1836 United States presidential election

Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 3 to December 7, 1836. Incumbent Vice President Martin Van Buren, candidate of the Democratic Party, defeated four candidates fielded by the nascent Whig Party.

The 1835 Democratic National Convention chose a ticket of Van Buren (President Andrew Jackson's handpicked successor) and U.S. Representative Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky. The Whig Party, which had only recently emerged and was primarily united by opposition to Jackson, was not yet sufficiently organized to agree on a single candidate. Hoping to compel a contingent election in the House of Representatives by denying the Democrats an electoral majority, the Whigs ran multiple candidates. Most Northern and border state Whigs supported the ticket led by former Senator William Henry Harrison of Ohio, while most Southern Whigs supported the ticket led by Senator Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee. Two other Whigs, Daniel Webster and Willie Person Mangum, carried Massachusetts and South Carolina respectively on single-state tickets.

Despite facing multiple candidates, Van Buren won a majority of the electoral vote, and he won a majority of the popular vote in both the North and the South. Nonetheless, the Whig strategy came very close to success, as Van Buren won the decisive state of Pennsylvania by just over two points. As Virginia's electors voted for Van Buren but refused to vote for Johnson, Johnson fell one vote short of an electoral majority, compelling a contingent election for vice president. In that contingent election, the United States Senate elected Johnson over Harrison's running mate, Francis Granger.

Van Buren was the third incumbent vice president elected president, which would not happen again until 1988, when George H. W. Bush was elected president. He is also the most recent Democrat elected to succeed an outgoing Democratic president, and the only sitting Democratic vice president to win the presidency. This also marks the last time that the sitting vice president was elected president after only serving for one term. Harrison finished second in both the popular and electoral vote, and his strong performance helped him win the Whig nomination in the 1840 presidential election. The election of 1836 was crucial in developing the Second Party System and a stable two-party system more generally. By the end of the election, nearly every independent faction had been absorbed by either the Democrats or the Whigs.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|1836 Democratic Party ticket

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| Martin Van Buren|

! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#3333FF; width:200px;"| Richard Mentor Johnson|

| style="width:3em; font-size:100%; color:#000; background:#C8EBFF; width:200px;"|for President

| style="width:3em; font-size:100%; color:#000; background:#C8EBFF; width:200px;"|for Vice President

| center|200x200px

| 8th Vice President of the United States (1833–1837)

| U.S. Representative from Kentucky (1807–1819, 1829–1837)

thumb|207x207px|[[Andrew Jackson, the incumbent president in 1836, whose second term expired on March 4, 1837]]

The 1835 Democratic National Convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland, from May 20 to 22, 1835. The early date of the convention was selected by President Andrew Jackson to prevent the formation of opposition to Martin Van Buren. Twenty-two states and two territories were represented at the convention with Alabama, Illinois, and South Carolina being unrepresented. The delegate amount per state varied from Maryland having 188 delegates to cast its ten votes while Tennessee's fifteen votes were cast by one delegate.

The convention saw the first credentials dispute in American history with two rival delegations from Pennsylvania claiming the state's votes. The issue was solved by seating both delegations and having them share the state's votes. An attempt to remove the two-thirds requirement for the selection of a candidate was passed by a vote of 231 to 210, but was later restored through a voice vote.

Results

22.4% of the voting age population and 56.5% of eligible voters participated in the election.

The Whigs' strategy narrowly failed to prevent Van Buren's victory in the Electoral College, though he earned a somewhat lower share of the popular vote and fewer electoral votes than Andrew Jackson had in either of the previous two elections. The key state in this election was ultimately Pennsylvania, which Van Buren won from Harrison with a narrow majority of just 4,222 votes or 2.4%. Had Harrison won the state, Van Buren would have been left eight votes short of an Electoral College majority despite receiving a majority (50.48%) in the popular vote and the Whig goal to force the election into the House of Representatives (per the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution) would have succeeded. Thus, the 11.8% difference between the margin in the tipping-point state of Pennsylvania and the margin in the national popular vote is the largest gap in American history. Van Buren won Arkansas, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Rhode Island by only 2,569 votes total; had the leading Whig won each of those states, Van Buren would have been short of the necessary 148 electoral votes.

