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1808–09 United States House of Representatives elections

← 1806 & 1807 April 26, 1808 – May 5, 1809 1810 & 1811 →
All 142 seats in the United States House of Representatives 72 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Joseph Bradley Varnum Timothy Pitkin Party Democratic-Republican Federalist Leader's seat Massachusetts 4th Connecticut at-large Last election 116 seats 26 seats Seats won 94 48 Seat change 22 22
Results:      Federalist hold      Federalist gain      Democratic-Republican hold      Democratic-Republican gain      Dissident Republican hold      Dissident Republican Gain      Undistricted
Speaker before election Joseph Bradley Varnum Democratic-Republican Elected Speaker Joseph Bradley Varnum Democratic-Republican

The 1808–09 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between April 26, 1808, and May 5, 1809. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives before the first session of the 11th United States Congress convened on May 22, 1809. They coincided with James Madison being elected as president. Elections were held for all 142 seats, representing 17 states.

Despite Madison's victory, voters in districts whose economies were driven by shipping or manufacturing rather than agriculture shifted to the Federalist Party mainly due to the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807 and fears that Democratic-Republican Party policies could trigger a naval war with France or Britain. The politically dominant Democratic-Republicans won their smallest majority since the pivotal, realigning election of 1800.

Election summaries

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic- Republican		Federalist
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change
New York	Districts	April 26–28, 1808	17	9	6	8	6
Kentucky	Districts	August 1, 1808	6	6		0
North Carolina	Districts	August 12, 1808	12	9	2	3	2
New Hampshire	At-large	August 29, 1808	5	0	5	5	5
Rhode Island	At-large	August 30, 1808	2	0	2	2	2
Vermont	Districts	September 6, 1808	4	1	1	3	1
Connecticut	At-large	September 19, 1808	7	0		7
Georgia	At-large	October 3, 1808	4	4		0
Maryland	Districts		9	6		3
Delaware	At-large	October 4, 1808	1	0		1
South Carolina	Districts	October 10–11, 1808	8	8		0
Ohio	At-large	October 11, 1808	1	1		0
Pennsylvania	Districts		18	16	1	2	1
Massachusetts	Districts	November 7, 1808	17	8	3	9	3
New Jersey	At-large	November 7–8, 1808	6	6		0
Late elections (after the March 4, 1809, beginning of the next Congress)
Virginia	Districts	April 1809	22	17	4	5	4
Tennessee	Districts	May 4–5, 1809	3	3		0
Total			142	94 66.2%	23	48 33.8%	23

Special elections

There were special elections in 1808 and 1809 during the 10th United States Congress and 11th United States Congress.

Elections are sorted here by date then district.

10th Congress

11th Congress

Connecticut

Delaware

Georgia

Indiana Territory

See Non-voting delegates, below.

Kentucky

Maryland

Massachusetts

Mississippi Territory

See Non-voting delegates, below.

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New York

Between the 1806 and 1808 elections, New York went through a redistricting that reduced the number of districts to 15 by creating two plural districts with two seats each. This brought the state's 17-seat delegation from a 15-2 ratio favoring Democratic-Republicans to a nearly-even 9-8 split in their favor.

North Carolina

Ohio

Orleans Territory

See Non-voting delegates, below.

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vermont

Virginia

Non-voting delegates

Three territories sent non-voting delegates to the 11th Congress.

Indiana Territory elected by popular vote for the first time. Mississippi Territory also elected its delegate by popular vote. Orleans Territory retained legislative election of its delegate.

See also

• 1808 United States elections
  • List of United States House of Representatives elections (1789–1822)
  • 1808–09 United States Senate elections
  • 1808 United States presidential election
• 10th United States Congress
• 11th United States Congress

Notes

1. ^ Figures here match Dubin (p. 42, which includes "87 Republicans, 1 Independent Republican, and 6 Quids", in addition to "48 Federalists"), but are different than those given by Martis (p. 80), and "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives., which both report 92 Democratic-Republicans, and 50 Federalists.
2. Majority required for election which was not met in two districts, necessitating a second election, held on December 13, 1808.
3. Bond was not considered as a candidate.
4. ^ Numbers of votes missing or incomplete in source(s).
5. In the 7th district, there were 430 votes for "Charles Turner" which were counted separately from Charles Turner Jr. (Democratic-Republican). This caused the vote tally to be William Baylies (Federalist) 1,828 (49.4%), Charles Turner Jr. (Democratic-Republican) 1,443 (39.0%), "Charles Turner" 430 (11.6%). As no candidate had a majority, a second election was held on January 19, 1809 which elected Baylies with 54.3% of the vote. Turner successfully contested this election, and Turner successfully contested this electionTurner successfully contested this electionwas subsequently declared the winner based on the first ballot, with the second invalidated. He was seated June 8, 1809
6. Source does not have numbers of votes, but provides a citation stating that he was "elected without opposition in one county and by a great majority in the other," his opponent or opponents in that county is not given.
7. Electoral data in source are incomplete, the top two candidates received 1,067 and 657 votes respectively, numbers of votes for the other candidates is only reported for some counties.
8. Source does not give full name.

References

1. ^ Dubin, Michael J. (1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results. McFarland and Company.
2. ^ Dubin, p. 42.
3. ^ "10th Congress March 4, 1807, to March 3, 1809". Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 24, 2018.
4. "North Carolina 1808 U.S. House of Representatives, District 7, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
5. "NJ At-Large - Special Election". February 12, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
6. "New Jersey 1808 U.S. House of Representatives, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
7. "NY District 12". April 16, 2006. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
8. "New York 1808 U.S. House of Representatives, District 12, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
9. "MA District 2 (Essex South) - Special Election". April 14, 2011. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
10. "Massachusetts 1808 U.S. House of Representatives, Essex South District, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
11. "RI At-Large - Special Election". January 2, 2009. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
12. ^ "VA District 17". April 19, 2006. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
13. "A New Nation Votes".
14. 10th Congress electoral returns for Pennsylvania
15. "Pennsylvania 1808 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
16. ^ "11th Congress March 4, 1809, to March 3, 1811". Office of the Historian, United States House of Representatives. Archived from the original on September 22, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
17. "Pennsylvania 1809 U.S. House of Representatives, District 1, Special". Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
18. "VA District 21 Special Election". December 25, 2014. Retrieved September 28, 2018 – via OurCampaigns.com.
19. "Virginia 1809 U.S. House of Representatives, District 21, Special". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
20. "Eleventh Congress (membership roster)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 13, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2012.
21. "Virginia 1809 U.S. House of Representatives, District 9". Tufts Digital Collations and Archives. A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns 1787–1825. Tufts University. Archived from the original on March 17, 2020. Retrieved September 28, 2018.
22. "A New Nation Votes". elections.lib.tufts.edu. Retrieved December 11, 2020.

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)

• 1808 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1809 United States House of Representatives elections