1832 United States presidential election

The 1832 United States presidential election was the 12th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 2 to Wednesday, December 5, 1832. Incumbent president Andrew Jackson, candidate of the Democratic Party, defeated Henry Clay, candidate of the National Republican Party.

1832 United States presidential election

November 2 – December 5, 1832

288 members of the Electoral College[lower-alpha 1]
145 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout57%[1] Decrease 0.3 pp
 
Nominee Andrew Jackson Henry Clay
Party Democratic National Republican
Home state Tennessee Kentucky
Running mate Martin Van Buren[lower-alpha 2] John Sergeant
Electoral vote 219 49
States carried 16 6
Popular vote 701,780 484,205
Percentage 54.2% 37.4%

 
Nominee John Floyd William Wirt
Party Nullifier Anti-Masonic
Home state Virginia Maryland
Running mate Henry Lee Amos Ellmaker
Electoral vote 11 7
States carried 1 1
Popular vote N/A[lower-alpha 3] 100,715
Percentage N/A 7.8%

Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Jackson and Van Buren or Wilkins, light yellow denotes those won by Clay/Sergeant, teal denotes those won by Floyd/Lee, and orange-yellow denotes those won by Wirt/Ellmaker. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. Two votes were not given in Maryland.

President before election

Andrew Jackson
Democratic

Elected President

Andrew Jackson
Democratic

The election saw the first use of the presidential nominating conventions, and the Democrats, National Republicans, and the Anti-Masonic Party all used conventions to select their candidates. Jackson won re-nomination with no opposition, and the 1832 Democratic National Convention replaced Vice President John C. Calhoun with Martin Van Buren. The National Republican Convention nominated a ticket led by Clay, a Kentuckian who had served as Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams. The Anti-Masonic Party, one of the first major U.S. third parties, nominated former Attorney General William Wirt.

Jackson faced heavy criticism for his actions in the Bank War, but remained popular among the general public. He won a majority of the popular vote and 219 of the 286 electoral votes, carrying most states outside New England. Clay won 37.4% of the popular vote and 49 electoral votes, while Wirt won 7.8% of the popular vote and carried the state of Vermont. Virginia Governor John Floyd, who had not actively campaigned, won South Carolina's electoral votes. After the election, members of the National Republican Party and the Anti-Masonic Party formed the Whig Party, which became the Democrats' primary opponent over the next two decades.

Nominations

With the demise of the Congressional nominating caucus in the election of 1824, the political system was left without an institutional method on the national level for determining presidential nominations. For this reason, the candidates of 1832 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, which would remain a favored venue for national political conventions for decades.[2]

Democratic Party

1832 Democratic Party ticket
Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren
for President for Vice President
7th
President of the United States
(1829–1837)
13th

U.S. Minister to Great Britain
(1831–1832)

President Jackson and Vice President Calhoun had a strained relationship for a number of reasons, most notably a difference in opinion about the Nullification Crisis and the involvement of Calhoun's wife Floride in the Eaton affair. As a result, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War John H. Eaton resigned from office in April 1831, and Jackson requested the resignation of all other cabinet officers except one. Van Buren instigated the procedure as a means of removing Calhoun supporters from the Cabinet. Calhoun further aggravated Jackson in the summer of 1831 when he issued his "Fort Hill Letter," in which he outlined the constitutional basis for a state's ability to nullify an act of Congress. The final blow to the Jackson-Calhoun relationship came when Jackson nominated Van Buren to serve as Minister to Great Britain and the vote in the Senate ended in a tie, which Calhoun broke by voting against confirmation on January 25, 1832.[3]

In January it was not clear who the Democrats' candidates would be in the election later that year. Jackson had already been nominated by several state legislatures, following the pattern in 1824 and 1828, but he worried that the various state parties would not unite on a vice-presidential nominee. As a result, the Democratic Party followed the pattern of the opposition and called a national convention.[4]

Convention vote
President Vice President
Andrew Jackson 283 Martin Van Buren 208
  Philip P. Barbour 49
  Richard M. Johnson 26

The 1832 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party's first, was held in the Athenaeum in Baltimore (the same venue as the two opposition parties) from May 21 to May 23, 1832. Several decisions were made at the convention. On the first day, a committee was appointed to provide a list of delegates from each state. This committee, later called the Credentials Committee, reported that all states were represented. Delegates were present from the District of Columbia, and on the first contested roll call vote in convention history, the convention voted 126–153 to deprive the District of Columbia of its voting rights in the convention. The Rules Committee gave a brief report that established several other customs. Each state was allotted as many votes as it had presidential electors; several states were overrepresented and many were underrepresented. Second, balloting was taken by states and not by individual delegates. Third, two-thirds of the delegates would have to support a candidate for nomination, a measure intended to reduce sectional strife. The fourth rule, which banned nomination speeches, was the only one the party quickly abandoned.