In a contingent election, the House would have been required to choose between Van Buren, Harrison, and White as the three candidates with the most electoral votes. Jacksonians controlled enough state delegations (14 out of 26) and enough Senate seats (31 out of 52) to win both the presidency and the vice presidency in a contingent election.

This was the last election in which the Democrats won Connecticut, Rhode Island, and North Carolina until 1852. This was also the only election where South Carolina voted for the Whigs, and the last time it voted against the Democrats until 1868. It was also the last time that a Democrat was elected to the U.S. presidency succeeding a Democrat who had served two terms as U.S. president.

File:Electoral College 1836.svg

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.

(b) Mangum received his electoral votes from South Carolina where the electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote.

Source:

Geography of results

Cartographic gallery

1836 US Presidential election by county.svg|Map of presidential election results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

DemocraticPresidentialCounty1836Colorbrewer.png|Map of Democratic presidential election results by county

HarrisonWhigPresidentialCounty1836Colorbrewer.png|Map of Harrison Whig presidential election results by county

WhiteWhigPresidentialCounty1836Colorbrewer.png|Map of White Whig presidential election results by county

WebsterWhigPresidentialCounty1836Colorbrewer.png|Map of Webster Whig presidential election results by county

</gallery>

Results by state

Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836-1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.

{|class="wikitable"

|States/districts won by Van Buren/Johnson

|States/districts won by a Whig candidate

|}<div style="overflow:auto">

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"

