1808 United States presidential election

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Use American EnglishTemplate:For Template:Infobox election Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 4 to December 7, 1808. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively.

Madison had served as Secretary of State since President Thomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who had declined to run for a third term, threw his strong support behind Madison, a fellow Virginian. Sitting Vice President George Clinton and former Ambassador James Monroe both challenged Madison for leadership of the party, but Madison won his party's nomination and Clinton was renominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's 1804 nominee, again alongside Rufus King.

Despite the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807, Madison won the vast majority of electoral votes outside of the Federalist stronghold of New England. Clinton received six electoral votes for president from his home state of New York. This election was the first of two instances in American history in which a new president was selected but the incumbent vice president won re-election, the other being in 1828.

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination

Democratic-Republican Party Democratic-Republican Party 1808 Democratic-Republican Party Ticket
[[James Madison|Template:Color]]	[[George Clinton (vice president)|Template:Color]]
for President	for Vice President
File:James Madison by Gilbert Stuart (3).jpg	File:George Clinton by Ezra Ames.jpg
5th U.S. Secretary of State (1801–1809)	4th Vice President of the United States (1805–1812)

File:Thomas Jefferson by Rembrandt Peale, 1800.jpg

Thomas Jefferson, the incumbent president in 1808, whose second term expired on March 4, 1809

Presidential candidates

• James Madison (Virginia), Secretary of State
• James Monroe (Virginia), Former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain
• George Clinton (New York), Vice President of the United States

• Secretary of State James Madison from Virginia
  Secretary of State
  James Madison
  from Virginia
• Former U.S. Ambassador James Monroe from Virginia
  Former U.S. Ambassador
  James Monroe
  from Virginia
• Vice President George Clinton from New York
  Vice President
  George Clinton
  from New York

Vice-presidential candidates

• George Clinton (New York), Vice President of the United States
• John Langdon (New Hampshire), Governor
• Henry Dearborn (Massachusetts), Secretary of War
• John Quincy Adams (Massachusetts), United States Senator

• Vice President George Clinton from New York
  Vice President
  George Clinton
  from New York
• Governor John Langdon from New Hampshire
  Governor
  John Langdon
  from New Hampshire
• Secretary of War Henry Dearborn from Massachusetts
  Secretary of War
  Henry Dearborn
  from Massachusetts
• Senator John Quincy Adams from Massachusetts
  Senator
  John Quincy Adams
  from Massachusetts

Caucus

Senator Stephen R. Bradley, who had chaired the congressional nominating caucus during the 1804 presidential election, made a call for the 1808 caucus to the 146 Democratic-Republican members of the United States Congress and Federalist allies. The caucus was attended by 89 to 94 members of Congress.<ref name="book">Template:Cite book</ref>

The caucus was held in January 1808. With the support of outgoing President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State James Madison won the presidential nomination over opposing candidates James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice presidential nomination to Clinton over his main opponent John Langdon, although Clinton's supporters believed Clinton would receive the Federalist Party's presidential nomination. The Federalists instead nominated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney that September. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.<ref name="book" /><ref name=sabato1>Template:Cite book</ref>

Seventeen Democratic-Republicans in Congress opposed Madison's selection and the caucus system whose authority to select presidential and vice-presidential candidates was disputed. Clinton also opposed the caucus system.<ref name="book" /> Monroe, who was supported by dissident and majority leader John Randolph, was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans (Old Republicans), and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race.<ref name=ammon>Template:Cite journal</ref> Clinton was also supported by a group of New York Democratic-Republicans for president even as he remained the party's official vice presidential candidate.<ref name=kaminski>Template:Cite book</ref>

Balloting

Presidential Ballot	Total	Vice Presidential Ballot	Total
James Madison	83	George Clinton	79
James Monroe	3	John Langdon	5
George Clinton	3	Henry Dearborn	3
		John Quincy Adams	1

Federalist Party nomination

Federalist Party Federalist Party 1808 Federalist Party Ticket
[[Charles Cotesworth Pinckney|Template:Color]]	[[Rufus King|Template:Color]]
for President	for Vice President
File:CharlesCPinckney (cropped).png	File:Gilbert Stuart - Portrait of Rufus King (1819-1820) - Google Art Project.jpg
6th U.S. Minister to France (1796–1797)	3rd U.S. Minister to Great Britain (1796–1803)

The Federalist caucus met in September 1808 and re-nominated the party's 1804 ticket, which consisted of General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina and former Senator Rufus King of New York.<ref name="deskins1">Template:Cite book</ref> This was the only time in American history that a defeated major party renominated its losing ticket for a second time.

