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Feb 9
Presidential
William Henry Harrison is born, 1773
On this day in 1773, future President William Henry Harrison is born on the Berkeley Plantation in Virginia. Harrison went on to serve as the ninth U.S.…
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1820 Election
During James Monroe's first term, the country had suffered an economic depression.
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1812 Election
In the 1812 contest James Madison was reelected president by the narrowest margin of any election since the Republican party had come to power in 1800.
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1808 Election
Republican James Madison was elevated to the presidency in the election of 1808.
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1804 Election
The 1804 presidential election was a landslide victory for the incumbent Thomas Jefferson.
In this election Republican James Monroe won the presidency with 183 electoral votes, carrying every state except Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware. Federalist Rufus King received the votes of the 34 Federalist electors. Daniel D. Tompkins of New York was elected vice president with 183 electoral votes, his opposition scattered among several candidates.
After the bitter partisanship of the Jefferson and Madison administrations, Monroe came to symbolize the "Era of Good Feelings." Monroe was not elected easily, however; he barely won the nomination in the Republican congressional caucus over Secretary of War William Crawford of Georgia. Many Republicans objected to the succession of Virginia presidents and believed Crawford a superior choice to the mediocre Monroe. The caucus vote was 65-54. The narrowness of Monroe's victory was surprising because Crawford had already renounced the nomination, perhaps in return for a promise of Monroe's future support.
In the general election, opposition to Monroe was disorganized. The Hartford Convention of 1814 (growing out of opposition to the War of 1812) had discredited the Federalists outside their strongholds, and they put forth no candidate. To some extent, Republicans had siphoned off Federalist support with nationalist programs like the Second Bank of the United States.
The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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