1812 United States presidential election

1812 United States presidential election

The 1812 United States presidential election was the seventh quadrennial presidential election. President James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton, who drew support from dissident Democratic-Republicans in the North as well as Federalists. It was the first presidential election to be held during a major war involving the United States. Madison was re-elected with 50. 4 percent of the popular vote to his opponent’s 47. 6 percent.

About 1812 United States presidential election in brief

Summary 1812 United States presidential electionThe 1812 United States presidential election was the seventh quadrennial presidential election. President James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton, who drew support from dissident Democratic-Republicans in the North as well as Federalists. It was the first presidential election to be held during a major war involving the United States. Madison was re-elected with 50. 4 percent of the popular vote to his opponent’s 47. 6 percent, making the 1812 election the closest in popular vote up to that point in the history of the U.S. presidency. The United States declared war on the United Kingdom on June 12, 1812, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe had been steadily worsening throughout James Madison’s first term. Many Democratic-Republican in the northern states were unhappy over the perceived dominance of the presidency by the state of Virginia, and they wished instead to nominate one of their own rather than re-nominate Madison. Madison won a relatively comfortable victory in the electoral vote, but this was the most closely contested election held between 1800 and 1824.

The election was held in the shadow of the War of 1812 and was held from Friday, October 30 to Wednesday, December 2,1812. The U.N. Security Council declared the war over in June 1812; the war ended in October 1812. In the aftermath of the war, the British and the French ignored the neutrality rights of the US at sea by seizing American ships and looking for supposed British deserters in a practice known as impressment. The British provided additional provocations by impressing American seamen, maintaining forts within United States territory in the Northwest, and supporting American Indians in both the Northwest and Southwest. Meanwhile, expansionists in the south and west of theUnited States coveted British Canada and Spanish Florida and wanted to use British provocations as a pretext to seize both areas. The pressure steadily built, with the result that the United states declared war against the UK on June 11, 1811. The war ended with the US declaring war on Britain on June 13, 1813, and the war was declared over in July 1813.