United States presidential election, 1880
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‹ 1876  1884 › |
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| United States presidential election, 1880 | ||||
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| November 2, 1880 | ||||
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| Nominee | James Garfield | Winfield Hancock | ||
| Party | Republican | Democratic | ||
| Home state | Ohio | Pennsylvania | ||
| Running mate | Chester A. Arthur | William Hayden English | ||
| Electoral vote | 214 | 155 | ||
| States carried | 19 | 19 | ||
| Popular vote | 4,446,158 | 4,444,260 | ||
| Percentage | 48.3% | 48.2% | ||
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| Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Hancock/English, Red denotes those won by Garfield/Arthur. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. | ||||
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Incumbent President President-elect |
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The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely seen as a referendum on the Republicans' relaxation of Reconstruction efforts in the southern states. There were no pressing issues of the day save tariffs, with the Republicans supporting higher tariffs and the Democrats supporting lower ones.
Incumbent President Rutherford Hayes did not seek re-election, keeping a promise made during the 1876 campaign. The Republican Party eventually chose another Ohioan, James A. Garfield, as their standard-bearer. The Democratic Party meanwhile chose Civil War General Winfield S. Hancock as their nominee. Despite capturing fewer than 2,000 more popular votes than Hancock, Garfield was easily elected, capturing 214 of the states' 369 electoral votes. It is to date the smallest popular vote victory in American history.
Contents |
[edit] Nominations
[edit] Republican Party nomination
Republican candidates:
- James A. Garfield, U.S. representative from Ohio
- Ulysses S. Grant, former President of the United States from Illinois
- James G. Blaine, U.S. senator from Maine
- John Sherman, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from Ohio
[edit] Candidates gallery
 Former President Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio |
While Hayes didn't seek renomination, former President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) openly sought nomination to a third term. Going into the Republican Party convention in Chicago, he was the front-runner, but opponents supported a number of other candidates, including James Gillespie Blaine of Maine and Ohio's John Sherman. James Garfield, who was representing the Ohio delegation, gave a major speech in support of Sherman but soon found himself among those receiving delegate votes. On the 36th ballot, Garfield garnered 399 delegate votes, outlasting Grant (who had 306), Blaine (42) and Sherman to win the nomination. After Levi P. Morton backed out of the nomination to avoid a dispute, Chester A. Arthur (a close friend to U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling was subsequently chosen as Garfield's running mate by a large margin over Elihu B. Washburne. The convention is also noteworthy as it was the first at which delegates cast votes for an African-American, Blanche Kelso Bruce. This convention took the most ballots to choose its party's nominee for President.
| Vice Presidential Ballot | |
| Chester A. Arthur | 468 |
|---|---|
| Elihu B. Washburne | 193 |
| Marshall Jewell | 44 |
| Horace Maynard | 30 |
| Blanche Kelso Bruce | 8 |
| James L. Alcorn | 4 |
| Edmund J. Davis | 2 |
| Thomas Settle | 1 |
| Stewart L. Woodford | 1 |
[edit] Democratic Party nomination
Democratic candidates:
- Winfield Scott Hancock, U.S. Major General from Pennsylvania
- Thomas F. Bayard, U.S. senator from Delaware
- Samuel J. Randall, U.S. representative from Pennsylvania
- Henry B. Payne, former U.S. representative from Ohio
- Allen G. Thurman, U.S. senator from Ohio
- Stephen J. Field, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice from California
- Thomas A. Hendricks, U.S. senator from Indiana
[edit] Candidates gallery
The Democratic Party convention in Cincinnati, Ohio was a wild affair, with literally dozens of names being presented as potential Presidential nominees. In the end, Civil War General Winfield S. Hancock was nominated with 705 delegate votes, besting Thomas F. Bayard, Sr. (154), Samuel J. Randall (129), Henry B. Payne (81), Allen G. Thurman (69), Stephen J. Field (66), and a host of other candidates. William H. English was subsequently nominated as Hancock's running mate.
