United States presidential election, 1832

Infobox Election
election_name = United States presidential election, 1832
country = United States
type = presidential
ongoing = no
previous_election = United States presidential election, 1828
previous_year = 1828
next_election = United States presidential election, 1836
next_year = 1836
election_date = November 2 - December 5, 1832


nominee1 = Andrew Jackson
party1 = Democratic Party (United States)
home_state1 = Tennessee
running_mate1 = Martin Van Buren, William Wilkins
electoral_vote1 = 219
states_carried1 = 16
popular_vote1 = 701,780
percentage1 = 54.2%


nominee2 = Henry Clay
party2 = National Republican Party (United States)
home_state2 = Kentucky
running_mate2 = John Sergeant
electoral_vote2 = 49
states_carried2 = 6
popular_vote2 = 484,205^(b)
percentage2 = 37.4%


nominee4 = John Floyd
party4 = Nullifier Party
home_state4 = Virginia
running_mate4 = Henry Lee
electoral_vote4 = 11
states_carried4 = 1
popular_vote4 = —^(c)
percentage4 = —%


nominee5 = William Wirt
party5 = Anti-Masonic Party
home_state5 = Maryland
running_mate5 = Amos Ellmaker
electoral_vote5 = 7
states_carried5 = 1
popular_vote5 = 100,715^(b)
percentage5 = 7.8%
map_

---

map_size = 350px
map_caption = Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Jackson and Van Buren or Wilkins, dark brown denotes those won by Clay/Sergeant, green denotes those won by Floyd/Lee, and gold denotes those won by Wirt/Ellmaker. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
title = President
before_election = Andrew Jackson
before_party = Democratic Party (United States)
before_color = FFF402
after_election = Andrew Jackson
after_party = Democratic Party (United States)
after_color = FFF402

The United States presidential election of 1832 saw incumbent President Andrew Jackson, candidate of the Democratic Party, easily win reelection against Henry Clay of Kentucky. Jackson won 219 of the 286 electoral votes cast, easily defeating Clay, the candidate of the National Republican party and Anti-Masonic Party candidate William Wirt. John Floyd, who was not a candidate, received the electoral vote of South Carolina.

This was the first national election for Martin Van Buren of New York, who was put on the ticket to succeed John Caldwell Calhoun and four years later would succeed Jackson as President. Van Buren faced opposition for the Vice Presidency within his own party, however, and as a result 30 Pennsylvania electors cast ballots for native son William Wilkins.

Nominations

The death of the Congressional nominating caucus in 1824 had left a void: there was no institutional method on the national level for determining the nominees for President. This void was filled by a political innovation; for the first time in United States history, the candidates were chosen by national conventions. The first national convention was held by the Anti-Masonic Party in Baltimore, Maryland in September 1831. The National Republican Party and the Democratic Party soon imitated them, also holding conventions in Baltimore. [Chase, James S. "Emergence of the Presidential Nominating Convention, 1789-1832" (1973).]

Anti-Masonic Party nomination

Anti-Masonic candidates

* John McLean, Supreme Court Justice from Ohio
* Richard Rush, former Secretary of the Treasury from Pennsylvania
* William Wirt, former Attorney General from Maryland

The first Anti-Masonic candidates ran in the spring elections of 1828; Solomon Southwick was the candidate for Governor of New York and received 12% of the vote [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=111824] . Nationally, the Anti-Masonic Party was organized in a national convention held from September 11 to September 18, 1831 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ninety-six delegates attended from 10 states and the Michigan Territory. At this time, "conventions" were an innovative means of gathering people to discuss common interests; other conventions of the era included those for agricultural or social causes. A little over a year later, the Party was to hold the first national nominating convention in the history of the United States.

The first Anti-Masonic Party national nominating convention was held in the Athenaeum in Baltimore, Maryland from September 26, 1831 to September 28, 1831. There were 111 delegates present from 13 states (all from free states except for Maryland and Delaware). The delegates met behind closed doors for several days before the convention officially opened, in which the convention made some initial decisions. Several unofficial presidential ballots and one official ballot were taken, in which William Wirt defeated Rush, McLean for the nomination. The official ballot results were

Barbour Democratic Party nomination

The Barbour Democratic National Convention was held in June 1832 in Staunton, Virginia. Jackson was nominated for president and Philip P. Barbour was nominated for vice president. Although Barbour withdrew, the ticket appeared on the ballot in five states (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia).

