United States presidential election, 1816 Totally Explained

Everything about United States Presidential Election 1816 totally explained

The United States presidential election of 1816 came at the end of the two-term presidency of Democratic-Republican James Madison. With the opposition Federalist Party in collapse, Madison's Secretary of State, James Monroe, was seen by many as pre-ordained to succeed him into the presidency. Indeed, Monroe won the electoral college by the wide margin of 183 to 34.

Background

The previous four years were dominated by the War of 1812. While it hadn't ended in victory, the peace was nonetheless satisfactory to the American people, and the Democratic-Republicans received the credit for its prosecution. The Federalists had been discredited by their opposition to the war and talk of secession by New England. Furthermore, President Madison had adopted such Federalist policies as a national bank and protective tariffs, which would give the Federalists few issues to campaign on.

Nominations

The Democratic-Republican caucus nominated Secretary of State James Monroe and New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins. Monroe defeated William H. Crawford for the nomination by a vote of 65 to 54

. The Federalist caucus didn't even bother to make a formal nomination, although many Federalists supported New York Senator Rufus King, who had been defeated twice before as the Federalist vice presidential candidate. Image:Jamesmonroe-npgallery.jpg|Secretary of State James Monroe of Virginia; presidential nominee (D-R) Image:DDTompkins.jpg|Governor Daniel D. Tompkins of New York; vice presidential nominee (D-R) Image:Rufus_King.jpg|Senator Rufus King of New York (F)

General election

Disputes

On February 12, 1817, the House and Senate met in joint session to count the electoral votes for President and Vice President. The count proceeded without incident until the roll came to the last state to be counted, Indiana. At that point, Representative John W. Taylor of New York objected to the counting of Indiana's votes. The Senate withdrew, and then the House deliberated upon Taylor's objection. To understand Taylor's objection, however, the reader will need some background:
Congress had passed an enabling act for the Territory of Indiana on April 19, 1816. It authorized the Territory to hold a constitutional convention for forming a state government and stated that the state, once formed, would be admitted to the United States. On December 11, 1816, Congress passed a joint resolution stating that Indiana had formed a state constitution on June 29, 1816, which had met the conditions of the enabling act and that Indiana was therefore admitted into the Union.
According to the Constitution, the casting of ballots by the Electoral College had to take place on a single day, and federal statute had set that day to be December 4, 1816. Taylor thus contended that the electoral votes had been cast by the Territory of Indiana, not the State of Indiana, and were thus void. Other representatives contradicted Taylor, asserting that the joint resolution merely recognized that Indiana had already joined the Union by the act of forming a state constitution and government. These representatives pointed out that both the House and Senate had seated members from Indiana who had been elected prior to the joint resolution, which would have been unconstitutional had Indiana not been a state at the time of their election.
Representative Samuel D. Ingham then moved that the question be postponed indefinitely. The House agreed almost unanimously, and the Senate was brought back in to count the electoral votes from Indiana. ====

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