| Presidential Ballot | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ballot | 1st | 2nd Before Shifts | 2nd After Shifts | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winfield S. Hancock | 171 | 320 | 705 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas F. Bayard | 153.5 | 112 | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Samuel J. Randall | 6 | 128.5 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Henry B. Payne | 81 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Allen G. Thurman | 68.5 | 50 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stephen J. Field | 65 | 65.5 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| William R. Morrison | 62 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas A. Hendricks | 49.5 | 31 | 30 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Samuel J. Tilden | 38 | 6 | 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Others | 22 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstaining | 10.5 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas Ewing | 10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| James E. English | 1 | 19 | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
[edit] Greenback Party nomination
Dissatisfied with the fiscal policies of both parties, the Greenback Party, a minor force in the 1876 election, returned with James B. Weaver as its Presidential nominee and Benjamin J. Chambers as his running mate.
[edit] American Party nomination
The mistrust of the Masonic movement had led to the creation of a new nativist political party, reusing the old name of the American Party. Former Civil War general John W. Phelps, the head of the Vermont Anti-Masonic movement, was nominated for President and former Kansas senator Samuel C. Pomeroy was nominated for Vice President.
[edit] General election
[edit] Campaign
Democrats began by attacking the contested 1876 election, with Republicans bringing up the Civil War again, but the campaign soon shifted to personality. Garfield campaigned as a hard-working, self-made man. Republicans avoided direct attacks on Hancock, who was widely-respected for his service at Gettysburg, but claimed that the general would act as a figurehead for corrupt Democrats,[1] like the ones who tried to defame Garfield with the Morey letter. The Democrats campaigned on Republican corruption, attacking Garfield and especially his running mate Arthur.
The end of the effects of the Panic of 1873 combined with a well-funded and well-run campaign gave the advantage to Garfield.
[edit] Results
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
Running mate | Running mate's home state |
Running mate's electoral vote |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Pct | |||||||
| James Garfield | Republican | Ohio | 4,446,158 | 48.3% | 214(b) | Chester A. Arthur | New York | 214(b) |
| Winfield S. Hancock | Democratic | Pennsylvania | 4,444,260 | 48.2% | 155(a) | William Hayden English | Indiana | 155(a) |
| James Baird Weaver | Greenback Labor | Iowa | 305,997 | 3.3% | 0 | Benjamin J. Chambers | Texas | 0 |
| Neal Dow | Prohibition | Maine | 10,305 | 0.1% | 0 | Henry Adams Thompson | Ohio | 0 |
| John Wolcott Phelps | American | Vermont | 700 | 0.0% | 0 | Samuel Clarke Pomeroy | Kansas | 0 |
| Other | 3,631 | 0.0% | – | Other | – | |||
| Total | 9,211,051 | 100% | 369 | 369 | ||||
| Needed to win | 185 | 185 | ||||||
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1880 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005).
Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).
(a) See “Georgia's vote” below.
(b) See “California's vote” below.
[edit] Georgia's vote
According to Article II, Section 1, clause 3 of the Constitution, “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.” In 1792, Congress had set the date for the Electoral College to vote at the first Wednesday in December, and it was still set to that day in 1880, when it fell on December 1. However, Georgia's electors failed to cast their ballots on December 1, instead voting on the following Wednesday, December 8. Congress chose to count Georgia's vote in the official tally, but it is arguable that Georgia's electoral vote was constitutionally invalid, and thus that Hancock's electoral vote should be 144, not 155.
[edit] California's vote
In this year, California electoral votes were split between the two candidates with Garfield getting one and Hancock getting five, giving Garfield nineteen states plus one electoral vote.
Notably, Garfield won the presidency without California. No presidential candidate managed to reproduce this feat until Woodrow Wilson's victory in the 1912 election and no Republican presidential candidate managed to reproduce this feat until George W. Bush's victory in the 2000 election.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
- American election campaigns in the 19th century
- History of the United States (1865–1918)
- Third Party System
[edit] External links
- 1880 popular vote by counties
- Harp Week
- The Republican Campaign Textbook 1880
- Caricature by Joseph Keppler of 1880 Presidential Candidates
- How close was the 1880 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University
[edit] Navigation
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