U.S. presidential election, 1852

The U.S. presidential election of 1852 was in many ways a replay of the election of 1844. Once again, the incumbent President was a Whig who had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of his war hero predecessor; in this case, it was Millard Fillmore who followed General Zachary Taylor. Once again, the Whig party would pass over the incumbent for nomination — this time, casting aside Fillmore in favor of General Winfield Scott. Once again, the Democrats would nominate a "dark horse" candidate, this time Franklin Pierce. Once again, the Whigs would campaign on the obscurity of the Democratic candidate, and once again, this strategy failed.

General election

Campaign

The Whigs' platform was almost indistinguishable from that of the Democrats, reducing the campaign to a contest between the personalities of the two candidates. This helped drive down electoral turnout to its lowest level since 1836. The decline was further exacerbated by Scott's anti-slavery reputation, which decimated the Southern Whig vote at the same time as the pro-slavery Whig platform undermined the Northern Whig vote.

Related Topics:
1836 - Slavery

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Finally, Scott's status as a war hero was somewhat offset by the fact that Pierce was himself a Mexican War brigadier general, leading to an overwhelming defeat for Scott, who won only the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

Related Topics:
Mexican War - Brigadier general - Kentucky - Tennessee - Massachusetts - Vermont

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Results

Source (Popular Vote): {{Leip PV source| year=1852| as of=July 27, 2005}}

Related Topics:
July 27 - 2005

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Source (Electoral Vote): {{National Archives EV source| year=1852| as of=July 31, 2005}}

Related Topics:
July 31 - 2005

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(a) The popular vote figures exclude South Carolina where the Electors were chosen by the state legislature rather than by popular vote.

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