13. Although the first third-party candidate to win a state in an American presidential election, William Wirt’s tenure as the Anti-Masonic Party’s nominee was an unmitigated disaster nonetheless
The longest-serving Attorney General in United States history, holding the position between 1817 and 1829, transforming the role into one of great significance during his tenure, William Wirt was one of the most famous legal minds of his age. Serving also as the prosecutor against Aaron Burr in his trial for treason, despite being himself a former Freemason, on September 28, 1831, Wirt became the presidential nominee for the Anti-Masonic Party. Writing in his acceptance letter that he found Freemasonry to be entirely unobjectionable, contesting Masons were “intelligent men of high and honorable character”, Wirt has been described as the “most reluctant and most unwilling presidential candidate ever nominated by an American party”.
Immediately distancing himself from actual campaigning for the Anti-Masonic Party, Wirt later acknowledged he “took no part” in electoral canvassing and refused to provide answers on important questions to his team. In spite of this, Wirt miraculously won 7.8 percent of the vote and carried the state of Vermont to win seven electors. In so doing, Wirt became the first third-party presidential ticket to win a state. Nevertheless, his hopes of overpowering the Jacksonian Democrats did not materialize, with the incumbent president winning in a landslide and Wirt declining the possibility to run again four years later.