| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| Elections in New York State |
|---|
 |
An election for Mayor of New York City was held on November 5, 1850.
Whig Ambrose Kingsland defeated Democratic nominee Fernando Wood. This was the first of Wood's seven campaigns for mayor; he would serve three non-consecutive terms in office.
At the 1849 New York Democratic Convention in Syracuse, the state Democratic Party had reached a tenuous truce between its Hunker and Barnburner factions, promulgating a platform which advocated preservation of slavery where it already existed but recognizing the theoretical right of Congress to prevent the extension of slavery to new territories. The truce quickly collapsed into new divisions, with "Soft Shell Democrats" endorsing the Syracuse platform and "Hard Shells" firmly rejecting Congressional authority to regulate slavery in the territories. A small remaining contingent of Free Soil Democrats, led by John Van Buren, rejected the compromise and any attempt to expand slavery to the territories. [1]
Despite his pro-slavery convictions, Fernando Wood stood for election as a Nineteenth Ward Democratic Committeeman on a Soft platform. Softs held the majority in Tammany Hall and Wood interpreted the Syracuse platform as a defense of slavery. [1] Throughout the 1849 and 1850 debates that led to the Compromise of 1850, Hards and Softs contested for control of Tammany Hall, sometimes physically. Wood chaired the Soft General Committee, urging for party unity. With two Committees claiming exclusive party control and voter fraud obscuring the society's April 1850 council elections, the Tammany governing board dissolved both committees and called for a citywide convention to select an entirely new official General Committee. At this convention, Wood embraced the compromise position that Congress lacked control over slavery but that popular sovereignty could decide the issue for each new territory. [1]
The city convention deadlocked and new Tammany elections were held, producing a fusion Committee with a slight Hard majority, but Wood's position was embraced as the state party platform in 1850. Wood himself became the Democratic candidate for mayor, despite some Hard resistance.
The 1850 election was a landslide for the Whigs, who carried 15 wards, 13 out of 16 assembly races, and the governorship. Wood was dogged by a personal affair alleging he had defrauded his own relatives and received the lowest percentage for any Tammany candidate since direct elections for mayor began in 1834. [1]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whig | Ambrose C. Kingsland | 22,478 | 55.02% | |
| Democratic | Fernando Wood | 18,052 | 44.19% | |
| Write-in | 324 | 0.79% | ||
| Total votes | 40,854 | 100.00% | ||
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 2, 1852. Democratic nominee Franklin Pierce defeated Whig nominee General Winfield Scott. A third party candidate from the Free Soil party, John P. Hale, also ran and came in third place, but got no electoral votes.
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designed by Whig senator Henry Clay and Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas, with the support of President Millard Fillmore, the compromise centered on how to handle slavery in recently acquired territories from the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War.
The Free Soil Party was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was focused on opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States. The 1848 presidential election took place in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War and debates over the extension of slavery into the Mexican Cession. After the Whig Party and the Democratic Party nominated presidential candidates who were unwilling to rule out the extension of slavery into the Mexican Cession, anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs joined with members of the Liberty Party to form the new Free Soil Party. Running as the Free Soil presidential candidate, former President Martin Van Buren won 10.1 percent of the popular vote, the strongest popular vote performance by a third party up to that point in U.S. history.
Fernando Wood was an American Democratic Party politician, merchant, and real estate investor who served as the 73rd and 75th Mayor of New York City. He also represented the city for several terms in the United States House of Representatives.
The Constitutional Union Party was a political party which stood in the 1860 United States elections. It mostly consisted of conservative former Whigs from the Southern United States who wanted to avoid secession over slavery and refused to join either the Republican Party or Democratic Party. The Constitutional Union Party campaigned on a simple platform "to recognize no political principle other than the Constitution of the country, the Union of the states, and the Enforcement of the Laws".
The 1852 Whig National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held from June 16 to June 21, in Baltimore, Maryland. It nominated the Whig Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1852 election. The convention selected General-in-Chief Winfield Scott for president and U.S. secretary of the navy William A. Graham for vice president.
Ambrose Cornelius Kingsland was a wealthy sperm oil merchant who served as the 71st mayor of New York City from 1851 to 1853. In 1851, he initiated the legislation that eventually led to the construction of Central Park.
The Georgia Platform was a statement executed by a Georgia Convention in Milledgeville, Georgia on December 10, 1850, in response to the Compromise of 1850. Supported by Unionists, the document affirmed the acceptance of the Compromise as a final resolution of the sectional slavery issues while declaring that no further assaults on Southern rights by the North would be acceptable. The Platform had political significance throughout the South. In the short term it was an effective antidote to secession, but in the long run it contributed to sectional solidarity and the demise of the Second Party System in the South. Much of the document was written by Charles J. Jenkins, a Whig lawyer and state legislator from Augusta.
The 1854 New York state election was held on November 7, 1854, to elect the governor, the lieutenant governor, a Canal Commissioner and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly.
Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853, and was the last president to have been a member of the Whig Party while in office. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected the 12th vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in July 1850. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.
The 1853 New York state election was held on November 8, 1853, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, two Judges of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioner, an Inspector of State Prisons and the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 1857 New York state election was held on November 3, 1857, to elect the Secretary of State, the State Comptroller, the Attorney General, the State Treasurer, the State Engineer, a Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, a Canal Commissioner and an Inspector of State Prisons, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.
The 78th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 2 to April 14, 1855, during the first year of Myron H. Clark's governorship, in Albany.
The 1850–51 Massachusetts gubernatorial election consisted of an initial popular held on November 11, 1850 that was followed by a legislative vote that was conducted on January 11, 1851. It saw the election of Democratic Party nominee George S. Boutwell. The ultimate task of electing the governor had been placed before the Massachusetts General Court because no candidate received the majority of the vote required for a candidate to be elected through the popular election.
Fernando Wood served as the 73rd and 75th mayor of New York City from January 1, 1855 to December 31, 1857 and January 1, 1860 to December 31, 1861.
The 1851 Georgia gubernatorial election was held on October 6, 1851, to elect the governor of Georgia. Howell Cobb, nominee for the newly formed Constitutional Union Party, defeated the Southern Rights Candidate, Charles McDonald.
An election for Mayor of New York City was held on November 7, 1854.
An election for Mayor of New York City was held on November 4, 1856.
An election for Mayor of New York City was held on December 6, 1859.
