1820 United States presidential election

For related races, see 1820 United States elections.

1820 United States presidential election

November 1 – December 6, 1820
All 232 electoral votes of the Electoral College 117 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	10.1% 6.8 pp
x200px Nominee James Monroe Party Democratic-Republican Home state Virginia Running mate Daniel D. Tompkins Electoral vote 231 States carried 24 Popular vote 87,343 Percentage 80.6%
Template:United States presidential election, 1820 imagemap Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Monroe, light green denotes New Hampshire elector William Plumer's vote for John Quincy Adams. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. Missouri's statehood status and subsequent electoral votes disputed.
President before election James Monroe Democratic-Republican Elected President James Monroe Democratic-Republican

The 1820 United States presidential election was the ninth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Wednesday, November 1, to Wednesday, December 6, 1820. Taking place at the height of the Era of Good Feelings, the election saw incumbent Democratic-Republican President James Monroe win re-election without a major opponent. It was the third and last United States presidential election in which a presidential candidate ran effectively unopposed. It was also the last election of a president from the Revolutionary generation.

Monroe and Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins faced no opposition from other Democratic-Republicans in their quest for a second term. The Federalist Party had fielded a presidential candidate in each election since 1796, but the party's already-waning popularity had declined further following the War of 1812. Although able to field a nominee for vice president, the Federalists could not put forward a presidential candidate, leaving Monroe without organized opposition.

Monroe won every state and received all but one of the electoral votes. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams received the only other electoral vote, which came from faithless elector William Plumer. Four different Federalists received electoral votes for vice president, but Tompkins won re-election by a large margin. No other post-Twelfth Amendment presidential candidate has matched Monroe's share of the electoral vote, and Monroe and George Washington remain the only presidential candidates to run without any major opposition. Monroe's victory was the last of six straight victories by Virginians in presidential elections (Jefferson twice, Madison twice, and Monroe twice).

Background

Despite the continuation of single party politics (known in this case as the Era of Good Feelings), serious issues emerged during the election in 1820. The nation had endured a widespread depression following the Panic of 1819 and momentous disagreement about the extension of slavery into the territories was taking center stage. Nevertheless, James Monroe faced no opposition party or candidate in his re-election bid, although he did not receive quite all of the electoral votes (see below).

Massachusetts was entitled to 22 electoral votes four years earlier, but cast only 15 in 1820. The decrease was brought about by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which made the region of Maine—long part of Massachusetts—a free state to balance the pending admission of slave state Missouri.

Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Mississippi each cast one fewer electoral vote than they were entitled to, on account of one elector from each state dying before the electoral meeting. This explains the anomaly of Mississippi casting only two votes, when any state is always entitled to a minimum of three.

Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Missouri participated in their first presidential election in 1820, Missouri with controversy, since it was not yet officially a state (see below). No new states would participate in American presidential elections until 1836, after the admission to the Union of Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837 (after the main voting, but before the counting of the electoral vote in Congress).

Nominations

Democratic-Republican Party nomination

Democratic-Republican Party Ticket, 1820
James Monroe	Daniel D. Tompkins
for President	for Vice President
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5th President of the United States (1817–1825)	6th Vice President of the United States (1817–1825)
Campaign

Since President Monroe's re-nomination was never in doubt, few Republicans bothered to attend the nominating caucus in April 1820. Only 40 delegates attended, with few or no delegates from the large states of Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Rather than name the president with only a handful of votes, the caucus declined to make a formal nomination. Richard M. Johnson offered the following resolution: "It is inexpedient, at this time, to proceed to the nomination of persons for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States." After debate, the resolution was unanimously adopted, and the meeting adjourned. President Monroe and Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins thus became de facto candidates for re-election.

In the run-up to the caucus, Tompkins made another run for his former post of Governor of New York, leading to potential replacements being informally discussed among the party leadership. The matter was ultimately rendered moot when Tompkins lost the election shortly before the nominating caucus took place, and though some within the party remained dissatisfied with Tompkins' performance as Vice President, the role was not considered important enough to be worth a formal nomination process after his ability to continue in the office was confirmed.

Informal Ballot

Presidential Ballot		Vice Presidential Ballot
James Monroe	40	Daniel D. Tompkins	40

General election

Campaign

Effectively there was no campaign, since there was no serious opposition to Monroe and Tompkins.

Disputes

On March 9, 1820, Congress had passed a law directing Missouri to hold a convention to form a constitution and a state government. This law stated that "the said state, when formed, shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatsoever." However, when Congress reconvened in November 1820, the admission of Missouri became an issue of contention. Proponents claimed that Missouri had fulfilled the conditions of the law and therefore was a state; detractors contended that certain provisions of the Missouri Constitution violated the United States Constitution.

By the time Congress was due to meet to count the electoral votes from the election, this dispute had lasted over two months. The counting raised a ticklish problem: if Congress counted Missouri's votes, that would count as recognition that Missouri was a state; on the other hand, if Congress failed to count Missouri's vote, it would count as recognition that Missouri was not a state. Knowing ahead of time that Monroe had won in a landslide and that Missouri's vote would therefore make no difference in the final result, the Senate passed a resolution on February 13, 1821 stating that if a protest were made, there would be no consideration of the matter unless the vote of Missouri would change who would become president. Instead, the President of the Senate would announce the final tally twice, once with Missouri included and once with it excluded.

