature. ...

, and

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

proposed the creation of an anti-slavery party. In July 1839, two resolutions proposed by Holley at the American Anti-Slavery Society's meeting in Cleveland, called for the creation of an abolitionist party. They failed. Nevetheless the supporters nominated Birney and

Francis Julius LeMoyne Francis Julius LeMoyne (September 4, 1798 – October 14, 1879) was a 19th-century American medical doctor and philanthropist from Washington, Pennsylvania. Responsible for creating the first crematory in the United States, he was also an aboli ...

as a presidential ticket at a meeting in Warsaw, New York. 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 capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

. 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 a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he foun ...

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

General election

Campaign

In the wake of the Panic of 1837, Van Buren was widely unpopular, and Harrison, following

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

'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 and Tyler Too", originally published as "Tip and Ty", was a popular and influential campaign song of the Whig Party's colorful Log Cabin Campaign in the 1840 United States presidential election. Its lyrics sang the praises of Whig ...

". Tippecanoe referred to Harrison's military victory over a group of

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

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 Cider ( ) is an alcoholic beverage made from the fermented juice of apples. Cider is widely available in the United Kingdom (particularly in the West Country) and the Republic of Ireland. The UK has the world's highest per capita consumption, ...

, 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 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

Harrison won the support of western settlers and eastern bankers alike. 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. Few Americans were surprised when Van Buren lost in the electoral vote by 234 to 60, but many were amazed by the closeness of the popular vote: of 2.41 million votes cast, Van Buren lost by only 146,500, and a shift of 20,000 votes to Van Buren in Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania would have left the electoral college in a 147–147 tie, forcing a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Given all the circumstances, it is surprising that the Democrats performed as well as they did. 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. 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. This was also the first election in US 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 Mississippi voted against the Democrats until 1872, the last in which Indiana did so until 1860, and the last in which Maine and Michigan did so until 1856. This is the only election in American history in which Alabama and Mississippi voted for different candidates. The 1840 presidential election was the only U.S. presidential election 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. Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote): ^(a) ''The popular vote figures exclude

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

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 directly proportiona ...

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.

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)

Campaign songs/slogans

Harrison

Van Buren

Election paraphernalia

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

Electoral college selection

In popular culture

In the film '' Amistad'', Van Buren (played by

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

) 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

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