Presidential Election of 1848: A Resource Guide

Grand national Whig banner: press onward / lith. & pub. by N. Currier 152 Nassau St. . . . N.Y. 1 print: lithograph with watercolor. Prints & Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-USZC2-584

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the presidential election of 1848, including broadsides, prints, political cartoons, sheet music, newspaper articles, and government documents. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential election of 1848 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1848 election and a selected bibliography.

1848 Presidential Election Results [1]

Library of Congress Web Site | External Web Sites | Selected Bibliography

American Memory Historical Collections

America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

For most of the nineteenth century Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six by eight inches, with lyrics but no music.

• The political race. Air,--"Dearest Maie." (Whig Party song from the 1848 presidential election)

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets.

• Campaign badge bearing a portrait of Zachary Taylor and a facsimile of his signature together with a quotation from one of his speeches: "I ask no favors, and shun no responsibilities."
• [A cartoon] The strufe between an old hunker, a barnburner, and a no party man. [1848]
• The Free soil district committee to the electors of the 2d District [Amesbury? 1848?]
• General Zachary Taylor. The friends of General Zachary Taylor, as the candidate of the people for the station of President of the United States...
• General Taylor's two faces. "Look upon this picture, and then upon this." Published under authority of the national and Jackson democratic association committee. Washington, August 1848
• The Jackson Democratic association of Washington, desirous to contribute their aid to advance the interest of the party in the approaching presidential canvass, respectfully solicit you to forward to the of the undersigned
• Letter from Mr. Botts. House of representatives, January 29, 1848. To the editors of the Whig ... John M. Botts
• Letter of Mr. Truman Smith, of Connecticut. to the Hon. Daniel Gott, of the House of representatives, on the importance of supporting the nomination of General Zachary Taylor for the presidency, in reference to the past, present, and prospective
• "Read! Read!!" Being a reply to "a statement proving Millard Fillmore, the candidate of the Whig party for the office of Vice President, to be an abolitionist ...
• Speech of the Taylor candidate for Congress. Mr. Jacob Barker's speech at Lafayette
• Van Buren & Free soil - Adams & Liberty. To be said or sung at all "Free Soil" gatherings Tune-"The Star Spangled Banner." Utica. N.Y. Sept. 18, 1848

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875

This collection consists of published congressional records of the United States of America from 1774 to 1875.

• On February 14, 1849, the Electoral College votes for the presidential election of 1848 were counted by a joint session of Congress and reported in the Congressional Globe, as well as in the Senate Journal and the House Journal.

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909

This collection presents 396 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, published from 1822 through 1909, by African-American authors and others who wrote about slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, Reconstruction, and related topics.

• General Cass on the Wilmot Proviso.
• The great American question, democracy vs. doulocracy: or, Free soil, free labor, free men, & free speech, against the extension and domination of the slaveholding interest. A letter addressed to each freeman of the United States, with special reference to his duty at the approaching election.

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals

This collection presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress.

• An Appeal to the Free Soil Party. [The United States Democratic Review / Volume 23, Issue 125, November 1848]
• The Election. [The United States Democratic Review / Volume 23, Issue 124, October 1848]
• Free Soil Policy. [The American Whig Review / Volume 8, Issue 2, Aug 1848]
• The Nomination: General Taylor. [The American Whig Review / Volume 8, Issue 1, July 1848]
• Taylor's Campaign. [The United States Democratic Review / Volume 23, Issue 124, October 1848]

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Chronicling America

This site allows you to search and view millions of historic American newspaper pages from 1836-1922. Search this collection to find newspaper articles about the presidential election of 1848.

A selection of articles on the 1848 presidential election includes:

• "Democratic National Convention," Sunbury American. June 3, 1848.
• "Whig National Convention," Sunbury American. June 17, 1848.
• "Nominees of the Whig Convention," Vermont Watchman and State Journal. June 29, 1848.
• "Gen. Cass and Gen. Taylor," Democratic Banner, July 24, 1848.
• "General Zachary Taylor Elected! The Grand Result," Glasgow Weekly Times, November 16, 1848.

