1854–55 United States House of Representatives elections

1854–55 United States House of Representatives elections
All 234 seats in the United States House of Representatives; 118 seats needed for a majority
	Results:; Democratic gain Whig gain; Democratic hold Whig hold; American gain Anti-Nebraska gain; Republican gain People's gain; Independent gain
Speaker before election; Linn Boyd; Democratic	Elected Speaker ; Nathaniel P. Banks; Know Nothing/American

The 1854–55 United States House of Representatives elections were held in 31 states for all 234 seats between August 4, 1854, and November 6, 1855, during President Franklin Pierce's term. Each state legislature separately set a date to elect representatives to the House of Representatives before the 34th Congress convened its first session on December 3, 1855.

Quick Facts All 234 seats in the United States House of Representatives 118 seats needed for a majority, First party ...

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This midterm election was among the most disruptive in American history, auguring the collapse of the Second Party System. Both major parties, the Democratic Party and the Whig Party lost critical voter support. The two parties had been organized as rivals for roughly 20 years. Northern voters strongly opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act shifted sharply against the Democrats. The Whigs also lost seats as the party disintegrated over the issue of slavery in the United States.

The elected majority temporarily coalesced as the Opposition Party. This transitional party included Whigs, Free Soil members, American Party members or Know Nothings, the People's Party of Indiana, Anti-Nebraska candidates, disaffected Northern Democrats, and members of the nascent Republican Party, which soon would absorb most of these factions and replace the Whigs to rival the Democrats.

Candidates opposed to the Democratic Party won widely in the Northern United States through November 1854. The American Party, ignoring slavery and opposing immigration (particularly by Catholics from Ireland and Germany) won seats from both major parties, but to the net loss of Democrats, in New England and the Southern United States from November 1854 into 1855.

Congress had passed the Kansas–Nebraska Act in May 1854 after aggressive sponsorship by the Pierce Administration and Democrats led by Senator Stephen Douglas, including radical pro-slavery legislators. The Act repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise and triggered the Bleeding Kansas conflict. With widely foreseen risks and immediately negative results, the act publicly discredited the Democratic Party, fueling new partisan and sectional rancor. It created violent uncertainty on the Western frontier by abruptly making slavery potentially legal in territories originally comprising the northern portion of the Louisiana Purchase and attractive to contemporary settlers. Settlers were expected to determine the status of slavery locally. This idea appealed to Democratic politicians and to some voters, but proved unworkable in Kansas where the status of slavery would be violently disputed between more numerous Northern settlers and geographically closer Southern settlers. Even some pro-slavery legislators and voters, particularly Southern Whigs, felt that repealing the Missouri Compromise was politically reckless. Attempting to push slavery by law and force into territories where most settlers predictably were unlikely to want it was perceived as endangering slavery everywhere, even in the South. These fears proved prescient.

More than 21 representatives vied for the post of speaker of the House. After two months and 133 ballots, American Party representative Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts, also a Free Soiler, defeated Democrat William Aiken of South Carolina by plurality, 103–100.^[5] To date, Banks is the only speaker to come from a third party.

More information State, Type ...

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Opposition		Democratic		Know Nothing
State	Type	Date	Total seats	Seats	Change^[g]	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Arkansas	Districts	August 4, 1854	2	0		2		0
Iowa	Districts	August 7, 1854	2	1		1		0
Missouri	Districts	August 7, 1854	7	6	2	1	2	0
Vermont	Districts	September 5, 1854	3	3		0		0
California	At-large	September 6, 1854	2	0		2		0
Maine	Districts	September 11, 1854	6	5	2	1	2	0
Florida	At-large	October 2, 1854	1	0		1		0
South Carolina	Districts	October 9–10, 1854	6	0		6		0
Indiana	Districts	October 10, 1854	11	9	8	2	8	0
Ohio	Districts		21	21	12	0	12	0
Pennsylvania	Districts		25	17	8	7	9	1	1
Illinois	Districts	November 7, 1854 (Election Day)^[h]	9	4		5		0
Michigan	Districts		4	3	3	1	3	0
New Jersey	Districts		5	4	3	1	3	0
New York	Districts		33	25	13	5	16	3	3
Wisconsin	Districts		3	2	2	1	2	0
Massachusetts	Districts	November 12, 1854	11	0	10	0	1	11	11
Delaware	At-large	November 14, 1854	1	0		0	1	1	1
Late elections (after the March 4, 1855 beginning of the term)
New Hampshire	Districts	March 13, 1855	3	0		0	3	3	3
Connecticut	Districts	April 2, 1855	4	0		0	4	4	4
Rhode Island	Districts	April 4, 1855	2	0		0	2	2	2
Virginia	Districts	May 24, 1855	13	0		12	1	1	1
North Carolina	Districts	August 2, 1855	8	0	3	5		3	3
Tennessee	Districts	August 2, 1855	10	0	5	5		5	5
Alabama	Districts	August 6, 1855	7	0	1	5	1	2	2
Kentucky	Districts		10	0	5	4	1	6	6
Texas	Districts		2	0		1	1	1	1
Georgia	Districts	October 1, 1855	8	0	2	6		2	2
Louisiana	Districts	November 5, 1855	4	0	1	3		1	1
Mississippi	Districts^[i]	November 5–6, 1855	5	0		4	1	1	1
Maryland	Districts	November 6, 1855	6	0	2	2	2	4	4
Total			234	100^[2]^[3] 42.7%	29^[j]	83^[2]^[3] 35.0%	75	51^[2]^[3] 21.8%	51

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83	51	100
Democratic	Know Nothing	Opposition

More information Popular vote ...

Popular vote

Democratic			43.95%
Know Nothing			19.56%
Whig			18.00%
Anti-Nebraska			6.09%
Republican			5.65%
People's			3.17%
Independent			2.61%
Free Soil			0.71%
Others			0.26%

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More information House seats ...

House seats

Democratic			34.62%
Whig			23.08%
Know Nothing			21.79%
Anti-Nebraska			9.40%
Republican			5.56%
People's			3.85%
Independent			0.43%
Free Soil			0.43%

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There were four special elections to the 33rd United States Congress, listed here by date and district.