United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1822

United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1822
New York
November 4-6, 1822
All 34[1] New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 19 8
Seats won 30[2] 4[3]
Seat change Increase 11 Decrease 4

The 1822 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from November 4 to 6, 1822, to elect 34 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 18th United States Congress.

Background

27 U.S. Representatives had been elected in April 1821 to a term in the 17th United States Congress which had begun on March 4, 1821. Selah Tuthill died on September 7, 1821, before Congress met, and Charles Borland, Jr. had been elected to fill the vacancy. Solomon Van Rensselaer resigned his seat in January 1822, and Stephen Van Rensselaer had been elected to fill the vacancy. The representatives' term would end on March 3, 1823. Most previous congressional elections in New York had been held together with the annual State elections in late April, but under the New York Constitution of 1821, the elections were moved permanently to November: about four months before the congressional term began, and a little more than a year before Congress actually met on December 1, 1823.

At this time the Democratic-Republican Party in New York was split into two opposing factions: on one side, the supporters of DeWitt Clinton and his Erie Canal project; on the other side, the Bucktails (including the Tammany Hall organization in New York City), led by Martin Van Buren. At the same time, the Federalist Party had already disbanded, and most of its former members had joined the Clintonians.

Congressional districts

On April 17, 1822, the New York State Legislature re-apportioned the congressional districts according to the figures of the 1820 United States census. The number of district was increased to 30, creating eight new districts; the number of seats was increased to 34, creating for the first time a triple-seat district, and keeping two double-seat districts.

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

23 Bucktails and 11 Clintonian/Federalists were declared elected. The incumbents Wood, Morgan, Cambreleng, Van Wyck, Van Rensselaer, Taylor, Litchfield, Rochester and Tracy were re-elected; the incumbents Ruggles, Dickinson, Campbell and Woodcock were defeated.

1822 United States House election result
District Democratic-Republican/Bucktails Clintonian/Federalist also ran
1st John P. Osborn[4] 1,353 Silas Wood 1,383
2nd Jacob Tyson 1,754 Jacob Patchen[5] 174
3rd John J. Morgan 4,428
Churchill C. Cambreleng 4,389
Peter Sharpe 4,199
4th Joel Frost 2,214 Abraham Smith 678 Peter A. Jay (Fed.) 333
5th William W. Van Wyck 3,119 Derick B. Stockholm[6] 1,265
6th Charles Ludlow 1,617 Hector Craig 2,191
7th Lemuel Jenkins 2,864 Charles H. Ruggles 2,153
8th Joseph D. Monell[7] 1,940 James Strong 2,647
9th James L. Hogeboom 3,241 John D. Dickinson 2,859
10th Stephen Van Rensselaer 2,725
11th Charles A. Foote 3,184 John T. More 2,698
12th Lewis Eaton 2,800 Nicholas F. Beck[8] 1,549
13th Isaac Williams, Jr. 2,343
14th Ezekiel Bacon 2,632 Henry R. Storrs 2,687
15th John Herkimer 2,050 Simeon Ford[9] 1,390
16th Alexander Sheldon 2,148 John W. Cady 2,215
17th George Palmer 2,115 John W. Taylor 2,505
18th Henry C. Martindale 2,424 David Russell 1,979
19th John Richards 2,234 Ezra C. Gross 1,962
20th Egbert Ten Eyck 6,455
Ela Collins 6,407
21st Lot Clark 2,265 Samuel Campbell 821
22nd Justin Dwinell 2,911
23rd Elisha Litchfield 2,042 Asa Wells[10] 1,387
24th Rowland Day 2,622 Jonathan Richmond 1,804
25th David Woodcock 2,215 Samuel Lawrence 2,449
26th Micah Brooks 1,418 Dudley Marvin 4,511 John Price (C/F)[11] 1,866
Robert S. Rose 3,046 William Thompson[12] 2,563
27th John H. Jones[13] 2,023 Moses Hayden 3,117
28th William B. Rochester 3,426
29th Isaac Wilson 2,093 Parmenio Adams 2,077
30th Augustus Porter 2,091 Albert H. Tracy 3,516

Note: In Congress both Bucktails and Clintonians aligned with the Democratic-Republicans from the other States. Of the Anti-Bucktails Wood, Ruggles, Strong, Dickinson, Van Rensselaer, Storrs and Russell were old Federalists; Stockholm, Craig, Beck, Cady, Taylor, Gross, Richmond, Lawrence, Marvin, Thompson, Hayden, Adams and Tracy were Clintonians.

Aftermath, special election and contested election

William B. Rochester, re-elected in the 28th District, was appointed Judge of the Eighth Circuit Court on April 21, 1823, and resigned his seat before Congress met. A special election to fill the vacancy was held, and was won by William Woods, of the same faction.

