1850 New York gubernatorial election

← 1848 November 5, 1850 1852 →

Nominee Washington Hunt Horatio Seymour Party Whig Democratic Alliance Anti-Rent Union Popular vote 214,614 214,352 Percentage 49.64% 49.58%

County results Hunt:     50–60%     60–70% Seymour:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%

Governor before election Hamilton Fish Whig Elected Governor Washington Hunt Whig

The1850 New York state election was held on Tuesday November 5, 1850, to elect theGovernor, theLieutenant Governor, aCanal Commissioner, anInspector of State Prisons and theClerk of the Court of Appeals, as well as all members of theNew York State Assembly.

The Whig state convention met on September 27 inUtica;Francis Granger presided. After the nominations of Hunt, Cornell, Blakely, Baker, and Smith, the majority passed a resolution thanking the state's juniorU.S. senatorWilliam H. Seward for "the signal ability with which he has sustained ... those beloved principles of public policy so long cherished by the Whigs of the Empire State,"—a clear reference to Seward's opposition to theCompromise of 1850. In protest, Granger and other pro-Compromise allies ofpresidentMillard Fillmore withdrew from the convention. The conservative faction became known as the Silver Grays after Granger's white hair.^[1]

The Silver Grays reconvened at Utica on October 17; Granger again presided. In the interim, Hunt had issued a statement accepting the Compromise while calling for "essential modifications" of theFugitive Slave Act of 1850. Satisfied, the convention reaffirmed the Utica nominations.^[2]

Some conservative Whigs still refused to support Hunt, however. These individuals threw their support behind the Democratic candidate for governor,Horatio Seymour, in hopes of initiating apolitical realignment in which pro-Compromise Whigs and Democrats would unite in a newUnion Party. The New YorkJournal of Commerce printed a Union ticket headed by Seymour in advance of a Union Safety meeting held atCastle Garden in late October. The meeting adopted resolutions approving of the Compromise and vowing never to vote for any candidate known to be hostile to any of the Compromise measures, including the Fugitive Slave Act—a pledge that targeted Hunt specifically. Antislavery Whigs denounced the meeting as a transparent attempt to divide the Whig Party and elect Seymour under the guise of Unionism.^[3]

The Democratic state convention met on September 11 inSyracuse and nominatedHunker Seymour and Barnburners Church, Mather, Angel and Benton.

The Liberty convention met on September 12, and nominated Chaplin and Plumb.

The Anti-Rent state convention met inAlbany and nominated a cross-endorsed ticket with Whigs Hunt and Blakely, and Democrats Church, Angel and Benton.

Hunt won the election with one of the smallest majorities in New York history, only 262 votes. Four out of five candidates on the cross-endorsed Anti-Rent ticket were elected, demonstrating their continued influence. The incumbent Benton was re-elected.

Eight-two Whigs, 44 Democrats, one Free Soiler, and one Independent were elected to the State Assembly.

• New York gubernatorial elections
• New York state elections

• Greeley, Horace, ed. (1851).The Whig Almanac for 1851. New York: The New York Tribune.
• Valentine, D. T. (1852).Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York. New York: Clerk of the Common Council.

• Alexander, DeAlva Stanwood (1906).A Political History of the State of New York. Vol. 2. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
• Holt, Michael F. (1999).The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.

• New York state elections
• 1850 New York (state) elections
• 1850 elections in the United States by state

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