General election

Campaign

The election campaign revolved around the Second Bank of the United States. Jackson, who disliked banks and paper money in general, vetoed the renewal of the Bank's charter and withdrew federal deposits from the bank. Clay hoped to divide Jackson's supporters and curry favor in Pennsylvania, the bank's headquarters, by attacking Jackson. His supporters attacked Jackson's use of presidential veto power, showing him as “King Andrew”. However, the attacks on Jackson generally failed, in spite of heavy funding by the bank, as Jackson convinced the ordinary population that he was defending them against a privileged elite. Jackson campaign events were marked by enormous turnout, and he swept Pennsylvania and the vast majority of the country.

Results

Source (Popular Vote): Leip PV source| year=1832| as of=July 27, 2005

Source (Electoral Vote): National Archives EV source| year=1832| as of=July 31, 2005

^(a) "The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote."
^(b) "66,706 Pennsylvanians voted for the Union slate, which represented both Clay and Wirt. These voters have been assigned to Wirt and not Clay."
^(c) "All of John Floyd's electoral votes came from South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote."
^(d) "Two electors from Maryland failed to cast votes."

Electoral College selection

See also

* History of the United States (1789-1849)
* United States House elections, 1832

Notes

References

; Books:* cite book |last=Gammon |first=Samuel Rhea |url=http://www.archive.org/download/prescampaign00gammrich/prescampaign00gammrich.pdf |title=The Presidential Campaign of 1832 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press |year=1922|format=PDF:* Remini, Robert V. "Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union" (1993) :* Remini, Robert V. "Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom 1822-1832" (1981) ; Primary sources:* cite book |title=Journal Of The National Republican Convention, Which Assembled In The City Of Baltimore, Dec. 12, 1831, For The Nominations Of Candidates To Fill The Offices Of President And Vice President |http://books.google.com/books?id=ySN4mV6ptUUC&pg=PA1&dq=republican+convention |year=1831 |publisher=National Journal |location=Washington:* cite book |title=Summary Of The Proceedings Of A Convention Of Republican Delegates, From The Several States In The Union, For The Purpose of Nominating A Candidate For The Office Of Vice-President Of The United States; Held At Baltimore, In The State Of Maryland, May, 1832 |url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=LCCN09032457&id=8WC055De2fkC&printsec=titlepage |year=1832 |publisher=Packard and Van Benthuysen |location=Albany Note: the account of the convention in "Niles' Weekly Register" has more information than the printed proceedings. ; Web sites:* cite web |url=http://www.americanpresident.org/history/andrewjackson/biography/CampaignsElections.common.shtml |title=Andrew Jackson (1829–1837) |work=AmericanPresident.org |accessmonthday=March 18 |accessyear=2005:* cite web |url=http://www.answers.com/topic/elections |title=Elections |work=answers.com |accessmonthday=March 19 |accessyear=2005:* cite web |title=A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College |work=The Green Papers |url=http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Hx/ElectoralCollege.html |accessmonthday=March 20 |accessyear=2005:** source for “Electoral college selection”:* cite web |url=http://wilkes-fs1.wilkes.edu/~hcox/pres/PaPres1832.html |title=Pennsylvania Presidential Election Returns 1832 |work=The Wilkes University Election Statistics Project: Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682–2006 |accessmonthday=March 19 |accessyear=2005:* cite web |url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=58509 |title=Overview of Anti-Masonic National Convention of 1831 |work=Our Campaigns.com |accessyear=2006:* cite web |url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=58508 |title=Overview of National Republican Convention of 1831 |work=Our Campaigns.com |accessyear=2006:* cite web |url=http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=58088 |title=Overview of Democratic National Convention of 1832 |work=Our Campaigns.com |accessyear=2006

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