No roll call vote was taken to nominate Jackson for a second term. Instead, the convention passed a resolution stating that "we most cordially concur in the repeated nominations which he has received in various parts of the union." Martin Van Buren was nominated for vice president on the first ballot, receiving 208 votes to 49 for Philip P. Barbour and 26 for Richard Mentor Johnson. Afterward, the convention approved an address to the nation and adjourned.

Barbour Democrats

The Barbour Democratic National Convention was held in June 1832 in Staunton, Virginia. Jackson was nominated for president and Philip P. Barbour for vice president. Barbour withdrew, but the ticket appeared on the ballot in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia.[5]

National Republican Party

1832 National Republican ticket
Henry Clay John Sergeant
for President for Vice President
U.S. Senator
from Kentucky
(1806–1807, 1810–1811, & 1831–1842)
U.S. Representative
for Pennsylvania's 2nd
(1827–1829)

Soon after the Anti-Masonic Party held its national convention, supporters of Henry Clay called a national convention of the National Republican Party. 18 of the 24 states sent delegations to the convention, which convened on December 12, 1831.[6] The convention was attended by 168 delegates from eighteen states although one-fourth of the delegates were late due to winter weather.[7]

On the convention's fourth day, the roll call ballot for president took place. The chairman of the convention called the name of each delegate, who gave his vote orally. Clay received 155 votes, with delegate Frederick H. Shuman of North Carolina abstaining because he believed that Clay could not win and should wait until 1836. As additional delegates arrived, they were allowed to cast their votes for Clay, and by the end of the convention he had 167 votes to one abstention. A similar procedure was used for the vice-presidential ballot. Former Congressman John Sergeant of Pennsylvania was nominated with 64 votes to six abstentions. A prominent Philadelphia attorney with connections to the Second Bank of the United States and a reputation as an opponent of slavery, Sergeant gave the ticket geographical balance.[8]

Convention vote[9]
President Vice President
Henry Clay 167 John Sergeant 162
Abstaining 1 Abstaining 6

Anti-Masonic Party

1832 Anti-Masonic Party ticket
William Wirt Amos Ellmaker
for President for Vice President
9th
U.S. Attorney General
(1817–1829)
12th
Attorney General of Pennsylvania
(1816–1819)
"King Andrew the First", an Anti-Jacksonian poster shows Andrew Jackson as a monarch trampling the Constitution, the federal judiciary, and the Bank of the United States

The first national nominating convention for a presidential candidate in American history was held by the Anti-Masonic Party in Baltimore, Maryland from September 26–28, 1831. The convention was attended by 116 delegates from thirteen states with Maryland being the furthest state in the South represented. The leaders of the party attempted to give the presidential nomination to Clay and Supreme Court Justice John McLean, but both declined.[7]

Several prominent politicians were considered for the presidential nomination. Richard Rush would have been the nominee, but pointedly refused. As a result of this action, along with his softness toward Jackson, former President John Quincy Adams never forgave him. Adams was willing to run as the Anti-Masonic candidate, but the party leaders did not want to risk running someone so unpopular.[10]

The delegates met behind closed doors for several days before the convention officially opened, making some initial decisions. Several unofficial presidential ballots and one official ballot were taken, in which William Wirt defeated Rush and John McLean for the nomination. Ironically, Wirt was a Mason and even defended the Order in a speech before the convention that nominated him.[11] Wirt hoped for an endorsement from the National Republicans. When the National Republican Party nominated Henry Clay, Wirt's position became awkward. He did not withdraw, even though he had no chance of being elected.[10]

The convention was organized on September 26 and heard reports of its committees on the 27th. The 28th was spent on the official roll call for president and vice president. During the balloting, each delegate's name was called, after which that delegate placed a written ballot in a special box. Wirt was nominated for president with 108 votes to one for Rush and two abstentions. Amos Ellmaker was nominated for vice president with 108 votes to one for John C. Spencer (chairman of the convention) and two abstentions.

