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1798–99 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1796 & 1797 April 24, 1798 – August 1, 1799 1800 & 1801 →
← outgoing memberselected members →
All 106 seats in the United States House of Representatives 54 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Theodore Sedgwick Nathaniel Macon Party Federalist Democratic-Republican Leader's seat Massachusetts 1st North Carolina 5th Last election 57 seats 49 seats Seats won 60 46 Seat change 3 3
Results:      Federalist hold      Federalist gain      Democratic-Republican hold      Democratic-Republican gain      Undistricted
Speaker before election Jonathan Dayton Federalist Elected Speaker Theodore Sedgwick Federalist

The 1798–99 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between April 24, 1798 in New York and August 1, 1799 in Tennessee. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives, with some after the official start of the 6th United States Congress on March 4, 1799, but before the start of the first session of this Congress in Philadelphia on December 2, 1799. These elections were held during President John Adams term. It was the last congressional session before the move to the new capital at Washington, D.C. Elections were held for all 106 seats, representing 16 states.

President Adams, a Federalist elected two years prior in the election of 1796, remained popular during a time of national economic growth, and the Federalists made a modest gain of three seats at the expense of the opposition Democratic-Republicans, the party of Vice President and future President Thomas Jefferson. This resulted in an increased Federalist majority in the House, 60-46 seats.

The Federalist party squandered its popularity by passing a series of controversial new laws in the summer of 1798, including the Naturalization Act of 1798 and the Alien and Sedition Acts. Their passage seriously injured the chances of President Adams and Federalist congressional candidates in the elections of 1800.

The House that met during this Congress would ultimately elect Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr in the presidential election of 1800.

Election summaries

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Federalist		Democratic- Republican
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
New York	Districts	April 24–26, 1798	10	4	2	6	2
New Hampshire	At-large	August 2, 1798	4	4		0
North Carolina	Districts	August 10, 1798	10	4	3	6	3
Connecticut	At-large	September 7, 1798	7	7		0
Maryland	Districts	October 1, 1798	8	5	1	3	1
Rhode Island	At-large	August 28, 1798	2	2		0
Vermont	Districts	September 4, 1798	2	1		1
Delaware	At-large	October 2, 1798	1	1		0
Georgia	At-large	October 8, 1798	2	2	2	0	2
Pennsylvania	Districts	October 9, 1798	13	5	1	8	1
New Jersey	District	October 10, 1798	5	2	3	3	3
South Carolina	Districts	October 12, 1798	6	5	2	1	2
Massachusetts	Districts	November 5, 1798	14	12	1	2	1
Late general elections (After the March 4, 1799, start of the next Congress)
Virginia	Districts	April 24, 1799	19	6	2	13	2
Kentucky	Districts	May 7, 1799	2	0		2
Tennessee	At-large	August 1, 1799	1	0		1
Total			106	60 56.6%	3	46 43.4%	3

Special elections

There were special elections in 1798 and 1799 during the 5th United States Congress and 6th United States Congress.

Elections are sorted here by date then district.

5th Congress

6th Congress

Connecticut

Delaware

Georgia

Kentucky

Maryland

Massachusetts

Massachusetts required a majority for election. This was not met in the 5th district and 7th district necessitating additional ballots in those districts.

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Jersey switched to district representation for this election. The districts were not numbered at the time, but are retroactively numbered here as 1–5. New Jersey would go back to an at-large district the following election.

New York

Between the 1796 and 1798 elections, New York re-districted. This marked the first time that its districts were numbered.

North Carolina

Northwest Territory

See Non-voting delegates, below.

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Rhode Island used at-large districts, but elected the candidates on separate tickets instead of using a general ticket.

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vermont

Majority vote required to win, necessitating a run-off election in the 1st (Western) district.

Virginia

Non-voting delegates

See also

• 1798 United States elections
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections (1789–1822)
  • 1798–99 United States Senate elections
• 5th United States Congress
• 6th United States Congress

Notes

1. An additional trial was held in one district due to majority requirement not being on the first vote, and was held on December 4, 1798
2. Additional trials required in 2 districts due to majority requirement not being met on first vote, additional trials were held January 17, April 1, June 6, and August 29, 1799
3. Eggleston "was elected by a majority of more than two to one…"
4. ^ Only candidates with at least 1% of the vote listed
5. Milledge had declined to run for re-election. As a result, many Democratic-Republican voters cast their votes for Baldwin and one of the Federalists, giving the Federalists enough votes to win both seats. Milledge nevertheless received some votes.
6. ^ Source does not give numbers of votes or has incomplete data

References

1. ^ "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives, 1789 to Present | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
2. "Sixth Congress (membership roster)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 6, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
3. ^ 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.
4. ^ Cox, Harold E. (January 13, 2007). "5th Congress 1797–1798" (PDF). Wilkes University Election Statistics Project.
5. "NC District 10 - Special Election". August 7, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
6. "Virginia 1798 U.S. House of Representatives, District 9, Special". A New Nation Votes. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
7. "MD District 7". April 3, 2006. Retrieved September 11, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
8. "NY District 1". April 7, 2006. Retrieved August 16, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
9. Cox, Harold E. (January 6, 2007). "6th Congress 1799–1801" (PDF). Wilkes University Election Statistics Project.[
10. "TN-Initial District". January 15, 2011. Retrieved August 16, 2018 – via Our Campaigns.
11. Smith, William Henry (1882). The St. Clair Papers The Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair : Soldier of the Revolutionary War, President of the Continental Congress; and Governor of the North-western Territory : with His Correspondence and Other Papers · Volume 1. Harvard University. p. 214.

Bibliography

• "A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787-1825". Tufts Digital Library, Tufts University. Archived from the original on January 29, 2015. 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.
• Mapping Early American Elections project team (2019). "Mapping Early American Elections". Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University. Retrieved 2024-09-06.

External links

• Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)

• 1798 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1799 United States House of Representatives elections