United States presidential election, 1816

November 1 – December 4, 1816

All 217 electoral votes of the Electoral College 109 electoral votes needed to win


Nominee	James Monroe	Rufus King
Party	Democratic-Republican	Federalist
Home state	Virginia	New York
Running mate	Daniel D. Tompkins	John E. Howard
Electoral vote	183	34
States carried	16	3
Popular vote	76,592	34,740
Percentage	68.2%	30.9%

Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Monroe, orange denotes states won by King. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

James Madison
Democratic-Republican

Elected President

James Monroe
Democratic-Republican

The United States presidential election of 1816 was the eighth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, November 1 to Wednesday, December 4, 1816. It came at the end of the two-term presidency of Democratic-Republican James Madison. With the Federalist Party on the verge of collapse, Madison's Secretary of State, James Monroe, had an overwhelming advantage against very weak opposition. Monroe won the electoral college by the wide margin of 183 to 34.

The previous four years of American politics were dominated by the effects of the War of 1812. While the war had not ended in victory, the peace concluded in 1815 was satisfactory to the American people, and the Democratic-Republicans received the credit for its conclusion. The Federalists found themselves discredited by their opposition to the war and the secessionist rhetoric from New England embodied by the Hartford Convention of 1814-15. Furthermore, President Madison had succeeded in realizing certain measures favored by the Federalists, for example a national bank and protective tariffs. This gave the Federalists few issues to campaign on.

Nominations

Monroe was the favorite candidate of both former President Jefferson and retiring President Madison. However, Monroe faced stiff competition from Secretary of War William H. Crawford of Georgia. Also, there was widespread sentiment, especially in New York, that it was time to end the Virginia dynasty of presidents. But Monroe's long record of service at home and abroad made him a fitting candidate to succeed Madison. Crawford never formally declared himself a candidate, because he believed that he had little chance against Monroe and feared such a contest might deny him a place in the new cabinet. Still, Crawford's supporters posed a significant challenge.^[1]

In March 1816, Democratic-Republican congressmen in caucus nominated Monroe for President and New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins for Vice President. Monroe defeated Crawford for the nomination by a vote of 65 to 54.

The Balloting
Presidential Ballot		Vice Presidential Ballot
James Monroe	65	Daniel D. Tompkins	85
William H. Crawford	54	Simon Snyder	30

Federalist Party nomination

Federalist candidates

Rufus King (New York), Senator

Senator Rufus King
from New York

The Federalist caucus did not even bother to make a formal nomination, although many Federalists supported New York Senator Rufus King, who had been defeated twice before as the Federalist vice presidential candidate. Former Senator John Eager Howard of Maryland was the principal Federalist candidate for vice president.

General election

Dispute about Indiana

On February 12, 1817, the House and Senate met in joint session to count the electoral votes for President and Vice President. The count proceeded without incident until the roll came to the last state to be counted, Indiana. At that point, Representative John W. Taylor of New York objected to the counting of Indiana's votes. He argued that Congress had acknowledged the statehood of Indiana in a joint resolution on December 11, 1816, whereas the ballots of the Electoral College had been cast on December 4, 1816. He claimed that at the time of the balloting, there had been merely a Territory of Indiana, not a State of Indiana. Other representatives contradicted Taylor, asserting that the joint resolution merely recognized that Indiana had already joined the Union by forming a state constitution and government on June 29, 1816. These representatives pointed out that both the House and Senate had seated members from Indiana who had been elected prior to the joint resolution, which would have been unconstitutional had Indiana not been a state at the time of their election. Representative Samuel D. Ingham then moved that the question be postponed indefinitely. The House agreed almost unanimously, and the Senate was brought back in to count the electoral votes from Indiana.

Results

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Monroe (Democratic-Republican), shades of yellow are for King (Federalist), and shades of green are for Independent Republicans (Democratic-Republican).

When the votes were counted, Monroe had won all but three of the nineteen states. King thought that a Monroe victory was inevitable, and did not seriously contest the election.^[2]

Each of the three states that were won by King voted for a different person for Vice President. Massachusetts electors voted for former United States Senator (and future Governor) John Eager Howard of Maryland. Delaware chose a different Marylander, sitting United States Senator Robert Goodloe Harper. Connecticut split its vote between James Ross of Pennsylvania and Chief Justice John Marshall.

Maryland did not choose its electors as a slate; rather, it divided itself into electoral districts, with each district choosing one elector. Three of Maryland's eleven districts were won by Federalist electors. However, these electors did not vote for King or for a Federalist vice president, instead casting blank votes as a protest, thus resulting in Monroe winning the votes of all the Maryland state electors.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote^{(a), (b)}		Electoral vote^(c)	Running mate
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Pct	Electoral vote^(c)	Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote^(c)
James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	76,592	68.2%	183	Daniel D. Tompkins	New York	183
Rufus King	Federalist	New York	34,740	30.9%	34	John Eager Howard	Maryland	22
						James Ross	Pennsylvania	5
						John Marshall	Virginia	4
						Robert Goodloe Harper	Maryland	3
(unpledged electors)	(none)	(n/a)	1,038	0.9%	0	(n/a)	(n/a)	0
Total			112,370	100%	217			217
Needed to win					109			109

^(a) Only 10 of the 19 states chose electors by popular vote.
^(b) Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
^(c) One Elector from Delaware and three Electors from Maryland did not vote.

Electoral college selection

Method of choosing Electors	State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Indiana Louisiana Massachusetts New York South Carolina Vermont
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide	New Hampshire New Jersey North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia
State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Kentucky Maryland Tennessee

References

↑ William DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Gramercy 1997
↑ Sabato, Larry; Ernst, Howard (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. pp. 304–305. |access-date= requires |url= (help)

U.S. Congressional Documents

30 Annals of Cong. 944–949 (1817)
Act of April 19, 1816, ch. 57, 3 Stat. 289
Resolution of December 11, 1816, res. 1, 3 Stat. 399

Web

"Official Name and Status History of the several States and U.S. Territories, an Explanation". The Green Papers. 2001. Retrieved December 18, 2005.
"A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2005.

Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

External links

Presidential Elections of 1816 and 1820: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825
Election of 1816 in Counting the Votes

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