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| 1848 presidential election | |
  Nominees Cass and Butler | |
| Convention | |
|---|---|
| Date(s) | May 22–26, 1848 |
| City | Baltimore,Maryland[1] |
| Venue | Universalist Church[1] |
| Candidates | |
| Presidential nominee | Lewis Cass ofMichigan |
| Vice-presidential nominee | William O. Butler ofKentucky |
| ‹ 1844 · 1852 › | |
The1848 Democratic National Convention was apresidential nominating convention that met from Monday May 22 to Friday May 26 inBaltimore,Maryland.[2][3] It was held to nominate theDemocratic Party's candidates forPresident andVice president in the1848 election. The convention selected SenatorLewis Cass of Michigan for President and former RepresentativeWilliam O. Butler of Kentucky for Vice President.
As incumbent Democratic PresidentJames K. Polk declined to seek re-election, the Democratic Party nominated a new presidential candidate for the 1848 election. The major competitors for the presidential nomination were Cass, Secretary of StateJames Buchanan ofPennsylvania, and Supreme Court JusticeLevi Woodbury ofNew Hampshire. Cass led on the first presidential ballot, and he continued to gain delegates until he clinched the nomination on the fourth ballot. Butler won the vice presidential nomination on the second ballot, defeating formerGovernorJohn A. Quitman of Mississippi and several other candidates. The Democratic ticket was defeated in the 1848 election by theWhig ticket ofZachary Taylor andMillard Fillmore.
FormerSpeaker of the HouseAndrew Stevenson ofVirginia was made the president (chair) of the convention.
After readopting the two-thirds rule for selecting the nominee, the assembly turned to the thorny problem of competing delegations representing different factions of the New York party.[1] The convention adopted a compromise (by a vote of 133 to 118) of splitting the thirty-six votes between the pro-Van Buren faction and theHunkers that opposed them: Van Buren and theBarnburners promptly walked out of the convention, while theHunkers cast blank ballots throughout.
TheDemocratic National Committee was established at this convention.[4]
The main competitors for the nomination were SenatorLewis Cass ofMichigan,Secretary of StateJames Buchanan fromPennsylvania, andSupreme Court JusticeLevi Woodbury fromNew Hampshire. Former PresidentMartin Van Buren also desired to become the Democratic Party's candidate in the 1848 election. Some party leaders askedWilliam Allen to enter the contest as a compromise candidate, but he refused to run for the presidency. Instead, Allen chose to support Cass over Van Buren due to the two men's mutual support ofpopular sovereignty.
Van Buren withdrew before balloting began due to a dispute over the seating of the New York delegation that culminated in the convention voting that half of the state's delegates be made up of the anti-slavery "Barnburner" faction, led by Van Buren, with the remaining half from the pro-slavery "Hunker" faction.
Van Buren, knowing he had no feasible path to winning the nomination without the full support of the New York delegation, promptly led the Barnburners in walking out of the convention. Bitter and aging, Van Buren did not care despite the fact that his life had been built upon the rock of party solidarity and party regularity. He loathed Lewis Cass and the principle of popular sovereignty with equal intensity.[5] After it was further ruled the Hunkers would not be allowed to take the vacated seats of their absent Barnburner counterparts, they cast blank ballots during the voting.
On the first ballot, Cass had a large lead with 125 of the 254 delegate votes cast, with Buchanan and Woodbury receiving 55 and 53 votes respectively.[1] On the next two ballots Cass gained a simple majority, while Woodbury's total was steady and Buchanan's began to fall. After Cass received 179 votes out of 254 on the fourth ballot, the chair declared that Cass had reached the required 170 votes and was therefore nominated.
| Presidential Ballot | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | |
| Cass | 125 | 133 | 156 | 179 |
| Woodbury | 53 | 56 | 53 | 38 |
| Buchanan | 55 | 54 | 40 | 33 |
| Calhoun | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Worth | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 |
| Dallas | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Butler | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Not Voting | 21 | 21 | 18 | 18 |
| Not Represented | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 |
![Inspector General of the Tennessee Militia Levin Hudson Coe of Tennessee[6]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aCOE_Levin_Hudson_-_Memphis_TN.jpg)
Turning to the choice of a vice presidential running mate, the convention picked GeneralWilliam O. Butler ofKentucky[1] over GeneralJohn A. Quitman ofMississippi, former Senator andMinister to FranceWilliam R. King ofAlabama,Secretary of the NavyJohn Y. Mason ofVirginia, and RepresentativeJames Iver McKay ofNorth Carolina. Before it adjourned on May 25, this convention also appointed the firstDemocratic National Committee.[1]
| Vice Presidential Ballot | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd (Before Shifts) | 2nd (After Shifts) | |
| Butler | 114 | 170 | 254 |
| Quitman | 74 | 61 | 0 |
| King | 26 | 9 | 0 |
| Mason | 24 | 3 | 0 |
| McKay | 13 | 11 | 0 |
| Davis | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Not Voting | 20 | 18 | 18 |
| Not Represented | 18 | 18 | 18 |
| Preceded by 1844 Baltimore, Maryland | Democratic National Conventions | Succeeded by 1852 Baltimore, Maryland |