Video: 'The American Presidential Election of 1844'

(Wednesday, May 1, 1844) — Delegates to the 1844 Whig National Convention unanimously nominated former U.S. Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky for president today at Universalist Church in Baltimore.

Former U.S. Senator Theodore Frelinghuysen of New Jersey was nominated for vice president on the third ballot, defeating former Governor John Davis of Massachusetts 154 to 79 votes.

While the Whigs had won the 1840 presidential election, the party needed a new ticket as President William Henry Harrison had died in April 1841 while his successor, John Tyler, had been expelled from the party in September 1841 for vetoing bills passed by the Whig-controlled Congress.

The Whig ticket would go on to lose the 1844 general election to the Democratic ticket of James K. Polk and George M. Dallas, nominated in late May 1844.