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176 members of theElectoral College 89 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 36.8%[1] 13.0pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Presidential election results map.Green denotes states won by Madison/Clinton,Salmon denotes states won by Pinckney/King.In addition,Light Green denotes the electoral votes won by Clinton in the state of New York. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes cast by each state. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in theUnited States from November 4 to December 7, 1808. TheDemocratic-Republican candidateJames Madison defeatedFederalist candidateCharles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively.
Madison had served asSecretary of State sincePresidentThomas Jefferson took office in 1801. Jefferson, who had declined to run for a third term, threw his strong support behind Madison, a fellowVirginian. SittingVice PresidentGeorge Clinton and former AmbassadorJames Monroe both challenged Madison for leadership of the party, but Madison won his party's nomination and Clinton was renominated as vice president. The Federalists chose to re-nominate Pinckney, a former ambassador who had served as the party's1804 nominee, again alongsideRufus King.
Despite the unpopularity of theEmbargo Act of 1807, Madison won the vast majority of electoral votes outside of the Federalist stronghold ofNew England. Clinton received six electoral votes for president from his home state of New York. This election was the first of two instances in American history in which a new president was selected but the incumbent vice president won re-election, the other being in1828.
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4th President of the United States
Tenure Appointments Electoral history Legacy   | ||
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| James Madison | George Clinton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 5th U.S. Secretary of State (1801–1809) | 4th Vice President of the United States (1805–1812) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SenatorStephen R. Bradley, who had chaired thecongressional nominating caucus during the 1804 presidential election, made a call for the 1808 caucus to the 146Democratic-Republican members of theUnited States Congress andFederalist allies. The caucus was attended by 89 to 94 members of Congress.[2]
The caucus was held in January 1808. With the support of outgoing PresidentThomas Jefferson, Secretary of StateJames Madison won the presidential nomination over opposing candidatesJames Monroe and Vice PresidentGeorge Clinton. The caucus voted to give the vice presidential nomination to Clinton over his main opponentJohn Langdon, although Clinton's supporters believed Clinton would receive the Federalist Party's presidential nomination. The Federalists instead nominatedCharles Cotesworth Pinckney that September. A committee of fifteen members was selected to manage Madison's campaign.[2][3]
Seventeen Democratic-Republicans in Congress opposed Madison's selection and the caucus system whose authority to select presidential and vice-presidential candidates was disputed. Clinton also opposed the caucus system.[2] Monroe, who was supported by dissident and majority leaderJohn Randolph, was nominated by a group of Virginia Democratic-Republicans (Old Republicans), and although he did not actively try to defeat Madison, he also refused to withdraw from the race.[4] Clinton was also supported by a group of New York Democratic-Republicans for president even as he remained the party's official vice presidential candidate.[5]
| Presidential Ballot | Total | Vice Presidential Ballot | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| James Madison | 83 | George Clinton | 79 |
| James Monroe | 3 | John Langdon | 5 |
| George Clinton | 3 | Henry Dearborn | 3 |
| John Quincy Adams | 1 |
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| Charles Cotesworth Pinckney | Rufus King | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 6thU.S. Minister to France (1796–1797) | 3rdU.S. Minister to Great Britain (1796–1803) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Federalist caucus met in September 1808 and re-nominated the party's 1804 ticket, which consisted of GeneralCharles Cotesworth Pinckney ofSouth Carolina and former SenatorRufus King of New York.[6] This was the only time in American history that a defeated major party renominated its losing ticket for a second time.
The election was marked by opposition to Jefferson'sEmbargo Act of 1807, a halt to trade with Europe that disproportionately hurtNew England merchants and was perceived as favoring France overBritain. Nonetheless, Jefferson was still very popular with Americans generally and Pinckney was soundly defeated by Madison, though not as badly as in 1804. Pinckney received few electoral votes outside ofNew England.
Pinckney retained the electoral votes of the two states that he carried in 1804 (Connecticut and Delaware), and he also picked up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and three electoral districts in North Carolina besides the two electoral districts in Maryland that he carried earlier. Except for the North Carolina districts, all of the improvement was inNew England.
Monroe won a portion of the popular vote in Virginia and North Carolina,[4] while the New York legislature split its electoral votes between Madison and Clinton.[5]
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote(a), (b) | Electoral vote(c) | Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote(c) | ||||
| James Madison | Democratic-Republican | Virginia | 124,964 | 64.97% | 122 | George Clinton (incumbent) | New York | 113 |
| John Langdon | New Hampshire | 9 | ||||||
| Charles Cotesworth Pinckney | Federalist | South Carolina | 60,976 | 31.70% | 47 | Rufus King | New York | 47 |
| George Clinton | Democratic-Republican | New York | — | — | 6 | James Madison | Virginia | 3 |
| James Monroe | Virginia | 3 | ||||||
| James Monroe | Democratic-Republican | Virginia | 5,618 | 2.92% | 0 | None | N/A | 0 |
| Unpledged electors | None | N/A | 776 | 0.40% | 0 | N/A | N/A | 0 |
| Total | 192,334 | 100% | 175 | 175 | ||||
| Needed to win | 89 | 89 | ||||||
Source (Popular Vote):A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825[7]
Source (Electoral Vote):"Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996".National Archives and Records Administration. RetrievedJuly 30, 2005.
