1804 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

1804 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
← 1800 November 5, 1804 1808 →
← OH NH →
Jefferson 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% ; ;	Federalist electors 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% ;
President before election; Thomas Jefferson; Democratic-Republican	Elected President ; Thomas Jefferson; Democratic-Republican

A presidential election was held in Massachusetts on November 5, 1804, as part of the 1804 United States presidential election.^[1] The Democratic-Republican Party's ticket of incumbent president Thomas Jefferson and former New York governor George Clinton defeated the Federalist Party's ticket.^[2]

Jefferson won the national election in a landslide over the de facto Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Massachusetts was one of three states where electors were chosen by popular vote which the Federalists seriously contested, in addition to Maryland and New Hampshire. Although a clandestine gathering of Federalist members of Congress had nominated Pinckney in February, the Federalist electors in Massachusetts were formally unpledged. The Boston Columbian Centinel, the state's official Federalist publication, denied that the electors were pledged to any candidate prior to the election. Manning J. Dauer attributes the Federalists' defeat in Massachusetts to the uncertainty surrounding the identity of the Federalist nominees.^[3]

General election

Summary

Massachusetts chose 19 electors on a statewide general ticket. Nineteenth-century election laws required voters to elect the members of the Electoral College individually, rather than as a block. This sometimes resulted in small differences in the number of votes cast for electors pledged to the same presidential nominee, if some voters did not vote for all the electors nominated by a party.^[4] The following table compares the votes for the leading Democratic-Republican and Federalist electors to give an approximate sense of the statewide popular vote.

1804 United States presidential election in Massachusetts^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic-Republican	Thomas Jefferson George Clinton	29,599	53.06
	Federalist	Unpledged electors	25,644	45.97
	Write-in		538	0.86
Total votes			55,781	100.00

Results

1804 United States presidential election in Massachusetts^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Democratic-Republican	William Heath	29,599
	Democratic-Republican	James Bowdoin III	29,598
	Democratic-Republican	John Davis	29,597
	Democratic-Republican	Josiah Dean	29,596
	Democratic-Republican	Charles Turner Jr.	29,596
	Democratic-Republican	Thomas Kittredge	29,595
	Democratic-Republican	Timothy Newell	29,595
	Democratic-Republican	John Bacon	29,594
	Democratic-Republican	John Farley	29,594
	Democratic-Republican	Thomas Fillebrown	29,594
	Democratic-Republican	John Hathorne	29,593
	Democratic-Republican	Edward Upham	29,592
	Democratic-Republican	John Whiting	29,592
	Democratic-Republican	John Woodman	29,588
	Democratic-Republican	James Winthrop	29,584
	Democratic-Republican	James Warren	29,573
	Democratic-Republican	James Sullivan	29,572
	Democratic-Republican	Elbridge Gerry	29,507
	Democratic-Republican	Jonathan Smith Jr.	28,966
	Federalist	Benjamin Goodhue	25,644
	Federalist	Samuel Wilde	25,643
	Federalist	George Leonard	25,642
	Federalist	John Lord	25,641
	Federalist	William Shepard	25,641
	Federalist	Cotton Tufts	25,640
	Federalist	Bailey Bartlett	25,640
	Federalist	John Coffin Jones Sr.	25,640
	Federalist	David Rosseter	25,637
	Federalist	William Seaver	25,637
	Federalist	Josiah Stearns	25,636
	Federalist	Isaac Parker	25,635
	Federalist	Thomas Rice	25,629
	Federalist	Joseph Allen	25,628
	Federalist	Ebenezer Bacon	25,627
	Federalist	Eleazer Brooks	25,621
	Federalist	Ebenezer Mattoon	25,585
	Federalist	David Cobb	24,506
	Federalist	Oliver Wendell	24,992
N/a		William Roach Jr.	14
N/a		John Coffin	3
	Federalist	John Read	2
N/a		Joshua Thomas	2
N/a		Azariah Eggleton	1
N/a		Charles Freeman	1
N/a		Benjamin Hayward	1
N/a		Charles Jarvis	1
N/a		Samuel Nye	1
N/a		George Partridge	1
N/a		Andrew Peters	1
	Federalist	Benjamin Pickman Jr.	1
N/a		Daniel Sewall	1
N/a		Dummer Sewall	1
N/a		Albert Smith	1
N/a		David Stearns	1
N/a		John Stedman	1
N/a		John Treadwell	1
N/a		William Walker	1
N/a		William Wetmore	1
N/a		George Williams	1
N/a		James Winslow	1
Scattering			538
Total votes			≈55,781

