page_title: 1852 United States presidential election
section_title: Democratic Party nomination
hierarchical_section_title: 1852 United States presidential election / Nominations / Democratic Party nomination
caption_attribution_description: English: 1852 Democratic Campaign Poster of Pierce and King
context_page_description: The 1852 United States presidential election was the 17th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1852. Democrat Franklin Pierce, a former Senator from New Hampshire, defeated General Winfield Scott, the Whig nominee. This was the last election in which the Whigs served as the principal opposition to the Democrats.
  Incumbent Whig President Millard Fillmore had acceded to the presidency after the death of President Zachary Taylor in 1850. Due to Fillmore's support of the Compromise of 1850 and his enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, he was popular in the South but opposed by many Northern Whigs. On the 53rd ballot of the 1852 Whig National Convention, Scott defeated Fillmore to clinch the party's nomination. The Democrats were divided among four major candidates, who traded leads through the first 48 ballots of the 1852 Democratic National Convention. On the 49th ballot, dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce won his party's nomination. The Free Soil Party, a third party opposed to the extension of slavery into the territories, nominated Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire.
context_section_description: Franklin Pierce, former U.S. Senator from New Hampshire
  Lewis Cass, U.S. Senator from Michigan
  James Buchanan, former U.S. Secretary of State from Pennsylvania
  William L. Marcy, former U.S. Secretary of War from New York
  Stephen Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois
  As Democrats convened in Baltimore in June 1852, four major candidates vied for the nomination: Lewis Cass of Michigan, the nominee in 1848, who had the backing of northerners in support of the Compromise of 1850; James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, popular in the South as well as in his home state; Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, candidate of the expansionists and the railroad interests; and William L. Marcy of New York, whose strength was centered in his home state. Throughout the balloting, numerous favorite son candidates received a few votes.
  Cass led on the first nineteen ballots, with Buchanan second, and Douglas and Marcy exchanging third and fourth places. Buchanan took the lead on the 20th ballot and retained it on each of the next nine tallies. Douglas managed a narrow lead on the 30th and 31st ballots. Cass then recaptured first place through the 44th ballot. Marcy carried the next four ballots. Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, a former Congressman and Senator, did not get on the board until the 35th ballot, when the Virginia delegation brought him forward as a compromise choice. He consolidated his support in subsequent voting and was nominated nearly unanimously on the 49th ballot.
  In a peace gesture to the Buchanan wing of the party, Pierce's supporters allowed Buchanan's allies to fill the second position, knowing that they would select Alabama Senator William R. King. On the second ballot, with only minor opposition, King finally obtained the Democratic vice-presidential nomination. During the ensuing campaign, King's tuberculosis, which he believed he had contracted while in Paris, France, denied him the active behind-the-scenes role that he might otherwise have played, although he worked hard to assure his region's voters that New Hampshire's Pierce was a "northern man with southern principles." King died shortly after his inauguration on April 18, 1853.
caption: Pierce/King campaign poster
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