On the surface, the story of the election of 1808 appears straightforward: Despite some resurgence of the Federalist Party and the difficulties created by the Embargo of 1807, Thomas Jefferson's chosen Democratic-Republican Party successor, James Madison, handily won election to the presidency with 122 electoral votes to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's 47. This interpretation misses some key developments in presidential politics in the contest for the Democratic-Republican nomination and minimizes the volatility of the early republic's politics.

On January 23, 1808, the Democratic-Republicans in Congress held a caucus that supported Madison for president. This endorsement, however, represented not the culmination of the nomination process but merely its intensification as Madison, James Monroe, and George Clinton jockeyed for advantage and support among the Democratic-Republicans, and Jefferson, rather than anointing his friend Madison, generally remained aloof from the process. John Randolph, who led a faction of the party called the Quids, spearheaded Monroe's candidacy as much out of dislike for Madison as friendship toward Monroe. Two days before the congressional caucus, Democratic-Republicans members of the Virginia legislature held two meetings; one nominated Madison, the other Monroe. Monroe's supporters then engaged in a series of newspaper attacks on Madison and the congressional caucus system. Other states also had multiple meetings of supporters with equally confusing outcomes as the debate over the nomination raged for much of the first half of 1808. Ultimately, Monroe's candidacy floundered when the diplomatic correspondence of his negotiations with Great Britain became public and it became clear that the Monroe-Pinckney Treaty (1806), which Jefferson had refused to submit to the Senate, had violated Secretary of State Madison's instructions.

Clinton presented more of a stealth candidacy. At age 68, he was already considered by some to be too old for the office, but as he was the sitting vice president and a New Yorker, others thought that the presidency was his due. The two previous presidents had both served as vice president, and many people were already beginning to wonder about a Virginia dynasty (George Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were all from Virginia). Clinton also complained of the caucus system and gained support from his own state, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. While several newspapers railed against Madison in support of Clinton, the aged New Yorker, with the aid of his capable nephew Dewitt Clinton, somehow finessed being considered for both the presidency and vice presidency simultaneously. In the final electoral vote count, six New York electors even voted for Clinton for president, dividing their votes for vice president between Madison and Monroe. Clinton, however, won 113 electoral votes to become Madison's vice president.

The Democratic-Republican machinations receded into the background by the end of summer 1808 as the party faced a serious challenge from the Federalist Party, which had regained its control of New England and asserted some strength in several other states. As in 1804, the Federalist Party did not hold a caucus; its leaders simply announced in early September that Pinckney and Rufus King would be the Federalist Party ticket. The party's press attacked Madison as pro-French and anti-British, thought that Madison had been a failure as secretary of state, and considered the Embargo of 1807 a disaster. Yet despite the potency of these arguments, once the Democratic-Republicans fell into place behind him, Madison was able to slide into the presidency.

Bibliography:

Irving Brant, "Election of 1808," in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1968 (New York: McGraw Hill, 1971), pp. 185-246.

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