(a)Only 10 of the 17 states chose electors by popular vote.
(b)Those states that did choose electors by popular vote had widely varying restrictions on suffrage via property requirements.
(c)One Elector from Kentucky did not vote.
| State | Electoral votes | For President | For Vice President | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JMaTooltip James Madison | GCTooltip George Clinton (vice president) | CCPTooltip Charles Cotesworth Pinckney | B | GCTooltip George Clinton (vice president) | JMaTooltip James Madison | JMoTooltip James Monroe | JLTooltip John Langdon (politician) | RKTooltip Rufus King | B | ||
| Connecticut | 9 | — | — | 9 | — | — | — | — | — | 9 | — |
| Delaware | 3 | — | — | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | — |
| Georgia | 6 | 6 | — | — | — | 6 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | 8 | 7 | — | — | 1 | 7 | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Maryland | 11 | 9 | — | 2 | — | 9 | — | — | — | 2 | — |
| Massachusetts | 19 | — | — | 19 | — | — | — | — | — | 19 | — |
| New Hampshire | 7 | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | — |
| New Jersey | 8 | 8 | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — | — | — |
| New York | 19 | 13 | 6 | — | — | 13 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — |
| North Carolina | 14 | 11 | — | 3 | — | 11 | — | — | — | 3 | — |
| Ohio | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | 20 | 20 | — | — | — | 20 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Rhode Island | 4 | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | 4 | — |
| South Carolina | 10 | 10 | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Tennessee | 5 | 5 | — | — | — | 5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Vermont | 6 | 6 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6 | — | — |
| Virginia | 24 | 24 | — | — | — | 24 | — | — | — | — | — |
| TOTAL | 175 | 122 | 6 | 47 | 1 | 113 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 47 | 1 |
| TO WIN | 89 | 89 | |||||||||
The popular vote totals used are the elector from each party with the highest total of votes. The vote totals of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee appear to be incomplete.
| State | James Madison Democratic-Republican | Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Federalist | James Monroe Democratic-Republican | Other | Margin | Citation | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Kentucky | 2,679+ | 76.89% | 54 | 1.55% | No ballots | 751 | 21.56% | 1,874 | 53.78% | [8] | |
| Maryland | 15,336 | 67.30% | 7,433 | 32.62% | No ballots | 18 | 0.08% | 7,885 | 34.60% | [9] | |
| New Hampshire | 12,793 | 47.59% | 14,085 | 52.40% | No ballots | 4 | 0.01% | -1,288 | -4.8% | [10] | |
| New Jersey | 18,670 | 55.97% | 14,687 | 44.03% | No ballots | 3 | 0.01% | 3,980 | 11.93% | [11] | |
| North Carolina | 9,932+ | 52.70% | 7,975+ | 42.32% | 939+ | 4.98% | No ballots | 1,018 | 5.40% | [12] | |
| Ohio | 3,645 | 60.82% | 1,174 | 19.59% | 1,174 | 19.59% | No ballots | 2,471 | 41.23% | [13] | |
| Pennsylvania | 42,518 | 78.37% | 11,735 | 21.63% | No ballots | No ballots | 30,783 | 56.74% | [14] | ||
| Rhode Island | 2,692 | 46.70% | 3,072 | 53.30% | No ballots | No ballots | -380 | -6.60% | [15] | ||
| Tennessee | 1,016 | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | ?[a] | [16] |
| Virginia | 15,683 | 78.62% | 761 | 3.81% | 3,505 | 17.57% | No ballots | 12,178 | 61.05% | [17] | |
States where the margin of victory was under 5%:
States where the margin of victory was under 10%:
| Madison | 65.0% | |||
| Pinckney | 31.7% | |||
| Monroe | 2.9% | |||
| Unpledged electors | 0.4% | |||
| Madison | 69.7% | |||
| Pinckney | 26.9% | |||
| Clinton | 3.4% | |||
| Clinton | 64.6% | |||
| King | 26.9% | |||
| Langdon | 5.1% | |||
| Madison | 1.7% | |||
| Monroe | 1.7% | |||
| Method of choosing electors | State(s) |
|---|---|
| Each Elector appointed by state legislature | |
| Each Elector chosen by voters statewide | |
State is divided into two electoral districts and half the electors are chosen from each district. | Kentucky |
| State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district |
| Candidates |  | |
|---|---|---|
| General articles | ||
| Local results | ||
| Other 1808 elections | ||
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