John Tyler - Presidential Election, 1840

Presidential Election, 1840

See also: United States presidential election, 1840

At the Whig convention of 1840, Tyler supported Henry Clay for Presidential candidacy. After Clay had been passed over in favor of William Henry Harrison, Tyler was named Harrison's running mate. Although this was ostensibly to balance the ticket by placing the Virginian, Tyler, with Harrison, who now resided in Ohio, Harrison originally came from a plantation along the same stretch of road in Charles City County, Virginia as Tyler.

The union of the Whigs in this year was a coalition of diverse elements joined to defeat their common opponent, the Democratic incumbent Martin Van Buren. This combination included both southern states' rights men such as Tyler, who had long opposed a national bank and unrestricted federal power, and economic nationalists such as Clay, whose "American system" called for a national bank, protective tariff, and federally financed internal improvements. To win the election, these differences were downplayed, in favor of portraying Harrison as hardy western frontiersman and Van Buren as an effete easterner. The Whig slogan was "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" – among the most famous in American politics.

But these differences reappeared later, dividing Tyler and the Whig Party after he succeeded Harrison as President.

Harrison and Tyler won the election by an electoral vote of 234–60 and a popular vote of 53 percent to 47 percent, and the Whigs gained control of both houses of Congress.