1834 Indiana gubernatorial election

none January 2025 January 2025 1834 Indiana gubernatorial election Indiana File:Flag of the United States (1822–1836).svg Presidential no 1831 Indiana gubernatorial election 1831 1837 Indiana gubernatorial election 1837 August 4, 1834 100px Noah Noble Whig Party (United States) 36,773 57.43% 100x100px James G. Read Democratic Party (United States) 27,257 42.57% 1834 Indiana gubernatorial election results map by county.svg 175px County results Noble: #FED463 50–60% #FE9929 60–70% #EC7014 70–80% #CC4C02 80–90% Read: #7996e2 50–60% #6674de 60–70% #584cde 70–80% #3933e5 80–90% No Vote/Data: #808080 Governor Noah Noble Nonpartisan candidate Noah Noble Whig Party (United States) The 1834 Indiana gubernatorial election took place on August 4, 1834, under the provisions of the Constitution of Indiana. It was the seventh gubernatorial election in the State of Indiana. The incumbent Whig governor Noah Noble defeated Democratic former state representative James G. Read. The election took place concurrently with elections for lieutenant governor and members of the Indiana General Assembly. This was the first gubernatorial election in Indiana contested on a partisan basis.Riker and Thornbrough, 143 Noble was elected in 1831, defeating Read and outgoing Lieutenant Governor Milton Stapp in a three-way race to succeed the retiring governor James B. Ray. In office, he aligned himself with the Anti-Jacksonian faction in state politics that in 1834 organized itself as the Whig Party. The Jacksonians, now calling themselves "Democratic Republicans" or "Democrats," nominated Read at a state convention in Indianapolis. Noble benefited from rapid population growth and economic expansion in the early 1830s that more than provided for the state's meagre expenses. He defeated Read by a convincing margin, carrying 51 of the state's 69 counties.Carmony, 146-52 This was the first gubernatorial election of the Second Party System in Indiana. The preceding election of 1831, and all previous elections, had been contested on a nonpartisan basis. Both candidates campaigned personally and with gusto. Noble benefited from the support of Democrats who favored the candidacy of a Westerner such as Richard Mentor Johnson for president in 1836 as well as the united support of the Whigs. Whigs interpreted Noble's victory as foreshadowing the defeat of Martin Van Buren in the coming presidential election. (Indiana's electoral votes would in fact go to the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison, who nevertheless lost the national election to Van Buren.)Foughty; Carmony, 152 Nominations Whig nomination The Whig Party in Indiana grew out of the Anti-Jacksonian faction who prior to 1834 called themselves Adams or Clay men. They were sometimes called National Republicans as one faction of the Jeffersonian Republican Party that split during the contentious 1824 United States presidential election. The national Whig movement was a conglomerate of American System nationalists, Nullifiers or state rights men, and Anti-Masons opposed to the influence of secret societies that supposedly undermined republican egalitarianism. In Indiana, National Republicans were by far the largest element of the new party; the Anti-Masonic candidates had received almost no votes in the state in 1832 United States presidential election and the Nullifiers none at all.Holt, 35; Carmony, 150 Indiana Whigs did not hold a state convention ahead of the gubernatorial election. Noble was widely acknowledged as the favorite candidate of the Whigs but still saw benefit in maintaining the public appearance of nonpartisanship. His campaign was supported by the Whig partisan press alongside Lieutenant Governor David Wallace and the Whig legislative slate.Carmony, 151-52 Democratic nomination Delegates from forty counties met at Indianapolis on December 9, 1833, to nominate a candidate for governor. The call for a state convention of Hoosier Jacksonians had been issued by the editor of the Indiana Democrat, Alexander F. Morrison, who declared the "paramount interests" of the country demanded "concert of action" among loyal Jacksonians. Calling themselves the "Democratic Republican" convention, the gathering was the first of its kind in Indiana politics. (In earlier elections, candidates for governor had prevailed on friendly editors to place their names before the public without recourse to party conventions.) James G. Read was nominated on the second ballot with 50 out of 72 votes, defeating Jacob B. Lowe of Monroe County. Lowe then moved that the nomination be made unanimous in order to reflect the unity of Hoosier Democrats heading into the spring campaign.Carmony, 150-51 + Gubernatorial ballotIndiana State Convention https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=IP18340118.