United States presidential election, 1840

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The U.S. presidential election of 1840 saw President Martin Van Buren fight for re-election against an economic depression and a Whig Party unified for the first time behind war hero William Henry Harrison. Rallying under the slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," the Whigs easily defeated Van Buren.

This election was unique in that electors cast votes for four men who had been or would become President of the United States: current President Martin Van Buren; President-elect William Henry Harrison; Vice-President-elect John Tyler, who would succeed Harrison upon his death; and James Polk, who received one electoral vote for Vice President.

1 Nominations
- 1.1 Democratic Party nomination
- 1.2 Whig Party nomination
2 General election
- 2.1 Campaign
- 2.2 Results
3 Consequences
4 Electoral college selection
5 See also
6 References
7 Navigation

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Nominations

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Democratic Party nomination

Van Buren, the incumbent, was renominated in Baltimore in May 1840.

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Whig Party nomination

For the first time in their history, the Whigs held a national convention to determine their presidential candidate. It opened in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on December 4, 1839, almost a full year before the general election with the three leading candidates being William Henry Harrison, a war hero and the most successful of Van Buren's opponents in the 1836 election; Winfield Scott, another general, active in skirmishes with the British in 1837 and 1838; and Henry Clay, the Whigs' congressional leader and former Speaker of the House.

Clay led on the first ballot, but circumstances conspired to deny him the nomination. First of all, the convention came on the heels of a string of Whig electoral losses. Harrison had managed to distance himself from the losses, but Clay, as the party's philosophical leader, could not. Had the convention been held in the spring, when the economic downturn had led to a string of Whig victories, Clay would have had much greater support. Secondly, the convention rules had been drawn up so that whoever won the majority of delegates from a given state would win all the votes from that state; this worked against Clay because he had almost the whole of Southern delegations, which meant that he didn't capture many votes from his opponents in the South, while he had large minority support in Northern delegations, which meant that his opponents poached many delegates from him in the North. Finally, several Southern states which supported Clay had abstained from sending delegates to the convention. As a result, the nomination went to Harrison.

Because Harrison was a Northerner, the Whigs needed to balance the ticket with a Southerner. They also sought a Clay supporter to help unite the party. After being turned down by several Southern Clay supporters, the convention finally found a Southern nominee who had faithfully supported Clay throughout the convention and who would agree to run: Senator John Tyler of Virginia.

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General election

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Campaign

Image:~vb.JPG In the wake of the Panic of 1837, Van Buren was widely unpopular, and Harrison, following Andrew Jackson's strategy, ran as a war hero and man of the people while presenting Van Buren as a wealthy snob living in luxury at the public expense. Although Harrison was comfortably wealthy and well educated, his "log cabin" image caught fire, sweeping all sections of the country.

Harrison avoided campaigning on the issues, with his Whig Party a broad coalition with few common ideals.

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Results

Although his popular vote margin was only about 6 points, Harrison's electoral victory was overwhelming, carrying North, West, and South.

Template:Start U.S. presidential ticket box 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 vp subrow Template:U.S. presidential ticket box row Template:U.S. presidential ticket box other Template:End U.S. presidential ticket box Source (Popular Vote): Template:Leip PV source

Source (Electoral Vote): Template:National Archives EV source

^(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.

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Consequences

Harrison, the oldest President to date, would die little more than a month after his inauguration of pneumonia. The choice of Tyler for Vice President would prove to be disastrous for the Whigs: while Tyler had been a staunch supporter of Clay at the convention, he was a former Democrat and a passionate supporter of states' rights who would block the Whigs' political program in office. The Whigs would eventually drum him out of the party, but his elevation would cost them their best chance to put their ideas into practice.

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