The 1796 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held in December 1796, to elect ten U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 5th United States Congress.
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Ten U.S. Representatives had been elected in December 1794 to a term in the 4th United States Congress beginning on March 4, 1795. Their term would end on March 3, 1797.
On January 27, 1789, the New York State Legislature had divided the State of New York into six congressional districts which were not numbered.[1] On December 18, 1792, the Legislature divided the State into ten districts, which were still not numbered, taking into account the new counties created in 1791. The geographical area of the congressional districts remained at this election the same as at the previous election in December 1794. A new county was created, Schoharie Co. Most of the new Schoharie County was taken from Albany County, and remained in the 8th District, a part was taken from Otsego County, and remained in the 10th District. Besides, inside the 10th District a new county had been created: Steuben Co.
Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.
6 Federalists and 4 Democratic-Republicans were elected. The incumbents Havens, Livingston, Van Cortlandt, Van Alen, Glen and Williams were re-elected; the incumbents Bailey and Cooper were defeated; and John Hathorn and Ezekiel Gilbert did not run for re-election.
| District | Federalist | Democratic-Republican | Also ran | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Selah Strong | 648 | Jonathan N. Havens | 1,259 | ||
| 2 | James Watson | 1,812 | Edward Livingston | 2,362 | ||
| 3 | Samuel Haight | 1,003 | Philip Van Cortlandt | 1,016 | ||
| 4 | Conrad E. Elmendorf | 1,514 | Lucas Elmendorf | 1,937 | ||
| 5 | David Brooks | 1,220 | Theodorus Bailey | 1,018 | ||
| 6 | Hezekiah L. Hosmer | 1,036 | John P. Van Ness | 758 | ||
| 7 | John E. Van Alen | 1,585 | John Woodworth | 1,152 | ||
| 8 | Henry Glen | 480 | Peter Swart | 138 | ||
| 9 | John Williams | 1,325 | Douw I. Fonda | 210 | James Gordon (Fed.) | 575 |
| 10 | James Cochran | 3,092 | Charles Williamson | 40 | William Cooper (Fed.) | 2,975 |
Note: The Anti-Federalists called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.
The House of Representatives of the 5th United States Congress met for the first time at Congress Hall in Philadelphia on May 15, 1797, and all ten representatives took their seats on this day.[2]
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