1808 United States presidential election

Presidential elections were held in the United States from November 4 to December 7, 1808. The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively.

1808 United States presidential election

November 4 – December 7, 1808
176 members of the Electoral College 89 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	36.8% 13.0 pp
Nominee James Madison Charles Cotesworth 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 124,964 60,976 Percentage 65.0% 31.7%
Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Madison, Light 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

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 renominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's 1804 nominee, again alongside Rufus King.

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 1808 Democratic-Republican Party Ticket
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)

Thomas Jefferson, the incumbent president in 1808, whose second term expired on March 4, 1809

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
• 
  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
• 
  Secretary of War
  Henry Dearborn
  from Massachusetts
• 
  Senator
  John Quincy Adams
  from Massachusetts

Caucus

Senator Stephen R. Bradley, who had chaired the congressional nominating caucus during the 1804 presidential election, made a call for the 1808 caucus to the 146 Democratic-Republican members of the United States Congress and Federalist allies. The caucus was attended by 89 to 94 members of Congress.

The caucus was held in January 1808. With the support of outgoing President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State James Madison won the presidential nomination over opposing candidates James Monroe and Vice President George Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice presidential nomination to Clinton over his main opponent John Langdon, although Clinton's supporters believed Clinton would receive the Federalist Party's presidential nomination. The Federalists instead nominated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney that September. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.

Seventeen Democratic-Republicans in Congress opposed Madison's selection and the caucus system whose authority to select presidential and vice-presidential candidates was disputed. Clinton also opposed the caucus system. 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 1808 Federalist Party Ticket
Charles C. Pinckney	Rufus King
for President	for Vice President
6th U.S. Minister to France (1796–1797)	3rd 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. This was the only time in American history that a defeated major party renominated its losing ticket for a second time.

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

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.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a), (b)		Electoral vote(c)	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote(c)
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	124,964	64.97%	122	George Clinton (incumbent)	New York	113
						John Langdon	New Hampshire	9
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney	Federalist	South Carolina	60,976	31.70%	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	5,618	2.92%	0	None	N/A	0
Unpledged electors	None	N/A	776	0.40%	0	N/A	N/A	0
Total			192,334	100%	175			175
Needed to win					89			89

Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825
Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 30, 2005.

^(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.

Maps

• 
  Electoral College map
• 
  Map of presidential election results by county, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate
• 
  Map of presidential election results by electoral district, shaded according to the vote share of the highest result for an elector of any given candidate. Electoral boundaries for Maryland could not be found

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 Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.

State	James Madison Democratic-Republican		Charles C. Pinckney Federalist		James Monroe Democratic-Republican		Other		Margin		Citation
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Kentucky	2,679+	76.89%	54	1.55%	No ballots		751	21.56%	1,874	53.78%
Maryland	15,336	67.30%	7,433	32.62%	No ballots		18	0.08%	7,885	34.60%
New Hampshire	12,793	47.59%	14,085	52.40%	No ballots		4	0.01%	-1,288	-4.8%
New Jersey	18,670	55.97%	14,687	44.03%	No ballots		3	0.01%	3,980	11.93%
North Carolina	9,932+	52.70%	7,975+	42.32%	939+	4.98%	No ballots		1,018	5.40%
Ohio	3,645	60.82%	1,174	19.59%	1,174	19.59%	No ballots		2,471	41.23%
Pennsylvania	42,518	78.37%	11,735	21.63%	No ballots		No ballots		30,783	56.74%
Rhode Island	2,692	46.70%	3,072	53.30%	No ballots		No ballots		-380	-6.60%
Tennessee	1,016	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Virginia	15,683	78.62%	761	3.81%	3,505	17.57%	No ballots		12,178	61.05%

States that flipped from Democratic-Republican to Federalist

• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• Rhode Island

Close states

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

1. New Hampshire, 4.8% (1,288 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

1. Rhode Island, 6.6% (380 votes)
2. North Carolina, 5.40% (1,018 votes)

Popular vote Madison   65.0% Pinckney   31.7% Monroe   2.9% Unpledged electors   0.4%

Electoral vote—President Madison   69.7% Pinckney   26.9% Clinton   3.4%

Electoral vote—Vice President Clinton   64.6% King   26.9% Langdon   5.1% Madison   1.7% Monroe   1.7%

Electoral college selection

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 two electoral districts and half the electors are chosen from each district.	Kentucky
State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Maryland North Carolina Tennessee

See also

• History of the United States (1789–1849)
• First inauguration of James Madison
• 1808–09 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1808–09 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 Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2005.
• A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825