1864 Rhode Island gubernatorial election
![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
![]() County results Smith: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% Browne: 40–50% | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Elections in Rhode Island |
---|
![]() |
A gubernatorial election was held in Rhode Island on April 3, 1864. The National Union incumbent governor James Y. Smith defeated the Democratic former U.S. representative from Rhode Island's 2nd congressional district George H. Browne and the Independent Union former mayor of Providence Amos C. Barstow.[1]
Smith, a Radical Republican, was elected in 1863 with the support of the former governor William Sprague IV, who persuaded his coalition of conservatives and War Democrats to back the Republican candidate against his Democratic and Constitutional Union challenger, William C. Cozzens.[2] Smith's re-election became embroiled in the campaign for the National Union presidential nomination when supporters of Sprague's father-in-law, the U.S. treasury secretary Salmon P. Chase, secured his nomination by the National Union state convention. Supporters of the incumbent president Abraham Lincoln, deserted Smith in favor of Barstow, who ran as an Independent Unionist. Many of Sprague's former conservative allies broke with him to support Browne, a War Democrat and a colonel in the Union Army.[3]
General election
[edit]Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
National Union | James Y. Smith (incumbent) | 8,836 | 50.50 | |
Democratic | George H. Browne | 7,312 | 41.79 | |
Independent Union | Amos C. Barstow | 1,348 | 7.70 | |
Total votes | 17,496 | 100.00 | ||
National Union gain from Republican |
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b Dubin 2014, p. 3.
- ^ Smith 2006, p. 90.
- ^ Dell 1975, p. 291; DeSimone & Schofield 2015, Figs. 1-292, 1-293, 1-294, 1-295.
Bibliography
[edit]- Dell, Christopher (1975). Lincoln and the War Democrats: The Grand Erosion of Conservative Tradition. Rutherford, NJ: Farleigh Dickenson University Press.
- DeSimone, Russel J.; Schofield, Daniel C. (October 2015), Rhode Island Election Tickets: A Survey (PDF), Kingston, RI: University of Rhode Island
- Dubin, Michael J. (2014). United States Gubernatorial Elections, 1861–1911: The Official Results by State and County. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-5646-8.
- Smith, Adam I. P. (2006). No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-534596-4.