1848 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

1848 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

May 8, 1848 1849  →

Nominee Nelson Dewey John Hubbard Tweedy Party Democratic Whig Popular vote 19,875 14,621 Percentage 55.69% 40.97%

Elected Governor Nelson Dewey Democratic

The 1848 Wisconsin gubernatorial election was held on May 8, 1848. This was the election for the first Governor of Wisconsin, which became a U.S. state that year, as it was held concurrent with a public referendum to ratify the Constitution of Wisconsin.

Democrat Nelson Dewey, of Grant County, won the election with nearly 56% of the vote. Dewey defeated Whig Party candidate John Hubbard Tweedy, of Milwaukee. ^[1]

Democratic Party

Nelson Dewey 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]

Dewey was chosen as a compromise candidate at the Democratic Party Convention after delegates became deadlocked between the lead-mining region's preferred candidate, Hiram Barber, and the eastern region's preferred candidate, Morgan Lewis Martin. ^[3]

Other candidates

• Hiram Barber, of Dodge County, was a businessman and investor. He had been a delegate to Wisconsin's first constitutional convention in 1846. ^[2] Prior to moving to Wisconsin, he had been a Judge in Warren County, New York, for 14 years.
• Morgan Lewis Martin, of Brown County, had most recently served as President of Wisconsin's second constitutional convention. ^[2] Prior to this, he had served as the Wisconsin Territory's non-voting representative to the United States House of Representatives for the 29th Congress. He served in the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature from 1838 to 1844, ^[2] and had served in the Michigan Territorial Legislature from 1831 to 1835, when the land which is now Wisconsin was a part of the Michigan Territory.

Whig Party

John Hubbard Tweedy was, at the time of the 1848 election, the non-voting representative of the Wisconsin Territory to the United States House of Representatives for the 30th Congress. He had been a delegate to Wisconsin's first constitutional convention, and had served in the Wisconsin Territorial Assembly during the second session of the third legislature (Winter of 1841-1842). ^[2]

Independent candidate

Charles Durkee was a merchant, and one of the founders of Southport (now Kenosha, Wisconsin). He was a member of the Wisconsin Territorial Assembly for the first legislature (1836 to 1838). ^[2]

General election

Results

Wisconsin Gubernatorial Election, 1848 ^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
General Election, May 8, 1848
	Democratic	Nelson Dewey	19,875	55.69%
	Whig	John Hubbard Tweedy	14,621	40.97%
	Independent	Charles Durkee [note 1]	1,134	3.18%
		Scattering	56	0.16%
Total votes			35,686	100.0%
	Democratic win (new seat)

County results

County results ^[5]

County	Nelson Dewey Democratic		John H. Tweedy Whig		Charles Durkee Independent		Total votes
	#	%	#	%	#	%
Brown	311	69.4%	137	30.6%	0	0.0%	448
Calumet	113	63.1%	66	36.9%	0	0.0%	179
Chippewa [note 2]	270	71.6%	107	28.4%	0	0.0%	377
Columbus	328	44.4%	411	55.6%	0	0.0%	739
Dane	1,098	59.0%	751	40.3%	13	0.7%	1,862
Dodge	1,116	59.6%	706	37.7%	52	2.8%	1,874
Fond du Lac	622	49.1%	510	40.2%	136	10.7%	1,268
Grant	1,199	44.9%	1,467	55.0%	3	0.1%	2,669
Greene	481	53.4%	406	45.1%	13	1.4%	900
Iowa & Richland [note 3]	847	53.2%	745	46.8%	0	0.0%	1,592
Jefferson	1,157	54.8%	893	42.3%	61	2.9%	2,111
La Fayette	1,232	58.8%	863	41.2%	0	0.0%	2,095
Marquette	230	45.0%	258	50.5%	23	4.5%	511
Milwaukee	2,021	61.2%	1,194	36.1%	89	2.7%	3,304
Portage	160	51.1%	153	48.9%	0	0.0%	313
Racine	1,765	55.0%	1,209	37.6%	238	7.4%	3,212
Rock	1,394	48.0%	1,475	50.8%	33	1.1%	2,902
Sauk	187	53.0%	157	44.5%	9	2.5%	353
Sheboygan	554	57.8%	384	40.0%	21	2.2%	959
Walworth	1,478	49.1%	1,356	45.1%	175	5.8%	3,009
Washington	1,598	85.9%	263	14.1%	0	0.0%	1,861
Waukesha	1,197	49.8%	938	39.0%	268	11.2%	2,716
Totals	19,538	55.6%	14,449	41.1%	1,134	3.2%	35,121

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. Toepel, M. G.; Kuehn, Hazel L., eds. (1960). "Wisconsin's former governors, 1848-1959". The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1960 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. p. 73. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
4. Theobald, H. Rupert, ed. (1966). "Statistical information on Wisconsin". The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1966 (Report). Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. p. 607. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
5. Dubin, Michael J. (2003). United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1776-1860: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson: McFarland & Company. p. 287. ISBN   9780786414390.

Notes

1. 1848 Election data is incomplete. Totals for Dewey and Tweedy are widely cited in earlier blue books and primary sources, but data for Durkee was compiled later using county returns still available -- Winnebago and Manitowoc counties were not available, thus are missing from Durkee's total. ^[4]
2. Dubin reports Chippewa as also including Crawford, Lapointe, and St. Croix counties.
3. Dubin reports Iowa & Richland counties together