United States House of Representatives elections, 1840

July 6, 1840 - November 2, 1841

All 242 seats to the United States House of Representatives 122 seats were needed for majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	John White	John Jones
Party	Whig	Democratic
Leader's seat	Kentucky-9th	Virginia-3rd
Last election	109 seats	125 seats
Seats won	142	99^{[Note 1]}
Seat change	33	26

Speaker before election

Robert M. T. Hunter
Whig

Elected Speaker

John White
Whig

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 27th Congress were held on different dates in each state, from July 6, 1840 (Louisiana) to November 2, 1841 (Mississippi).

The 1840–41 U.S. House elections gave the Whig Party control of the House of Representatives for the first time. The Panic of 1837 had created an economic depression and the perceived mishandling of this crisis by President Martin Van Buren, gave the Whigs the presidency (William Henry Harrison was elected) and a majority in the House. The Whigs campaigned for neo-mercantilist reform based on modernization and economic nationalism, ideas which had previously been unpopular outside of urban regions, but gained footholds because of the depression. The collapse of the Anti-Masonic Party in the late 1830s also gave the Whigs the advantage of having several incumbents turn from rivals to party members. In addition, Robert M. T. Hunter was elected as an Independent to Virginia's 9th District,^[1] and Zadoc Casey was elected as an Independent Democrat to Illinois's 2nd District.^[2]

Election summaries

↓
142	1	1	98
Whig	I	ID	Democratic

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Whig	Democratic
State	Type	Date	Total seats	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Arkansas	At-large	October 5, 1840	1	0		1
Connecticut	District (6)	November 3, 1840	6	6		0
Delaware	At-large	November 10, 1840	1	1	1	0	1
Georgia	At-large	October 6, 1840	9	9		0
Illinois	District (3)	August 7, 1840	3	1		2^{[Note 1]}
Louisiana	District (3)	July 6–8, 1840	3	2	1	1	1
Maine	District (8)	September 14, 1840	8	4	2	4	2
Massachusetts	District (12)	November 9, 1840	12	11	1	1	1
Michigan	At-large	November 3, 1840	1	1	1	0	1
Missouri	At-large	August 3, 1840	2	0		2
New Jersey	At-large	November 3, 1840	6	6	5	0	5
New York	District (33^{[Note 2]})	November 2–4, 1840	40	19	2	21	2
Ohio	District (19)	October 13, 1840	19	12	4	7	4
Pennsylvania	District (25^{[Note 3]})	October 13, 1840	28	13	8	15	2
South Carolina	District (9)	October 12–13, 1840	9	1		8
Vermont	District (5)	September 4, 1840	5	5	2	0	2
1841 elections
Alabama	At-large^{[Note 4]}	May 20, 1841	5	0	2	5	2
Indiana	District (7)	May 3, 1841	7	6	4	1	4
Kentucky	District (13)	April 26, 1841	13	11		2
Maryland	District (7^{[Note 5]})	May 17, 1841	8	6	3	2	3
Mississippi	At-large	November 1–2, 1841	2	0		2
New Hampshire	At-large	March 9, 1841	5	0		5
North Carolina	District (13)	May 13, 1841	13	8	3	5	3
Rhode Island	At-large	April 21, 1841	2	2		0
Tennessee	District (13)	May 6, 1841	13	8	1	5	1
Virginia^{[Note 6]}	District (21)	April 23, 1841	21^{[Note 6]}	10	4	10	3
Total			242	142 59.5%	36	99^{[Note 1]} 40.9%	28

House seats

Whig			58.68%
Independent			0.41%
Independent Democrat			0.41%
Democratic			40.50%

The previous election had two minor parties, the Anti-Masonic Party with 6 seats and the Conservative Party (of Virginia) with 2 seats, both of which disappeared in this election.

The 1st session of the 27th Congress began May 31, 1841, before Mississippi had elected Representatives, leaving that State unrepresented until the 2nd session.

Notes

1 2 3 Including one Independent Democrat elected to IL-02.
↑ Includes 5 plural districts
↑ Includes 3 plural districts
↑ Changed from district
↑ Includes 1 plural district
1 2 Robert M. T. Hunter was elected as an Independent to VA-09, and so is not included in the figures here. Hunter had previously run in earlier elections as a Whig.

References

↑ Dubin, p. 129; Martis, p. 98; Moore, p. 974.
↑ Dubin, p. 128; Martis, p. 96.

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)

United States House of Representatives elections

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