United States House of Representatives elections, 1792

The U.S. House election, 1792 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1792 which coincided with the re-election of President George Washington. While Washington ran for president as an independent, his followers (and more specifically, supporters of Alexander Hamilton) formed the nation's first organized political party, the Federalist Party. In response, followers of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created the opposition Democratic-Republican Party. These loose organizations represented a grand division in American political thought. The Federalists represented urbanization, industralization, mercantilism, centralized government, and broad constitutional interpretation. In Contrast, Democratic-Republicans supported an agrarian republic based on self-sufficient farmers and small, localized governments with limited power.

Despite nearly unanimous support for Washington, Jeffersonian ideas edged Hamiltonian thoughts at the ballot box, with the Democratic-Republicans taking 24 seats more than they did prior to organization (mostly due to the additions of new seats in the Western states, where Democratic-Republican support was highest because of a farming culture), and winning a thin majority in the legislature.

In this period each state fixed its own date for a congressional general election; as early as August 1792 (New Hampshire and Rhode Island) or as late as September 1793 (Kentucky). This article covers all such state elections to the 3rd Congress. Elections to a Congress took place both in the even-numbered year before and in the odd-numbered year when the Congress convened. In some states the congressional delegation was not elected until after the legal start of the Congress (on the 4th day of March in the odd numbered year). This Congress met on December 2, 1793.

Overall results

See also

• 3rd United States Congress
• United States presidential election, 1792
• United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1793

External links

• http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/index.html