Music Division

Performing Arts Encyclopedia (PAE)

The PAE is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress and provides information about the Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other materials.

Includes the following sheet music from the 1848 presidential election:

• Convention quick step
• Free soil quick step
• Gen. Taylor's nomination march
• Gen. Zachary Taylor's grand march polka
• Maj. Gen. Taylor's grand quick step
• The people's choice
• Rough and ready, a Whig song
• Rough and ready, or, The bold soger boy
• The soldiers return, a song for the people

Prints & Photographs Division

Pictorial Americana: Selected Images from the Collections of the Library of Congress

Pictorial Americana, a Library of Congress publication, contains a chapter listing selected images related to the 1848 presidential election.

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

Search PPOC using the following subject headings to find additional prints, political cartoons, and other digital images related to the presidential election of 1848.

• Cass, Lewis, as presidential candidate
• Presidential elections--United States--1840-1850
• Taylor, Zachary, as presidential candidate
• Van Buren, Martin, later career

External Web Sites

The American Presidency Project: Election of 1848

The American Presidency Project Web site presents election results from the 1848 presidential election. This site also contains the Whig Party Platform of 1848.

Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials, 1840-1860

The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project Web site provides histories of the presidential campaigns from 1840-1860, as well as primary source material, such as campaign biographies and campaign songbooks. Recordings of some of the songs are also available.

Selected Bibliography

Primary Sources: Campaign Literature

Allowances and Extra Pay. A Plain Statement of Facts from the Record, Showing Gen. Taylor to have Received $74,864.04 of "Allowances," Besides His Regular Pay. Washington, D.C.: Published under the authority of the National and Jackson Democratic Association Committee, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

An Answer to the Charge Against Gen. Taylor and His Friends, of Opposition to Naturalized Citizens, and Hospitility to Catholics. Washington, D.C.: Fenton, 1848 [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Arguments in Favor of the Support of Taylor and Fillmore. Washington, D.C.: J. & G. S. Gideon, printers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

A Brief Review of the Career, Character & Campaigns of Zachary Taylor. Washington, D.C.: Washington, D.C.: J. & G. S. Gideon, printers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Campaign of 1848. Free Soil Songs for the People. Boston: n.p., 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Considerations in Favor of the Nomination of Zachary Taylor by the Whig National Convention. By a Conservative Whig. Washington, D.C.: Towers, Printer, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Fraud and Falsehood Exposed ... General Taylor’s Southern Face. Washington, D.C.: Greer’s printing office, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Gen. Taylor’s Moral, Intellectual, & Professional Character. Washington, D.C.: J. & G. S. Gideon, printers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Oliver Dyer’s Phonographic Report of the Proceedings of the National Free Soil Convention at Buffalo, N. Y., August 9th and 10th, 1848. Buffalo: G. H. Derby & Co., 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

The Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, Held at Baltimore, May 22, 1848. Washington: Printed at the office of Blair & Rives, 1848. [Catalog Record]

A Sketch of the Life and Public Services of General Zachary Taylor, the People’s Candidate for the Presidency, with Considerations in Favor of his Election. Washington, D.C.: Printed by J.T. Towers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

The Taylor Text-Book, or Rough and Ready Reckoner. Baltimore: S. Sands, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Adams, John Calvin. General Taylor and the Wilmot Proviso. Boston: Wilson & Damrell, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Poore, Benjamin Perley. Life of Gen. Zachary Taylor: The Whig Candidate for the Presidency. Boston: Stacy, Richardson & Co., printers, 1848. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Secondary Sources

Serio, Anne Marie. Political Cartoons in the 1848 Election Campaign. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972. [Catalog Record] [Full Text] (PDF / 10,809 Kb)

Silbey, Joel H. Party Over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009. [Catalog Record]

Notes

1. Presidential Elections, 1789-2008. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010), 131, 221.