United States House of Representatives elections, 1808

United States House of Representatives elections, 1808

April 26, 1808 - May 5, 1809
All 142 seats to the United States House of Representatives 72 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Joseph Bradley Varnum Timothy Pitkin Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Leader's seat Massachusetts-4th Connecticut-AL Last election 116 seats 26 seats Seats won 94[1][Note 1] 48[1][Note 1] Seat change 22 22
Speaker before election Joseph Bradley Varnum Democratic-Republican Elected Speaker Joseph Bradley Varnum Democratic-Republican

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 11th Congress were held in the various states between April 1808 (in New York) and May 1809 (in Tennessee). The Congress first met on May 22, 1809.

Although the Democratic-Republicans maintained control of the presidency (under James Madison) and Congress after the election of 1808, Federalists made significant gains in the House, mainly due to the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807. In particular, voters in New England, who often had ties to the shipping or manufacturing industries, overwhelmingly chose to send Federalists to Washington. Economic stagnation due to the closing of the export market and fears that Democratic-Republican policies had the potential for leading America into a naval war with France or Britain were key issues that allowed for a brief Federalist resurgence. The Democratic-Republicans were left with a majority under two-thirds for the first time since the election of 1800.

Election summaries

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic- Republican	Federalist
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Connecticut	At-large	September 19, 1808	7	0		7
Delaware	At-large	October 4, 1808	1	0		1
Georgia	At-large	October 3, 1808	4	4		0
Kentucky	District (6)	August 1, 1808	6	6		0
Maryland	District (8[Note 2])	October 3, 1808	9	6		3
Massachusetts	District (17)	November 7, 1808	17	8	3	9	3
New Hampshire	At-large	August 29, 1808	5	0	5	5	5
New Jersey	At-large	November 7–8, 1808	6	6		0
New York	District (15[Note 3])	April 26–28, 1808	17	9	6	8	6
North Carolina	District (12)	August 12, 1808	12	9	2	3	2
Ohio	At-large	October 11, 1808	1	1		0
Pennsylvania	District (11[Note 4])	October 11, 1808	18	16	1	2	1
Rhode Island	At-large	August 30, 1808	2	0	2	2	2
South Carolina	District (8)	October 10–11, 1808	8	8		0
Vermont	District (4)	September 6, 1808[Note 5]	4	1	1	3	1
1809 Elections
Tennessee	District (3)	May 4–5, 1809	3	3		0
Virginia	District (22)	April, 1809	22	17	4	5	4
Total			142	94[1][Note 1] 66.2%	23	48[1][Note 1] 33.8%	23

Complete returns

Connecticut

Samuel W. Dana (F) resigned on May 10, 1810, having been elected to the Senate and was replaced by Ebenezer Huntington (F)

Delaware

Georgia

Kentucky

In the 5th district, Benjamin Howard (DR) resigned on April 10, 1810 to become Governor of Louisiana Territory and was replaced in a special election by William T. Barry (DR)

Maryland

On May 10, 1810, Roger Nelson (DR) of the 4th district resigned and was replaced in a special election by Samuel Ringgold (DR).

In the 7th district, John Brown (DR) resigned some time after being re-elected after appointment as Clerk of Court of Queen Anne's County and was replaced in a special election, for both the remainder of the 11th Congress and for the 12th Congress, by Robert Wright (DR).

Massachusetts

In the 7th district, there were 430 votes for "Charles Turner" which were counted separately from Charles Turner, Jr. (DR). This caused the vote tally to be William Baylies (F) 1,828 (49.4%), Charles Turner, Jr. (DR) 1,443 (39.0%), "Charles Turner" 430 (11.6%). As no candidate had a majority, a second election was held on January 19, 1809 which elected Baylies with 54.3% of the vote. Turner successfully contested this election, and was subsequently declared the winner based on the first ballot, with the second invalidated. He was seated June 8, 1809^[2]

In the 10th district, Jabez Upham (F) resigned sometime in 1810 and was replaced in a special election by Joseph Allen (F).

In the 11th district, William Stedman (F) resigned July 10, 1810 and was replaced in a special election by Abijah Bigelow (F)

New Hampshire

New Jersey

Cox died on September 12, 1810. The resulting vacancy was filled in a special election by John A. Scudder (DR).

New York

Between the 1806 and 1808 elections, New York went through a re-districting that reduced the number of districts to 15 by creating two plural districts with two seats each.

William Denning (DR) in the 2nd district never took his seat and eventually resigned. The exact date of his resignation has been lost, but a replacement was chosen in a special election held at the same time as the 1810 elections by Samuel L. Mitchill (DR)

North Carolina

Ohio

Pennsylvania

Benjamin Say (DR) of the 1st district subsequently resigned sometime in 1809 and was replaced in a special election by Adam Seybert (DR)

Rhode Island

At the same time as the general election for the House of Representatives, a special election was held to fill the vacancy left by Knight's death.

South Carolina

In the 1st district, Robert Marion (DR) resigned on December 4, 1810 and was replaced in a special election by Langdon Cheves (DR)

Tennessee

Vermont

Virginia

In the 1st district, John G. Jackson (DR) resigned September 28, 1810 due to injuries received after a duel with fellow Congressman Joseph Pearson (F) of North Carolina and was replaced by William McKinley (DR) in a special election.

In the 21st district, Wilson C. Nicholas (DR) resigned on November 27, 1809, and was replaced in a special election by David S. Garland (DR).

Non-voting delegates

Three territories sent non-voting delegates to the 11th Congress.

In Indiana Territory, Thomas Randolph unsuccessfully contested the election of Jennings. This was the first election for Delegate in Indiana Territory to be decided by popular vote rather than by the legislature. Mississippi Territory also elected its delegate by popular vote. Orleans Territory retained legislative election of its delegate.

See also

• United States elections, 1808
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1789–1822
  • United States Senate elections, 1808 and 1809
  • United States presidential election, 1808
• 10th United States Congress
• 11th United States Congress

Notes

References

Bibliography

• "A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825". Tufts Digital Library, Tufts University. Retrieved January 17, 2015. 
• Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830. 
• Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701. 
• "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015. 

External links

• Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)