Election of 1848

The presidential contest in 1848 was a pivotal one because it exposed the sectional fault lines of an increasingly divided nation. Whig candidate General Zachary Taylor prevailed over Democratic nominee Lewis Cass of Michigan and Free Soil candidate Martin Van Buren, the former president. (By Matthew Pinsker)

Election of 1848 (Boyer, 2008)

Textbook
Zachary Taylor benefited from the Democrat's alienation of key northern states over the tariff issue, from Democratic disunity over the Wilmot Proviso, and from his war-hero stature. He captured a majority of electoral votes in both North and South. Although failing to carry any state, the Free-Soil party ran well enough in the North to demonstrate the grass-roots popularity of opposition to slavery extension. Defections to the Free-Soilers, for example, probably cost the Whigs Ohio.
Paul S. Boyer, et al., eds., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 6th ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 393.

Free Soil Party (Boyer, 2008)

Textbook
In the campaign [of 1848], both parties tried to ignore the issue of territorial slavery, but neither succeeded. A faction of the Democratic Party in New York that favored the Wilmot Proviso, called the Barnburners, broke away from the party, linked up with former Liberty party abolitionists, and courted antislavery "Conscience" Whigs to create the Free-Soil party. Declaring their dedication to "Free Trade, Free Labor, Free Speech, and Free Men," the Free-Soilers nominated Martin Van Buren on a platform opposing any extension of slavery.
Paul S. Boyer, et al., eds., The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, 6th ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008), 393.
Date Event
The Democrats nominate Lewis Cass and William Orlando Butler
Date Title
Carlisle (PA) Herald and Expositor, "A Bid for the South!," September 8, 1847
Abraham Lincoln to William Herndon, June 12, 1848
Abraham Lincoln to Thaddeus Stevens, September 3, 1848
(Columbus) Ohio State Journal, “New Law about Fugitive Slaves,” April 30, 1850
New York Times, “The Fall Elections,” October 17, 1857
New York Herald, “No Quarter to Douglas,” August 30, 1858
Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, "A House Divided, &c.," November 17, 1858
(Montpelier) Vermont Patriot, “A Presidential Election Without A Parallel,” December 22, 1860
Chicago Style Entry Link
Earle, Jonathan Halperin. Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of Free Soil, 1824-1854. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. View Record
Freehling, William W. The Road to Disunion. Vol. 1, Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. View Record
Graebner, Norman A. "1848: Southern Politics at the Crossroads." Historian 25, no. 1 (1963): 14-35. View Record
Graebner, Norman A. "Thomas Corwin and the Election of 1848: A Study in Conservative Politics." Journal of Southern History 17, no. 2 (1951): 162-179. View Record
Holt, Michael F. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. View Record
Montgomery, Henry. The Life of Major General Zachary Taylor. Buffalo, NY: Derby & Hewson Publishers, 1847. View Record
Morrison, Michael A. " ‘New Territory Versus no Territory’: The Whig Party and the Politics of Western Expansion, 1846-1848." Western Historical Quarterly 23, no. 1 (1992): 25-51. View Record
Morrison, Michael A. Slavery and the American West: The Eclipse of Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. View Record
Rayback, Joseph G. Free Soil: The Election of 1848. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1971. View Record
Walton, Brian G. "The Elections for the Thirtieth Congress and the Presidential Candidacy of Zachary Taylor." Journal of Southern History 35, no. 2 (May 1969): 186-202. View Record
How to Cite This Page: "Election of 1848," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/9580.