United States House of Representatives elections, 1842

August 1, 1842 - February 14, 1844

All 223 seats to the United States House of Representatives
122 seats needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	John Jones	John White	Henry Y. Cranston
Party	Democratic	Whig	Law and Order
Leader's seat	Virginia-6th	Kentucky-6th	Rhode Island-1st
Last election	99 seats	142 seats	0 seats
Seats won	148^{[Note 1]}	73^{[Note 2]}	2
Seat change	49	69	2

Speaker before election

John White
Whig

Elected Speaker

John Jones
Democratic

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 28th Congress were held at various dates in different states between August 1, 1842 (Missouri) and February 14, 1844 (Maryland).

Just one election cycle after the Whig Party gained control of Congress, they lost their majority. Whig president William Henry Harrison died within a month of taking office and his successor, John Tyler, was disliked by members of both parties. Tyler's widespread unpopularity lead to an enormous defeat for his party, and the Whigs lost almost 70 seats, winning just 73 seats (including William Wright who was elected to New Jersey's 5th District as an "Independent Whig"^[1]). This gave the Democrats, who won 148 seats (including Henry Nes who was elected to Pennsylvania's 15th District as an "Independent Democrat"^[2]^{[Note 3]}) a majority. With the economy rebounding, rural voters also chose the Democratic ticket in a turn away from the Whig policies of economic nationalism. The Law and Order Party, formed in response to the Dorr Rebellion in Rhode Island, also won two seats.

Election summaries

Apportionment in these elections was based on the Census of 1840 and was the first, and only (with the exception of the minor adjustment after the 1960 census) in which the total number of seats in the House was decreased, being reduced from 242 to 223. 15 States lost between 1 and 6 Representatives each, 3 States had no change in representation, and 8 States gained between 1 and 4 seats. The apportionment bill of 1840 mandated that all Representatives be elected from single-Representative contiguous districts, abolishing plural districts and at-large districts in states with 2 or more Representatives.^[3] Four states with multi-member at-large districts delayed districting.

↓
148	2	73
Democratic	LO	Whig

State	Type	Date	Total seats		Democratic	Whig	Law and Order
State	Type	Date	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Arkansas	At-large	October 3, 1842	1		1		0		0
Delaware	At-large	November 8, 1842	1		0		1		0
Georgia	At-large	October 3, 1842	8	1	8	8	0	9	0
Illinois	District	August 7, 1842	7	4	6	4	1		0
Massachusetts	District	November 14, 1842	10	2	2	1	8	3	0
Missouri	At-large	August 1, 1842	5	3	5	3	0		0
New Jersey	District^{[Note 4]}	October 8, 1842	5	1	4	4	1^{[Note 2]}	5	0
New York	District	November 8, 1842	34	6	24	4	10	10	0
Tennessee	District	August 3, 1842	11	2	6	1	5	3	0
1843 elections
Alabama	District	August 7, 1843	7	2	6	1	1	1	0
Connecticut	District	April 5, 1843	4	2	4	4	0	6	0
Indiana	District	August 7, 1843	10	3	8	7	2	4	0
Kentucky	District	August 7, 1843	10	3	5	3	5	6	0
Louisiana	District	July 3–5, 1843	4	1	4	3	0	2	0
Maine	District	September 11, 1843	7	1	5	1	2	2	0
Michigan	District^{[Note 4]}	November 8, 1843	3	2	3	3	0	1	0
Mississippi	At-large	November 6–7, 1843	4	2	4	2	0		0
New Hampshire	At-large	March 3, 1843	4	1	4	1	0		0
North Carolina	District	August 3, 1843	9	4	5		4	4	0
Ohio	District	October 10, 1843	21	2	12	5	9	3	0
Pennsylvania	District	October 10, 1843	24	4	12^{[Note 1]}	3	12	1	0
Rhode Island	District^{[Note 4]}	August 29, 1843	2		0		0	2	2	2
South Carolina	District	February 20–21, 1843	7	2	7	1	0	1	0
Vermont	District	September 5, 1843	4	1	1	1	3	2	0
Virginia	District	April 27, 1843	15	6	12	2	3	8	0
1844 elections
Maryland	District	February 14, 1844	6	2	0	2	6		0
Total			223	19	148^{[Note 1]} 66.4%	50	73^{[Note 2]} 32.7%	71	2 0.9%	2

House seats

Democratic			66.37%
Whig			32.74%
Others			0.90%

Notes

1 2 3 Includes 1 Independent Democrat: Henry Nes who was elected to PA-15.
1 2 3 Includes 1 Independent Whig: William Wright who was elected to NJ-05.
↑ Note that Dubin, p. 135, lists Nes as an "Independent" rather than as an Independent Democrat.
1 2 3 Changed from at-large

References

↑ Martis, p. 97; Dubin, p. 134.
↑ Martis, p. 97.
↑ 5 Stat. 491

Bibliography

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.
Moore, John L., ed. (1994). Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967.
"Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of 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)

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