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 County results Davis: 50-60% 60-70% Morton: 50-60% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1840 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 9.
Incumbent Democratic GovernorMarcus Morton, who had won election by just one vote, stood for a second term in office. He was defeated by Whig U.S. SenatorJohn Davis.
Morton out-ran PresidentMartin Van Buren by about 2,000 votes in the state.
This was the first election in which theLiberty Party participated.
In 1839, GovernorMarcus Morton won his first election in thirteen attempts by a single vote. However, he stood at the head of a hostile Whig government which obstructed his agenda. Morton was opposed to paper currency in favor of hard specie controlled by an Independent Treasury system, critical of the state's private banking system as a "monopoly," and supportive of a general corporation law, but Whigs controlling both houses of the General Court obstructed his agenda on every count.[1]
Morton also proposed electoral reforms, including a secret ballot, an elimination of the property qualification for voting and holding office, and a reapportionment of the legislature according to population rather than assessed property value. All were rejected.[2]
Whig SenatorDaniel Webster attempted to recruit former GovernorEdward Everett to run again, but Everett preferred to travel Europe. U.S. Senator and former GovernorJohn Davis ran instead.[3]
Democrats led byGeorge Bancroft andBenjamin Hallett opened their campaign in April, as soon as Davis was announced as the Whig nominee. The Democrats accused Davis of hypocrisy in his claimed support for the "poor mechanic," given Davis's strong personal support for the Whigs' protective tariff policy, which Democrats claimed would cause "high prices for everything except labor."[4] The Democratic campaign may have been hampered by the fact that Bancroft was Davis's brother-in-law.[4]
Whigs ran a campaign focused on opposition to PresidentMartin Van Buren, who was up for re-election, particularly over the issue of theMaine boundary dispute. One Whig, future U.S. Attorney GeneralCaleb Cushing, even predicted that war with Great Britain was on the horizon. Whigs also campaigned against the proposal for anIndependent Treasury system and in favor of their presidential candidate, the military heroWilliam Henry Harrison.[4] The WhigBoston Atlas attacked Bancroft and Hallet and accused the entire Democratic leadership ofLocofocoism, while the more moderateAdvertiser focused on promoting theWhig's national economic plan.[4]
Whigs also attempted to attach the Morton campaign to the radical writings ofOrestes A. Brownson, who had proposed an end to hereditary property inheritance, among other reforms. Democrats successfully distanced themselves from these proposals, but Morton did personally campaign in favor of a reduced ten-hour working day.[4]
A September 10 rally by Whigs at Bunker Hill drew an estimated 50,000 supporters from as far as Mississippi. Senator Webster and GovernorsWilliam Pennington of New Jersey andWilliam W. Ellsworth of Connecticut, among others, spoke at the rally. Another Whig rally was held at Faneuil Hall on November 7, headed byAbbott Lawrence.[4]
Late in the campaign on September 19, Bancroft launched an accusation that the Whigs were working with British capitalists, specifically the banking houseBarings Brothers, to finance Harrison's campaign in exchange for the federal assumption of state debts. As support, Bancroft'sBay State Democrat cited the opinion of several London papers that Harrison's election would mean a return to a "sound and rational system." The Whigs dismissed the accusation out of hand.[4]
The newly formedLiberty Party participated in the election, but was rejected byWilliam Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists as insufficiently resistant to slavery. Garrison'sLiberator urged opposition to all three tickets.[5]
Although Morton increased his total vote, the Whig increase was so great that he lost by over 15,000 votes. The Liberty Party also received scattering votes throughout the state. 57 towns flipped from Morton to Davis, and the Democratic gains in 1839 in Whig counties largely evaporated.[6]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whig | John Davis | 70,884 | 55.68% |  5.98 | |
| Democratic | Marcus Morton (incumbent) | 55,169 | 43.33% |  6.67 | |
| Liberty | George W. Robinson | 1,081 | 0.85% | N/A | |
| Write-in | 181 | 0.14% | 0.16 | ||
| Total votes | 127,315 | 100.00% | |||
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