1849 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

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1849 Wisconsin gubernatorial election
  1848 November 6, 1849 1851  
  Nelson Dewey (cropped).jpg Collins alexander l 1880 Crop.png Warren P. Chase Ambrotype Crop.jpg
Nominee Nelson Dewey Alexander L. Collins Warren Chase
Party Democratic Whig Free Soil
Popular vote16,64911,3173,761
Percentage52.42%35.63%11.84%

1849 Wisconsin gubernatorial election results map by county.svg
County results
Dewey:     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%
Collins:     40–50%     50–60%
Chase:     30–40%

Governor before election

Nelson Dewey
Democratic

Elected Governor

Nelson Dewey
Democratic

The 1849 Wisconsin gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1849. Democrat Nelson Dewey won the election with 52% of the vote, winning his second term as Governor of Wisconsin. Dewey defeated Whig Party candidate Alexander L. Collins and Free Soil Party candidate Warren Chase. [1]

Contents

This was the second Wisconsin gubernatorial election, and the first election for a full two-year gubernatorial term.

Nominations

Democratic party

Nelson Dewey was the incumbent governor, having been elected in the 1848 election. He was a prominent lawyer and real-estate investor in Grant County, Wisconsin. He did extensive business with the lead-mining industry, which was a major component of the economy of the Wisconsin Territory. He had been a member of nearly every session of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, first as a member of the Territorial Assembly, from 1838 to 1842, then as a member of the Territorial Council from 1842 to 1846. He served as Speaker of the Territorial Assembly in 1840, and President of the Territorial Council in 1846. [2]

Other candidates

Although Dewey was renominated on the first ballot, two other names were placed in candidacy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination at the 1849 State Democratic Convention, held in Madison:

  • Harrison Carroll Hobart, of Sheboygan, was a state senator and prominent lawyer. He had also served in the Wisconsin Territorial House of Representatives.
  • William Rudolph Smith, of Mineral Point, had been a colonel in the War of 1812 and served in the Pennsylvania General Assembly before moving to the Wisconsin Territory. In Wisconsin, he negotiated an important treaty with the Chippewa, obtaining a portion of their land, and had been a delegate to Wisconsin's first constitutional convention.

Nomination

1849 Wisconsin Democratic convention [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Vote of the Wisconsin Democratic Convention, September 6, 1849
Democratic Nelson Dewey (incumbent) 37 58.73%
Democratic Harrison Carroll Hobart 1320.63%
Democratic William Rudolph Smith 1117.46%
Blank11.59%
Plurality2438.09%
Total votes63 100.0%

Whig party

Alexander L. Collins was a prominent lawyer in Madison. At the time of the 1849 election, he was a member of the first Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin. He had been the Whig Party candidate for United States Congress in the 2nd congressional district in 1848. He also served in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature from 1846 until the territorial government was replaced by the state government in 1848. [4]

Free Soil party

Warren Chase was, at the time of the 1849 election, a member of the Wisconsin State Senate, having been elected on the Democratic Party ticket in 1848. He represented Fond du Lac and Winnebago counties. Chase was an abolitionist and temperance advocate, and was one of only three delegates to attend both the first and second Wisconsin constitutional conventions. Chase was also notable for his fourierist beliefs, having participated in the founding of the Wisconsin phalanx (commune) at Ceresco, Wisconsin.

Results

1849 Wisconsin gubernatorial election [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Democratic Nelson Dewey (incumbent) 16,649 52.42% −3.20%
Whig Alexander L. Collins 11,31735.63%−5.50%
Free Soil Warren Chase 3,76111.84%
Scattering320.10%
Majority5,33216.79%
Total votes31,759 100.00%
Democratic hold Swing +2.30%

Results by county

County [5] Nelson Dewey
Democratic
Alexander L. Collins
Whig
Warren Chase
Free Soil
Scattering
Write-in
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %# %
Brown 28161.76%17137.58%30.66%00.00%11024.18%455
Calumet 13553.36%11746.25%10.40%00.00%187.11%253
Columbia 41047.79%43250.35%161.86%00.00%-22-2.56%858
Crawford 15282.61%3217.39%00.00%00.00%12065.22%184
Dane 66643.67%75949.77%865.64%140.92%-93-6.10%1,525
Dodge 1,25560.31%71434.31%1125.38%00.00%54126.00%2,081
Fond du Lac 64051.24%38931.14%22017.61%00.00%25120.10%1,249
Grant 1,03047.93%1,10351.33%160.74%00.00%-73-3.40%2,149
Green 44355.38%32440.50%263.25%70.88%11914.88%800
Iowa 68851.00%65548.55%60.44%00.00%332.45%1,349
Jefferson 89752.58%64938.04%1589.26%20.12%24814.54%1,706
Lafayette 1,09472.45%41627.55%00.00%00.00%67844.90%1,510
Marquette 25940.72%24738.84%13020.44%00.00%121.89%636
Milwaukee 2,10871.05%71824.20%1414.75%00.00%1,39046.85%2,967
Portage 28752.47%25947.35%10.18%00.00%285.12%547
Racine 76132.03%71630.13%89937.84%00.00%-138-5.81%2,376
Rock 60426.11%1,16850.50%54123.39%00.00%-564-24.38%2,313
Sauk 35560.79%22638.70%30.51%00.00%12922.09%584
Sheboygan 63565.87%32233.40%70.73%00.00%31332.47%964
St. Croix 5670.89%2126.58%00.00%22.53%3544.30%79
Walworth 64630.44%66731.43%80637.98%30.14%-139 [lower-alpha 1] -6.54%2,122
Washington 1,61084.38%20810.90%864.51%40.21%1,40273.48%1,908
Waukesha 1,31955.94%66928.37%37015.69%00.00%65027.57%2,358
Winnebago 31840.46%33542.62%13316.92%00.00%-17-2.16%786
Total16,64952.42%11,31735.63%3,76111.84%320.10%5,33216.79%31,759

Counties that flipped from Whig to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Whig

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Free Soil

Notes

  1. Chase's margin over Collins

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References

  1. Joint Committee on Legislative Organization, Wisconsin Legislature (2015). Wisconsin Blue Book 2015–2016. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Administration. pp. 699–701. ISBN   978-0-9752820-7-6.
  2. Heg, J.E., ed. (1882). "Annals of the legislature". The Blue Book of the state of Wisconsin, 1882 (Report). State of Wisconsin. pp. 161–171, 175–176. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
  3. "Proceedings of the Democratic State Convention". Wisconsin Argus. Madison, Wisconsin. September 18, 1849. p. 2. Retrieved August 6, 2020 via Newspapers.com.
  4. Reed, Parker McCobb (1882). The Bench and Bar of Wisconsin. P. M. Reed. pp.  105, 106. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  5. 1 2 Wisconsin Secretary of State. "Votes Cast for Governor". The Wisconsin Almanac and Annual Register for the Year 1856. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.