United States House of Representatives elections, 1856

August 4, 1856 - November 4, 1857^{[Note 1]}

All 237^{[Note 2]} seats to the United States House of Representatives 118 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	James Orr	Galusha Grow	Henry Winter Davis
Party	Democratic	Republican	Know Nothing
Leader's seat	South Carolina-5th	Pennsylvania-14th	Maryland-4th
Last election	83 seats	100 seats^{[Note 3]}	51 seats
Seats won	133^{[Note 2]}^{[Note 4]}	90	14
Seat change	50	10^{[Note 5]}	37

Speaker before election

Nathaniel Banks
American

Elected Speaker

James Orr
Democratic

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 35th Congress were held in 1856 and 1857. The elections returned a semblance of normality to the Democratic Party, as they retook a House majority and retained the presidency with the election of James Buchanan. However, the party was permanently divided over the slavery issue.

Earlier in the year, the Whig Party disbanded. With the majority of Whigs joining the Republican cause, the Republican Party finished second for their first time. Meanwhile, the short-lived Know-Nothing movement declined and the American Party began to fall apart. The Democrats (including Francis Preston Blair, Jr. who was elected as an Independent Democrat (aka. a "Benton Democrat") to Missouri's 1st District), aided by much support from recent immigrants, took advantage of the situation and became the majority, despite fragmented support within the party.

Election summaries

Two seats were added for the new state of Minnesota^[1] and one seat for the new state of Oregon.^[2] Minnesota was unrepresented for part of the 1st session, while Oregon was unrepresented for all but the last few weeks of the 2nd session.

↓
133	14	90
Democratic	AKN	Republican

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic	Republican	Know-Nothing
State	Type	Date	Total seats	Seats	Change	Seats	Change^{[Note 5]}	Seats	Change
California	At-large	November 4, 1856 (Election Day)^{[Note 6]}	2	2		0		0
Delaware	At-large		1	1	1	0		0	1
Illinois	District		9	5		4		0
Massachusetts	District		11	0		11	11	0	11
Michigan	District		4	0	1	4	1	0
New Jersey	District		5	3	2	2	2	0
New York	District		33	12	7	21	4	0	3
Wisconsin	District		3	0	1	3	1	0
Arkansas	District	August 4, 1856	2	2		0		0
Florida	At-large	October 6, 1856	1	1		0		0
Indiana	District	October 14, 1856	11	6	4	5	4	0
Iowa	District	August 4, 1856	2	0	1	2	1	0
Maine	District	September 8, 1856	6	0	1	6	1	0
Missouri	District	August 4, 1856	7	5^{[Note 7]}	4	0	6	2	2
Ohio	District	October 14, 1856	21	9	9	12	9	0
Pennsylvania	District	October 14, 1856	25	15	9	10	8	0	1
South Carolina	District	October 13–14, 1856	6	6		0		0
Vermont	District	September 2, 1856	3	0		3		0
1857 elections
Alabama	District	August 3, 1857	7	7	2	0		0	2
Connecticut	District	April 6, 1857	4	2	2	2	2	0	4
Georgia	District	October 5, 1857	8	6		0		2
Kentucky	District	August 3, 1857	10	8	4	0		2	4
Louisiana	District	November 3, 1857	4	3		0		1
Maryland	District	November 4, 1857	6	3	1	0		3	1
Minnesota	At-large	October 13, 1857^{[Note 8]}	2	2	2	0		0
Mississippi	District	October 5–6, 1857	5	5	1	0		0	1
New Hampshire	District	March 10, 1857	3	0		3	3	0	3
North Carolina	District	August 6, 1857	8	7	2	0		1	2
Rhode Island	District	April 1, 1857	2	0		2	2	0	2
Tennessee	District	August 6, 1857	10	7	2	0		3	2
Texas	District	August 3, 1857	2	2	1	0		0	1
Virginia	District	May 28, 1857	13	13	1	0		0	1
1858 elections
Oregon	At-large	June, 1858^{[Note 9]}	1	1	1	0		0
Total^{[Note 2]}			237	133^{[Note 4]} 56.1%	49	90 38.0%	8^{[Note 5]}	14 5.9%	38

House seats

Democratic			56.12%
Republican			37.97%
Know-Nothing			5.91%

Complete returns

California

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
California at-large 2 seats on a general ticket	James W. Denver	Democratic	1854	Retired Democratic hold	Charles L. Scott (D) 29.9% Joseph C. McKibbin (D) 21% A. B. Dibble (KN) 20.7% Ira P. Rankin (I) 13% J. N. Turner (R) 12.5%
California at-large 2 seats on a general ticket	Philemon T. Herbert	Democratic	1854	Retired^{[Note 10]} Democratic hold

Florida

District	Incumbent	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
Florida at-large	Augustus Maxwell	Democratic	1852	Retired Democratic hold	George S. Hawkins (D) 53.1% James McNair Baker (KN) 46.9%

Notes

↑ Excludes states admitted during this Congress
1 2 3 Includes late elections.
↑ The figure indicates the number of members of the Opposition Party in previous election of 1854. (There were 13 Republican Party members who part of the so-called Opposition Party.)
1 2 Includes one Independent Democrat (aka. a "Benton Democrat"): Francis Preston Blair, Jr. of MO-01.
1 2 3 Compared to the 100 Opposition Party members in previous election of 1854.
↑ In 1845, Congress passed a law providing for a uniform date for choosing presidential electors (see: Statutes at Large, 28th Congress, 2nd Session, p. 721). Congressional elections were unaffected by this law, but the date was gradually adopted by the states for Congressional elections as well.
↑ Includes one Independent Democrat (aka. a "Benton Democrat"): Francis Preston Blair, Jr. of MO-01. Note that while Martis (p. 110) and Dubin (p. 176) list him as an "Independent Democrat" or "Benton Democrat", others sources (e.g. the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress) list Blair as a "Republican".
↑ New state. Representatives seated May 11, 1858, during the 1st session.
↑ New state. Representative seated February 14, 1859, less than a month before the end of the 35th Congress.
↑ Retired after manslaughter acquittal.

References

↑ 11 Stat. 166
↑ 11 Stat. 383

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)

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