Results: Federalist hold Federalist gain Democratic-Republican hold Democratic-Republican gain Dissident Republican hold Dissident Republican Gain Undistricted
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.
Seat declared vacant January 2, 1808, due to a contest on account of alleged irregularities. Incumbent re-elected February 1, 1808 and re-seated February 23, 1808.[3][1] Incumbent later lost re-election; see below.
Incumbent died January 27, 1808. New member elected March 8–9, 1808 and seated April 1, 1808.[1][3] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner later elected to the next term; see below.
Incumbent resigned February 5, 1808, to become New York State Treasurer. New member elected April 26–28, 1808 and seated November 7, 1808.[3][1] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner also lost election to the next term in the redistricted 6th district; see below.
Incumbent died April 15, 1808. New member elected May 4, 1808 and seated December 20, 1808.[3][1] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner later retired instead of running for the next term; see below.
Incumbent died June 13, 1808. New member elected August 30, 1808 and seated November 11, 1808.[3][1] Federalist gain. Winner also elected to the next term; see below.
Incumbent resigned May 1, 1808, to become judge of the Supreme Court of Michigan Territory. New member elected September 6, 1808 and seated November 8, 1808.[3] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner also elected to the next term; see below.
Incumbent died October 9, 1808. New member elected September 8, 1808 and seated November 7, 1808.[3][12][1] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner later elected to the next term; see below.
Incumbent resigned March 28, 1808. New member elected October 11, 1808 and seated November 16, 1808.[3][1] Democratic-Republican hold. Winner also elected to the next term; see below.
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.
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.
^ abcd 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.
^Majority required for election which was not met in two districts, necessitating a second election, held on December 13, 1808.
^ abcdefghijkNumbers of votes missing or incomplete in source(s).
^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[20]
^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,"[21] his opponent or opponents in that county is not given.
^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.
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)
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