Presidential Election of 1812

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION of 1812 resulted in the re-election of James Madison. It was contested in the shadow of the War of 1812 with several battles fought along the U.S.-Canadian border, and other engagements at sea. James Madison capitalized on his leadership of the United States during a period of tension with the British and the French. Both the British and the French seized U.S. ships in their aims to ensure a blockade of their enemy's lands. There was also worry over the British support for Native Americans in the north and south of the United States, with the British building fortifications in what the Americans believed was U.S. territory, although the British contested this, by occasionally pressing U.S. seamen to work in the British navy.

On May 18, the Democratic-Republican congressional-nominating caucus nominated James Madison as their candidate for the upcoming presidential elections. The vice presidency had been vacant since the death of George Clinton on April 20, and Governor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was nominated. He was famous in electoral politics for his manipulation of the voting system; the term gerrymander was coined to describe the actions of Governor Gerry and similar schemes all over the world. It was first used in Britain (as jerrymander) in 1859 and in the United States (as gerrymander) nine years later.

A rival section of the Democratic-Republicans disliked the choice of Madison, and had revolved around George Clinton. Most of their members were from New York, and they formed a caucus in New York. On May 29, they nominated the former U.S. senator and [Page 560]then mayor of New York City, DeWitt Clinton, as their candidate. The nephew of George Clinton, he was an important civic leader in New York, not only as its lieutenant governor, mayor of New York City 1803–07, 1809–10, and again from 1811, but also a patron of the New York Orphan Asylum and the New York City Hospital. On the political front, DeWitt Clinton was pushing for what at the time was described as “practical republicanism,” with merchants arguing that commerce was just as important as agricultural production in the healthy economy of the country, and that there should be much greater diversity in the U.S. economic makeup.