United States House of Representatives elections, 1794 and 1795

United States House of Representatives elections, 1794 and 1795

August 24, 1794 – September 5, 1795[lower-alpha 1]
All 105[lower-alpha 2] seats to the United States House of Representatives 53 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Frederick Muhlenberg Jonathan Dayton[1][lower-alpha 3] Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Leader's seat Pennsylvania 2nd New Jersey at-large Last election 54 seats 51 seats Seats won 59[lower-alpha 4] 47 Seat change 5 4
Democratic-Republican majority      Federalist majority      Even split
Speaker before election Frederick Muhlenberg Anti-Administration Elected Speaker Jonathan Dayton Federalist

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 4th Congress were held on various dates in each state between August 25, 1794 (New Hampshire), and September 5, 1795 (Kentucky). The election was held during President George Washington's second term. The voters of Tennessee elected their first congressional representative (Andrew Jackson) on October 7, 1796.

In the second election for the House of Representatives with organized political parties, the Democratic-Republican Party, led by Thomas Jefferson, once again defeated the Federalist Party, led by Alexander Hamilton, and slightly increased their majority. These new wins by the Democratic-Republicans can mostly be attributed to the popularity of Jeffersonian ideas of agrarian democracy in the Western territories of the United States.

Election summaries

During this period, each state fixed its own date for a congressional general election. Elections took place both in the even-numbered year before and in the odd-numbered year when a Congress convened. In some states, the congressional delegation was not elected until after the legal start of the Congress (on the 4th day of March in the odd-numbered year).

One new seat was added during the 4th Congress upon the admission of Tennessee on June 1, 1796,^[2] Tennessee was not represented in the 1st session which is not included in the totals here.

State	Type	↑ Date	Total seats	Democratic- Republican (formerly Anti-Administration)		Federalist (formerly Pro-Administration)
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Connecticut	At-large	September 15, 1794	7	0		7
Delaware	At-large	October 5, 1794	1	1	1	0	1
Georgia	At-large	October 6, 1794	2	2		0
Maryland	Districts	October 6, 1794	8	4		4
Massachusetts	Districts	November 3, 1794[lower-alpha 5]	14	4	1	10	1
New Hampshire	At-large	August 25, 1794[lower-alpha 6]	4	1		3
New Jersey	At-large	December 30, 1794	5	0		5
New York	Districts	December 12, 1794	10	6	3	4	3
Pennsylvania	Districts	October 14, 1794	13	9	1	4	1
Rhode Island	At-large	August 26, 1794	2	0		2
South Carolina	Districts	October 14, 1794	6	4	1	2	1
Vermont	Districts	December 30, 1794[lower-alpha 7]	2	1	1	1	1
North Carolina	Districts	February 13, 1795	10	9		1
Late elections (After the March 4, 1795 beginning of the next Congress)
Virginia	Districts	March 16, 1795	19	17	2	2	2
Kentucky	Districts	September 5, 1795	2	2		0
Total[lower-alpha 4]			105	58 7001552000000000000♠55.2%	6	47 7001448000000000000♠44.8%	4

Special elections

There were special and late elections to the 3rd and 4th Congresses in 1794 and 1795.

Connecticut

Delaware

Only two candidates are recorded for Delaware's congressional election in 1794, suggesting that the voting procedure in place for the first three Congresses for two candidates had been changed.

Georgia

Kentucky

Maryland

Massachusetts

Massachusetts redistricted between the 3rd and 4th Congress, dividing itself into 14 districts. The 12th-14th districts were in the District of Maine (the modern State of Maine). A majority was required for election. Additional ballots were required in five districts due to the majority requirement not being met on the first ballot.

New Hampshire

Under New Hampshire's electoral laws, a majority of voters (12.5% of votes) was required for election. Only three candidates achieved a majority, and so a run-off election was held for the fourth seat.

New Jersey

New York

New York's districts were not numbered at the time, but were later numbered retroactively.

North Carolina

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania once again divided itself into districts instead of electing representatives at-large, as it had for the 3rd Congress. The state divided intself into 12 districts, one of which (the 4th) had two seats. Pennsylvania would continue to use one or more plural districts until 1842.

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Electoral data are only available for the 1st and 5th district of South Carolina's 6 districts at the time of the elections of 1794.

Representative-elect Barnwell of the 2nd district declined to serve. A special election was held to fill the resulting vacancy, electing Wade Hampton (Democratic-Republican).

Tennessee

Tennessee elected its first representative in 1796 for this Congress.

Vermont

Vermont law required a majority for election to Congress, with a second election to be held if the first did not return a majority. Run-off elections were required in both districts.

Virginia

See also

• United States elections, 1794
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1789–1822
  • United States Senate elections, 1794 and 1795
• 3rd United States Congress
• 4th 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)