! colspan="2" |

! colspan="3" align="center" | Martin Van Buren Democratic

! colspan="3" align="center" | William H. Harrison Whig

! colspan="3" |Hugh L. White Whig

! colspan="3" |Daniel Webster Whig

!Willie Person Mangum Whig

! colspan="2" |Margin

! colspan="2" |Total

! align=center | State

! style="font-size:60%" | electoral votes

! style="font-size:60%" | Votes cast

! align=center | %

! style="font-size:60%" | electoral votes

! style="font-size:60%" | Votes cast

! align=center | %

! style="font-size:60%" | electoral votes

! style="font-size:60%" | Votes cast

! align=center | %

! style="font-size:60%" | electoral votes

! style="font-size:60%" | Votes cast

! align=center | %

! style="font-size:60%" | electoral votes

! style"text-align:left" | Alabama

| 20,638

| 55.34

| 7

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 16,658

| 44.66

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|3,980

|10.68

|37,296

!AL

! style"text-align:left" | Arkansas

| 2,380

| 64.08

| 3

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 1,334

| 35.92

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|1,046

|28.16

|3,714

!AR

! style"text-align:left" | Connecticut

| 19,294

| 50.65

| 8

| 18,799

| 49.35

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|495

|1.30

|38,093

!CT

! style"text-align:left" | Delaware

| 4,154

| 46.70

| 0

| 4,736

| 53.24

| 3

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -582

| -6.54

|8,895

!DE

! style"text-align:left" | Georgia

!11

| 22,778

| 48.20

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 24,481

| 51.80

| 11

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -1,703

| -3.60

|47,259

!GA

! style"text-align:left" | Illinois

| 18,369

| 54.69

| 5

| 15,220

| 45.31

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|3,149

|9.38

|33,589

!IL

! style"text-align:left" | Indiana

| 32,478

| 44.03

| 0

| 41,281

| 55.97

| 9

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -8,803

| -11.94

|73,759

!IN

! style"text-align:left" | Kentucky

!15

| 33,229

| 47.41

| 0

| 36,861

| 52.59

| 15

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -3,632

| -5.18

|70,090

!KY

! style"text-align:left" | Louisiana

| 3,842

| 51.74

| 5

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 3,583

| 48.26

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|259

|3.48

|7,425

!LA

! style"text-align:left" | Maine

!10

| 22,825

| 58.92

| 10

| 14,803

| 38.21

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|8,022

|20.71

|38,740

!ME

! style"text-align:left" | Maryland

!10

| 22,267

| 46.27

| 0

| 25,852

| 53.73

| 10

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -3,585

| -7.46

|48,119

!MD

! style"text-align:left" | Massachusetts

!14

| 33,486

| 44.81

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 41,201

| 55.13

| 14

|no ballots

| -7,715

| -10.32

|74,687

!MA

! style"text-align:left" | Michigan

| 7,122

| 56.22

| 3

| 5,545

| 43.78

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|1,577

|12.44

|12,667

!MI

! style"text-align:left" | Mississippi

| 10,297

| 51.28

| 4

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 9,782

| 48.72

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|515

|2.56

|20,079

!MS

! style"text-align:left" | Missouri

| 10,995

| 59.98

| 4

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 7,337

| 40.02

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|3,658

|19.96

|18,332

!MO

! style"text-align:left" | New Hampshire

| 18,697

| 75.01

| 7

| 6,228

| 24.99

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|12,469

|50.02

|24,925

!NH

! style"text-align:left" | New Jersey

| 25,592

| 49.47

| 0

| 26,137

| 50.53

| 8

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -545

| -1.06

|51,729

!NJ

! style"text-align:left" | New York

!42

| 166,795

| 54.63

| 42

| 138,548

| 45.37

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|28,247

|9.26

|305,343

!NY

! style"text-align:left" | North Carolina

!15

| 26,631

| 53.10

| 15

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 23,521

| 46.90

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|3,110

|6.20

|50,153

!NC

! style"text-align:left" | Ohio

!21

| 96,238

| 47.56

| 0

| 104,958

| 51.87

| 21

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -8,720

| -4.31

|202,333

!OH

! style"text-align:left" | Pennsylvania

!30

| 91,457

| 51.18

| 30

| 87,235

| 48.82

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|4,222

|2.36

|178,692

!PA

! style"text-align:left" | Rhode Island

| 2,964

| 52.24

| 4

| 2,710

| 47.76

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|254

|4.48

|5,674

!RI

! style"text-align:left" | South Carolina

!11

| colspan=3 align=center | no popular vote

| 11

| -

!SC

! style"text-align:left" | Tennessee

!15

| 26,170

| 42.08

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 36,027

| 57.92

| 15

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -9,857

| -15.84

|62,197

!TN

! style"text-align:left" | Vermont

| 14,037

| 40.07

| 0

| 20,994

| 59.93

| 7

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

| -6,957

| -19.86

|35,031

!VT

! style"text-align:left" | Virginia

!23

| 30,556

| 56.64

| 23

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

| 23,384

| 43.35

| 0

| colspan=3 align=center | no ballots

|no ballots

|7,172

|13.29

|53,945

!VA

! TOTALS:

!294

! 763,291

! 50.79

! 170

! 549,907

! 36.59

! 73

! 146,107

! 9.72

! 26

! 41,201

! 2.74

! 14

! 11

!213,384

!14.20

!1,502,811

!US

! TO WIN:

!148

! colspan="13" |

|}</div>

States that flipped from National Republican to Whig

Delaware
Kentucky
Maryland
Massachusetts

States that flipped from National Republican to Democratic

Connecticut
Rhode Island

States that flipped from Anti-Masonic to Whig

Vermont

States that flipped from Democratic to Whig

Georgia
Indiana
New Jersey
Ohio
Tennessee

States that flipped from Nullifer to Whig

South Carolina

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

New Jersey 1.06% (545 votes)
Connecticut 1.3% (495 votes)
Pennsylvania 2.36% (4,222 votes) (tipping point state for a Van Buren victory)
Mississippi 2.56% (515 votes)
Louisiana 3.48% (259 votes)
Georgia 3.6% (1,703 votes)
Ohio 4.31% (8,720 votes)
Rhode Island 4.48% (254 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

Kentucky 5.18% (3,632 votes)
North Carolina 6.2% (3,110 votes)
Delaware 6.54% (582 votes)
Maryland 7.46% (3,585 votes)
New York 9.26% (28,247 votes) (tipping point state for a Harrison victory)
Illinois 9.38% (3,149 votes)

Breakdown by ticket

{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"

|- valign=bottom

! Candidate

! Total

! | Martin Van Buren Democratic

! | William H. Harrison Whig

! | Hugh L. White Whig

! | Daniel Webster Whig

! | Willie P. Mangum Whig

! Electoral Votes for President

! 294

! 170

! 73

! 26

! 14

! 11

! For Vice President, Richard Mentor Johnson

| 147

! For Vice President, Francis Granger

| 77

| 63

| 14

! For Vice President, John Tyler

| 47

| 10

| 26

| 11

! For Vice President, William Smith

| 23

1837 contingent election for vice president

Virginia's 23 electors, who were all pledged to Van Buren and his running mate Richard Mentor Johnson, became faithless electors due to dissension related to Johnson's interracial relationship with a slave and refused to vote for Johnson, instead casting their vice-presidential votes for former South Carolina senator William Smith.

