Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series today we will be discussing the election of 1852. Sort of a repeat of the 1848 and 1844 elections as a dark candidate from the Democrats takes on a Military General from the Whigs and the Free Soil Party has returned in another three-way bout for the Presidency.
Presidential Shake-Up & The Compromise of 1850
Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States won the office in 1848 thanks to his vague views on political issues and his war hero status; Upon ascending to the Oval Office, many Southern politicians believed that they could be able to work with Taylor as the former general was not only from a Southern state like Kentucky but he was also a slave owner and one would assume this meant that Taylor had no problem appeasing to the South especially when it came to Slavery.
However much to the shock and anger of many Southerners, Taylor instead was more of a moderate on the slavery issue with some historians believing that Taylor was willing to compromise when it came to the issue of slavery but not to the extent of spreading into Western or Northern states even going so far as to make threats of hanging those who attempted to break up the Union over Slavery.
Unfortunately for “Old Rough and Ready” his time in office would end prematurely as he died a year and a few months into his term after eating some raw fruit and drinking some ice-cold milk days earlier with the cause of Taylor’s death being Cholera as a result of drinking the white house water which was you might remember from the 1840 election article is what led to the death of the previous Whig president, William Henry Harrison and also could be a key factor in the death of Taylor’s predecessor, James K. Polk.
Taylor’s Vice President, Millard Fillmore was then sworn in as the 13th president of the United States and much like his war hero predecessor Fillmore had to deal with the issue of Slavery as it was quickly becoming the inescapable conflict that was dividing the country in half.
In an attempt to find compromise on the slavery issue, Whig Party leaders: Henry Clay and Daniel Webster proposed a series of bills that would ease the tensions going on within the country these bills were known as ‘The Compromise of 1850’ and while Zachary Taylor was against the compromise. Fillmore supported much to his undoing as one of those bills in the Compromise of 1850 was “The Fugitive Slave Law” which basically allowed people to return escaped or runaway slaves back to their masters which made Southerners happy but infuriated Northerners because if one or more people claimed that you were an escaped slave to the authorities even though you weren’t, you could still be sent to work for the slave masters and as you can expect this law further divided both sides on the Slavery issue as we go into the 1852 election.
Franklin Pierce: The Democrats Compromise Candidate
At the beginning of the Democratic Party’s Convention, there were four names running to get the nomination:
- Stephan Douglas-The Senator from Illinois
- Lewis Cass- The Senator from Michigan who ran against Zachary Taylor in 1848, but lost
- James Buchanan-The Senator from Pennsylvania
- William L. Marcy- The Secretary of War
However, none of the candidates were able to get enough of the support needed from either the Southern or Northern wing of the Democratic Party to get the nomination and after 49 ballots, the decision was made to throw in a ‘Dark Horse’ or compromise candidate to break up the deadlock.
That dark horse came in the form of Franklin Pierce, who was a former Senator and Representative from New Hampshire; Pierce was seen as an interesting candidate to the Democrats mostly due to the fact that he was almost unknown to many in the party and so therefore his views on Slavery were uncertain.
Franklin Pierce would get the party’s nomination with William Rufus DeVane King, a Senator from Alabama as his running mate; King was offered as a compromise candidate to many Southern Democrats as having both a Northerner and Southerner on the ticket gave it balance, plus King further made Pierce look acceptable in the eyes of Southern Democrats by referring to the 48 year old former Senator as “A Northern Man with Southern Principles”.
Problematic Whigs
By the 1850s the Whig Party are in a downward spiral following the passing of the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act with many Northerners angry at this decision and the with the death of Whig Party Founder, Henry Clay months before the election the party is continuing to fall into complete disarray.
When the Whigs’ had their nominating convention, they were struggling to pick a candidate with the party having to go through 53 ballots before they came to the guy who will be representing the party in the election. Millard Fillmore had hoped to get his party’s nomination, however he was only getting support from the party’s Southern wing whereas the Northern faction supported Mexican-American War Hero, Winfield Scott while a smaller coalition of Whigs supported Daniel Webster as their candidate.
By the end of it, Scott would get 159 delegates to Fillmore’s 112, ensuring that the decorated general nicknamed “Old Fuss and Feathers” would be the Whig Party’s nominee and to balance out the ticket, the party chose the Secretary of the Navy from North Carolina, William Alexander Graham as Scott’s running mate.
The Free Soil Party
The Free Soil Party has returned for another chance at capturing the presidency following their success in the midterm elections where the party actually gained seats in Congress, however following the passing of the Compromise of 1850 most Free Soilers decided to leave and returned back to the Whig and Democratic parties leaving much of their support fractured.
Nonetheless, the Free Soilers believed they could do better this time following their performance in terms of the popular vote in the previous election as well as their success in Congress.
