Franklin Pierce defeats Winfield Scott in the 1852 United States presidential election

Background. The Whig Party was severely divided over the Compromise of 1850. In early 1852, leading candidates for the Whig nomination included Winfield Scott, backed by anti-Compromise Northern Whigs, and President Millard Fillmore, supported by Southern Whigs. The Democratic Party was also divided over slavery, though most Barnburners had returned to the party. The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated Franklin Pierce as a dark horse candidate.

Nomination. The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated Franklin Pierce, a Northerner sympathetic to the Southern view on slavery who had served under Scott as a brigadier general during the Mexican War. Pierce's allies presented him as a potential dark horse in the mold of Polk after the death of Levi Woodbury. The Whigs nominated Winfield Scott, who received support from the North.

Outcome. Pierce won a decisive victory over his former commander. Scott won only Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont, finishing with 42 electoral votes to Pierce's 254. The Democrats carried all but two northern states. The four elections from 1840 to 1852 saw the incumbent party defeated each time.