|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elections among the 33 states to the 37th United States Congress of the House of Representatives were held August 1860 through September 1861. Following the presidential election of 1860, Electoral College vote and Inauguration swearing-in, their term would coincide with the first two years of Abraham Lincoln's first administration.
Republican candidates won increasing percentages of the House in 1856, 1858 and, in 1860, after secessionist losses, they amounted to 59% of the House. In the same six-year period of political chaos running up to the American Civil War, the Democratic Party atrophied from holding the presidency and a two-third’s majority, to a minority caucus of less than one-third and loss of supporting presidential patronage.
This election forged Northern unity behind the pro-union Republican Party of 108 Representatives, and broad based pro-union majorities in the north and south border states among the mostly Douglas Democrats with 45 members and the Unionists and others amounting to another 28.
The last of a Democratic Party dominated by the slave-holding states was left to a remnant. The national party was destroyed by infighting over slavery, with minority cotton state delegates walking out in national conventions at Charleston and again at Baltimore. They were left with a rump session of cotton South delegates nominating John Breckinridge in Richmond. Those delegates returning to Congress withdrew, resigned, or were expelled. The nativist American Party completely collapsed in 1860.[1]
Contents |
In the wake of the declared secession of South Carolina from the Union on December 20, 1860, many Southern House members, mostly Democrats, refused to take their seats, rejecting the election of Lincoln as illegitimate. Before 1872, different states held elections at various times; the first elections for the 37th Congress were held on August 6, 1860 in Arkansas and Missouri, while the last election took place in California on September 4, 1861, a year later. Three Southern states - Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina - chose Representatives before the presidential election, electing seven Democrats and two independents. These were the only House elections from the seceding states to the 37th Congress. After South Carolina resolved disunion and the Confederate States of America was formed, other Southern states declared as well and elected Representatives to the new Congress of the Confederate States instead of the United States Congress.
Since the states not holding elections had many strong Democratic districts - in the previous 36th Congress their Representatives included a total of 46 Democrats, 14 Oppositionists, five independents, and one member of the American Party - when Congress was called into session on July 4, 1861 (five months earlier than usual at the time) the size of the Democratic House caucus had been drastically reduced, resulting in a huge Republican majority.
Of the 183 seats, 102 were held by Republicans, 44 by Democrats, 23 by Unionists, and five others by one party each. There were several vacancies, and California had not held its election when Congress assembled.
| US Congressional Party Transformation, 1857–1863[2] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Congress | 35th 1857-59 |
36th 1859-61 |
37th 1861-63 |
| United States House of Representatives | |||
| Seats (change) | 237 (+3) | 238 (+1) | 183 (-55) |
| Republicans | 90.38% | 116.49% | 108.59% |
| Unionists | 0.0% | 0.0% | 31.17% |
| Americans (+) | 14.6% | 39.16% (4-way split) | 0.0% |
| Democrats | 133.56% | 83.35% | 44.24% |
| United States Senate | |||
| Seats (change) | 66 (+4) | 68 (+2) | 50 (-18) |
| Republicans | 20.30% | 26.38% | 31.62% |
| Unionists | 0.0% | 0.0% | 3.6% |
| Americans | 5.8% | 2.3% | 0.0% |
| Democrats | 41.62% | 38.58% | 15.30% |
In 1860, Lincoln’s campaign brought the Republicans the Presidency. But the congressional elections also marked the transition from one major era of political parties to another. In just six years, over the course of the 35th, 36th and 37th Congresses, a complete reversal of party fortunes swamped the Democrats.[3]
Elections for Congress were held from August 1860 to June 1861. They were held before, during and after the pre-determined Presidential campaign. And they were held before, during and after the secessionist campaigns in various states as they were reported throughout the country. Political conditions varied hugely from time to time during the course of congressional selection, but they had been shifting to a considerable extent in the years running up to the crisis.[5]
Back in the 1856 elections, the Democrats held the Presidency for the sixth of the last eight terms with James Buchanan's taking office. They held almost a two-thirds majority in both the US House and Senate. Democrats held onto the Senate during the midterm elections, but the four opposition parties then amounted to two-thirds of the House. The congressional elections in 1860 transformed Democratic fortunes: Republican and Unionist candidates won a two-thirds majority in both House and Senate.[6]
After the secessionist withdrawal, resignation and expulsion, the Democrats would have less than 25% of the House for the 37th Congress, and that minority divided further between pro-unionists (Stephen Douglas), and anti-war (Clement Vallandingham) factions.[7]
The politics of these elections were distinctive in every region of the country. The more conventional listing of Members in their state delegations, alphabetically by state, can be found at the 37th Congress article.
| Party | Total seats | Change | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republican Party | 108 | - 8 | 59.0% |
| Democratic Party | 44 | - 39 | 24.0% |
| Constitutional Unionist Party | 30 | + 30 | 16.3% |
| Independent | 1 | - 14 | 0.5% |
| Totals | 183 | - 55 | 100.0% |
Each Region below lists the states composing it using Freehling's descriptions from 1860. The Representative's biographies are linked at their names. Each Congressional District has a link, named by its state abbreviation and its assigned number or noted At-large election. In a time before the Census Department published aggregate population data by Congressional District, the reader may have ready access to census data identifying the make up of those each district by referring to their respective articles.
