1808 United States presidential election

For related races, see 1808 United States elections.

1808 United States presidential election

November 4 – December 7, 1808
175 members of the Electoral College 88 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	36.8% 13.0 pp
x200px 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 6th 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's victory made him the first individual to succeed a president of the same party.

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.

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

Democratic-Republican Party Ticket, 1808
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

• James Monroe White House portrait 1819.jpg

  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

• Gilbert Stuart - Major-General Henry Dearborn - 1913.793 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg

  Secretary of War
  Henry Dearborn
  from Massachusetts

• Gilbert Stuart - John Quincy Adams - Google Art Project.jpg

  Senator
  John Quincy Adams
  from Massachusetts

Caucus

Nominations for the 1808 presidential election were made by congressional caucuses. With Thomas Jefferson ready to retire, supporters of Secretary of State James Madison of Virginia worked carefully to ensure that Madison would succeed Jefferson. Madison's primary competition came from former diplomat James Monroe of Virginia and Vice President George Clinton. Monroe was supported by a group known as the tertium quids, who supported a weak central government and were dissatisfied by the Louisiana Purchase and the Compact of 1802. Clinton's support came from Northern Democratic-Republicans who disapproved of the Embargo Act (which they saw as potentially leading towards war with Great Britain) and who sought to end the Virginia Dynasty. The Congressional caucus met in January 1808, choosing Madison as its candidate for president and Clinton as its candidate for vice president.

Many supporters of Monroe and Clinton refused to accept the result of the caucus. 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

Presidential Ballot	Total	Vice Presidential Ballot	Total
James Madison	83	George Clinton	79
James Monroe	3	John Langdon	5
George Clinton	3	Henry Dearborn	3
		John Quincy Adams	1

Federalist Party nomination

Federalist Party Ticket, 1808
Charles C. Pinckney	Rufus King
for President	for Vice President
200x200px
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

File:ElectoralCollege1808-Large.png

500px

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.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a), (b)		Electoral vote(c)	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote(c)
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	124,732	64.7%	122	George Clinton (incumbent)	New York	113
						John Langdon	New Hampshire	9
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	South Carolina	62,431	32.4%	47	Rufus King	New York	47
George Clinton	Democratic-Republican	New York	—	—	6	James Madison	Virginia	3
						James Monroe	Virginia	3
James Monroe	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	4,848	2.5%	0	None	N/A	0
Unpledged electors	None	N/A	680	0.4%	0	N/A	N/A	0
Total			192,691	100%	175			175
Needed to win					88			88

Source (Popular Vote): U.S. President National Vote. Our Campaigns. (February 10, 2006).
Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
Source (Electoral Vote):

^(a) Only 10 of the 17 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 Kentucky did not vote.

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.

State	James Madison Democratic-Republican		Charles C. Pinckney Federalist		James Monroe Democratic-Republican		Margin		Citation
	#	%	#	%			#	%
Kentucky	2,679	98.02%	54	1.98%	No ballots		2,625	96.04%
Maryland	15,336	63.31%	8,886	36.69%	No ballots		6,450	26.62%
New Hampshire	12,793	47.60%	14,085	52.40%	No ballots		-1,292	-4.80%
New Jersey	18,670	55.97%	14,687	44.03%	No ballots		3,983	11.94%
North Carolina	8,829	51.08%	7,523	43.53%	931	5.39%	1,306	7.55%
Ohio	3,645	60.82%	1,174	19.59%	1,174	19.59%	2,471	41.23%
Pennsylvania	42,518	78.37%	11,735	21.63%	No ballots		30,783	56.74%
Rhode Island	2,692	46.70%	3,072	53.30%	No ballots		-380	-6.60%
Tennessee	1,016		11		No ballots
Virginia	15,683	78.62%	761	3.81%	3,505	17.57%	12,178	61.05%

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)

Popular vote
Madison			64.7%
Pinckney			27.2%

Electoral vote—President
Madison			69.3%
Pinckney			26.7%
Clinton			3.4%

Electoral vote—Vice President
Clinton			64.2%
King			26.7%
Langdon			5.1%
Madison			1.7%
Madison			1.7%
Unpledged electors			0.6%

Electoral college selection

File:PresidentialCounty1808.gif

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

Method of choosing Electors	State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Massachusetts New York South Carolina Vermont
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide	New Hampshire New Jersey 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 North Carolina Tennessee

See also

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

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 New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825