Presidential Elections of 1816 and 1820: A Resource Guide

James Monroe, L.L.D., President of the United States / painted by C.B. King; engraved by Goodman & Piggot. Philadelphia: W.H. Morgan, 1817 Dec. 15th. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-03759

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a variety of material associated with the presidential elections of 1816 and 1820, including manuscripts, broadsides, campaign literature, and government documents. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential elections of 1816 and 1820 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1816 and 1820 election and a selected bibliography.

1816 Presidential Election Results [1]

1820 Presidential Election Results [1]

* The presidential election of 1820 was uncontested. However, William Plumer, an elector from New Hampshire, voted for John Quincy Adams instead of James Monroe.

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

Digital Collections

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 12, 1817, the Electoral College votes for the presidential election of 1816 were counted by a joint session of Congress and reported in the Annals of Congress, as well as in the House Journal and Senate Journal.
• On February 14, 1821, the Electoral College votes for the presidential election of 1820 were counted by a joint session of Congress and reported in the Annals of Congress, as well as in the House Journal and Senate Journal.

Printed Ephemera: 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.

• Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Resolve regulating the choice of electors of President and Vice President of the United States ... June 15, 1820. Approved, John Brooks. Copy. Alden Bradford, Secretary of the Commonwealth. [Boston 1820].
• To my fellow-citizens. A gross, scandalous and unprovoked libel, appeared in the "City of Washington Gazette," on Saturday the 29th ultimo ... John Brannan. Washington City, Aug. 4, 1820.

Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827

The complete Thomas Jefferson Papers from the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress consists of approximately 27,000 documents.

References to the presidential election of 1816 include:

• Thomas Jefferson to Albert Gallatin, June 16, 1817, "I have been charmed to see that a Presidential
  election now produces scarcely any agitation. On Mr. Madison's election there was little, on Monroe's all but none. " [Transcription]

External Web Sites

The American Presidency Project: Election of 1816

The American Presidency Project Web site presents election results from the 1816 presidential election.

The American Presidency Project: Election of 1820

The American Presidency Project Web site presents election results from the 1820 presidential election.

A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825

A searchable collection of election returns from 1787 to 1825. The data were compiled by Philip Lampi. The American Antiquarian Society and Tufts University Digital Collections and Archives have mounted it online with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Selected Bibliography

Primary Sources: Campaign Literature

As You Were! A Word of Advice to Straight-Haired Folks: Addressed to the Freemen of Connecticut, by One of Their Number. New-Haven: T. G. Woodward, 1816. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Exposition of Motives for Opposing the Nomination of Mr. Monroe for the Office of President of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Jonathan Elliot, 1816. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

General Address to the Freemen of New-Hampshire; or, The General Government and the Leaders of the New-England Opposition Contrasted. S.I.: s.n., 1816. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Pinckney, Charles. Observations to Shew the Propriety of the Nomination of Col. James Monroe, to the Presidency of the United States by the Caucus at Washington. Charleston: Printed at the office of the Southern patriot, 1816. [Catalog Record] (full-text available in Early American Imprints, Series 2, no. 38643.)

Secondary Sources

Nadler, Solomon. "The Green Bag: James Monroe and the Fall of De Witt Clinton." New York Historical Society Quarterly 59, no. 3 (June 1975): 202-25. [Catalog Record]

Paullin, C. O. "The Electoral Vote for John Quincy Adams in 1820." The American Historical Review 21, no. 2 (January 1916): 318-319. [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Raybeck, Joseph G. "A Myth Re-Examined: Martin Van Buren's Role in the Presidential Election of 1816." Proceedings Of The American Philosophical Society 124, no. 2 (March 1980): 106-18. [Catalog Record]

Skeen, Carl Edward. “Election of 1816.” In 1816: America Rising, 211-31. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003. [Catalog Record]

Turner, Lynn W. "Elections of 1816 and 1820," in History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2008, eds. Gil Troy, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred L. Israel. 3 vols. I, 145-69. New York: Facts On File, 2012. [Catalog Record]

-----. "The Electoral Vote Against Monroe in 1820: An American Legend." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 42, no. 2 (September 1955): 250-73. [Catalog Record]

Notes

1. Presidential Elections, 1789-2008. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010), 213, 214.