The Election of 1848 was the first presidential contest held on the same day across all states — a standard that continues today. It was a three-way race between Whig war hero Zachary Taylor, Democratic Senator Lewis Cass, and former president Martin Van Buren, now running under the banner of the newly formed Free Soil Party.
The Fallout of James K. Polk’s Presidency
James K. Polk entered the White House in 1845 as the nation’s first true “dark horse” president and left four years later with a legacy of remarkable accomplishments.
Polk created an Independent Treasury to stabilize government funds, passed the Walker Tariff to encourage trade, and negotiated with Britain to secure the Oregon Territory as free soil. His most dramatic achievement was the Mexican-American War, which ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). The U.S. gained vast new territories, including California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and more — a land cession that nearly doubled America’s size.
Yet these triumphs came at a cost. Polk’s war was controversial, with critics like Abraham Lincoln accusing him of starting it on dubious grounds. More importantly, the new lands immediately reignited sectional conflict: would slavery expand into the Mexican Cession? This question dominated the politics of 1848 and beyond.
Polk, exhausted and ill, kept his promise not to seek re-election. He died of cholera just three months after leaving office, at only 53 years old.
Cracks Within the Democratic Party
With Polk stepping down, the Democrats faced division. Former president Martin Van Buren attempted a comeback, but his opposition to slavery’s expansion cost him Southern support.
The party ultimately nominated Lewis Cass, a senator from Michigan and former Secretary of War. Though a Northerner, Cass advocated “popular sovereignty” — the idea that settlers in each new territory should decide whether to allow slavery. This middle-ground stance tried to appease both North and South but left abolitionists unconvinced and Southerners suspicious.
Cass’s running mate was William Orlando Butler, a Kentucky war hero from the Mexican-American War, chosen to balance the ticket.
The Birth of the Free Soil Party
Frustrated by Cass’s nomination and the Democrats’ unwillingness to oppose slavery’s spread, Martin Van Buren broke away with a coalition of anti-slavery Democrats, Conscience Whigs, and abolitionists to form the Free Soil Party.
The party’s platform supported the Wilmot Proviso, a proposal to ban slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico. Van Buren ran for president with Charles Francis Adams, son of John Quincy Adams, as his running mate.
The Free Soilers campaigned under the slogan: “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men.” Though they knew victory was impossible, their goal was to spoil Cass’s chances and prove that anti-slavery politics had national appeal.
The Whigs and Their Candidate
The Whigs, who had opposed the Mexican-American War as “Mr. Polk’s War,” nevertheless turned to its most famous general: Zachary Taylor.
Nicknamed “Old Rough and Ready” for his plain manner and battlefield toughness, Taylor was a national hero after victories at Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Buena Vista. Ironically, he had never voted in an election and had no clear political positions. That made him a blank slate the Whigs could market broadly.
Taylor was also a Louisiana slaveholder, which reassured Southerners, but Northern Whigs downplayed this fact and instead emphasised his outsider status. The Whigs avoided divisive issues, running Taylor almost entirely on his military image. Their platform was essentially: “Taylor the Hero.”
Taylor’s running mate was Millard Fillmore, a moderate from New York. Their ticket defeated other prominent Whigs like Winfield Scott and a still-determined Henry Clay, once again denied the presidency.
The Campaigns
The Democrats promoted Cass’s popular sovereignty as a fair compromise, while the Whigs offered Taylor’s reputation and little else. Both major parties deliberately avoided slavery, fearing to fracture their fragile coalitions.
The Free Soil Party, by contrast, made slavery’s expansion the central theme. They performed strongly in Northern states like New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Ohio, proving that anti-slavery politics had moved from the fringes into the mainstream.
The Election of 1848 Results
With four new states in the Union — Florida, Texas, Iowa, and Wisconsin — a candidate needed 146 electoral votes to win.
- Zachary Taylor (Whig) – 163 electoral votes; 47.3% of the popular vote
- Lewis Cass (Democrat) – 127 electoral votes; 42.5% of the popular vote
- Martin Van Buren (Free Soil) – 0 electoral votes; 10.1% of the popular vote
Van Buren’s 10% was the best showing by a third party to date in a presidential race. His votes came largely from anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats in the North — enough to spoil Cass’s chances in New York. Without the Free Soil vote split, Cass likely would have won the state and the election.
Turnout was also impressive: about 72% of eligible voters cast ballots, reflecting how engaged the nation was in the wake of Polk’s expansionist policies and the slavery debate.
Atchison: President for a Day?
Inauguration Day, March 4, 1849, fell on a Sunday. Out of religious observance, Taylor refused to take the oath of office until the following day.
That left David Rice Atchison, a pro-slavery senator from Missouri and president pro tempore of the Senate, as next in line for succession. For decades, people claimed Atchison became “President for a Day.” While not technically true — his Senate term had ended before Taylor’s began — Atchison himself leaned into the myth, joking that he slept through his entire presidency. His tombstone even memorialises him as “President of the United States for One Day.”
Significance
The Election of 1848 carried enormous significance:
- It was the first time all states voted on the same day, establishing a lasting tradition.
- It exposed the fragility of Democratic unity, as Cass’s doctrine of popular sovereignty satisfied no one.
- It showcased the rise of the Free Soil Party, whose 10% share proved slavery’s expansion was now the nation’s defining issue.
- It showed the Whigs’ dependence on war heroes rather than coherent platforms, echoing their earlier success with William Henry Harrison.
- It elected another Southern slaveholder, Zachary Taylor, who ironically would later resist slavery’s expansion into the Mexican Cession — worsening sectional divides.
Legacy
The Election of 1848 followed James K. Polk’s transformative single term and the Election of 1844, when Polk’s expansionist victory over Henry Clay made the Mexican-American War — and its aftermath — inevitable.
The result also set up the Election of 1852, when Zachary Taylor’s sudden death in office and Millard Fillmore’s accidental presidency fractured the Whigs, leading to their collapse and deepening America’s sectional crisis.
