United States House of Representatives elections, 1838

United States House of Representatives elections, 1838

July 2, 1838 - November 5, 1839

All 242 seats to the United States House of Representatives 122 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader John Jones Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter Party Democratic Whig Leader's seat Virginia-3rd Virginia-9th Last election 128 seats 100 seats Seats won 125 109 Seat change 3 9   Third party Fourth party   Leader Thomas Henry George Washington Hopkins Party Anti-Masonic Conservative Leader's seat Pennsylvania-22nd Virginia-18th Last election 7 seats 0 seats Seats won 6 2 Seat change 1 2

Speaker before election James K. Polk Democratic Elected Speaker Robert M. T. Hunter Whig

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 26th Congress took place at various dates in each state, from July 2, 1838 (Louisiana) until November 5, 1839 (Mississippi), after the formal start of the 26th Congress but before the first session convened.

The Panic of 1837 set the background for this election cycle, as the carryover effects of the economic downturn led to Whig gains. President Martin Van Buren was deeply unpopular and Whig ideas for economic nationalism made slight inroads in suffering districts. However, the Democrats were able to lessen their loss by portraying the crisis as the result of missteps within the private banking industry and not as caused by government inactivity. The Anti-Masonic Party remained as a presence during this election, but also saw a drop in its seat total, while the Nullifier Party completely disappeared. Two Representatives in Virginia were elected under the Conservative Party label.

Election summaries

↓

125	2	6	109
Democratic	C	AM	Whig

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic	Whig	Others
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Arkansas	At-large	October 1, 1838	1	1		0		0
Delaware	At-large	November 13, 1838	1	1	1	0	1	0
Georgia	At-large	October 1, 1838	9	0	8	9	8	0
Illinois	District (3)	August 6, 1838	3	2	1	1	1	0
Louisiana	District (3)	July 2–4, 1838	3	0	1	3	1	0
Maine	District (8)	September 10, 1838	8	6		2		0
Massachusetts	District (12)	November 12, 1838	12	2		10		0
Michigan	At-large	November 6, 1838	1	1		0		0
Missouri	At-large	August 6, 1838	2	2		0		0
New Jersey	At-large	October 8, 1838	6	5	5	1	5	0
New York	District (33[Note 1])	November 5–7, 1838	40	19	11	21	11	0
Ohio	District (19)	October 9, 1838	19	11	3	8	3	0
Pennsylvania	District (25[Note 2])	October 9, 1838	28	17		5	1	6[Note 3]	1
South Carolina	District (9)	October 8–9, 1838	9	8	6	1		0	6[Note 4]
Vermont	District (5)	September 1, 1838	5	2	1	3	1	0
1839 elections
Alabama	District (5)	August 5, 1839	5	3		2		0
Connecticut	District (6)	April 1, 1839	6	0	6	6	6	0
Indiana	District (7)	August 5, 1839	7	5	4	2	4	0
Kentucky	District (13)	August 1, 1839	13	2	1	11	1	0
Maryland	District (7[Note 5])	October 3, 1839	8	5	1	3	1	0
Mississippi	At-large	November 4–5, 1839	2	2		0		0
New Hampshire	At-large	March 12, 1839	5	5		0		0
North Carolina	District (13)	August 8, 1839	13	8	3	5	3	0
Rhode Island	At-large	August 27, 1839	2	0		2		0
Tennessee	District (13)	August 1, 1839	13	6	3	7	3	0
Virginia	District (21)	May 23, 1839	21	12	3	7	1	2[Note 6]	2
Total			242	125 51.7%	3	109 45.0%	9	8 3.3%	5

House seats
Democratic			51.65%
Whig			45.04%
Anti-Masonic			2.48%
Conservative			0.83%