Results by county

This table compares the votes for the leading elector pledged to each ticket by county. It therefore differs slightly from the results summary, which compares the votes for the leading electors statewide.

1804 United States presidential election in Massachusetts^[2]
County	Thomas Jefferson Democratic-Republican		Unpledged electors Federalist		Others		Margin		Total
County	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Total
Barnstable	724	64.13	403	35.70	2	0.18	321	28.43	1,129
Berkshire	2,146	58.47	1,520	41.42	4	0.11	626	17.05	3,670
Bristol	1,729	64.54	939	35.05	11	0.41	790	29.49	2,679
Cumberland	1,171	46.75	1,321	52.73	13	0.52	-150	-45.98	2,505
Dukes	60	37.27	101	62.73	—		-41	-25.46	161
Essex	3,196	47.70	3,060	45.67	444	6.63	136	2.03	6,700
Hampshire	2,545	33.12	5,121	66.64	18	0.23	-2,576	-33.52	7,684
Hancock	649	71.24	260	28.54	2	0.22	389	42.70	911
Kennebec	1,813	66.05	931	33.92	1	0.04	882	32.13	2,745
Lincoln	1,070	51.94	987	47.91	3	0.14	83	4.03	2,060
Middlesex	3,636	68.63	1,647	31.09	15	0.28	1,989	37.54	5,298
Nantucket	176	79.64	45	20.36	—		131	59.28	221
Norfolk	2,031	67.21	980	32.43	11	0.36	1,051	34.78	3,022
Plymouth	2,036	63.13	1,188	36.84	1	0.03	848	26.29	3,225
Suffolk	1,585	40.64	2,298	58.92	17	0.44	-713	-18.28	3,900
Washington	82	27.99	210	71.67	1	0.34	-128	-43.68	293
Worcester	2,943	43.70	3,774	56.04	18	0.27	-831	-12.34	6,735
York	2,012	69.67	866	29.99	10	0.35	1,146	39.68	2,888
TOTAL	29,604	53.03	25,651	45.95	571	1.02	3,953	7.08	55,826

References

↑ "Massachusetts Election". National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser. November 14, 1804.
1 2 3 4 Lampi 2012.
↑ Dauer 2002, pp. 159, 168, 162.
↑ Lampi n.d.

Bibliography

Dauer, Manning Julian (2002). "Election of 1804". In Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr.; Israel, Fred L. (eds.). History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2001. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers. pp. 159–82.
Lampi, Philip J. (n.d.). "Electoral College". A New Nation Votes. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved March 28, 2026.
Lampi, Philip J. (2012). "Massachusetts 1804 Electoral College". A New Nation Votes. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved March 27, 2026.

This Massachusetts elections–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[1] "Massachusetts Election". National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser. November 14, 1804.

[FOOTNOTELampi2012-2] 1 2 3 4 Lampi 2012.

[FOOTNOTEDauer2002159,_168,_162-3] Dauer 2002, pp. 159, 168, 162.

[FOOTNOTELampin.d.-4] Lampi n.d.

[1]

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v t e State results of the 1804 U.S. presidential election
Candidates	Thomas Jefferson Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
General articles	Election timeline
Local results	Connecticut Delaware Georgia Kentucky Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Vermont Virginia
Other 1804 elections	House Senate

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