1852
The 1852 U.S. presidential election was won by Franklin Pierce (Democratic) with 254 of 296 electoral votes, defeating Winfield Scott (Whig). Electoral vote margin: 212 EV, popular-vote margin +6.9%; turnout 69.5%. The cycle falls in the Second Party System era of American electoral history.
Franklin Pierce and the 1852 map
Franklin Pierce won a landslide in the last election where the Whig Party was competitive. General Winfield Scott, the Whig nominee, suffered from the party's deep divisions over slavery. Pierce, a northern Democrat acceptable to the South, swept nearly the entire country. The Whig Party effectively collapsed after this defeat, replaced by new anti-slavery coalitions that would become the Republican Party. Pierce's support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act would inflame sectional tensions.
Slavery compromise; Whig Party collapse; Mexican-American War veterans
Last election where the Whig Party competed nationally; party collapsed afterward
States · 31 reporting
Embed
Drop this map on your site · coming soon
Free iframe with attribution. White-label option in the works.
Get notified →Classroom
All 300 packets, free
60 cycles · K-2 through AP · open download.
Browse packets →Poster
Wall-worthy print · coming soon
Every-election grid and single-state series in the works.
Get notified →Read further
Curated picksAmerican Lion
Jon Meacham
Pulitzer-winning Jackson biography.
Buy on Amazon →A Country of Vast Designs
Robert W. Merry
James K. Polk and the manifest-destiny presidency.
Buy on Amazon →Recommendations are editorial.
Free, ad-light, no paywall
Built by one person. Tips fund the next 60 elections of editorial.