ELECTION #13, 1836. The NASTY-METER is 4.

QUOTE from Davy Crockett in 1835: "Van Buren is as opposite to President Jackson as dung is to a diamond."

Jackson followed the tradition of leaving office after two terms and made sure the Democrats nominated his VP, Martin Van Buren, to be his successor. At the Democratic national convention in Baltimore Van Buren was unanimously selected as the nominee. However, there was some problems when Jackson tried to push through Richard M. Johnson as the VP candidate. Johnson was a friend of Jackson's and a fellow hero of the War of 1812. But Johnson's problem for some of the delegates was that he had openly lived with a black woman and had two daughters with her. Because Johnson actually had the nerve to present his family in public, he was reviled by Southern Democrats who "hissed most ungraciously" when his name was presented. But he did get the nomination.

The National Republicans had coalesced into a new party. The name of the new party was WHIGS. The Whigs were composed of the Republicans, Antimasons, and disaffected Democrats. They all had something in common in that they hated Andrew Jackson and his policies and anybody who had anything to do with him. That meant they hated Van Buren because he had been VP under Jackson.


ELECTION #13, 1836. The CANDIDATES.

DEMOCRAT: MARTIN VAN BUREN. Martin was 53, former governor of N.Y, former Senator from N.Y., and VP under Andrew Jackson from 1832 - 1837. His greatest asset in running for president was his loyalty to Jackson, whom he served well as VP, and his political astuteness. (which is how he earned the nickname "Little Magician."

WHIGS: The Whigs ran four candidates against Van Buren and Johnson. They did this on purpose to try and keep Van Buren from getting a majority in the electoral college and forcing the election into the House of Representatives. The four Whig candidates were:

William Henry Harrison of Ohio; Daniel Webster of Massachusetts; Hugh White of Tennessee; and W.P. Mangum of North Carolina.

William Henry Harrison was the best known. He had been a congressman and senator from Ohio, and was a hero of the War of 1812 and he had destroyed the Shawnee Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe which earned him the nickname "Old Tip." He ended up getting the most Whig votes.


The CAMPAIGN in 1836.

The Whigs tore into Van Buren. They wrote that he was "the fox prowling near the barn, the mole burrowing near the ground, the pilot fish who plunges deep in the ocean in one spot and comes up in another to breathe the air." Then ran a cartoon showing Van Buren and Harrison, both bare-chested and boxing. Van Buren was getting the worst of it and is yelling to Andrew Jackson, "Stand by me Old Hickory or I'm a gone Chicken."

The Democrats didn't get too nasty towards these four Whigs. They did call them "Federalists, nullifiers, and bank men." A big advantage for the Democrats was they had superb state organizations in every state. The 1836 contest was not so much about Van Buren and the Whig candidates but about Jackson. If you liked Jackson, you voted for Van Buren. If not, you had a choice of four Whigs.

The WINNER was MARTIN VAN BUREN.

It was an easy victory for Van Buren. He got 764,176 votes. That was more than the four Whigs combined - their combined total was 738,128. But Harrison had the most Whig votes with 550,816 and that was encouraging for the Whigs when thinking about 1840.
The electoral votes were:
Van Buren with 170; Harrison with 73; White with 26; Webster with 14; Mangum with 11.

Davy Crockett hated Van Buren and was the attack dog for the Whigs. (He would be equivalent to the modern day attack dogs of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.) Crockett had this to say about Van Buren, "Martin Van Buren is laced up in corsets, such as women in a town wear, and if possible tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or a woman, but for his large red and gray whiskers."

And one last word from Andrew Jackson. After he was out of office he told a friend, "I have only two regrets. One, I should have shot Henry Clay" (the corrupt bargain guy). Two, it would have been nice if I'd had a chance to hang John C. Calhoun" (his first vice-president who resigned in 1832)

(We may have some ex-presidents who think that way today but I doubt if they would say it to anybody or send an email.)