Democrat Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire defeats…
November 1852 CE
With no major policy differences between the two major candidates, the election had become a contest of personalities.
Though Scott had been the top U.S. general in the Mexican–American War and had had a long and distinguished military career, Pierce had also served in the Mexican–American War.
The Whigs are badly divided between their Northern and Southern wings, and Scott's anti-slavery reputation had further damaged his campaign in the South.
A group of Southern Whigs and a separate group of Southern Democrats had each nominated their own tickets, but both efforts failed to attract support.
Pierce and his running mate William R. King win by a comfortable majority in the popular vote and carry twenty-seven of the thirty-one states, while Scott wins 43.9% of the popular vote.
Pierce has won the highest share of the electoral vote since James Monroe's uncontested 1820 re-election.
In the aftermath of this overwhelming defeat the Whig Party will rapidly collapse as a national political force as internal tensions regarding the issue of slavery cause mass abandonment of the party.
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