Sold – As The Whig Party’s First Presidential Candidate in 1836, William Henry Harrison Accurately Predicts He Will Carry Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana

In 1836, incumbent president Andrew Jackson decided to retire after two terms and supported his vice-president, Martin Van Buren, for the Democratic Party nomination. This support was decisive and Van Buren secured the nomination in Baltimore at the Democratic National Convention. The Whig Party emerged during the 1834 mid-term elections as the chief opposition to the Democrats, and in 1836 would participate in their first presidential election. By the middle of 1836, Harrison had replaced Daniel Webster as the preferred Whig candidate in the north and border states. The south boosted Tennessee Senator Hugh Lawson White as its contender. Unable to agree on a single candidate, the Whigs ended up with two tickets: William Henry Harrison for president and Francis Granger for vice- president in the north and border states, which made them the major Whig contenders, and Hugh Lawson White for president and John Tyler for vice-president in the south. The hope was that each would carry his region, and the House of Representatives would select between the two Whigs. This was the only race in American history in which a major political party intentionally ran two presidential candidates at once.

"My friends may consider Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana as quite safe. I do not entertain any doubt as to either."

By July 1 the campaign was in full swing. It is interesting to note that from May 1836 on, up through this election and until after he was elected president, the office held by former general and senator Harrison was simply Clerk of Courts of Hamilton County, Ohio. Autograph Letter Signed, Cincinnati, June 31 [July 1], 1836, to Gen. Solomon Van Rensselaer, a former U.S. congressman and Whig who was postmaster of Albany, New York from 1822 to 1839, concerning his presidential prospects. “You have no doubt felt some surprise that I had suffered so long an interval to pass without writing to you. I hope however that you know me too well to believe that it has been caused by any diminution of my friendship. The fact is that I have more to do than I can do in keeping up my correspondence. Writing much is also injurious to my health.

“All that I have to communicate to you now in relation to politics is that my friends may consider Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana as quite safe. I do not entertain any doubt as to either. Our representative Mr. Storer proposes to pass through your city on his way home. If you hear of his arrival I will thank you to visit him. He wishes much to become acquainted with you. You will find him a fine fellow. I shall set out from this place next week for the springs in this state & will then go into Virginia (White Sulphur Springs) & may possibly get into Pennsylvania. But I believe that I shall not be able to go as far as your state. My health never was better than it is at present…” This is a very uncommon political content ALS of Harrison as presidential candidate. Storer was Bellamy Storer, a Cincinnati attorney and congressman who was one of the chief boosters of Harrison’s presidential candidacy.

Harrison was right in thinking he would carry Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. However, the Whig strategy failed. Though Harrison was the most effective of the Whig candidates, Van Buren's superior party organization carried the day, earning him a majority of both the popular and electoral votes in both regions. The Whigs came only a few thousand votes short of victory in Pennsylvania, however, which would have actually vindicated their strategy. Thus the Whig's short term goals of victory and removing Jackson's influence from the White House failed, but the long term goal of development of their organization succeeded. In 1840 Harrison would win.