1823 United States House special election result
District D-R/Bucktail D-R/Clintonian
28th William Woods 834 Daniel Cruger 789

The House of Representatives of the 18th United States Congress met for the first time at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 1, 1823, and 30 of the representatives, among them Isaac Wilson and William Woods, took their seats on this day. Lawrence took his seat on December 5; Herkimer on December 8; Tracy on December 16; and Morgan on December 18.[14]

A petition on behalf of Parmenio Adams was presented to contest the election of Isaac Wilson in the 29th District. On December 30, 1823, the Committee on Elections submitted its report. They found that in the town of China by mistake 67 votes had been returned for Wilson, although he had polled only 45. They also found that in the town of Attica by mistake 98 votes had been returned for Adams, although he had polled only 93. The Secretary of State of New York, receiving the abovementioned result, issued credentials for Wilson who took his seat when Congress met on December 1. Correcting the mistakes in the China and Attica returns, Adams had 2,072 and Wilson 2,071 votes. Wilson also claimed that he had received 1 vote in Middlebury which was counted as a "blank vote" by the election inspectors because the name printed on the ballot was "partially erased with the stroke of a pen," and that he had received 2 votes in the Town of Stafford and 4 votes in the Town of Byron which were not counted by the election inspectors because the ballots were folded together in pairs.[15] The committee upheld the decision of the election inspectors in both cases, and declared Adams entitled to the seat, winning the election by a single vote.[16] On January 7, 1824, after much debate, the House declared Parmenio Adams entitled to the seat instead of Wilson, and Adams took it.[17]

During this congressional term party lines broke down while four candidates lined up to succeed President James Monroe. At the United States presidential election, 1824, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford received electoral votes, but no candidate received a majority. Thus the election was referred to the House of Representatives, to choose among the three most voted candidates: Adams, Jackson and Crawford. Henry Clay supported Adams, so that after the election on February 9, 1825, one month before the end of the term, the members were back-labeled (according to their actual vote) as "Adams-Clay Democratic-Republicans" (Sharpe, Van Wyck, Williams, Herkimer, Cady, Taylor, Martindale, Lawrence, Marvin, Rose, Hayden, Woods, Adams and Tracy), "Jackson Democratic-Republicans" (Morgan and Craig), "Crawford Democratic-Republicans" (Tyson, Cambreleng, Frost, Jenkins, Hoogeboom, Foote, Eaton, Richards, Ten Eyck, Collins, Clark, Dwinell, Litchfield, Day) and "Adams-Clay Federalists" (Wood, Strong, Van Rensselaer, Storrs).

Notes

  1. ↑ 7 new seats gained in reapportionment
  2. ↑ 14 Adams-Clay, 14 Crawford, 2 Jacksonian
  3. ↑ All 4 Adams-Clay
  4. ↑ John P. Osborn, of Suffolk Co., assemblyman 1814-15, 1818, 1819 and 1820-21
  5. ↑ Jacob Patchen, butcher, of Brooklyn, see A History of the City of Brooklyn by Henry R. Stiles (pages 67ff)
  6. ↑ Derick B. Stockholm, publisher of the Republican Herald at Poughkeepsie since 1811; Surrogate of Dutchess Co. 1815-1819
  7. ↑ Joseph D. Monell, Recorder of Hudson 1811-1813 and 1815-1821; DA of Columbia Co. 1818-1819; assemblyman 1824; supervisor of Hudson 1830, 1831 and 1847
  8. ↑ Nicholas F. Beck (ca. 1796 - June 30, 1830 Albany); Union College graduate 1813; admitted to the bar 1817; City Clerk of Schenectady 1820; Adjutant General of the State Militia 1825-1830 (died in office)
  9. ↑ Simeon Ford, DA of Herkimer Co. 1818-23, assemblyman 1820-21 and 1822
  10. ↑ Asa Wells, assemblyman 1816-17 and 1818
  11. ↑ John Price, of Ontario Co., assemblyman 1814-15 and 1820
  12. ↑ William Thompson; assemblyman 1816, 1816-17, 1818, 1819 and 1820-21; Surrogate of Seneca Co. 1815-1819 and 1821-1827
  13. ↑ John H. Jones (ca. 1770 - Jan. 4, 1856 Leicester); First Judge of the Genesee County Court 1812-1823. Livingston Co. was separated from Genesee Co. in 1821, and Jones's victorious opponent Hayden was the First Judge of the Livingston County Court.
  14. ↑ Abridgment of the Debates in Congress (Vol. VII; pages 592ff and 599f)
  15. ↑ Folding two ballots closely together gives the opportunity for one person to put two ballots in the ballot box without being noticed by the election inspectors. The fraud is easily detected if there are more ballots in the box than voters in the register. The election law at the time expressly forbade the counting of any of the ballots if they were folded together, although it was sometimes claimed that the ballots might have been folded together by mistake, and one vote should be counted instead of the two.
  16. ↑ Cases of Contested Elections in Congress 1789 to 1834 compiled by Matthew St. Clair Clarke and David A. Hall (Washington, D.C., 1834; Case XLIX, pages 369ff)
  17. ↑ Abridgment of the Debates in Congress (Vol. VII; page 617)

Sources

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