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The U.S. presidential election of 1848 was an open race. President James Polk, having achieved virtually all of his objectives in one term and suffering from declining health that would take his life less than four months after leaving office, kept his promise not to seek re-election.
The Whigs in 1846-47 had focused all their energies on condemning Polk's war policies. They had to quickly reverse course. In February 1848 Polk surprised everyone with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war and gave the U.S. vast new territories (including California and most of Arizona and New Mexico). The Whigs in the Senate voted 2-1 to approve the treaty. Then in the summer the Whigs nominated the hero of the war, Zachary Taylor. While he did promise no more future wars, he did not condemn the war or criticize Polk, and Whigs had to follow his lead. They shifted their attention to the new issue of whether slavery could be banned from the new territories. The choice of Taylor was almost in desperation--he was not clearly committed to Whig principles, but he was popular for leading the war effort. The Democrats had a record of victory, peace, prosperity, and the acquisition of both Oregon and the Southwest; they appeared almost certain winners unless the Whigs picked Taylor. "It is doubtful whether we can beat the scoundrels next Pres. Election," complained one Whig leader (John Defrees). "The war will have been ended -- and an immense acquisition of Land will be pointed to as the result of Democracy -- the Land stealing, even among our best Christians, is popular!" p. 312
Nominations
Whig Party nomination
Mexican War General Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, spurred by his successes on the battlefield but who had never voted in an election himself, was openly courted by both the Democratic and Whig parties. Taylor ultimately declared himself a Whig, and easily took their nomination, receiving 171 delegate votes to defeat Henry Clay, Winfield Scott, Daniel Webster and others. Millard Fillmore received the party's nomination as Vice President.
Democratic Party nomination
The Democrats countered by nominating Lewis Cass, who had served as Governor and Senator for Michigan, as well as Secretary of War under Andrew Jackson, and from 1836-1842 as ambassador to France. General William Orlando Butler was nominated to join Cass on the ticket, garnering 169 delegate votes to defeat five other candidates, including future Vice President William Rufus deVane King and future Confederate President Jefferson Finis Davis. The Democrats chose a platform that remained silent on slavery, and with Cass suspected of pro-slavery leanings, many anti-slavery Democrats walked out of the Baltimore convention to begin the Free Soil party.
Free Soil Party nomination
A third party, the Free Soil Party, was organized for the 1848 election to oppose further expansion of slavery into the western territories, and hopefully to obtain the abolition of slavery itself. Led by Salmon P. Chase and John P. Hale, former President Martin Van Buren defeated John Parker Hale by a 154-129 delegate count to capture their nomination, while Charles Francis Adams was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee.
General election
Campaign
With Taylor remaining vague on the issues, the campaign was dominated by personalities and personal attacks, with the Democrats calling Taylor vulgar, uneducated, cruel and greedy, and the Whigs attacking Cass for graft and dishonesty. The division of the Democrats over slavery allowed Taylor to dominate the Northeast.
Results
With the exception of South Carolina, which left the selection of electors to its legislature, the election of 1848 marked the first time in which every state in the union voted for President and Vice President on the same day: November 7, 1848. Taylor won election over Cass, capturing 163 of the 290 electoral votes cast.Source (Popular Vote):
Source (Electoral Vote):
(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.
Electoral college selection
See also
References
- Graebner, Norman A. "Thomas Corwin and the Election of 1848: A Study in Conservative Politics." Journal of Southern History, 17 (1951), 162-79.
- Hamilton, Holman. Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House reprint 1966.
- Michael F. Holt; The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. 1999.
- Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union: Volume I. Fruits of Manifest Destiny, 1847-1852 1947.
- Rayback, Joseph A. Free Soil: The Election of 1848.University Press of Kentucky, 1970.
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