United States House of Representatives elections, 1822

The United States House of Representatives elections in 1822, like all U.S. House elections prior to 1872, were held in various states over the course of a long election season. The first state to hold congressional elections for the 18th Congress was Louisiana on July 1–3, 1822, and the last state to vote was North Carolina on August 14, 1823. The U.S. House assembled on December 1, 1823, though the term of office technically began on March 4, 1823.

The campaign was waged between the Democratic-Republican Party and the Federalist Party. However, by this time, party unity had broken down and the consensus principles of the Era of Good Feelings were giving way to fragmentation. In turn, many historians classify the parties of the Representatives based on how they voted in the Contingent Election of 1825 (where the House determined the winner of the 1824 presidential election), at the end of the 18th Congress, with results similar to those in the following table. Michael J. Dubin classifies candidates based on the political parties supporting them in the elections of 1822-1823 (though he does not provide a nationwide tally).

The Democratic-Republican Party benefited heavily from the shifting demographics resulting from the 1820 U.S. Census; they gained 29 of 32 new seats created as a result of redistricting. Four states lost one seat each in the House, and of these the Democratic-Republicans lost three seats to one for the Federalists. In other races, the Federalists lost a net of two seats, primarily due to their loss of six seats in Pennsylvania. Federalists were elected primarily along the east coast, where they won 23 out of 161 seats from New England (Maine 2 and Massachusetts 8) south to Pennsylvania (5), Delaware (1), Maryland (3), Virginia (2) and North Carolina (2). By contrast, inland states elected 59 Democratic-Republicans to three Federalists (all in Ohio).

Overall results

References

• Michael J. Dubin, U.S. Congressional Elections 1788-1997 (Jefferson NC: McFarland & Co., 1998), pp. 75–79.

External links

• http://clerk.house.gov/histHigh/Congressional_History/index.html