The 1854 Massachusetts gubernatorial election was held on November 15. American Party candidate Henry J. Gardner was elected to his first term as governor, defeating incumbent Whig Governor Emory Washburn.
Future senator and vice president of the United States Henry Wilson also ran as a candidate for the new Massachusetts Republican Party. This marks the first campaign in which the new party participated, following its founding on Worcester Common in September.
The election was also the first after the 1853 legislature repealed the secret ballot law passed a few years earlier, returning the state to public balloting.
Background
Following the collapse of the Democratic-Free Soil coalition and defeat of the coalition's proposed constitution in 1853, political reformism in Massachusetts appeared to be at its lowest ebb in years. However, a secretive realignment of the rank-and-file of every party had already begun: the Know-Nothing movement. Know-Nothing lodges permitted entrance to all native-born adult male Protestants willing to abandon party ties. The ad hoc American Party was decentralized to the local level and controlled directly by members, a novel experiment in political organization for the time. Members emphasized opposition to immigration and Catholicism, support for temperance, opposition to temperance, and support for organized (native) labor. These disparate social reformers were united in a belief that the existing elite had failed to address novel concerns brought by industrialization.
The Know-Nothing movement first entered state politics in the spring municipal elections, when candidates running on "Citizens" tickets swept the elections in the Whig strongholds of Boston, Roxbury, and Cambridge. Jerome V.C. Smith received the largest vote ever for a Boston mayoral candidate, prompting the Boston Post to describe his coalition as "composed of as many colors as Joseph's coat–abolitionists, free-soilers, Whigs, 'Native Americans', a few democrats etc.—one of the most reprehensible coalitions that we have had since the one that defeated the proposed new constitution." Over the summer, 'Sam', as the movement was publicly known, won local elections in Chelsea, Lynn, Marblehead, Waltham, Stoneham, and other towns. In Salem, a Whig city, the Know-Nothings ran a machinist and won over 70 percent of the vote.
Conventions
The party conventions, held for the purpose of nominating candidates and ratifying party platforms for the fall campaign, are listed in chronological order.
Whig convention
The Whig Party met in convention at the Boston Music Hall in mid-August. Continuing the theme of their 1853 campaign, they promoted themselves as the party of reform, proposing a half-dozen constitutional amendments culled from the failed 1853 constitution. They passed resolutions denouncing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and calling for restoration of the Missouri Compromise, a ban on further extension of slavery into the territories, and repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act. The platform also attempted to appeal to nativists by excoriating the Franklin Pierce administration for appointing foreigners "to the exclusion of native citizens of highest reputation and lofty patriotism." Governor Washburn was re-nominated.
Despite the rapid decay of the party's rank-and-file, Whig leadership remained ignorant of the strength of the Know-Nothing movement. The Boston Advertiser confidently trumpeted, "We do not recollect a time at this season of the year when the prospects were fairer for a successful result of the Autumnal election. If a judicious course is pursued by the Whig party, they are sure of an honorable triumph."
Republican convention
In 1853 and 1854, the Free Soil Party in several states had joined with anti-slavery Democrats and Whigs to form a new Republican Party. In July, the Massachusetts Free Soil Party attempted to do likewise with an abortive "People's Convention," but the proposal failed to attract Whig or Democratic support. Whigs, confident in their dominance over Beacon Hill, counter-proposed that anti-slavery activists should simply join the Whigs. Behind closed doors, most were joining the Know-Nothings.
The new Republican Party, formed from a small die-hard remnant of the Free Soil Party, held their founding convention on Worcester Common on September 7. A highlight of the convention was the speech of Charles Sumner. One speaker referred to the coming campaign as one that would pit "Slavery, Romanism, and Rum [against] Freedom, Protestantism, and Temperance."