This left Johnson one electoral vote short of an Electoral College majority. Since no vice presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, for the only time in American history, the Senate decided the vice presidential race in a contingent election.

On February 8, 1837, Johnson was elected on the first ballot by a vote of 33 to 16; the vote proceeded largely along party lines, albeit with three Whigs voting for Johnson, one Democrat voting for Granger, and three abstentions (Hugh L. White declined to vote out of respect for his own running-mate, John Tyler, while the two Nullifier Party senators refused to back either candidate).

{| class="wikitable"

|+ style="background-color:#f2f2f2; margin-bottom:-1px; border:1px solid #aaa; padding: .2em .4em" | 1837 Contingent United States vice presidential election

! colspan=5 style="font-size:92%" | February 8, 1837

! colspan=2 |Party

! Candidate

! Votes

! %

| style="width: 0.25em; background:#3333ff" |

| style="width: 11em" | Democratic

| style="width: 17em" | Richard M. Johnson

| style="width: 3.75em; text-align:right" | 33

| style="width: 4em; text-align:right" |

| style="background:#f0c862" |

| Whig

| Francis Granger

| style="text-align:right" | 16

| style="text-align:right" |

| style="background:#f5f5f5" |

| —

| Not voting

| style="text-align:right" | 3

| style="text-align:right" |

! colspan=3 style="text-align:right" | Total membership

| style="text-align:right; background:#f5f5f5" | 52

| style="text-align:right; background:#f5f5f5" | 100

! colspan=3 style="text-align:right" | Votes necessary

| style="text-align:right; background:#f5f5f5" | 27

| style="text-align:right; background:#f5f5f5" | >50

| colspan=5 style="background:#f5f5f5" |

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em auto;"

! colspan=3 | Members voting for:

|- style="height:7px"

| style="background:#3333ff" |

| style="background:#f0c862" |

! Johnson

! Granger

|-style="vertical-align:top;"

| style="width: 19em" |

Thomas H. Benton of Missouri

John Black of Mississippi

Bedford Brown of North Carolina

James Buchanan of Pennsylvania

Alfred Cuthbert of Georgia

Judah Dana of Maine

William Lee D. Ewing of Illinois

William S. Fulton of Arkansas

Felix Grundy of Tennessee

William Hendricks of Indiana

Henry Hubbard of New Hampshire

William R. King of Alabama

John P. King of Georgia

Lewis F. Linn of Missouri

Lucius Lyon of Michigan

Samuel McKean of Pennsylvania

Gabriel Moore of Alabama

Thomas Morris of Ohio

Alexandre Mouton of Louisiana

Robert C. Nicholas of Louisiana

John M. Niles of Connecticut

John Norvell of Michigan

John Page of New Hampshire

Richard E. Parker of Virginia

William C. Rives of Virginia

John M. Robinson of Illinois

John Ruggles of Maine

Ambrose H. Sevier of Arkansas

Robert Strange of North Carolina

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge of New York

John Tipton of Indiana

Robert J. Walker of Mississippi

 Silas Wright of New York

| style="width: 19em" |

Richard H. Bayard of Delaware

Henry Clay of Kentucky

Thomas Clayton of Delaware

John J. Crittenden of Kentucky

John Davis of Massachusetts

Thomas Ewing of Ohio

Joseph Kent of Maryland

Nehemiah R. Knight of Rhode Island

Samuel Prentiss of Vermont

Asher Robbins of Rhode Island

Samuel L. Southard of New Jersey

John Selby Spence of Maryland

Benjamin Swift of Vermont

Gideon Tomlinson of Connecticut

Garret D. Wall of New Jersey

 Daniel Webster of Massachusetts

! colspan=2 | Members not voting:

Electoral college selection

Notes

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Results

Geography of results

Cartographic gallery

Results by state

States that flipped from National Republican to Whig

States that flipped from National Republican to Democratic

States that flipped from Anti-Masonic to Whig

States that flipped from Democratic to Whig

States that flipped from Nullifer to Whig

Close states

Breakdown by ticket

1837 contingent election for vice president

Electoral college selection

See also

Notes