1844 Presidential Election
Congressman John P. Hale (Liberty-New Hampshire)/ Fmr. State Representative James G. Birney (Liberty-New York): 154 Electoral votes; 51.9% popular votesSenator Henry Clay (Whig-Kentucky)/ Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen (Whig-New Jersey): 71 Electoral Votes; 25.9% popular votesSenator Levi Woodbury (Democratic-New Hampshire)/ Secretary of War James K. Polk (Democratic-Tennessee): 50 Electoral Votes; 22.2% popular votesBy 1844, the North was beginning to chafe at the increasing demands placed on them by their Southern brethren. In their eyes, the South had been unfairly castigating their region for years, forcing them to accept "compromises" on the tariff, federalism, and now westward expansion that seemed only to raise the South at the North's expense. When the Democrats announced the nomination of an unflinchingly pro-Texas ticket in 1844, as though the opinions of the North were not important enough to placate even with the vice presidency, the land north of the Mason-Dixon line revolted. In what would be termed as a preemptive strike against the "slave power", Northerners threw their support behind abolitionist John Parker Hale, who was elected without receiving a single vote in any of the slave states. Weeks later, South Carolina would declare itself out of the Union, launching the bloodiest war in the history of North America.