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- Indiana Palladium January 18, 18341st 2nd James G. Read 30 50 Jacob B. Lowe 20 19 Gamaliel Taylor 8 0 Jonathan McCarty 6 0 James P. Drake 5 0 John Wesley Davis 2 0 Scattering 3 3 Campaign While Noble wrote to Read in April to propose that neither candidate actively canvass votes, this agreement was largely ignored and soon forgotten. As both men were broadly in agreement on the major issues before the state, the campaign centered on issues of character. Whigs trumpeted Noble's nonpartisanship in awarding half of official appointments to members of the opposition party and savaged Read for having been nominated by a gathering of corrupt office-seekers and partisan apparatchiks. Democrats countered that Noble's first election had been secured by the influence of "political aristocrats" and party managers, contrasted with the more democratic mode of a state convention. Both parties accused the opposition of appealing for votes on a partisan basis and suggested that discerning voters would doubtless judge their candidate the more deserving choice.Carmony, 152 Results Noble defeated Read by an overwhelming margin of more than 9,000 votes. He carried 51 counties to 18 for Read, the latter of whose support was concentrated in the southern and western part of the state. Democrats attributed Noble's victory to crossover voting stemming from the governor's personal popularity, while Whigs interpreted the results as a show of support for Whig policies.Carmony, 152-53 1834 Indiana gubernatorial electionCapitol & WashingtonRiker and Thornbrough, pp. 143-45 Whig Party (United States) Noah Noble (incumbent) 36,773 57.43% +11.82 Democratic Party (United States) James Gray Read 27,257 42.57% +1.84 Independent politician Christopher Harrison 1 0.00% 64,031 100.00% Results by county Noah NobleWhig James G. ReadDemocratic County total County Votes Percent Votes Percent Votes Allen 246 68.72 112 31.28 358 Bartholomew 657 51.01 631 48.99 1,288 Boone 244 51.80 227 48.20 471 Carroll 272 44.16 344 55.84 616 Cass 449 89.44 53 10.56 502 Clark 672 41.66 941 58.34 1,613 Clay 60 15.27 333 84.73 393 Clinton 310 63.52 178 36.48 488 Crawford 300 60.24 198 39.76 498 Daviess 338 45.68 402 54.32 740 Dearborn 1,293 55.45 1,039 44.55 2,332 Decatur 869 72.72 326 27.28 1,195 Delaware 297 64.57 163 35.43 460 Dubois 82 24.77 249 75.23 331 ElkhartThe official returns do not include the votes of one township, rejected by the county clerk, where the vote was 39 for Read and 24 for Noble. 172 59.11 119 40.89 291 Fayette 945 62.21 574 37.79 1,519 Floyd 588 66.44 297 33.56 885 Fountain 655 44.41 820 55.59 1,475 Franklin 1,061 73.43 384 26.57 1,445 Gibson 502 50.40 494 49.60 996 Grant 111 73.51 40 26.49 151 Greene 342 43.29 448 56.71 790 Hamilton 366 68.16 171 31.84 537 Hancock 295 53.15 260 46.85 555 Harrison 665 47.84 725 52.16 1,390 Hendricks 552 57.32 411 42.68 963 Henry 984 72.04 382 27.96 1,366 Huntington 257 89.55 30 10.45 287 Jackson 383 39.90 577 60.10 960 Jefferson 1,021 59.71 689 40.29 1,710 Jennings 435 57.54 321 42.46 756 Johnson 511 57.54 440 42.45 951 KnoxChristopher Harrison received one vote in Knox County. 700 61.62 435 38.29 1,136 LaGrange 97 64.24 54 35.76 151 LaPorte 328 68.62 150 31.38 478 Lawrence 618 68.62 533 31.38 1,151 Madison 532 79.64 13224 ballots intended for Read misspelled the candidate's name as "James B. Read" or "James C. Read" and were counted separately. 19.76 668 Marion 1,020 56.79 776 43.21 1,796 Martin 105 25.99 299 74.01 404 Miami 70 77.78 20 22.22 90 Monroe 548 44.88 673 55.12 1,221 Montgomery 859 64.83 466 35.17 1,325 Morgan 712 54.77 488 45.23 1,300 Orange 383 35.63 692 64.37 1,075 Owen 306 44.22 386 55.78 692 Parke 687 51.23 654 48.77 1,341 Perry 325 80.65 78 19.35 403 Pike 182 39.39 280 60.61 462 Posey 415 36.47 722 63.53 1,138 Putnam 854 53.31 748 46.69 1,602 Randolph 432 75.79 138 24.21 570 Ripley 741 75.61 239 24.39 980 Rush 1,219 63.39 704 36.61 1,923 St. Joseph 348 78.03 98 21.97 446 Scott 304 51.09 291 48.91 595 Shelby 872 63.93 492 36.07 1,364 Spencer 240 59.55 163 40.45 403 Sullivan 242 28.64 603 71.36 845 Switzerland 793 72.75 297 27.25 1,090 Tippecanoe 904 60.23 597 39.77 1,501 Union 709 55.91 559 44.09 1,268 Vanderburgh 243 54.12 206 45.88 449 Vermillion 563 55.30 455 44.70 1,018 Vigo 939 76.22 293 23.78 1,232 Warren 443 68.26 206 31.74 649 Warrick 173 38.79 273 61.21 446 Washington 658 38.43 1,053 61.57 1,712 Wayne 2,225 79.38 578 20.62 2,803 White 50 64.10 28 35.90 78 TOTAL 36,773 57.43 27,257 42.57 64,031 Notes lower-alpha References Bibliography Carmony Donald Francis Indiana 1816-1850: the Pioneer Era 1998 Indiana Historical Society Indianapolis 0-87195-125-8 https://books.google.com/books?id=BkYhDQAAQBAJ Foughty Trevor 1834 Indiana General Election Results: Governor https://www.capitolandwashington.com/results/1834/1/1/ Capitol & Washington 2019 August 30, 2023 Foughty Trevor A Time When Party Affiliation Didn't Matter https://www.capitolandwashington.com/blog/2015/03/22/a-time-when-party-affiliation-didnt-matter/ Capitol & Washington 2015 August 30, 2023 Holt Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War 1979 Louisiana State University Riker Dorothy Thornbrough Gayle Indiana Election Returns: 1816-1851 1960 Indiana Historical Bureau Category:Indiana gubernatorial elections Gubernatorial Indiana Category:August 1834