Franklin Pierce: Encyclopedia II - Franklin Pierce - Election of 1852

Franklin Pierce - Election of 1852

The Democratic Party nominated Pierce as a "dark horse" candidate during the Democratic National Convention of 1852. The convention assembled on June 12 in Baltimore, Maryland, with four competing contenders—Stephen A. Douglas, William Marcy, James Buchanan and Lewis Cass—for the nomination. Most of those who had left the party with Martin Van Buren to form the Free Soil Party had returned. Prior to the vote to determine the nominee, a party platform was adopted, opposing any further "agitation" over the slavery issue and supporting the Compromise of 1850 in an effort to unite the various Democratic factions.

When the balloting for president began, the four candidates deadlocked, with no candidate reaching even a simple majority, much less the required supermajority of two-thirds. On the 35th ballot, Pierce was put forth as a compromise candidate. He had never fully articulated his views on slavery, which allowed him to be acceptable to all factions. He also had served in the Mexican-American War, which allowed the party to portray him as a war hero. Pierce was nominated unanimously on the 49th ballot on June 5. Senator William R. King of Alabama was chosen as the nominee for Vice President.

Pierce's opponent was the Whig candidate, General Winfield Scott of Virginia, whom Pierce served under during the Mexican-American War, and his running mate, Senator (and later Governor) William Alexander Graham of North Carolina. Pierce easily prevailed as Scott—nicknamed "Old Fuss and Feathers"—ran a blundering 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 and helping to drive down the turnout rates in the election to their lowest level since 1836. Pierce's likeable personality, plus his helpful obscurity and lack of strongly held positions, helped him prevail over Scott, whose anti-slavery views hurt him in the South. Scott's advantage as a known war hero was countered by Pierce's service in the same war. Pierce was also helped by Irish support of the Democratic Party and their disdain from the Whig Party. Scott alienated several anti-Irish elements in the Whig Party by pandering (unsuccessfully) to the Irish voters.

The Democrats' slogan was "We Polked you in 1844; we shall Pierce you in 1852!" (a reference to the victory of James K. Polk in the 1844 election). This proved to be true, as Scott lost every state except Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The total popular vote was 1,601,274 to 1,386,580, or 50.9 percent to 44.1 percent. Pierce won 27 of the 31 states, including Scott's home state of Virginia. John P. Hale, who like Pierce was from New Hampshire, was the nominee of the remnants of the Free Soil Party, garnering 155,825 votes (5 percent of the total).

The election of 1852 would be the last presidential contest in which the Whigs would field a candidate. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Whigs, with the Northern Whigs deeply opposed, resulting in a split between former Whigs, some of whom joined the anti-immigration American Party (Know-Nothings), others the Constitutional Union Party, and still others the newly formed Republicans.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Election of 1852", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki