1839 Whig National Convention

U.S. political event held in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania April 2022 1839 Whig WP1840.png 125 WV1840.png 125 Nominees Harrison and Tyler December 4–8, 1839 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Zion Lutheran ChurchBuell Emmett H. Morison Samuel Eliot The First National Nominating Convention Enduring Controversies in Presidential Nominating Politics 29 August 2004 111–124 University of Pittsburgh Press William H. Harrison Ohio John Tyler Virginia yes 1844 1840 257 128 Harrison (OH): 148 (58.27%) Clay (KY): 90 (35.43%) Scott (NJ): 16 (6.30%) John Tyler (VA): 231 (100%) 5 The 1839 Whig National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held from December 4 to December 8 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was the first national convention ever held by the Whig Party, and was organized to select the party's nominee in the 1840 presidential election. The convention nominated former Senator William Henry Harrison of Ohio for president and former Senator John Tyler of Virginia for vice president. After Daniel Webster dropped out of the race, the three leading candidates for the Whig nomination were General Harrison, who had been the most successful Whig candidate in the 1836 presidential election; General Winfield Scott, a hero of the War of 1812; and Senator Henry Clay, the Whigs' congressional and philosophical leader. With Southern delegates united behind him, Clay led on the first presidential ballot, but failed to win a majority. Harrison won the nomination on the fifth ballot after several delegates switched from supporting Clay or Scott. The convention chose Tyler, a Southerner and Clay supporter, to serve as Harrison's running mate. The Whig ticket went on to win the 1840 election, defeating incumbent Democratic President Martin Van Buren. Presidential nomination Clay led on the first ballot, but circumstances conspired to deny him the nomination. First, the convention came on the heels of a string of Whig electoral losses, and party members were anxious to reverse the trend. Harrison managed to distance himself from the losses, but Clay, as the party's philosophical leader, could not. Had the convention been held in the spring of 1840, when the continuing economic downturn caused by the Panic of 1837 led to a string of Whig victories, Clay would have had much greater support. Second, the convention rules had been drawn up so that whoever won the majority of delegates from a given state would win all the votes from that state. This worked against Clay, who could have combined solid majority support in almost all the Southern delegations (with little potential for opponents to capitalize on a proportional distribution of delegates), and a large minority support in Northern delegations if the rules allowed counting of individual delegate votes. Third, several Southern states whose Whig party organizations supported Clay abstained from sending delegates to the convention. Harrison won on the fifth ballot after Clay delegates from Illinois and Scott delegates from Michigan, New York, and Vermont combined to switch their support to Harrison. Writer and activist John Neal, who chaired the delegation from Maine, claimed to have been instrumental in convincing the powerful New York delegation to back Harrison prior to the final vote. Richards Irving T. 1933 The Life and Works of John Neal PhD Harvard University http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038995990203941/catalog 7588473 928–930 The state-by-state roll call was printed in the newspaper the Farmer's Cabinet on December 13, 1839: Candidates Nomination + Presidential nominationMultiple sources: The Whig National Convention https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83021167/1839-12-12/ed-1/?sp=2 Herald of the Times December 12, 1839 State of the Vote at the Harrisburg Convention https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83026172/1839-12-13/ed-1/?sp=3 Daily National Intelligencer December 13, 1839 Whig National Convention https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn98060050/1839-12-13/ed-1/?sp=3 Vermont Phoenix December 13, 1839 Whig National Convention https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84022687/1839-12-14/ed-1/?sp=3 Voice of Freedom December 14, 1839Several contemporaneous sources list Michigan for Harrison on the first two ballots; however, one Michigan delegate was delayed and the state's delegation deadlocked until the third ballot, when the arrival of the late delegate flipped the state to Scott. The delegate from Arkansas was similarly delayed and did not arrive until after the balloting for president and vice president.Holt 1999 102–3 Candidate 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Henry Clay of Kentucky 103 103 95 95 90 William H. Harrison of Ohio 91 91 91 91 148 Winfield Scott of New Jersey 57 57 68 68 16 Total 251 251 254 254 254 Majority 126 126 128 128 128 Not voting 6 6 3 3 3 Maps Vice presidential nomination Candidates Because Harrison (born in Virginia) was considered a Northerner (as a resident of Ohio), the Whigs needed to balance the ticket with a Southerner. They also sought a Clay supporter to help unite the party. After being turned down by several potential candidates, including John J. Crittenden, John Bell, and Willie Person Mangum, the convention finally found its Southerner who had faithfully supported Clay and would accept: former Senator John Tyler.Niles Hezekiah December 11, 1841 Harrisburg Convention https://books.google.com/books?id=f1kUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA232 Niles' National Register Baltimore, MD 232 Hezekiah Niles Google Books Ellis Richard J. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Old_Tip_vs_the_Sly_Fox/gkGTEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA150&printsec=frontcover Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox: The 1840 Election and the Making of a Partisan Nation 2025-08-19 University Press of Kansas 978-0-7006-4076-8 en Tyler was well known to the delegates, having previously been the running mate of Hugh Lawson White and Willie Person Mangum during the four-way Whig campaign of 1836.Witcover Jules The American Vice Presidency 2014 Smithsonian Books 100–101 He was easily nominated on the first ballot. Nomination + Vice presidential nominationPenrose 1839 20–21Virginia's 23 delegates abstained. The delegate from Arkansas was delayed and did not arrive until after the balloting for president and vice president.Holt 1999 102–3 Candidate 1st John Tyler of Virginia 231 Total 231 Majority 116 Not voting 26 Maps Aftermath During the balloting, Clay and Scott played cards with two Whig politicians, John J. Crittenden and George Evans, at the Astor House hotel in New York City.April 12, 1890 Stories of Gen. Scott https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn86063034/1890-04-12/ed-1/seq-2/ Savannah Morning News Savannah, Georgia 2 Georgia Historic Newspapers When the group received word of Harrison's victory, Clay blamed his loss on Scott and punched him, hitting the shoulder which had been wounded during Scott's participation in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, before being physically removed from the hotel room.Grow Galusha A. Galusha A. Grow December 31, 1899 Good Stories About Benton https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-idaho-statesman-benton/191754940/ Idaho Statesman Boise, Idaho 3 Newspapers.com Scott then sent Crittenden to Clay with Scott's challenge for a duel, but Crittenden reconciled them by convincing Clay to apologize.Eisenhower John S. D. 1999 Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott https://books.google.com/books?id=vkVCQmU9nfYC&q=%22extract+an+apology%22&pg=PA212 Norman, OK University of Oklahoma Press 205–206 978-0-8061-3128-3 See also 1840 Democratic National Convention U.S. presidential nomination convention 1840 United States presidential election Notes References Bibliography Penrose Charles B. Proceedings of the Democratic Whig National Convention [...] 1839 none Harrisburg https://archive.org/details/proceedingsdemo00harrgoog Holt Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War 1999 Oxford University Press New York https://archive.org/details/risefallofameric0000holt_a7l7 Further reading Chester, Edward W A guide to political platforms (1977) online Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840-1964 (1965) online 1840-1956 Category:1840 United States presidential election Category:Whig National Conventions Category:1839 in Pennsylvania Category:1839 conferences Whig National Convention Category:19th-century political conferences Category:United States presidential nominating conventions in Pennsylvania