United States House of Representatives elections, 1854

United States House of Representatives elections, 1854

August 4, 1854 - November 6, 1855

All 234 seats to the United States House of Representatives 118 seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader William Alexander Richardson Henry M. Fuller Nathaniel P. Banks Party Democratic Whig Know Nothing Leader's seat Illinois-5th Pennsylvania-12th Massachusetts-7th Last election 158 seats 71 seats 0 seats Seats won 83[1][2] 54[Note 1] 51[1][2][Note 2] Seat change 75 17 51   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Lewis D. Campbell Schuyler Colfax Party Anti-Nebraska People's Leader's seat Ohio-3rd Indiana-9th Last election 4 seats 0 seats Seats won 37[Note 1][Note 3] 9[3][Note 1] Seat change 33[Note 4] 9

Speaker before election Linn Boyd Democratic Elected Speaker Nathaniel P. Banks American

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 34th Congress were held at various dates in each State, the earliest being in the middle of President Franklin Pierce's term on August 4, 1854 (in Arkansas) and the latest on November 6, 1855 (in Louisiana and Maryland).

The American Party (commonly called the Know Nothings) and the Opposition Party formed a coalition government which elected Nathaniel P. Banks as House Speaker even though the Democratic Party was the single party with the largest plurality of seats. The Opposition Party included members of the Whig Party (which would soon collapse), the People's Party of Indiana, Anti-Nebraska candidates, and members of the nascent Republican Party.

The major issue of the election was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which had been passed on May 30, 1854. The Act infuriated much of the North, as it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the Federal territories to slavery. Because the Pierce Administration and Democrats in Congress had been the primary supporters of the Act, the party lost many seats in the Northern states; this included 16 in New York, 12 in Ohio and 9 in Pennsylvania. The new Anti-Nebraska movement (a loose group of independent, Free Soil, and early Republican politicians) gained a combined 37 seats in the North. The American Party gained seats in both the North and South. It ignored the slavery issue and focused on pushing for reduced immigration, especially from Catholic areas of Ireland and Germany.

The fragmentation of the Democratic and Whig parties led to a drawn out election for Speaker of the House. The Democratic Party supported William Alexander Richardson of Illinois as their candidate. Whigs, Republicans, Americans, and Free Soil members of the House supported various candidates, and no candidate received a majority vote. In the end, the House agreed to elect a Speaker by plurality vote, as the elections were taking up time for legislative matters. Non-Democratic members of Congress then elected Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts as their Speaker.^[4]

Election summaries

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Opposition	Democratic	American
				Seats	Change[Note 5]	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Illinois	District	November 7, 1854 (Election Day)[Note 6]	9	4		5		0
Michigan	District		4	3	2	1	3	0
New Jersey	District		5	4	3	1	3	0
New York	District		33	25	13	5	16	3	3
Wisconsin	District		3	2	2	1	2	0
Arkansas	District	August 4, 1854	2	0		2		0
California	At-large	September 6, 1854	2	0		2		0
Delaware	At-large	November 14, 1854	1	0		0	1	1	1
Florida	At-large	October 2, 1854	1	0		1		0
Indiana	District	October 10, 1854	11	9	8	2	8	0
Iowa	District	August 7, 1854	2	1		1		0
Maine	District	September 11, 1854	6	5	2	1	2	0
Massachusetts	District	November 12, 1854	11	0	10	0	1	11	11
Missouri	District	August 7, 1854	7	6	2	1	2	0
Ohio	District	October 10, 1854	21	21	12	0	12	0
Pennsylvania	District	October 10, 1854	25	17	8	7	9	1	1
South Carolina	District	October 9–10, 1854	6	0		6		0
Vermont	District	September 5, 1854	3	3		0		0
1855 elections
Alabama	District	August 6, 1855	7	0	1	5	1	2	2
Connecticut	District	April 2, 1855	4	0		0	4	4	4
Georgia	District	October 1, 1855	8	0	2	6		2	2
Kentucky	District	August 6, 1855	10	0	5	4	1	6	6
Louisiana	District	November 5, 1855	4	0	1	3		1	1
Maryland	District	November 6, 1855	6	0	2	2	2	4	4
Mississippi	District[Note 7]	November 5–6, 1855	5	0		4	1	1	1
New Hampshire	District	March 13, 1855	3	0		0	3	3	3
North Carolina	District	August 2, 1855	8	0	3	5		3	3
Rhode Island	District	April 4, 1855	2	0		0	2	2	2
Tennessee	District	August 2, 1855	10	0	5	5		5	5
Texas	District	August 6, 1855	2	0		1	1	1	1
Virginia	District	May 24, 1855	13	0		12	1	1	1
Total			234	100[1][2] 42.7%	29[Note 8]	83[1][2] 35.0%	75	51[1][2] 21.8%	51

Complete returns

Arkansas

California

Note: From statehood to 1864, California's representatives were elected at-large, with the top two vote-getters winning election from 1849 to 1858; in 1860 when California gained a seat in the House the top three vote-getters were elected.

Florida

Iowa

Maine

Missouri

Pennsylvania

Vermont

Wisconsin

Election results in Wisconsin for 1854:^[5]

See also

• United States elections, 1854
• List of United States House of Representatives elections, 1824–54
• United States Senate elections, 1854 and 1855
• 33rd United States Congress
• 34th United States Congress

Notes

References

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)