Convention vote[12]
President Vice President
William Wirt 108 Amos Ellmaker 108
Richard Rush 1 John C. Spencer 1
Abstaining 2 Abstaining 1

Nullifier Party

While the South Carolina state legislature remained nominally under Democratic control, it refused to support Jackson's reelection due to the ongoing Nullification Crisis, and instead opted to back a ticket proposed by the Nullifier Party led by John C. Calhoun. The Nullifiers were made up of former members of the Democratic-Republican Party who had largely supported Jackson at the previous election, but were much stauncher proponents of states' rights, which ultimately led them to repudiate Jackson during his first term. Calhoun himself declined to head the ticket, instead nominating Governor of Virginia John Floyd, who also opposed Jackson's stance on states' rights. Merchant and economist Henry Lee was nominated as Floyd's running mate.[13]

Ultimately, Floyd's candidacy amounted to little more than a protest against Jackson, as his ticket did not run in any state outside of South Carolina. He nonetheless received all the state's electoral votes.[14]

General election

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Jackson/Van Buren (Democratic), shades of orange are for Clay (National Republican), shades of red are for Wirt (Anti-Masonic), and shades of green are for Jackson/Barbour (Democratic).

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 criticized Jackson's use of presidential veto power, portraying him as "King Andrew."[15]

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.[16]

Results

Jackson won the election in an electoral college landslide.[17] Jackson received 219 electoral votes, defeating Clay (49), Floyd (11), and Wirt (7) by a large margin.[18]

Jackson's popularity with the American public and the vitality of the political movement with which he was associated is confirmed by the fact that no president was again able to secure a majority of the popular vote in two consecutive elections until Ulysses S. Grant in 1872. To date, only two other presidents from the Democratic party were ever able to replicate this feat: Franklin D. Roosevelt (for the first time in 1936) and Barack Obama (in 2012). Furthermore, no president succeeded in securing re-election again until Abraham Lincoln in 1864.[19]

As of 2023, Jackson was the second of seven presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon. Of these, Jackson, Cleveland, and Roosevelt also won the popular vote in at least three elections.

Jackson was the second of only five presidents to win re-election with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than in prior elections, the other four are James Madison in 1812, Grover Cleveland in 1892, Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 and 1944 and Barack Obama in 2012.[20]

Following the election and Clay's defeat, an Anti-Jackson coalition would be formed out of National Republicans, Anti-Masons, disaffected Jacksonians, and small remnants of the Federalist Party whose last political activity was with them a decade before. In the short term, it formed the Whig Party in a coalition against President Jackson and his reforms.[21]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote(a)[22] Electoral
vote(d)[18]
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote(d)[18]
Andrew Jackson (Incumbent) Democratic Tennessee 701,780 54.23% 219 Martin Van Buren New York 189
William Wilkins Pennsylvania 30
Henry Clay Sr. National Republican Kentucky 484,205(b) 37.42% 49 John Sergeant Pennsylvania 49
John Floyd Nullifier Virginia (c) 11 Henry Lee Massachusetts 11
William Wirt Anti-Masonic Maryland 100,715(b) 7.78% 7 Amos Ellmaker Pennsylvania 7
Other 7,273 0.57% Other
Total 1,293,973 100% 286 286
Needed to win 145 145

(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 for Clay failed to cast votes.

Popular vote
Jackson
54.23%
Clay
37.42%
Wirt
7.78%
Others
0.57%
Electoral vote
Jackson
76.57%
Clay
17.13%
Floyd
3.85%
Wirt
2.45%

Results by state

The 1832 presidential election results, by state, are displayed in the map below.[18][23]

