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1808 United States presidential election

← 1804 November 4 – December 7, 1808 1812 →
176 members of the Electoral College 89 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	36.8% 13.0 pp
Nominee James Madison Charles C. Pinckney Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Home state Virginia South Carolina Running mate George Clinton Rufus King Electoral vote 122 47 States carried 12 5 Popular vote 124,732 62,431 Percentage 64.8% 32.4%
Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Madison, burnt orange denotes states won by Pinckney, and light green denotes states won by Clinton. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state.
President before election Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican Elected President James Madison Democratic-Republican

The 1808 United States presidential election was the sixth quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 4, to Wednesday, 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 re-nominated 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

1808 Democratic-Republican Party Ticket
James Madison	George Clinton
for President	for Vice President
5th U.S. Secretary of State (1801–1809)	4th Vice President of the United States (1805–1812)

Presidential candidates

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

• Secretary of State
  James Madison
  from Virginia
• Former U.S. Ambassador
  James Monroe
  from Virginia
• 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
• Governor
  John Langdon
  from New Hampshire
• Secretary of War
  Henry Dearborn
  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.

The caucus was held in January 1808, and Secretary of State James Madison won the presidential nomination with the support of President Thomas Jefferson against James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice-presidential nomination to Clinton against his main opponent John Langdon although Clinton's supporters believed that he would receive the Federalist's presidential nomination, but it instead went to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.

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. Monroe was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans, and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race. 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.

Balloting

Federalist Party nomination

1808 Federalist Party Ticket
Charles C. Pinckney	Rufus King
for President	for Vice President
Former U.S. Minister to France (1796–1797)	Former 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.

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, while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.

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 North Carolina and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

1. New Hampshire, 4.8% (1,292 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

1. Rhode Island, 6.6% (380 votes)
2. North Carolina, 7.55% (1,306 votes)

Electoral college selection

See also

• History of the United States (1789–1849)
• First inauguration of James Madison
• 1808–1809 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1808–1809 United States Senate elections

References

1. "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press. Archived from the original on November 14, 2016.
2. ^ National Party Conventions, 1831-1976. Congressional Quarterly. 1979.
3. Sabato, Larry; Ernst, Howard (January 1, 2009). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. pp. 302–304.
4. ^ Ammon, Harry (1963). "James Monroe and the Election of 1808 in Virginia". The William and Mary Quarterly. 20 (1): 33–56. doi:10.2307/1921354. JSTOR 1921354.
5. Kaminski, John P. (1993). George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 281–288. ISBN 9780945612186. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
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. 49–50.
7. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
8. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
9. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
10. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
11. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
12. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
13. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
14. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
15. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
16. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved October 8, 2020.

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 Archived October 1, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
• Presidential Election of 1808: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• "A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2005.
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825

v t e State results of the 1808 U.S. presidential election
Candidates	James Madison Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
General articles	Election timeline
Local results	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Kentucky Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Vermont Virginia
Other 1808 elections	House Senate

• 1808 United States presidential election
• Presidency of James Madison
• James Madison