| STATES. | President. | Vice-President. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Van Buren, N. Y. | William H. Harrison, O. | Hugh L. White, Tenn. | Daniel Webster, Mass. | Willie P. Mangum, N. C. | Richard M. Johnson, Ky. | Francis Granger, N. Y. | John Tyler, Va. | William Smith, Ala. | |
| Maine | 10 | — | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | — |
| New Hampshire | 7 | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — |
| Vermont | — | 7 | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | — |
| Massachusetts | — | — | — | 14 | — | — | 14 | — | — |
| Rhode Island | 4 | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — |
| Connecticut | 8 | — | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — |
| New York | 42 | — | — | — | — | 42 | — | — | — |
| New Jersey | — | 8 | — | — | — | — | 8 | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | 30 | — | — | — | — | 30 | — | — | — |
| Delaware | — | 3 | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — |
| Maryland | — | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | 10 | — |
| Virginia | 23 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 23 |
| North Carolina | 15 | — | — | — | — | 15 | — | — | — |
| South Carolina | — | — | — | — | 11 | — | — | 11 | — |
| Georgia | — | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | 11 | — |
| Alabama | 7 | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — |
| Mississippi | 4 | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — |
| Louisiana | 5 | — | — | — | — | 5 | — | — | — |
| Arkansas | 3 | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | — | 15 | — | — | — | — | 15 | — | — |
| Tennessee | — | — | 15 | — | — | — | — | 15 | — |
| Missouri | 4 | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — |
| Ohio | — | 21 | — | — | — | — | 21 | — | — |
| Indiana | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | 9 | — | — |
| Illinois | 5 | — | — | — | — | 5 | — | — | — |
| Michigan | 3 | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | — |
| Totals | 170 | 73 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 147 | 77 | 47 | 23 |
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
THE HARRISON-VAN BUREN CONTEST
1840
Memorable as was the campaign of 1840 that called General Harrison to the Presidency by a popular whirlwind, the thoughtful student of American politics will regard that campaign as even more memorable because it gave birth to a party, of the humblest pretensions at the start as a political power, that twenty years later saw its principles triumph in the election of Lincoln, and the mastery of the party that has controlled the policy of the Government for forty years. The Abolition party, that was the corner-stone upon which the modern Republican party is reared, was organized in December, 1839, at Warsaw, Genesee County, N. Y., when, at a mass convention, with but few States represented, it nominated James G. Birney, of New York, for President, and Francis G. Lemoyne, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President.
This party had but one vital principle that made up its political faith, and that was the abolition of slavery. It was looked upon as a movement of a few political cranks, and was not regarded as a possible factor in that or any future political contest. It cast a few votes in 1840, but in 1844 it diverted enough votes from Henry Clay in New York State to defeat him for the Presidency. Its total vote in 1840 aggregated only 7069, one-third of which was cast in New York and one-fourth in Massachusetts; but it was the party of destiny, and its origin can be studied with profit. Its few supporters of that day who braved the prejudices of all parties were actuated by a sincere conviction, and that conviction was made more and more acceptable from year to year as the aggressions of slavery multiplied, until it finally died a colossal suicide.
The divided opposition elements which had polled within 30,000 of the vote received by Van Buren in 1836 were coerced by supreme necessities to united action for the campaign of 1840. But three candidates were prominently discussed. They were General William H. Harrison of Ohio, Henry Clay of Kentucky, and Winfield Scott of Virginia. Clay was much the ablest of them, and had the most enthusiastic and earnest friends, but the old anti-Masonic element crucified Clay in the Whig convention of 1839, just as Seward was crucified in the convention of 1860 by the American sentiment that was an indispensable factor to enable the Republicans to win. Clay was a Royal Arch Mason, and he would doubtless have lost largely in the rank and file of the anti-Masons, who had been educated in the fiercest strife of political contests to believe that Masonry was incompatible with patriotism.
Harrison had been Governor of the Indiana Territory, Senator in Congress and a successful general, having won a decisive victory over the English and the Indians at Tippecanoe. Scott was green with the laurels of Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane, and was regarded as the first soldier of the Republic. One thing strongly in Harrison’s favor was the fact that in the free-for-all race of 1836 he had largely outstripped his anti-Jackson associate candidates for President.
The Whig National Convention was called to meet at Harrisburg on the 4th of December, 1839, just one year before the Presidential election, and no national convention in the history of our politics ever moved with such extreme caution. It was three days after the convention was organized before a ballot was reached for President, the whole time having been occupied in formal conferences of committees appointed by each delegation to confer in the frankest way as to the best ticket to unite the incongruous opposition elements. Clay had made exhaustive effort to unite the opposition, even if necessary to sacrifice himself. On repeated occasions he publicly declared that his name should not be entertained if it was in any degree an obstacle to success, and in a Buffalo address delivered some time before the convention met, he said: “If my name creates any obstacle to union and harmony, away with it, and concentrate upon some individual more acceptable to all branches of the office.”