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1840–41 United States Senate elections

← 1838 & 1839 Various dates 1842 & 1843 →
18 of the 52 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections) 27 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Party Whig Democratic Last election 20 seats 28 seats Seats before 21 29 Seats won 11 6 Seats after 27 22 Seat change 6 7 Seats up 5 13
Results:      Democratic hold      Whig gain      Whig hold      Legislature failed to elect
Majority Party before election Democratic Elected Majority Party Whig

The 1840–41 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1840 and 1841, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock. In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 2.

Corresponding with their party's success in the 1840 presidential election, the Whig Party took control of the Senate.

Results summary

Senate party division, 27th Congress (1841–1843)

• Majority party: Whig (29)
• Minority party: Democratic (22–20)
• Other parties: (0)
• Vacant: (1–3)
• Total seats: 52

Change in composition

Before the elections

After the November 25, 1840 special elections in North Carolina.

After the elections

Beginning of the next Congress

Race summaries

Special elections during the 26th Congress

In these elections, the winners were elected during 1840 or in 1841 before March 4; ordered by election date.

Races leading to the 27th Congress

In these regular elections, the winner was elected for the term beginning March 4, 1841; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 2 seats.

Special elections during the 27th Congress

In this special election, the winner was elected in 1841 after March 4; ordered by election date.

Alabama

Alabama (regular)

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Alabama (special)

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Arkansas

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Connecticut (special)

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Delaware

Delaware (special)

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Delaware (regular)

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Georgia

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Illinois

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Kentucky

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Louisiana

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Maine

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Maryland (special)

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1841 United States Senate special election in Maryland

← 1837 December 1841 1843 →
80 members of the Maryland General Assembly
Candidate John Leeds Kerr Party Whig Legislative vote - Percentage -% %

John Leeds Kerr won election to a full term an unknown margin of votes, for the Class 3 seat.

Massachusetts

There were three elections due to the February 22, 1841, resignation of Whig Daniel Webster to become U.S. Secretary of State and the January 5, 1841, resignation of Whig John Davis to become Governor of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts (special, class 2)

Whig Isaac C. Bates was elected January 13, 1841, to finish Davis's term.

Massachusetts (regular)

Bates was also elected January 13, 1841, to the next term.

Bates would only serve, however, until his March 16, 1845, death, and Davis was again elected to the seat.

Massachusetts (special, class 1)

Whig Rufus Choate was elected February 23, 1841, to finish Webster's term which would continue until 1845.

Michigan

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Mississippi

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New Hampshire

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New Jersey

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New York (special)

Nathaniel P. Tallmadge had been elected as a Jacksonian Democrat in 1833 to this seat, and his term expired March 3, 1839. An election was held February 5, 1839. Although Tallmadge received the most votes, no candidate received a majority and the seat was declared vacant due to the legislature's failure to elect.

At the State election in November 1839, 7 Whigs and 3 Democrats were elected to the State Senate, which gave the Whigs a majority, the first anti-Bucktails/Jacksonian/Democratic majority in 20 years. The 63rd New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 14, 1840, at Albany, New York. The strength of the parties in the Assembly, as shown by the vote for Speaker, was: 68 for Whig George Washington Patterson and 56 for Democrat Levi S. Chatfield.

On January 14, 1840, Nathaniel P. Tallmadge received a majority in both the Assembly and the Senate, and was declared elected.

Tallmadge re-took his seat on January 27, 1840, and remained in office until June 17, 1844, when he resigned to be appointed Governor of Wisconsin Territory. Daniel S. Dickinson was appointed to fill the vacancy temporarily, and subsequently elected by the State Legislature to succeed Tallmadge.

North Carolina

There were three elections due to the November 16, 1840, resignations of Democrats Bedford Brown and Robert Strange.

North Carolina (special, class 2)

Whig Willie Mangum was elected November 25, 1840, to finish Brown's term that would end in March 1841.

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North Carolina (regular)

Mangum was later re-elected in 1841 to the next term.

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North Carolina (special, class 3)

Whig William Alexander Graham was elected November 25, 1840, to finish Strange's term that would end in 1843.

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Pennsylvania

The election was held on January 14, 1840, after the regularly scheduled election in December 1838 was postponed due to the Buckshot War. Daniel Sturgeon was elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.

Democrat Samuel McKean was elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, in the 1832–1833 Senate election. Sen. McKean's term was to expire on March 4, 1839, and an election would have occurred during the winter of 1838–1839 elect a senator for the successive term. The election did not occur, however, due to significant political unrest in Harrisburg, the state capital, over disputed election returns during the Buckshot War. McKean's seat was vacated when his term expired in March 1839 and remained vacant until the General Assembly elected a new senator in 1840.

The Pennsylvania General Assembly convened on January 14, 1840, to elect a senator to serve out the remainder of the term that began on March 4, 1839. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

Rhode Island

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South Carolina

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Tennessee

Tennessee (special)

Tennessee (regular)

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Virginia

Virginia (regular)

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Virginia (special)

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See also

• 1840 United States elections
  • 1840 United States presidential election
  • 1840–41 United States House of Representatives elections
• 26th United States Congress
• 27th United States Congress

References

1. "17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913)". National Archives and Records Administration. February 8, 2022.
2. Rothrock, Mary (1972). The French Broad-Holston Country: A History of Knox County, Tennessee. Knoxville, Tennessee: East Tennessee Historical Society. pp. 501–02.
3. "Our Campaigns - AL Senate Race - Dec 14, 1840". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved October 31, 2019."Our Campaigns - AL Senate Race - Dec 14, 1840". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved October 31, 2019., citing Democratic Standard (newspaper) December 15, 1840
4. Journal of the Proceedings of the Legislative-Council of the State of New-Jersey. 1841. p. 33 – via Google books.
5. J. Fred Parker, Secretary of State (1914). Manual, with Rules and Orders, for the use of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island, 1914. State of Rhode Island manual. Providence, RI: E. L. Freeman Company, State Printers. p. 149.
6. "U.S. Senator in Rhode Island". Alexandria Gazette. Alexandria, D.C. November 3, 1840. p. 3. Retrieved October 14, 2021.
7. "Our Campaigns - MD US Senate Race - Jan 00, 1841". www.ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved November 5, 2022.
8. Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856: Dec. 16, 1839 – March 3, 1841 (page 50)
9. ^ "U.S. Senate Election – 1838–1839 – No election" (PDF). Wilkes University. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
10. ^ "U.S. Senate Election – 14 January 1840" (PDF). Wilkes University. Retrieved December 22, 2012.

• Party Division in the Senate, 1789–Present, via Senate.gov
• Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682–2006 from the Wilkes University Election Statistics Project

• 1840 United States Senate elections
• 1841 United States Senate elections