United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1806

United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1806
New York (state)
April 29-May 1, 1806

All 17 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 15 2
Seats won 15[1] 2
Seat change Steady Steady
Popular vote 40,740 20,261
Percentage 66.8% 33.2%

The 1806 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from April 29 to May 1, 1806, to elect 17 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 10th United States Congress.

Background

17 U.S. Representatives had been elected in April 1804 to a term in the 9th United States Congress beginning on March 4, 1805. Samuel L. Mitchill and Daniel D. Tompkins had resigned their seats, and George Clinton, Jr., and Gurdon S. Mumford were elected to fill the vacancies. The representatives' term would end on March 3, 1807. The congressional elections were held together with the State elections in late April 1806, about ten months before the term would start on March 4, 1807, and about a year and a half before Congress actually met on October 26, 1807.

Congressional districts

After the U.S. census of 1800, New York's representation in the House was increased to 17 seats. On March 30, 1802, the New York State Legislature had re-apportioned the congressional districts, dividing New York County seemingly at random into two districts. After the election of one Democratic-Republican and one Federalist in 1802, the Dem.-Rep. majority in the State Legislature gerrymandered the two districts together in an Act passed on March 20, 1804, so that two congressmen would be elected on a general ticket by the voters of both districts, assuring the election of two Democratic-Republicans.

Three new counties had been created since the last elections in 1804: Inside the 15th D., Jefferson Co. was split off from Oneida Co.; in the 16th D., Madison Co. from Chenango Co.; and in the 17th D., Allegany Co. from Genesee Co. The area of the districts remained the same.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Result

14 Clintonians, 2 Federalists and 1 Lewisite were elected. The incumbents Mumford, Clinton, Van Cortlandt, Blake, Verplanck, Van Rensselaer, Masters, Thomas and Russell were re-elected; the incumbents Sailly, Tracy and Halsey were defeated.

1806 United States House election result
District Democratic-Republican (Clintonian) Federalist Democratic-Republican (Lewisite) Democratic-Republican Democratic-Republican (Lewisite)
1 Samuel Riker 1,499
2 and 3 Gurdon S. Mumford 4,617 John B. Coles[2] 3,707 John R. Livingston 173
George Clinton, Jr. 4,406 Nicholas Fish 3,695
4 Philip Van Cortlandt 969 Peter A. Jay 855 Samuel S. Smith 127 Peter Taulman[3] 135
5 John Blake, Jr. 1,396 Reuben Hopkins[4] 822
6 Daniel C. Verplanck 1,208
7 Johannes Bruyn[5] 515 Barent Gardenier 1,408 William A. Thompson[6] 1,024
8 James I. Van Alen 1,735 Robert Le Roy Livingston 1,725
9 Benjamin DeWitt 891 Killian K. Van Rensselaer 1,269 Henry Glen 562
10 Josiah Masters 1,282 Hosea Moffitt 1,146
11 John Thompson 2,018 Asahel Porter[7] 1,381 Peter Sailly 91
12 David Thomas 1,574
13 Peter Swart 2,825 Isaac H. Tiffany 1,245
14 John Russell 2,129 Solomon Martin[8] 1,034
15 John Nicholson 2,124 William Kirkpatrick 2,628
16 Reuben Humphrey 3,308 Thaddeus M. Wood[9] 313 John Cantine 119 Uri Tracy 101
17 John Harris 1,736 Daniel W. Lewis[10] 1,661 Silas Halsey 1,457 James Faulkner[11] 91

Note: The Anti-Federalists called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.

At this time, the Democratic-Republican Party was split into two factions: the "Clintonians" led by DeWitt Clinton, and the "Lewisites" led by Governor Morgan Lewis.

Aftermath and special election

The House of Representatives of the 10th United States Congress met for the first time at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on October 26, 1807, and Blake, Gardenier, Harris, Humphrey, Kirkpatrick, Masters, Riker, Russell, Swart, Thomas Thompson, Van Alen, Van Cortlandt, Van Rensselaer and Verplanck took their seats on this day. Mumford took his seat on November 2, and Clinton on February 1, 1808.[12]

David Thomas was appointed New York State Treasurer on February 5, 1808, and resigned his seat. His letter of resignation was read in the House on February 17.[13] A special election to fill the vacancy was held at the annual State election in April 1808, and was won by Nathan Wilson, of the same party. Wilson took his seat on November 7, 1808.[14]

1808 United States House special election result
District Democratic-Republican Federalist
12 Nathan Wilson 2,327 Asa Fitch 1,755

Notes

  1. 14 Clintonians and 1 Lewisite
  2. John B. Coles, state senator 1800-02
  3. Peter Taulman, assemblyman 1787 and 1788, delegate to constitutional convention 1801
  4. Reuben Hopkins, state senator 1794-97
  5. Johannes Bruyn, assemblyman 1781-82, 1782-83, 1796-97 and 1800; presidential elector 1792; state senator 1810-13
  6. William A. Thompson, First Judge of Sullivan Co. 1809-28
  7. Asahel Porter, assemblyman 1804-05 and 1806
  8. Solomon Martin, assemblyman 1800-01 and 1802
  9. Thaddeus M. Wood, Surrogate of Onondaga Co. 1799-1800
  10. Daniel W. Lewis, assemblyman 1804-05 and 1806; D.A. of the Seventh D. 1810-11
  11. James Faulkner, assemblyman 1803 and 1804; First Judge of Steuben Co. 1804-13
  12. Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856 (Vol. III; pages 612, 614 and 676)
  13. Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States (Vol. V; page 182)
  14. Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856 (Vol. IV; page 36)

Sources

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