United States presidential election, 1836

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The United States presidential election of 1836 is predominantly remembered for three reasons:

1. It was the last election until 1988 to result in the elevation of an incumbent Vice President to the nation's highest office.
2. It was the only race in which a major political party intentionally ran several presidential candidates. The Whigs ran three different candidates in different regions of the country, hoping that each would be popular enough to defeat Democratic standard-bearer Martin Van Buren in their respective areas. The House of Representatives could then decide between the competing Whig candidates. This strategy failed: Van Buren won a majority of the electoral vote and became President.
3. This election is the first (and to date only) time in which a Vice Presidential election was thrown into the Senate.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Incumbent president Andrew Jackson decided to retire after two terms and supported his Vice President, Martin Van Buren. Although Southerners disliked the New Yorker Van Buren as well as his intended running mate, Colonel Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky, Jackson secured the nomination at a meeting in Baltimore.

Whig nomination

The National Republicans joined together with dissident Democrats, including those angered by Jackson's opposition to states' rights, to form the Whig Party. Unable to agree on a single candidate, they ran different candidates in each section of the country to deny Van Buren a majority. Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster ran in New England, popular former general William Henry Harrison in the West, and Tennessee Senator Hugh Lawson White, a states' rights supporter, in the South.

General election

Campaign

The Whigs attacked Van Buren on all sides, even disrupting the Senate where he presided. Harrison was the most effective of his opponents, but Van Buren's effective party organization carried the day, earning him a majority.

Results

Virginia's electors refused to vote for Van Buren's running mate, Richard Mentor Johnson, leaving him one vote short of the 148-vote majority required to elect. Under the Twelfth Amendment, the Senate would decide between the top two vote-getters, Johnson and Francis Granger.

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. [1836 Presidential Election Results]. [Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections] (July 27, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): [Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996]. [Official website of the National Archives]. (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) Mangum received his electoral votes from South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote.

Source: [Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996]. [Official website of the National Archives]. (July 31, 2005).

Breakdown by ticket

{| class="wikitable" ! Presidential Candidate ! Running Mate ! Electoral Vote |- | Martin Van Buren | Richard Mentor Johnson | 147 |- | William Henry Harrison | Francis P. Granger | 63 |- | Hugh Lawson White | John Tyler | 26 |- | Martin Van Buren | William Smith | 23 |- | Daniel Webster | Francis P. Granger | 14 |- | Willie Person Mangum | John Tyler | 11 |- | William Henry Harrison | John Tyler | 10

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Contingent election

The Senate was required to choose which of Richard Johnson and Francis Granger would be the next Vice President. Johnson was elected easily in a single ballot.

for Richard M. Johnson

for Francis P. Granger

Thomas Hart 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 Davidson Ewing of Illinois William Savin Fulton of Arkansas Felix Grundy of Tennessee William Hendricks of Indiana Henry Hubbard of New Hampshire William Rufus de Vane King of Alabama John Pendleton King of Georgia Lewis Fields Linn of Missouri Lucius Lyon of Michigan Samuel McKean of Pennsylvania Gabriel Moore of Alabama Thomas Morris of Ohio Alexander Mouton of Louisiana Robert Carter Nicholas of Louisiana John Milton Niles of Connecticut John Norvell of Michigan John Page of New Hampshire Richard Elliott Parker of Virginia William Cabell Rives of Virginia John McCracken Robinson of Illinois John Ruggles of Maine Ambrose Hundley Sevier of Arkansas Robert Strange of North Carolina Nathaniel Pitcher Tallmadge of New York John Tipton of Indiana Robert John Walker of Mississippi Silas Wright, Jr. of New York

Richard Henry Bayard of Delaware Henry Clay of Kentucky Thomas Clayton of Delaware John Jordan Crittenden of Kentucky John Davis of Massachusetts Thomas Ewing of Ohio Joseph Kent of Maryland Nehemiah Rice Knight of Rhode Island Samuel Prentiss of Vermont Asher Robbins of Rhode Island Samuel Lewis Southard of New Jersey John Selby Spence of Maryland Benjamin Swift of Vermont Gideon Tomlinson of Connecticut Garret Dorset Wall of New Jersey Daniel Webster of Massachusetts

Electoral college selection

{| class="wikitable" ! Method of choosing Electors ! State(s) |- | each Elector appointed by state legislature | South Carolina |- | each Elector chosen by voters statewide | (all other states)

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See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)

References

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