The articles use different formats. The constituent counties of Congressional Districts are sometimes listed in a contents heading “List of representatives” within tables. These tables have a column naming the District’s counties for each election, such as (a) “District Area” for Massachusetts, or (b) “Area” for Illinois and Maryland. Virginia uses “Historical composition of the district” to describe composition at each reapportionment. Pennsylvania notes the home county of the elected representative, sometimes holding the largest population for respective districts. Minnesota makes a geographical allusion for its 1st District applicable to the 37th Congress. Michigan uses “History” since 1852 for its 4th district. In some states, previous district composition is not described.
The twenty-nine seats in the House among these six states are divided 24 Republican, two Union Party, one Constitutional Union, and two Democratic. The region is important nationally in manufacturing and intellectually as the center of literature, Transcendentalism and the abolition movement.
Connecticut
Maine
|
Massachusetts
|
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Vermont
|
The thirty-eight Representatives from this region will seat 25 Republicans and thirteen Democrats. This region had the closest commercial and social ties to the South due to its sea-going commerce and trans-shipping cotton to local textile plants and for export.
The 73 seats in this region were split 50 Republican, 23 Democratic. Illinois is the only state here with more Democrats than Republicans. These are free-soil states, north of the Mason-Dixon Line. These states had either abolished slavery, or Congress had forbidden it in their Territory, and they had forbidden it at the beginning of their statehood.[8]
Of the 47 Representatives in these six states, 24 are Union Party, 1 Constitutional Union, 6 Democratic, and 15 will be vacant in Virginia and Tennessee. These were "slave holding" states, all south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The border south states had less than 2% to more than 19% of their 1860 population held as slaves, with an average of 13%; middle south states ranged from 25-33% slaves, with an average of 29%. (Deep south 43-57%, except Texas, with 30%.)[9]
Eight seats in Virginia and seven seats in Tennessee represented large numbers of citizens resisting the Lincoln administration of the United States government during the Civil War. They were declared vacant in 37th Congress documents..[10]
West of the Mississippi, there were 16 Representatives from states, and 9 Delegates from territories. The states elected nine Republicans and one Democrat. The Territories elected four Republicans, one Democrat and two Independents.
When California entered the Union, it broke the free soil - slave state tie in the Senate. Minnesota, and Oregon followed as free soil states. Once Congress was depleted of the secessionist Democrats, the lame duck 36th Congress admitted Kansas as a free state in January, 1861, in time for it to send a Representative to the 37th Congress in March. The Republican Congress elected in 1860 began funding the transcontinental railroad, July, 1862. Nevada was admitted before the end of the Civil War in the next, 38th, Congress.
California |
Iowa
Kansas |
Minnesota
Oregon |
From statehood to 1864, California's representatives were elected at-large, with the top two vote-getters winning election from 1849 to 1858. In the 1860 Census, California gained a seat in the House.
The top three vote-getters were elected, and travelled to Washington, DC. The first two were regularly seated at the beginning of session. When Congress authorized California a third seat, Frederick Low was seated June 3, 1861.
| District | Incumbents | Status | Candidates | Winners |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California's 3 at-large seats | John C. Burch (Democratic) |
[Data unknown/missing. You can help!] | Timothy Guy Phelps (Republican) 15.6% Aaron A. Sargent (Republican) 15.3% Frederick Low (Republican) 11.8% Henry Edgerton (California) (Independent) 10.7% Joseph C. McKibben (Independent) 10.7% Frank Ganahl (Breck. Dem.) 10.2% Henry P. Barber (Independent) 9.5% D. O. Shattuck (Independent) 9.5% John R. Gitchell (Union Dem.) 6.8% |
Timothy Guy Phelps (Republican) |
| Charles L. Scott (Democratic) |
Retired | Aaron A. Sargent (Republican) |
||
| New seat created | Frederick Low (Republican) |
|||
Forty-three seats represented large numbers of citizens in nine states resisting the Lincoln administration of the United States government during the Civil War. The following state delegations were entirely vacated. The conflict was also called the 'Great Rebellion'[14] in the North, the 'War Between the States'[15] in the South, and the 'American War'[16] in Britain.
AlabamaArkansasFlorida
Georgia |
Georgia, continued. LouisianaMississippiNorth Carolina
|
North Carolina, continued. South CarolinaTexas |
|
||||||||