1856 and 1857 United States House of Representatives elections
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Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 35th Congress were held at various dates in different states from August 1856 to November 1857.
The elections briefly returned a semblance of normalcy to the Democratic Party, restoring its a House majority amid election of Democratic President James Buchanan. However, victory masked severe, ultimately irretrievable divisions over the slavery issue. Voters next would return a Democratic House majority only in 1874.
Party realignments continued. In 1856, the Whig Party disbanded while the Know Nothing movement declined and its vehicle, the American Party, began to collapse. Many former Northern Whig and American Party Representatives joined the Republican Party, which contended for the Presidency in 1856 and was rapidly consolidating. Though it did not yet demand abolition, its attitude toward slavery was stridently negative. Making no effort to win Southern voter support, it was openly sectional, opposed to fugitive slave laws and slavery in the territories, and for the first time offered a mainstream platform to outspoken abolitionists.
In March 1857, after almost all Northern states had voted, the Supreme Court issued the infamous Dred Scott decision, amplifying tensions and hardening voter attitudes. Remaining elections, scheduled after the decision, were concentrated in the South. Southern voters widely drove the American Party from office, rallying to the Democrats in firm opposition to the Republicans.
In this election cycle, the pending state of Minnesota elected its first Representatives, to be seated by the 35th Congress. Between the admissions of Vermont in 1791 and Wisconsin in 1848, Congress had admitted new states roughly in pairs: one slave, one free. California had been admitted alone as a free state in 1850 only as part of a comprehensive compromise that included significant concessions to slave state interests. Admission of Minnesota in May 1858, also alone but with no such deal, helped expose the declining influence of the South, extinguishing the formerly binding concept that slave and free state power in Congress was best kept in balance while reinforcing a growing sense that public opinion would exclude slavery from the West.
Contents
Special elections[edit]
There were special elections in 1858 and 1859 during the 34th United States Congress and 35th United States Congress.
34th Congress[edit]
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2018) |
35th Congress[edit]
| This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2018) |
| District | Vacator | Reason for Vacancy | Candidates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Representative | Party | First elected | |||
| Minnesota at-large (Seat A) |
New state | Minnesota was admitted May 11, 1858. New member elected October 13, 1857. Democratic gain. |
√ William Wallace Phelps (Democratic) 17.31% (Seat A) √ James Michael Cavanaugh (Democratic) 17.17% (Seat B) George Loomis Becker (Democratic) 17.12% Henry Adoniram Swift (Republican) 16.19% Cyrus Aldrich (Republican) 16.11% Morton S. Wilkinson (Republican) 16.10% | ||
| Minnesota at-large (Seat B) |
New state | Minnesota was admitted May 11, 1858. New member elected October 13, 1857. Democratic gain. | |||
Election summaries[edit]
Two seats were added for the new state of Minnesota,[1] which was unrepresented for part of the 1st session.
| 133 | 14 | 90 |
| Democratic | AKN | Republican |
| State | Type | Date | Total seats |
Democratic | Republican | Know-Nothing | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | Change | Seats | Change[Note 3] | Seats | Change | ||||
| Arkansas | District | August 4, 1856 | 2 | 2 | 
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
| Iowa | District | August 4, 1856 | 2 | 0 |  1
|
2 |  1
|
0 |
|
| Missouri | District | August 4, 1856 | 7 | 5[Note 4] | 4
|
0 | 6
|
2 | 2
|
| Vermont | District | September 2, 1856 | 3 | 0 |
|
3 |
|
0 |
|
| Maine | District | September 8, 1856 | 6 | 0 | 1
|
6 | 1
|
0 |
|
| Florida | At-large | October 6, 1856 | 1 | 1 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
| South Carolina | District | October 13–14, 1856 | 6 | 6 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
