United States House of Representatives elections, 1810

United States House of Representatives elections, 1810

April 24, 1810 - August 2, 1811[Note 1]
All 143[Note 2] seats to the United States House of Representatives 72 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Henry Clay Timothy Pitkin Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Leader's seat Kentucky-3rd Connecticut-AL Last election 94 seats 48 seats Seats won 107[Note 2] 36 Seat change 13 12
Speaker before election Joseph Bradley Varnum Democratic-Republican Elected Speaker Henry Clay Democratic-Republican

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 12th Congress were held in the various states at various dates between April 1810 (in New York) and August 1811 (in Tennessee) during James Madison's first term in office. Louisiana elected its first representative in September 1812. Congress assembled on November 4, 1811. The first session witnessed the unprecedented occurrence of a new member, Henry Clay, being elected Speaker of the House on the very first day that he entered the chamber.^{[Note 3]} No other individual has ever repeated this feat.

With the repeal of the Embargo Act of 1807, the Democratic-Republicans enjoyed a renewed popularity. As the economy improved following the reopening of the export market, many of the seats that had entered Federalist hands over economic concerns reverted to the Democratic-Republicans, who were able to re-claim the two-thirds majority they lost in the previous election.

Election summaries

One new seat was added with the admission of Louisiana in 1812, during the 2nd session of the 12th Congress^[1]

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic- Republican	Federalist
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Connecticut	At-large	September 17, 1810	7	0		7
Delaware	At-large	October 2, 1810	1	0		1
Georgia	At-large	October 1, 1810	4	4		0
Kentucky	District (6)	August 6, 1810	6	6		0
Maryland	District (8[Note 4])	October 1, 1810	9	6		3
Massachusetts	District (17)	November 5, 1810[Note 5]	17	9	2	8	2
New Hampshire	At-large	August 27, 1810[Note 6]	5	4	4	1	4
New Jersey	At-large	October 8–9, 1810	6	6		0
New York	District (15[Note 7])	April 24–26, 1810	17	12	3	5	3
North Carolina	District (12)	August 9, 1810	12	10	1	2	1
Ohio	At-large	October 9, 1810	1	1		0
Pennsylvania	District (11[Note 8])	October 9, 1810	18	17	1	1	1
Rhode Island	At-large	August 28, 1810	2	0		2
South Carolina	District (8)	October 8–9, 1810	8	8		0
Vermont	District (4)	November 4, 1810	4	3	2	1	2
1811 elections
Tennessee	District (3)	August 1–2, 1811	3	3		0
Virginia	District (22)	April, 1811	22	17		5
1812 elections
Louisiana	At-large	September 28–30, 1812	1	1	1	0
Total[Note 2]			143	107 74.8%	14	36 25.2%	13

Complete returns

Louisiana elected its first representative in 1812.

Connecticut

At the same time as the general election, a special election was held to fill the vacancy left by Dana's resignation, which was won by Ebenezer Huntington (F).

Delaware

Georgia

At some point in 1812, Howell Cobb resigned to accept a captain's commission in the army in the War of 1812. He was replaced in a special election on October 5, 1812 by William Barnett (DR).^[2]

Kentucky

At the same time as the general election, a special election was held in the 5th district to fill the vacancy for the remainder of the 11th Congress, which was won by William T. Barry (DR) without opposition.

Maryland

John Montgomery (DR) of the 6th district resigned April 29, 1811 and was replaced in a special election by Stevenson Archer (DR)

Shortly after being re-elected, John Brown (DR) of the 7th district resigned in late October to take up an appointment as clerk of the county court of Queen Anne's County, producing vacancies for both the remainder of the 11th Congress and for the upcoming 12th Congress. A special election was held on November 15 to fill both vacancies, with a single ballot for both.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts' electoral law at the time required a majority for election. This was not met in the 15th district necessitating a second election.

In the 4th district, Joseph Bradley Varnum (DR) resigned from the House upon being elected to the Senate on June 29, 1811 and was replaced in a special election by William M. Richardson (DR)

In the 17th district, Barzillai Gannett (DR) resigned sometime in 1812 and was replaced in a special election by Francis Carr (DR)

New Hampshire

New Hampshire's electoral law required a candidate to receive votes from a majority of voters (10%). In the initial election, only two candidates won a majority, so a second election was held for the remaining three seats. The data from the source used give majorities to all the top five candidates, suggesting that the data are incomplete.

New Jersey

The Federalists ran no official ticket in 1810, but votes were received for various Federalists in some counties.^[3]

New York

On May 6, 1812, Robert Le Roy Livingston (F) of the 6th district resigned to serve in the War of 1812 and was replaced in a special election by Thomas P. Grosvenor (F)

North Carolina

A special election was held in the 3rd District after Thomas Blount died in office on February 7, 1812. William Kennedy was returned to office.

Ohio

This was the last election in which Ohio had a single at-large district. Due to rapid population growth in the state, the at-large district had become disproportionately populous by this point.

Pennsylvania

John Smilie (DR) of the 9th district died on December 30, 1812. His seat remained vacant for the remainder of the 12th Congress.

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vermont

Virginia

In the 8th district, John P. Hungerford (DR) was initially declared as the winner by a 6-vote margin (769-763),^[5] however, the election was subsequently challenged by John Taliaferro (DR), and the House Committee on Elections ruled in Taliaferro's favor. He took his seat on December 2, 1811.^[2]

Non-voting delegates

There were five territories with the right to send non-voting delegates to the 12th Congress. Two of them, Illinois Territory and Missouri Territory elected their first representative near the end of the 12th Congress in 1812, while Orleans Territory's seat remained vacant until the territory was admitted as the State of Louisiana.

See also

• United States elections, 1818
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1789–1822
  • United States Senate elections, 1810 and 1811
• 11th United States Congress
• 12th 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)