In 1812 the state of New York chose their Presidential Electors by the Legislature. The procedure is not in question, but I have always been curious about for whom the Federalist slate of electors would have voted for if they had been elected. I have asked this question to many people without getting any definite answer. Below are the pertinent facts pertaining to the 1812 Presidential election in New York.

        On May 29, 1812, shortly after the death of Vice President George Clinton, who was from New York state, Ninety One Republican members of the New York Legislature assembled and passed a resolution to support DeWitt Clinton for President. This resolution was supported by 87 members and newspaper reports state that the vote was unanimous. This was the General Assembly that had been elected in the spring of 1811 and had a Republican majority, but in the May elections of 1812 the Federalist captured the lower house and some of the members who voted for this resolution were defeated.

        On November 9, 1812 the New York Legislature convened to vote for Presidential Electors.  Each house [Senate and Assembly] voted separately and there were three slates of electors nominated; a Republican slate of electors for DeWitt Clinton, a Republican slate for James Madison and a Federalist slate for who knows, and this is the mystery that I am trying to solve.

        In order to be chosen, any Electoral slate had to have a majority of votes in both houses. The vote in the Senate was Clinton 18, Madison 8 and Federalist 6 and in the Assembly it was Federalist  58, Clinton  28 and Madison 23. Since the Clinton ticket carried the Senate and the Federal ticket the Assembly, there was no election and the Legislature in a joint session proceeded again to vote for Presidential electors.

       The vote in this joint session was for Clinton 74, Federalist 46 and 23 blanks [Madison supporters]. While it appears that eighteen Federal members voted for the Clinton slate of electors on this joint ballot, forty-six did not and together with the blank votes, the Legislature only gave Clinton a majority of 5 votes. He could have easily been defeated.

        So my question is, for whom did this Federalist slate of Presidential Electors intend to vote, if by chance they had been elected?

        In a side note, it should be mentioned that in early October 1812, Federalist from several Virginia counties met and refused to support DeWitt Clinton as the Federalist candidate for President. Instead they nominated Rufus King of New York for President and William R. Davie of North Carolina for Vice-President. As news of this venture drifted northward, many Federalist commented on it and the feeling I sense is that had it been nominated earlier it might have been the official Federalist ticket in the 1812 election.

        In the Virginia Presidential election, this ticket carried the area of that state which now comprises West Virginia and seven counties in Virginia proper.

                        Thanks for any input and comments.

                                        Philip J. Lampi

I saw this painting by John Lewis Krimmel, a german immigrant, at the Worcester Art Museum.  It is on loan from the Winterhur until April 6th.  I think it captures the excitement of election day in Philadelphia. And I think for the first time in my voting experience, the atmosphere on Super Tuesday at my polling place approached this level of activity. - Krista

One of the great things about election returns are the names that these poor souls were given.  Every week I will mention one of these jewels from our Funny Names list.  This week we have our friend Preserved Fish 1766-1846, better known as Pickled Herring by his opponents.

There is even a song about him with the chorus

“Oh Preserved, what’d you do to deserve it?”

http://www.kenficara.com/song.php?song=fish

I assure you, there are  many more where that came from.

-Krista

This is our first posting. This blog will authored by three people that are heavily involved in a project called A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825. Those authors are:

Philip Lampi, the mastermind behind the project and a true, self proclaimed, political junkie.

Andrew Robertson, our esteemed consultant and academic promoter on sabbatical from the Lehman Graduate Center at the City University of New York,

And myself, Krista Ferrante, the project coordinator and information specialist.

I think it goes without saying (but I’m going to say it anyway) that our opinions are our own and do not reflect the opinions of Common Place, the American Antiquarian Society, the City University of New York or even each other. With that spirit in mind, tell us what you think!