John Eager Howard was an American soldier and politician from Maryland. He was elected as governor of the state in 1788, and served three one-year terms. He also was elected to the Continental Congress, the Congress of the Confederation, the United States Senate, and the Maryland Senate. In the 1816 presidential election, Howard received 22 electoral votes for vice president on the Federalist Party ticket with Rufus King; the ticket lost to Democratic-Republicans James Monroe and Daniel D. Tompkins in a landslide.

The 1816 United States presidential election was the eighth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from November 1 to December 4, 1816. In the first election following the end of the War of 1812, Democratic-Republican candidate James Monroe defeated Federalist Rufus King. The election was the last in which the Federalist Party fielded a presidential candidate.