1861 Alabama gubernatorial election

Last updated

The 1861 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on August 5, 1861 in order to elect the governor of Alabama. Democrat John Gill Shorter won his first term as governor.

Contents

1861 Alabama gubernatorial election
  1859 August 5, 18611863 
  John Gill Shorter.jpg Thomas Hill Watts 1860s.jpg
Nominee John Gill Shorter Thomas H. Watts
Party Democratic Whig
Popular vote37,84928,127
Percentage57.37%42.63%

Governor before election

Andrew B. Moore
Democratic

Elected Governor

John Gill Shorter
Democratic

Candidates

Democratic Party

Whig Party

Election

Statewide

Alabama gubernatorial election, 1861 [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic John Gill Shorter 37,849 57.37%
Whig Thomas H. Watts28,12742.63%
Total votes65,976 100.00
Democratic hold

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate States of America</span> Former North American state (1861–65)

The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy, was an unrecognized breakaway herrenvolk republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confederacy comprised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States during the American Civil War: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendleton Murrah</span> Governor of Texas from 1863 to 1865

Pendleton Murrah was the tenth Governor of Texas. His term in office coincided with the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David P. Lewis</span> American politician

David P. Lewis was a lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd governor of Alabama from 1872 to 1874 during the Reconstruction era. He was also a Deputy from Alabama to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, serving from February until April 1861, when he resigned from office. He was a Unionist. He was the last Republican to serve as Governor of Alabama until H. Guy Hunt was elected in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas H. Watts</span> American politician

Thomas Hill Watts Sr. was the 18th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1863 to 1865, during the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Gill Shorter</span> American politician

John Gill Shorter was an American politician who served as the 17th Governor of Alabama from 1861 to 1863. Before assuming the governorship, Shorter was a Deputy from Alabama to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States from February 1861 to December 1861.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew B. Moore</span> American politician

Andrew Barry Moore was the 16th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1857 to 1861 and served as Governor at the outbreak of the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Winston</span> American politician

John Anthony Winston was a planter, military officer, and politician who became the 15th Governor of Alabama after serving as president of the state senate (1845–1849). Alabama's first native-born governor, Winston later fought for the Confederate States of America as colonel of the 8th Alabama Infantry early in the American Civil War, and after the conflict was not permitted to assume a seat in the United States Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clement Claiborne Clay</span> Democratic U.S. Senator from Alabama; Confederate States Senator from Alabama

Clement Claiborne Clay, also known as C. C. Clay Jr., was a United States Senator (Democrat) from the state of Alabama from 1853 to 1861, and a Confederate States senator from Alabama from 1862 to 1864. His portrait appeared on the Confederate one-dollar note.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William B. Bate</span> American politician

William Brimage Bate was a planter and slaveholder, Confederate officer, and politician in Tennessee. After the Reconstruction era, he served as the 23rd governor of Tennessee from 1883 to 1887. He was elected to the United States Senate from Tennessee, serving from 1887 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Provisional Congress of the Confederate States</span> Legislature of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States from February 4, 1861, to February 17, 1862. It sat in Montgomery, Alabama, until May 21, 1861, when it adjourned to meet in Richmond, Virginia, on July 20, 1861. In both cities, it met in the existing state capitols which it shared with the respective secessionist state legislatures. It added new members as other states seceded from the Union and directed the election on November 6, 1861, at which a permanent government was elected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John J. Pettus</span> 23rd governor of Mississippi

John Jones Pettus was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 23rd Governor of Mississippi, from 1859 to 1863. Before being elected in his own right to full gubernatorial terms in 1859 and 1861, he served as acting governor from January 5 to 10, 1854, following the resignation of Henry S. Foote. A member of the Democratic Party, Pettus had previously been a Mississippi state representative, a member and president of the Mississippi State Senate. He strongly supported Mississippi's declared secession from the United States in 1861 and sought cooperation with the Confederate States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alabama in the American Civil War</span> Involvement of the Confederate state of Alabama in the American Civil War

Alabama was central to the Civil War, with the secession convention at Montgomery, birthplace of the Confederacy, inviting other states to form a Southern Republic, during January–March 1861, and develop constitutions to legally run their own affairs. The 1861 Alabama Constitution granted citizenship to current U.S. residents, but prohibited import duties (tariffs) on foreign goods, limited a standing military, and as a final issue, opposed emancipation by any nation, but urged protection of African slaves, with trial by jury, and reserved the power to regulate or prohibit the African slave trade. The secession convention invited all slaveholding states to secede, but only 7 Cotton States of the Lower South formed the Confederacy with Alabama, while the majority of slave states were in the Union. Congress voted to protect the institution of slavery by passing the Corwin Amendment on March 4, 1861, but it was never ratified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cullen A. Battle</span> American lawyer

Cullen Andrews Battle was an American attorney, farmer, and politician. He was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He fought Congressional Reconstruction after the war in Alabama then North Carolina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1860 United States House of Representatives election in Florida</span>

The 1860 United States House of Representatives election in Florida was held on Monday, October 1, 1860 to elect the single United States Representative from the state of Florida, one from the state's single at-large congressional district, to represent Florida in the 37th Congress. The election coincided with the elections of other offices, including the presidential election, gubernatorial election, and various state and local elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1863 Louisiana gubernatorial election</span>

The 1863 Louisiana gubernatorial (Confederate) election was the fourth election to take place under the Louisiana Constitution of 1852. As a result of this election Henry Watkins Allen became Governor of Confederate-controlled Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1872 Alabama gubernatorial election</span>

The 1872 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1872, in order to elect the governor of Alabama. Republican David P. Lewis, a former Democrat and Confederate deputy, narrowly defeated former Confederate Army officer Thomas H. Herndon of the Democratic party by a margin of 4.48%. This would be the last time until 1986 in which a Republican was elected governor of Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1900 United States gubernatorial elections</span>

United States gubernatorial elections were held in 1900, in 34 states, concurrent with the House, Senate elections and presidential election, on November 6, 1900.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1861 Maryland gubernatorial election</span> American election

The 1861 Maryland gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1861. It was held amid the early phases of the American Civil War and was contested between the Unionist Party's Augustus Bradford and the Democratic Party's Benjamin Chew Howard. Bradford supported the maintenance of the Union while Howard advocated for a peace treaty with the Confederacy. Concerned about pro-secession elements in the state, the federal government sent troops to supervise the vote and ordered electors to take an oath of loyalty to the Union. The election was won by Bradford with 68.8% of the votes.

In 1863, amid the American Civil War, two gubernatorial elections were held as a result of this dispute, a Confederate election and a Union election.

References

  1. Dubin, Michael J (2014). United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1861-1911 | The Official Results by State and County.