The Free Soil Party nominated John Parker Hale, who was a key member of the party and an anti-slavery Senator from New Hampshire for president with Indiana native, George Washington Julian as his running mate.
While the Free Soil Party might have been the biggest Third Party to run in the 1852 election, they weren’t the only one to run as there were a few more third parties that ran during this time which just goes to show you how divided the country is getting.
The Other Third Parties
Several Third Parties ran in this election including the Liberty Party, the Southern Rights Party even the newly created Union Party which was a small band of Whigs who broke away from the Whig Party after Winfield Scott was nominated but also weren’t satisfied with Millard Fillmore as a possible candidate.
Members of the Union Party nominated the Whig Party’s Secretary of State, Daniel Webster as their nominee for president with his running mate being a Georgian politician named Charles J. Jenkins.
On the opposite side of the coin, the Native American Party later known as the American Party and nicknamed “The Know Nothing Party” also nominated Daniel Webster for President. However, he refused to accept their nomination mostly due to the party’s xenophobic and nativist stance on several issues.
Even still, these other third parties weren’t able to get as much momentum as the Free Soilers, Whigs and Democrats, but the fact that these many third parties are running is a clear example of how things are falling apart in the United States.
The Campaigns
Both parties attempt to undermine their rivals’ respective candidates by bringing up claims that would be unfavourable with the Democrats accusing Winfield Scott of being hit with a court martial over disagreements he had with a controversial General by the name of James Wilkinson, getting into disputes with Andrew Jackson and even hanging soldiers during his time in the Mexican-American War, plus his support of antislavery ideas and prone to making gaffes certainly didn’t help things.
The Whigs would respond by claiming that Franklin Pierce was anti-Catholic and bringing up his record as a war hero during the Mexican-American War as Pierce was a Brigadier General who didn’t see much action in the war due to him racking up a number of injuries off the battlefield and to top it all off they are bringing up Pierce’s problems with alcohol saying that he was “The Hero of Many a Well-Fought Bottle” which is certainly one heck of a way to tell people that someone who served in the military was an alcoholic.
Neither the Whigs nor Democrats are taking a hard stance when it comes to the issue of Slavery with both sides having similar platforms during the campaign leading to the race becoming a popularity contest. Seeing the voter turnout significantly go down with around 69.5% of the population coming out to vote which is the lowest it’s been for a presidential election since 1836.
With the new state of California being added into the Union, you’ll need 149 or more electoral votes to win this time around so will the Whigs and Winfield Scott be able to put off an upset victory or will Pierce and the Democrats have the election all locked up on election day?
The Election of 1852: The Results & Aftermath
When the dust settles and the results are all counted it becomes clear real soon that the Democrats have not only won the 1852 election but did so in a landslide victory with Franklin Pierce becoming the 14th President of the United States with 254 electoral votes and 50.8% of the popular vote.
Winfield Scott received 42 electoral votes and 43.9% of the popular vote, which was the party’s worse showing in terms of the electoral and popular vote as “Old Fuss and Feathers” views against Slavery pissed off many Southern Whigs, plus his inability to garner major support in the North and the fact that the Free Soil Party’s support mainly came from Northern states is what ultimately sealed the general’s fate in this election
Speaking of the Free Soil Party, John P. Hale came in third place; Again not winning any electoral votes and getting half of what Martin Van Buren got in 1848 with just 4.9% as this would be the last time the Free Soil Party would take part in a presidential election.
Daniel Webster came in fourth place with roughly seven thousand votes which adds up to .2% of the popular vote and no electoral votes, however Webster died a little over a week before the election and the fact that many Americans voted for him despite his prior passing tells you everything you need to know about how jaded voters were with the two major candidates, all the other parties received less than 1% of the popular vote.
William King became the 13th Vice President, but he wouldn’t be able to do much during his time as he would die from Tuberculosis just six weeks into the position having the third shortest tenure of Vice President in American history and Franklin’s victory would be overshadowed by another death, this time involving his son Benjamin, who was nearly decapitated during a train accident which affected Pierce’s entire presidency for the next four years.
The 1852 election would be the last time the Democrats won an election with a majority of both the electoral and popular vote until the 1930’s. The election also marked the end of the Whig party as the divisions over Slavery, the deaths of Clay and Webster, and Winfield Scott’s performance in this election would lead to the party’s utter demise…but from the ashes of the Whigs would rise a new political party, but more on that in the next article.
Be sure to come back for the next Presidential Election, as will be talking about the Election of 1856, but If you are interested in learning more about U.S. political history on this site be sure to leave your thoughts down below in the comment section and be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on Twitter @laceemupoffice you can follow me also on Twitter @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.