Complete returns

Pennsylvania

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates[Note 7][1]
Pennsylvania 1	Lemuel Paynter	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	Lemuel Paynter (D) 55.1% Joel B. Sutherland (W) 44.9%
Pennsylvania 2 Plural district with 2 seats	John Sergeant	Whig	1816 1836	Re-elected	George W. Toland (W) 69.4% John Sergeant (W) 69.2% Joseph R. Evans (D) 30.7% Samuel Brasnears (D) 30.7%
	George W. Toland	Whig	1836	Re-elected
Pennsylvania 3	Charles Naylor	Whig	1837 (special)	Re-elected	Charles Naylor (W) 53.1% Charles J. Ingersoll (D) 46.9%
Pennsylvania 4 Plural district with 3 seats	Edward Davies	Anti-Masonic	1836	Re-elected	John Edwards (AM) 57.2% Edward Davies (AM) 57.0% Francis James (AM) 57.0% Joshua Evans, Jr. (D) 43.0% Reah Frazer (D) 43.0% Samuel Leiper (D) 42.8%
	Edward Darlington	Anti-Masonic	1832	Retired Anti-Masonic hold
	David Potts, Jr.	Anti-Masonic	1830	Retired Anti-Masonic hold
Pennsylvania 5	Jacob Fry, Jr.	Democratic	1834	Retired Democratic hold	Joseph Fornance (D) 54.9% Joseph Royer (W) 45.1%
Pennsylvania 6	Mathias Morris	Whig	1834	Lost re-election Democratic gain	John Davis (D) 51.9% Mathias Morris (W) 48.1%
Pennsylvania 7	David D. Wagener	Democratic	1832	Re-elected	David D. Wagener (D) 63.7% Peter S. Michler (W) 36.3%
Pennsylvania 8	Edward B. Hubley	Democratic	1834	Retired Democratic hold	Peter Newhard (D) 54.5% Walter C. Livingston (W) 45.5%
Pennsylvania 9	George Keim	Democratic	1838 (special)	Re-elected	George Keim (D) 69.3% Daniel M. Bieber (W) 30.7%
Pennsylvania 10	Luther Reily	Democratic	1836	Retired Whig gain	William Simonton (W) 59.1% William Reily (D) 40.9%
Pennsylvania 11	Henry Logan	Democratic	1834	Retired Democratic hold	James Gerry (D) 56.6% Charles A. Barnitz (W) 43.4%
Pennsylvania 12	Daniel Sheffer	Democratic	1836	Lost re-election Whig gain	James Cooper (W) 55.9% Daniel Sheffer (D) 44.1%
Pennsylvania 13	Charles McClure	Democratic	1836	Retired Democratic hold	William S. Ramsey (D) 57.3% Frederick Watts (W) 42.7%
Pennsylvania 14	William W. Potter	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	William W. Potter (D) 50.9% William Irvin (W) 49.1%
Pennsylvania 15	David Petrikin	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	David Petrikin (D) 53.5% David Hurley (W) 46.5%
Pennsylvania 16	Robert H. Hammond	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	Robert H. Hammond (D) 56.6% James Morrill (W) 43.4%
Pennsylvania 17	Samuel W. Morris	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	Samuel W. Morris (D) 54.2% William Willard (W) 45.8%
Pennsylvania 18	Charles Ogle	Anti-Masonic	1836	Re-elected	Charles Ogle (AM) 55.9% Job Mann (D) 44.1%
Pennsylvania 19	John Klingensmith, Jr.	Democratic	1832	Retired Democratic hold	Albert G. Marchand (D) 60.9% Joseph Markle (W) 39.1%
Pennsylvania 20	Andrew Buchanan	Democratic	1832	Retired Democratic hold	Enos Hook (D) 62.4% Fideleo Hughes (W) 37.6%
Pennsylvania 21	Thomas M. T. McKennan	Anti-Masonic	1830	Retired Democratic gain	Isaac Leet (D) 50.1% Joseph Lawrence (W) 49.9%
Pennsylvania 22	Richard Biddle	Anti-Masonic	1836	Re-elected	Richard Biddle (AM) 58.1% James Power (D) 41.9%
Pennsylvania 23	William Beatty	Democratic	1836	Re-elected	William Beatty (D) 61.5% George W. Smith (W) 38.5%
Pennsylvania 24	Thomas Henry	Anti-Masonic	1836	Re-elected	Thomas Henry (AM) 54.7% James D. White (D) 45.3%
Pennsylvania 25	Arnold Plumer	Democratic	1836	Retired Democratic hold	John Galbraith (D) 51.2% David Dick (W) 48.8%

In the 3rd district, Charles Naylor's election was unsuccessfully contested by Charles J. Ingersoll.^[2]

There were three special elections in Pennsylvania during the 26th Congress.^[3] The first was in the 14th district to fill a vacancy left by the death of William W. Potter (D) on October 28, 1839, and was filled by George McCulloch (D). The second was in the 22nd district to fill a vacancy left by Richard Biddle's resignation and was filled by Henry M. Brackenridge (W). The third was held in the 13th district to fill a vacancy left by the death of William S. Ramsey (D) on October 17, 1840. Ramsey had also been re-elected to the 27th Congress and so an additional special election was held the following May to fill the vacancy in the 27th Congress.

See also

• List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1824–54
• United States Senate elections, 1838
• 26th United States Congress

Notes

1. Includes 5 plural districts
2. Includes 3 plural districts
3. 6 Anti-Masonic
4. 6 Nullifiers in previous election
5. Includes 1 plural district
6. 2 Conservatives
7. For plural districts, percent is based on assumption that each voter cast as many votes as there are seats

References

1. Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project
2. Twenty-Sixth Congress (membership roster) – see footnote 42
3. Twenty-Sixth Congress (membership roster) – see footnotes 43-48

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)