States/districts won by Jackson/Van Buren
States/districts won by Clay/Sergeant
States/districts won by Wirt/Ellmaker
States/districts won by Floyd/Lee
Andrew Jackson
Democratic
Henry Clay
National Republican
William Wirt
Anti-Masonic
John Floyd
Nullifier
Margin State Total
State electoral
votes
#  % electoral
votes
#  % electoral
votes
#  % electoral
votes
#  % electoral
votes
#  % #
Alabama 7 0001361814,286 99.97 7 000486695 0.03 - no ballots no ballots 14,281 99.94 14,291 AL
Connecticut 8 11,269 34.32 - 18,155 55.29 8 3,409 10.38 - no ballots -6,886 -20.97 32,833 CT
Delaware 3 4,110 49.01 - 4,276 50.99 3 no ballots no ballots -166 -1.98 8,386 DE
Georgia 11 20,750 100 11 no ballots no ballots no ballots 20,750 100.00 20,750 GA
Illinois 5 14,609 68.01 5 6,745 31.40 - 97 0.45 - no ballots 7,864 36.61 21,481 IL
Indiana 9 31,551 67.10 9 15,472 32.90 - no ballots no ballots 16,079 34.20 47,023 IN
Kentucky 15 36,292 45.51 - 43,449 54.49 15 no ballots no ballots -36,249 -8.98 79,741 KY
Louisiana 5 3,908 61.67 5 2,429 38.33 - no ballots no ballots 1,479 23.34 6,337 LA
Maine 10 33,978 54.67 10 27,331 43.97 - 844 1.36 - no ballots 6,647 10.70 62,153 ME
Maryland-1[lower-alpha 4] 4 5,097 37.60 - 8,458 62.40 2 no ballots no ballots -3,361 -24.79 13,555 MD1
Maryland-2 2 5,025 54.19 2 4,248 45.81 - no ballots no ballots 777 8.38 9,273 MD2
Maryland-3[lower-alpha 5] 1 2,900 100 1 no ballots no ballots no ballots 2900 100 2900 MD3
Maryland-4 3 6,129 41.70 - 6,454 51.29 3 no ballots no ballots -325 -2.58 12,583 MD4
Massachusetts 14 13,933 20.61 - 31,963 47.27 14 14,692 21.73 - no ballots -10,737 -25.54 67,619 MA
Mississippi 4 5,750 100 4 no ballots no ballots no ballots 5,750 100.00 5,750 MS
Missouri 4 5,192 100 4 no ballots no ballots no ballots 5,192 100.00 5,192 MO
New Hampshire 7 24,855 56.67 7 18,938 43.24 - no ballots no ballots 5,917 13.43 43,793 NH
New Jersey 8 23,826 49.89 8 23,466 49.13 - 468 0.98 - no ballots 360 0.76 47,760 NJ
New York 42 168,497 52.10 42 154,896 47.90 - no ballots no ballots 13,601 4.20 323,393 NY
North Carolina 15 25,261 84.77 15 4,538 15.23 - no ballots no ballots 20,723 69.54 29,799 NC
Ohio 21 81,246 51.33 21 76,539 48.35 - 509 0.32 - no ballots 4,707 2.98 158,294 OH
Pennsylvania 30 91,949 57.96 30 no ballots 66,689 42.04 - no ballots 25,260 15.92 158,638 PA
Rhode Island 4 2,126 43.07 - 2,810 56.93 4 no ballots no ballots -684 -13.86 4,936 RI
South Carolina 11 no popular vote no popular vote no popular vote no popular vote 11 - - - SC
Tennessee 15 28,078 95.42 15 1,347 4.58 - no ballots no ballots 26,731 90.84 29,425 TN
Vermont 7 7,870 24.50 - 11,152 34.71 - 13,106 40.79 7 no ballots -5,236 -6.08 32,128 VT
Virginia 23 34,243 74.96 23 11,436 25.03 - 3 0.01 - no ballots 22,807 49.92 45,682 VA
TOTALS: 288 702,735 54.74 219 474,107 36.93 49 99,817 7.78 7 - - 11 228,628 17.81 1,276,659 US
TO WIN: 145

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 1%:

  1. New Jersey 0.76% (360 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

  1. Delaware 1.98% (166 votes)
  2. Maryland's 4th District 2.58% (325 votes)
  3. Ohio 2.98% (4,707 votes)
  4. New York 4.20% (13,601 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

  1. Vermont 6.08% (5,236 votes)
  2. Maryland's 2nd District 8.38% (777 votes)
  3. Kentucky 8.98% (36,249 votes)

Tipping point states:

  1. Maine 10.70% (6,647 votes) (tipping point state for a Jackson victory)
  2. Pennsylvania 15.90% (25,260 votes) (tipping point state for a Clay victory)

Electoral College selection

Method of choosing electors State(s)
State is divided into electoral districts, with one or more Electors chosen per district by the voters of that district Maryland[24]
Each Elector appointed by state legislature South Carolina
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide (all other States)

See also

Notes

  1. Electors were elected to all 288 apportioned positions; however, two electors from Maryland pledged to the Clay/Sergeant ticket abstained from casting a vote for president or vice president, bringing the total number of electoral votes cast to 286.
  2. In Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia, the Democratic vice presidential candidate listed on the ballot was Philip P. Barbour. However, all the Democratic electors from those states cast their electoral votes for Van Buren. 30 Pennsylvania electors voted for William Wilkins for vice president.
  3. Floyd did not appear on the ballot in any state that chose its electors via a popular vote. His electoral votes were awarded by the South Carolina state legislature.
  4. Clay won 4 Electors in District 1, but 2 were too ill to vote.
  5. 707 votes in Maryland District 3 were for a Jackson-Barbour Ticket.

