1858–59 United States House of Representatives elections

1858–59 United States House of Representatives elections
All 238 seats in the United States House of Representatives; 120 seats needed for a majority
	Results; Democratic gain Democratic hold; Republican gain Republican hold; Independent gain Opposition gain; Know Nothing hold
Speaker before election; James Orr; Democratic	Elected Speaker ; William Pennington; Republican

The 1858–59 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between June 7, 1858, and December 1, 1859. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives. 238 representatives were elected in the new state of Oregon, the pending new state of Kansas, and the other 32 states before the first session of the 36th United States Congress convened on December 5, 1859. They were held during President James Buchanan's term.

Quick Facts First party, Second party ...

Close

Winning a plurality for the first time, the Republicans benefited from multiple factors. These factors included the collapse of the nativist American Party, sectional strife in the Democratic Party, Northern voter dissatisfaction with the Supreme Court's March 1857 Dred Scott decision, political exposure of Democrats to chaotic violence in Kansas amid repeated attempts to impose slavery against the express will of a majority of its settlers, and a sharp decline in President Buchanan's popularity due to his perceived fecklessness. In Pennsylvania, his home state, Republicans made particularly large gains.

The pivotal Dred Scott decision was only the second time the Supreme Court had overturned an Act of Congress on Constitutional grounds, after Marbury v. Madison. The decision created apprehension in the Northern United States, where slavery had ceased to exist, that the Supreme Court would strike down any limitations on slavery anywhere in the United States with a ruling in Lemmon v. New York.

Short of a majority, Republicans controlled the House with limited cooperation from smaller parties also opposing the Democrats. Republicans were united in opposing slavery in the territories and fugitive slave laws, while rejecting the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise, key aspects of the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision. Though not yet abolitionist, Republicans openly derived a primary partisan purpose from hostility to slavery while furnishing a mainstream platform for abolitionism. None of the party's views or positions was new. However, their catalytic cohesion into a unified political vehicle, and the bold dismissal of the South, represented a newly disruptive political force.

Democrats remained divided and politically trapped. Fifteen Democratic members publicly defied their party label. Of seven Independent Democrats, six represented Southern districts. Eight Northern anti-Lecompton Democrats favored a ban on slavery in Kansas, effectively upholding the Missouri Compromise their party had destroyed several years earlier. Democrats lacked credible leadership and continued to drift in a direction favorable to the interests of slavery despite obviously widening and intensifying Northern opposition to the expansion of those interests. A damaging public perception also existed that President Buchanan had improperly influenced and endorsed the Dred Scott decision, incorrectly believing that it had solved his main political problem. Such influence would violate the separation of powers. The wide gap between Democratic rhetoric and results alienated voters, while defeat in the North and intra-party defection combined to make the party both more Southern and more radical.

Democrats lost seats in some slave states as the disturbing turn of national events and surge in sectional tensions alarmed a significant minority of Southern voters. Southern politicians opposing both Democrats and extremism, but unwilling to affiliate with Republicans, ran on the Southern Opposition Party ticket (not to be conflated with the Opposition Party of 1854).^[h]

For 11 states, this was the last full congressional election until the Reconstruction. Twenty-nine elected members quit near the end of the session following their states' secession from the Union, whose immediate motivation was the result of the presidential election of 1860.

Remove ads

One seat each was added for the new states of Oregon^[4] and Kansas.^[5]

↓
98	5	19	116
Democratic	KN	Opp.	Republican

More information State, Type ...

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic^[i]		Know Nothing		Opposition		Republican
State	Type	Date	Total seats	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Oregon ^[j]	At-large	June 7, 1858	1	1	1	0		0		0
Arkansas	Districts	August 2, 1858	2	2		0		0		0
Missouri	Districts	August 2, 1858	7	5^[k]		1	1	0		1	1
Vermont	Districts	September 7, 1858	3	0		0		0		3
Maine	Districts	September 13, 1858	6	0		0		0		6
Florida	At-large	October 4, 1858	1	1		0		0		0
South Carolina	Districts	October 10–11, 1858	6	6		0		0		0
Indiana	Districts	October 12, 1858	11	4^[l]	2	0		0		7	2
Iowa	Districts	October 12, 1858	2	0		0		0		2
Ohio	Districts	October 12, 1858	21	6	3	0		0		15	3
Pennsylvania	Districts	October 12, 1858	25	5^[m]	10	0		0		20	10
Delaware	At-large	November 2, 1858 (Election Day)^[n]	1	1		0		0		0
Illinois	Districts		9	5		0		0		4
Massachusetts	Districts		11	0		0		0		11
Michigan	Districts		4	0		0		0		4
New Jersey	Districts		5	2^[o]	1	0		0		3	1
New York	Districts		33	7^[p]	5	0		0		26	5
Wisconsin	Districts		3	1	1	0		0		2	1
Late elections (after the March 4, 1859 beginning of the term)
New Hampshire	Districts	March 8, 1859	3	0		0		0		3
Connecticut	Districts	April 4, 1859	4	0	2	0		0		4	2
Rhode Island	Districts	April 7, 1859	2	0		0		0		2
Virginia	Districts	May 26, 1859	13	12^[q]	1	0		1	1	0
Alabama	Districts	August 1, 1859	7	7		0		0		0
Kentucky	Districts	August 1, 1859	10	5	3	0	2	5	5	0
Texas	Districts	August 1, 1859	2	2^[r]		0		0		0
North Carolina	Districts	August 4, 1859	8	4	3	0	1	4	4	0
Tennessee	Districts	August 4, 1859	10	3	4	0	3	7	7	0
California	At-large	September 7, 1859	2	2		0		0		0
Georgia	Districts	October 3, 1859	8	6		0	2	2	2	0
Mississippi	Districts	October 3, 1859	5	5		0		0		0
Minnesota	At-large	October 4, 1859	2	0	2	0		0		2	2
Louisiana	Districts	November 7, 1859	4	3		1		0		0
Maryland	Districts	November 8, 1859	6	3		3		0		0
Kansas ^[s]	At-large	December 1, 1859	1	0		0		0		1	1
Total			238^[t]	98^[b] 41.4%	35	5 2.1%	9	19 8.0%	19	116 48.5%	26

Close

More information Popular vote ...

Popular vote

Democratic			48.06%
Republican			36.59%
Opposition			5.04%
Know Nothing			3.53%
Whig			0.87%
Independent			6.91%
Others			0.00%

Close

More information House seats ...

House seats

Republican			47.28%
Democratic			34.72%
Opposition			7.95%
Know Nothing			2.09%
Whig			1.67%
Independent			6.28%

Close

Maps

District results by vote share

Remove ads

There were special elections in 1858 and 1859 to the 35th United States Congress and 36th United States Congress.

Special elections are sorted by date then district.