The next day this resolution was introduced in the full House. After a lively debate, it was passed. Nonetheless, during the counting of the electoral votes on February 14, 1821, an objection was raised to the votes from Missouri by Representative Arthur Livermore of New Hampshire. He argued that since Missouri had not yet officially become a state, it had no right to cast any electoral votes. Immediately, Representative John Floyd of Virginia argued that Missouri's votes must be counted. Chaos ensued, and order was restored only with the counting of the vote as per the resolution and then adjournment for the day.

Results

File:ElectoralCollege1820-Large.png

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Popular vote

The Federalists received a small amount of the popular vote despite having no electoral candidates. Even in Massachusetts, where the Federalist slate of electors was victorious, the electors cast all of their votes for Monroe. This was the first election in which the Democratic-Republicans won in Connecticut and Delaware.

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote(a)		Electoral Vote
			Count	Percentage
James Monroe (incumbent)	Democratic-Republican	Virginia	87,343	80.61%	228/231(c)
No candidate	Federalist	N/A	17,465	16.12%	0
DeWitt Clinton	Democratic-Republican	New York	1,893	1.75%	0
John Quincy Adams	Democratic-Republican	Massachusetts	(b)	(b)	1
Unpledged electors	None	N/A	1,658	1.53%	0
Total			108,359	100.0%	229/232(c)
Needed to win					115/117(c)

Source (Electoral Vote):

Source (Popular Vote): A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825

^(a) Only 15 of the 24 states chose electors by popular vote.
^(b) Adams received his vote from a faithless elector.
^(c) There was a dispute as to whether Missouri's electoral votes were valid, due to the timing of its assumption of statehood. The first figure excludes Missouri's votes and the second figure includes them.

Electoral vote

File:PresidentialCounty1820.gif

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 the Federalist Party, shades of green are for alternative Democratic-Republican candidates, and shades of reds are for various other candidates.

The sole electoral vote against Monroe came from William Plumer, an elector from New Hampshire and former United States senator and New Hampshire governor. Plumer cast his electoral ballot for Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. While legend has it this was to ensure that George Washington would remain the only American president unanimously chosen by the Electoral College, that was not Plumer's goal. In fact, Plumer simply thought that Monroe was a mediocre president and that Adams would be a better one. Plumer also refused to vote for Tompkins for Vice President as "grossly intemperate", not having "that weight of character which his office requires," and "because he grossly neglected his duty" in his "only" official role as President of the Senate by being "absent nearly three-fourths of the time"; Plumer instead voted for Richard Rush.

Even though every member of the Electoral College was pledged to Monroe, there were still a number of Federalist electors who voted for a Federalist vice president rather than Monroe's running mate Daniel D. Tompkins. The votes for Richard Stockton came from Massachusetts. The entire Delaware delegation voted for Daniel Rodney for Vice President. Finally, Robert Goodloe Harper's vice presidential vote was cast by an elector from his home state of Maryland. These breaks in ranks were not enough to deny Tompkins a substantial electoral victory.

Monroe's share of the share of the electoral vote has not been exceeded by any more recent candidate, with the closest competition coming from Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 re-election campaign. Only Washington, who won the vote of each presidential elector in the 1789 and 1792 presidential elections, can claim to have swept the Electoral College. Washington's campaigns took place prior to the 1804 ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, which instituted the current system in which each member of the Electoral College casts one vote for president and one vote for vice president. Under the original system, each elector cast two votes, with no distinction made between the electoral votes for president and the electoral votes for vice president. Thus, in both of his campaigns, Washington won the maximum number of electoral votes any individual could receive, but only half of the electoral votes that were cast.

Vice Presidential Candidate	Party	State	Electoral Vote
Daniel D. Tompkins	Democratic-Republican	New York	215/218(a)
Richard Stockton	Federalist	New Jersey	8(b)
Daniel Rodney	Federalist	Delaware	4(b)
Robert Goodloe Harper	Federalist	Maryland	1(b)
Richard Rush	Federalist	Pennsylvania	1(b)
Total			229/232(a)
Needed to win			115/117(a)

Source:

^(a) There was a dispute over the validity of Missouri's electoral votes, due to the timing of its assumption of statehood. The first figure excludes Missouri's votes and the second figure includes them.
^(b) These votes are from electors who voted for a Federalist vice president rather than Monroe's running mate Daniel D. Tompkins; combined, these votes represent only 5.6% of the electoral vote.

Popular vote
Monroe			81.61%
No candidate			16.19%
Clinton			1.75%
Unpledged electors			1.53%

Electoral vote—President
Monroe			98.3%
Adams			0.4%
Unpledged electors			1.3%

Electoral vote—Vice President
Tompkins			92.8%
Stockton			3.4%
Rodney			1.7%
Harper			0.4%
Rush			0.4%
Unpledged electors			1.3%

Electoral college selection

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

See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)
• One-party state
• Second inauguration of James Monroe
• 1820 and 1821 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1820 and 1821 United States Senate elections

External links

• United States presidential election of 1820 at Encyclopædia Britannica
• 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 1820 in Counting the Votes