United States House of Representatives elections, 1874

United States House of Representatives elections, 1874

1872 ← → 1876

All 293 seats to the United States House of Representatives 127 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Michael Kerr James Blaine Party Democratic Republican Leader's seat Indiana-3rd Maine-3rd Last election 88 seats 199 seats Seats won 182 103 Seat change +94 -96

Speaker before election James Blaine Republican Elected Speaker Michael Kerr Democratic

The U.S. House election, 1874 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1874, which occurred in the middle of President Ulysses S. Grant's second term. It was an important turning point, as the Republicans lost heavily and the Democrats gained control of the House. It signaled the imminent end of Reconstruction, which Democrats opposed.

With the election following the Panic of 1873, Grant's Republican Party was crushed in the elections, losing their majority and almost half their seats to the Democratic Party. This was the first period of Democratic control since the congressional election of 1858, which preceded the Civil War. The economic crisis and the inability of Grant to find a solution led to his party's defeat.

In the south, the Democrats and Conservatives continued their systematic construction of the Republican coalition. In the South, Scalawags moved into the Democratic Party. The Democratic landslide signaled the imminent end of Reconstruction, which Democrats opposed and a realignment of the Republican coalition that had dominated American politics since the late 1850s.

As Rhodes [7:131-3] explains:

In the fall elections of 1874 the issue was clearly defined: Did the Republican President Ulysses S. Grant and Congress deserve the confidence of the country? and the answer was unmistakably No, although the early contests in Vermont and Maine gave little indication of it. Even James G. Blaine, an acute judge of popular sentiment, failed in his forecast and, as he traveled through the West, gave his hearers to understand that the next House was certain to be Republican and himself its Speaker. Those who may have been inclined to doubts were encouraged by the revival of the song of 1840 "Oh! have you heard the news from Maine?" and the Republicans of Ohio and Indiana went to the polls on their October election day with a certain confidence of success. But the Democrats carried both these States and made notable gains in members of Congress. In November, they elected Samuel J. Tilden governor of New York by 50,000 majority and William Gaston governor of Massachusetts by 7000 and also carried Pennsylvania.

The Democrats had won a signal victory, obtaining control of the next House of Representatives which would stand Democrats 168, Liberals and Independents 14, Republicans 108 as against the two-thirds Republican majority secured by the election of 1872. Since 1861 the Republicans had controlled the House and now with its loss came a decrease in their majority in the Senate....

The political revolution from 1872 to 1874 was due to the failure of the Southern policy of the Republican party, to the Credit Mobilier and Sanborn contract scandals, to corrupt and inefficient administration in many departments and to the persistent advocacy of Grant by some close friends and hangers-on for a third presidential term. Some among the opposition were influenced by the President's backsliding in the cause of civil service reform, and others by the failure of the Republican party to grapple successfully with the financial question. The depression, following the financial Panic of 1873, and the number of men consequently out of employment weighed in the scale against the party in power. In Ohio, the result was affected by the temperance crusade in the early part of the year. Bands of women of good social standing marched to saloons before which or in which they sang hymns and, kneeling down, prayed that the great evil of drink might be removed. Sympathizing men wrought with them in causing the strict law of the State against the sale of strong liquor to be rigidly enforced. Since Republicans were in the main the instigators of the movement, it alienated from their party a large portion of the German American vote.

Overall results

Party	Total seats (change)		Seat percentage
Democratic Party	182	+94	62.1%
Republican Party	103	-96	35.1%
Independent	8	+3	2.7%
Totals	293	+1	100.0%

House seats by party holding plurality in state   80.1-100% Republican   80.1-100% Democratic   60.1-80% Republican   60.1-80% Democratic   <=60% Republican   <=60% Democratic

6+ Republican gain   6+ Democratic gain   3-5 Republican gain   3-5 Democratic gain   1-2 Republican gain   1-2 Democratic gain   no net change

All races

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California

District	Incumbent	Party	Elected	Results	Candidates
California 1	Charles Clayton	Republican	1872	Retired Democratic gain	William Adam Piper (D) 49.1% Ira P. Rankin (R) 26.8% John F. Swift (I) 24.1%
California 2	Horace F. Page	Republican	1872	Re-elected	Horace F. Page (R) 43.4% Henry Larkin (D) 38.7% Charles A. Tuttle (I) 17.8%
California 3	John K. Luttrell	Democratic	1872	Re-elected	John K. Luttrell (D) 46.7% C. B. Denio (R) 36.1% Charles F. Reed (I) 17.1%
California 4	Sherman O. Houghton	Republican	1870	Lost re-election Democratic gain	Peter D. Wigginton (D) 48.8% Sherman O. Houghton (R) 34.6% J. S. Thompson (I) 16.7%

See also

• 44th United States Congress

References

• Appletons' Annual Cyclopædia, 1874 (1875), covers every state.
• Barreyre, Nicolas. "The Politics of Economic Crises: The Panic of 1873, the End of Reconstruction, and the realignment of American Politics." Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era vol 10 Number 4 October 2011
• Gillette, William. Retreat from Reconstruction, 1869-1879 (1982)
• House, Albert V. "The Speakership Contest of 1875: Democratic Response to Power," Journal of American History Vol. 52, No. 2 (Sep., 1965), pp. 252-274 in JSTOR
• Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 7. 1920.