| Indiana | District | October 14, 1856 | 11 | 6 | 4
|
5 | 4
|
0 |
|
| Ohio | District | October 14, 1856 | 21 | 9 | 9
|
12 | 9
|
0 |
|
| Pennsylvania | District | October 14, 1856 | 25 | 15 | 8
|
10 | 7
|
0 | 1
|
| California | At-large | November 4, 1856 (Election Day)[Note 5] |
2 | 2 |
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
| Delaware | At-large | 1 | 1 | 1
|
0 |
|
0 | 1
| |
| Illinois | District | 9 | 5 |
|
4 |
|
0 |
| |
| Massachusetts | District | 11 | 0 |
|
11 | 11
|
0 | 11
| |
| Michigan | District | 4 | 0 | 1
|
4 | 1
|
0 |
| |
| New Jersey | District | 5 | 3 | 2
|
2 | 2
|
0 |
| |
| New York | District | 33 | 12 | 7
|
21 | 4
|
0 | 3
| |
| Wisconsin | District | 3 | 0 | 1
|
3 | 1
|
0 |
| |
| New Hampshire | District | March 10, 1857 | 3 | 0 |
|
3 | 3
|
0 | 3
|
| Rhode Island | District | April 1, 1857 | 2 | 0 |
|
2 | 2
|
0 | 2
|
| Connecticut | District | April 6, 1857 | 4 | 2 | 2
|
2 | 2
|
0 | 4
|
| Virginia | District | May 28, 1857 | 13 | 13 | 1
|
0 |
|
0 | 1
|
| Alabama | District | August 3, 1857 | 7 | 7 | 2
|
0 |
|
0 | 2
|
| Kentucky | District | August 3, 1857 | 10 | 8 | 4
|
0 |
|
2 | 4
|
| Texas | District | August 3, 1857 | 2 | 2 | 1
|
0 |
|
0 | 1
|
| North Carolina | District | August 6, 1857 | 8 | 7 | 2
|
0 |
|
1 | 2
|
| Tennessee | District | August 6, 1857 | 10 | 7 | 2
|
0 |
|
3 | 2
|
| Georgia | District | October 5, 1857 | 8 | 6 |
|
0 |
|
2 |
|
| Mississippi | District | October 5–6, 1857 | 5 | 5 | 1
|
0 |
|
0 | 1
|
| Minnesota | At-large | October 13, 1857[Note 6] | 2 | 2 | 2
|
0 |
|
0 |
|
| Louisiana | District | November 3, 1857 | 4 | 3 |
|
0 |
|
1 |
|
| Maryland | District | November 4, 1857 | 6 | 3 | 1
|
0 |
|
3 | 1
|
| Total | 236 | 133[Note 2] 56.1% |
50[Note 2]
|
90 38.0% |
10[Note 3]
|
14 5.9% |
37
| ||
California[edit]
| District | Incumbent | Party | First elected |
Result | Candidates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California at-large 2 seats on a general ticket |
James W. Denver | Democratic | 1854 | Incumbent retired. New member elected. Democratic hold. |
√ Charles L. Scott (Democratic) 29.9% √ Joseph C. McKibbin (Democratic) 21% A. B. Dibble (Know Nothing) 20.7% Ira P. Rankin (Independent) 13% J. N. Turner (Republican) 12.5% |
| Philemon T. Herbert | Democratic | 1854 | Incumbent retired after manslaughter acquittal. New member elected. Democratic hold. |
Florida[edit]
| District | Incumbent | Party | First elected |
Result | Candidates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida at-large | Augustus Maxwell | Democratic | 1852 | Incumbent retired. New member elected. Democratic hold. |
√ George S. Hawkins (Democratic) 53.1% James McNair Baker (Know Nothing) 46.9% |
See also[edit]
- United States elections, 1856
- List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1856–present
- 34th United States Congress
- 35th United States Congress
Notes[edit]
- ^ Excludes states admitted during this Congress
- ^ a b c Includes one Independent Democrat or "Benton" Democrat: Francis Preston Blair Jr. of Missouri. Also includes the Representative from the pending state of Oregon, elected June 7, 1858 and seated February 14, 1859 with less than three weeks remaining in the last session of the 35th Congress.
- ^ a b Compared to the 100 Opposition Party members in previous election of 1854.
- ^ Includes one Independent Democrat (a.k.a. a "Benton Democrat"): Francis Preston Blair Jr. of MO-01. Note that while Martis (p. 110) and Dubin (p. 176) list him as an "Independent Democrat" or "Benton Democrat", others sources (e.g. the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress) list Blair as a "Republican".
- ^ In 1845, Congress passed a law providing for a uniform date for choosing presidential electors (see: Statutes at Large, 28th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 721). Congressional elections were unaffected by this law, but the date was gradually adopted by the states for Congressional elections as well.
- ^ New state. Representatives seated May 11, 1858, during the 1st session.
References[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- 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[edit]
- Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)