References

  1. "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press.
  2. Chase, James S. Emergence of the Presidential Nominating Convention, 1789-1832 (1973).
  3. Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom 1822-1832 (1981), pp 237–47.
  4. H. W. Brands, Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times (2005) pp 468–475.
  5. William S. Belko, Philip Pendleton Barbour in Jacksonian America: An Old Republican in King Andrew’s Court (University of Alabama Press, 2016).
  6. Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press. pp. 97–98.
  7. National Party Conventions, 1831-1976. Congressional Quarterly. 1979.
  8. Haynes, Stan M. (2012). The First American Political Conventions: Transforming Presidential Nominations, 1832–1872. McFarland. pp. 30–31.
  9. Hinshaw, Seth (2000). Ohio Elects the President: Our State's Role in Presidential Elections 1804-1996. Mansfield: Book Masters, Inc. p. 20.
  10. James Schouler (1889). History of the United States of America Under the Constitution: 1831-1847. 1889. W.H. & O.H. Morrison. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
  11. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Anti-Masonic Party" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 127.
  12. "Niles' Weekly Register". Baltimore: Franklin Press. n.d.
  13. Rosenberg, Chaim M. (2011). The life and times of Francis Cabot Lowell, 1775-1817. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-7391-4685-9. OCLC 699506934.
  14. "FLOYD, John". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  15. Berkin, Carol (2011). Making America : a History of the United States (Brief Fifth ed.). Boston, MA: WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning. pp. 237–238. ISBN 978-0-618-47139-3. OCLC 377660026.
  16. "United States presidential election of 1832 | United States government". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  17. Gammon, Samuel Rhea (October 22, 1922). The Presidential Campaign of 1832. Johns Hopkins Press. p. 30 via Internet Archive. 1832 jackson landslide.
  18. "U. S. Electoral College". www.archives.gov. May 20, 2019.
  19. Vorenberg, Michael (2001). ""The Deformed Child": Slavery and the Election of 1864". Civil War History. 47 (3): 240–257. doi:10.1353/cwh.2001.0047. S2CID 143799163 via Gale Academic OneFile.
  20. "Share of electoral and popular votes by US president 1789-2020". Statista. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
  21. Holt, Michael F. (1999). The rise and fall of the American Whig Party : Jacksonian politics and the onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17, 137. ISBN 0195055446.
  22. "Presidential Election of 1832: A Resource Guide (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)". www.loc.gov.
  23. Williams, Edwin (1834). The Politician's Manual. J. Van Norden. p. 25. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
  24. "A History of Maryland's Electoral College Meetings 1789-2016" (PDF). Maryland State Board of Elections. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2020.

Bibliography

  • Belko, William S. "Toward the Second American Party System: Southern Jacksonians, the Election of 1832, and the Rise of the Democratic Party." Ohio Valley History 14.1 (2014): 28–50. online
  • Cheathem, Mark R. The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson (2018)
  • Cole, Donald B. "The Presidential Election of 1832 in New Hampshire." Historical New Hampshire 21#1 (1966) pp: 32–50.
  • Eriksson, Erik McKinley. "Official Newspaper Organs and Jackson's Re-election, 1832." Tennessee Historical Magazine 9.1 (1925): 37-58 online.
  • Folsom, Burton W. "Party Formation and Development in Jacksonian America: The Old South." Journal of American Studies 7#3 (1973): 217–229.
  • Gammon, Samuel Rhea (1922). The Presidential Campaign of 1832 (PDF). Johns Hopkins Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  • Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1999)
  • Remini, Robert V. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (1993)
  • Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom 1822-1832 (1981), detailed biography
  • Remini, Robert V. "Election of 1832." in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections (1968) vol 1 pp 494–516, Detailed coverage plus primary source
  • Ward, John William.(1955) Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age. New York: Oxford University Press.

Primary sources

Websites

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