General election

Campaign

The election was marked by opposition to Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurt New England merchants and was perceived as favoring France over Britain. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Americans generally and Pinckney was soundly defeated by Madison, though not as badly as in 1804. Pinckney received few electoral votes outside of New England.

Results

Pinckney retained the electoral votes of the two states that he carried in 1804 (Connecticut and Delaware), and he also picked up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and three electoral districts in North Carolina besides the two electoral districts in Maryland that he carried earlier. Except for the North Carolina districts, all of the improvement was in New England.

Monroe won a portion of the popular vote in Virginia and North Carolina,<ref name=ammon/> while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.<ref name=kaminski/>

File:United States Electoral College 1808.svg Template:Start U.S. presidential ticket box Template:U.S. presidential ticket box rowspan Template:U.S. presidential ticket box vp subrow Template:U.S. presidential ticket box row Template:U.S. presidential ticket box rowspan Template:U.S. presidential ticket box vp subrow Template:U.S. presidential ticket box row Template:U.S. presidential ticket box row Template:End U.S. presidential ticket box

Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Source (Electoral Vote): Template:National Archives EV source

^(a) Only 10 of the 17 states chose electors by popular vote.
^(b) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
^(c) One Elector from Kentucky did not vote.

Maps

• Electoral College map
  Electoral College map
• Map of presidential election results by county, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate
  Map of presidential election results by county, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate
• Map of presidential election results by electoral district, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate. Electoral boundaries for Maryland could not be found
  Map of presidential election results by electoral district, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate. Electoral boundaries for Maryland could not be found

Popular vote by state

The popular vote totals used are the elector from each party with the highest total of votes. The vote totals of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.

State	James Madison Democratic-Republican		Charles C. Pinckney Federalist		James Monroe Democratic-Republican		Other		Margin		Citation
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Kentucky	2,679+	76.89%	54	1.55%	No ballots		751	21.56%	1,874	53.78%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Maryland	15,336	67.30%	7,433	32.62%	No ballots		18	0.08%	7,885	34.60%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
New Hampshire	12,793	47.59%	14,085	52.40%	No ballots		4	0.01%	-1,288	-4.8%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
New Jersey	18,670	55.97%	14,687	44.03%	No ballots		3	0.01%	3,980	11.93%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
North Carolina	9,932+	52.70%	7,975+	42.32%	939+	4.98%	No ballots		1,018	5.40%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ohio	3,645	60.82%	1,174	19.59%	1,174	19.59%	No ballots		2,471	41.23%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Pennsylvania	42,518	78.37%	11,735	21.63%	No ballots		No ballots		30,783	56.74%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Rhode Island	2,692	46.70%	3,072	53.30%	No ballots		No ballots		-380	-6.60%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Tennessee	1,016	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	?Template:Efn	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Virginia	15,683	78.62%	761	3.81%	3,505	17.57%	No ballots		12,178	61.05%	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

States that flipped from Democratic-Republican to Federalist

• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• Rhode Island

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

1. New Hampshire, 4.8% (1,288 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

1. Rhode Island, 6.6% (380 votes)
2. North Carolina, 5.40% (1,018 votes)

See also

• History of the United States (1789–1849)
• First inauguration of James Madison
• 1808–09 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1808–09 United States Senate elections

Further reading

• Brant, Irving, "Election of 1808" in Arthur Meier Schlesinger and Fred L. Israel, eds. History of American presidential elections, 1789-1968: Volume 1 (1971) pp 185-249
• Carson, David A. "Quiddism and the Reluctant Candidacy of James Monroe in the Election of 1808," Mid-America 1988 70(2): 79–89

External links

• Election of 1808 in Counting the Votes Template:Webarchive
• Presidential Election of 1808: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Template:Cite web
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825