United States Senate elections, 1840 and 1841

U.S. Senate elections, 1840 and 1841

Various dates

18 of the 52 seats in the U.S. Senate (+ special elections)   Majority party Minority party   Party Whig Democratic Last election 20 (41.7%) 28 (58.3%) Seats before 18 (38.3%) 29 (61.7%) Seats won 29 (56.9%) 22 (43.1%) Seat change 11 7 Seats up 5 13

Majority Party before election Democratic Party Elected Majority Party Whig Party

The United States Senate elections of 1840 and 1841 were elections which, corresponding with their Party's success in the 1840 Presidential election, had the Whig Party take control of the United States Senate.

As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures..

Results

27th Congress (1841–1843)

• Majority Party: Whig (29)
• Minority Party: Democratic (22)
• Other Parties: (0)
• Vacant: (1)
• Total Seats: 52

Change in Senate composition

Before the elections

After the elections

Race summaries

Special elections during the 26th Congress

In these elections, the winners were elected during 1840 or in 1841 before March 4; ordered by election date.

Races leading to the 27th Congress

In these general elections, the winner was elected for the term beginning March 4, 1841; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 2 seats.

Special elections during the 27th Congress

In this special election, the winner was elected in 1841 after March 4; ordered by election date.

Complete list of races

Massachusetts

Whig Isaac C. Bates was elected January 13, 1841 to finish the class 2 term of his Whig predecessor, John Davis, who had resigned to become Governor of Massachusetts. Bates was also elected, on the same day, to the next term. He would only serve, however, until he died March 16, 1845.

Whig Rufus Choate was elected February 23, 1841, to finish the class 1 term of his Whig predecessor, Daniel Webster, who had resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.

New York

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge had been elected as a Jacksonian Democrat in 1833 to this seat, and his term expired March 3, 1839. An election was held February 5, 1839. Although Tallmadge received the most votes, no candidate received a majority and the seat was declared vacant due to the legislature's failure to elect.

At the State election in November 1839, 7 Whigs and 3 Democrats were elected to the State Senate, which gave the Whigs a majority, the first anti-Bucktails/Jacksonian/Democratic majority in 20 years. The 63rd New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 14, 1840, at Albany, New York. The strength of the parties in the Assembly, as shown by the vote for Speaker, was: 68 for Whig George Washington Patterson and 56 for Democrat Levi S. Chatfield.

On January 14, 1840, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge received a majority in both the Assembly and the Senate, and was declared elected.

Tallmadge re-took his seat on January 27, 1840,^[2] and remained in office until June 17, 1844, when he resigned to be appointed Governor of Wisconsin Territory. Daniel S. Dickinson was appointed to fill the vacancy temporarily, and subsequently elected by the State Legislature to succeed Tallmadge.

Pennsylvania

The election was held on January 14, 1840, after the regularly scheduled election in December 1838 was postponed due to the Buckshot War. Daniel Sturgeon was elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.^[3][4]

Democrat Samuel McKean was elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, in the 1832-1833 Senate election. Sen. McKean's term was to expire on March 4, 1839, and an election would have occurred during the winter of 1838-1839 elect a Senator for the successive term. The election did not occur, however, due to significant political unrest in Harrisburg, the state capital, over disputed election returns during the Buckshot War. McKean's seat was vacated when his term expired in March 1839 and remained vacant until the General Assembly elected a new Senator in 1840.^[3]

The Pennsylvania General Assembly convened on January 14, 1840, to elect a Senator to serve out the remainder of the term that began on March 4, 1839. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

See also

• United States presidential election, 1840
• United States House of Representatives elections, 1840
• 27th United States Congress

References

• Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present, via Senate.gov
• Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682-2006 from the Wilkes University Election Statistics Project