United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1790

April 27-29, 1790

All 6 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives

	Majority party	Minority party

Party	Pro-Administration	Anti-Administration
Last election	3	3
Seats won	5	1
Seat change	2	2
Popular vote	6,263	4,435
Percentage	58.5%	41.5%

The 1790 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from April 27 to 29, 1790, to elect six U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives.

Background

The first U.S. Representatives under the United States Constitution had been elected in March 1789, and had taken their seats in the 1st United States Congress for a term ending on March 3, 1791. State elections in New York were at that time held during the last week of April, which meant that the State election preceding the beginning of the next congressional term was held more than ten months in advance, although the regular session of Congress was scheduled to convene only on the first Monday in December. Nevertheless, the New York politicians chose to have the seats filled, in case there might be a special session to convene at an earlier date.

Congressional districts

On January 27, 1789, the New York State Legislature divided the State of New York into six congressional districts which were not numbered.^[1] The districts remained the same as for the previous elections in March 1789.

One district (later back-numbered as the 1st) comprising Kings, Queens, Richmond and Suffolk counties.
One district (later back-numbered as the 2nd) comprising New York City, and Westchester County except the towns of Salem, North Salem, Cortland, Yorktown and Stephentown.
One district (later back-numbered as the 3rd) comprising Dutchess County and the abovementioned towns in Westchester.
One district (later back-numbered as the 4th) comprising Orange and Ulster counties.
One district (later back-numbered as the 5th) comprising Albany County east of the Hudson River, Columbia, Clinton and Washington counties.
One district (later back-numbered as the 6th) comprising Albany County west of the Hudson River, and Montgomery and Ontario counties.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Result

Five Federalists and one Anti-Federalist (later known as the Democratic-Republicans) were elected. The incumbents Laurance, Benson and Silvester were re-elected, the incumbents Floyd, Hathorn and Van Rensselaer were defeated.

**1790 United States House election result**
District	Federalist		Democratic-Republican		Federalist		Democratic-Republican		Democratic-Republican
1	James Townsend	592	William Floyd	319	John Vanderbilt	327	Thomas Tredwell	284	Ezra L'Hommedieu	147
2	John Laurance	691	Melancton Smith	11
3	Egbert Benson	723	Theodorus Bailey	467
4	Peter Van Gaasbeck	753	Cornelius C. Schoonmaker	898			John Hathorn	61	Christopher Tappen	13
5	Peter Silvester	1,712	John Livingston	1,218
6	James Gordon	1,465	Jeremiah Van Rensselaer	1,017

Note: At this time political parties were still very new in the United States. Politicians aligned in two opposing groups: Those supporting the federal government and those opposing it. The first group are generally known as the Federalists, or (as a group in Congress) the "Pro-Administration Party." The second group at first were called the Anti-Federalists, or (as a group in Congress) the "Anti-Administration Party", but soon called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.

Special election

Representative-elect James Townsend died on May 24, 1790, just a month after his election, and well before the congressional term began. A special election to fill the vacancy was held at the time of the annual state election, from April 26 to 28, 1791, and was won by Anti-Federalist Thomas Tredwell. Thus four Federalists and two Anti-Federalists represented New York in the House of Representatives of the 2nd U.S. Congress.

**1791 United States House special election result**
District	Democratic-Republican		Federalist		Federalist		Democratic-Republican		Federalist		Democratic-Republican
1	Thomas Tredwell	666	John Vanderbilt	489	Henry Peters	369	Ezra L'Hommedieu	361	Isaac Ledyard	301	Stephen Carman	360

Aftermath

The House of Representatives of the 2nd United States Congress convened for its first session at Congress Hall in Philadelphia on October 24, 1791, and Gordon, Laurance, Silvester and Tredwell took their seats on this day. Benson took his seat on November 4; and Schoonmaker at some time between November 15, 1791, and January 30, 1792.^[2]

Notes

↑ The numbers which are used nowadays to describe these districts at this time derive from the numbers of the districts officially introduced in 1797, considering the sequence of the districts in the official listing and the approximate geographical equivalence.
↑ Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856 (Vol. I; pages 315, 317, 328 and 349)

Sources

The New York Civil List compiled in 1858 (see: pg. 65 for district apportionment; pg. 68 for Congressmen)
Members of the Second United States Congress
Election result 1st D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Election result 2nd D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Election result 3rd D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Election result 4th D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Election result 5th D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Election result 6th D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes"
Special election result 1st D. at Tufts University Library project "A New Nation Votes" (

Elections in New York

General	1844 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1900 1902 1903 1904 1906 1907 1908 1910 1912 1913 1914 1916 1917 1918 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1926 1927 1928 1930 1932 1933 1934 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1942 1943 1944 1946 1949 1950 1952 1953 1954 1956 1958 1959 1960 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1972 1973 1974 1976 1980 1988 1992 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

NY State Senate	2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

NY State Assembly	2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

NY Governor	1777 1780 1783 1786 1789 1792 1795 1798 1801 1804 1807 1810 1811 1813 1816 1817 1820 1822 1824 1826 1828 1830 1832 1834 1836 1838 1840 1842 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

NY Attorney General	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

NY Comptroller	1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

NY Judicial	1847 S 1870 S 1959 1960 1969

U.S. President	1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

U.S. Senate	Class 1: 1789 1791 1797 1798 S1 1798 S2 1800 S1 1803 1804 S2 1809 1815 1821 1827 1829 S 1833 1839–40 1845 1851 1857 1863 1869 1875 1881 1881 S 1887 1893 1899 1905 1911 1916 1922 1928 1934 1938 S 1940 1946 1952 1958 1964 1970 1976 1982 1988 1994 2000 2006 2010 S 2012 Class 3: 1789 1795 1796 S 1800 S2 1801 1802 S 1804 S1 1807 1813 1819–20 1825–26 1831 1833 S 1837 1843 1845 S 1849 1855 1861 1867 1873 1879 1881 S 1885 1891 1897 1903 1909 1914 1920 1926 1932 1938 1944 1949 S 1950 1956 1962 1968 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004 2010 2016

U.S. House	1789 1790 1793 1794 1796 1798 1800 1802 1804 1806 1808 1810 1812 1814 1816 1818 1821 1822 1824 1826 1828 1830 1832 1834 1836 1838 1840 1842 1844 1846 1848 1850 1852 1854 1856 1858 1860 1862 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 (6th S) 2000 2002 2004 2006 (13th, 20th, 29th) 2008 (19th, 20th, 25th, 26th, 29th) 2009 (20th S, 23rd S) 2010 (29th) 2011 (9th S, 26th S) 2012 2014 2016 Special

'S,' 'S1,' and 'S2' denote special election See also: Political party strength in New York

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