1818 United States House of Representatives elections in New York explained

Election Name:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1818
Country:New York
Type:legislative
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1816
Previous Year:1816
Next Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1821
Next Year:1821
Seats For Election:All 27 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
Election Date:April 28–30, 1818
Party1:Democratic-Republican Party
Last Election1:22
Seats1:21
Seat Change1: 1
Party2:Federalist Party (United States)
Last Election2:5
Seats2:6
Seat Change2: 1

The 1818 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from April 28 to 30, 1818, to elect 27 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 16th United States Congress.

Background

27 U.S. Representatives had been elected in April 1816 to a term in the 15th United States Congress beginning on March 4, 1817. Representative-elect Henry B. Lee died on February 18, 1817, and James Tallmadge, Jr. was elected in April 1817 to fill the vacancy. The representatives' term would end on March 3, 1819. The congressional elections were held together with the State elections in late April 1818, about ten months before the term would start on March 4, 1819, and about a year and a half before Congress actually met on December 6, 1819.

Congressional districts

The geographical area of the districts remained the same as at the previous elections in 1816. Two new counties were created: Tompkins inside the 20th District; and Cattaraugus inside the 21st District. In 1817, the Town of Danube was separated from the Town of Minden in Montgomery County, and transferred to Herkimer County, but Danube remained in the 14th District.

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

19 Democratic-Republicans, 6 Clintonian-Federalists[1] and 2 Federalists were elected to the 16th Congress. The incumbents Wendover, Tompkins, Taylor and Storrs were re-elected, the incumbent Ellicott was defeated.

1818 United States House election result
District colspan="2" Democratic-Republican colspan="2" Clintonian/Federalist colspan="2" Federalistalso ran
1stJames Guyon, Jr.1,701Silas Wood2,171"James Guyon"396
Ebenezer Sage2,085John Garretson[2] 1,992
2ndHenry Meigs3,226Barent Gardenier2,557
Peter H. Wendover3,207
3rdCaleb Tompkins1,439Benjamin Isaacs[3] 623Philip Van Cortlandt (C/F)406
4thWilliam H. Johnson1,356Randall S. Street1,390
5thJohn I. Miller1,260James S. Strong1,983Robert Le Roy Livingston (C/F)733
6thWalter Case1,289
7thJacob H. De Witt1,304
8thRobert Clark1,799Jabez Bostwick[4] 1,442
9thSolomon Van Rensselaer2,003
10thWilliam McManus2,002John D. Dickinson2,232
11thJohn W. Taylor2,282James Thompson851
12thNathaniel Pitcher4,320David Abel Russell2,399Halsey Rogers (D-R)[5] 975
Ezra C. Gross3,743
13thHarmanus Peek2,135Isaac H. Tiffany1,683
14thJohn Fay2,038John Veeder1,542
15thSamuel Campbell2,688Robert Monell2,903
Edward Pratt2,604Joseph S. Lyman2,849
16thAllen Fraser[6] 119Henry R. Storrs2,332
17thAaron Hackley, Jr.1,936Simeon Ford[7] 23
18thWilliam D. Ford2,771Horatio Orvis[8] 966
19thGeorge Hall2,288H. O. Wattles[9] 49
20thJonathan Richmond5,548
Caleb Baker5,478
21stNathaniel Allen10,288Benjamin Ellicott (D-R; inc.)155
Albert H. Tracy9,182

Note: It is difficult to ascertain the party affiliation of these candidates: At this time began the split of the Democratic-Republican Party into two opposing factions: on one side, the supporters of DeWitt Clinton and his Erie Canal project; on the other side, the Bucktails (including the Tammany Hall organization in New York City), led by Martin Van Buren. At the same time, the Federalist Party had already begun to disintegrate. In the Southern districts the Federalists and Clintonians combined to vote for joint nominees, running against the Bucktails; in the Western districts, where the Erie Canal was under construction, the Democratic-Republican nominees were Clintonians who were elected unopposed.

Aftermath and contested election

The House of Representatives of the 16th United States Congress met for the first time at the reconstructed United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 6, 1819, and 26 of the representatives took their seats. Only Ebenezer Sage did not appear.[10]

On December 10, Nathaniel Allen presented a petition on behalf of James Guyon, Jr. to contest the election of Ebenezer Sage in the 1st District. On January 12, 1820, the Committee on Elections submitted its report. They found that the election inspectors in the towns of Northfield (on Staten Island), Brooklyn, Hempstead and Oyster Bay had returned 391 votes for "James Guyon" although all these votes had in fact been given for "James Guyon, Jr."[11] The Secretary of State of New York, receiving the abovementioned result, issued credentials for Sage who never took or claimed the seat. On January 14, the House declared Guyon, Jr., entitled to the seat, and Guyon took it.[12]

Notes

  1. Of these 6 congressmen elected on fusion tickets against the Bucktails, Wood had been a Federalist candidate for Congress in 1798 and 1800; Street was appointed a D.A. in 1810 and 1813 by a Federalist Council of Appointment; and Storrs was a Federalist incumbent. The congressional records list Strong as Federalist; and Monell and Lyman as Democratic-Republicans.
  2. John Garretson, of Castleton, Staten Island, presidential elector 1808
  3. Benjamin Isaacs, assemblyman 1807, 1814-15, 1816 and 1818
  4. Jabez Bostwick, possibly the father of Jabez A. Bostwick
  5. Halsey Rogers, First Judge of the Warren Co. Court 1820-1823
  6. Allen Fraser, assemblyman 1820-21
  7. Simeon Ford, DA of Herkimer Co. 1818-23, assemblyman 1820-21 and 1822
  8. Horatio Orvis, of Jefferson Co., assemblyman 1818 and 1826
  9. H. O. Wattles, lawyer, of Manlius
  10. https://books.google.com/books?id=YV0LAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA463 Abridgment of the Debates in Congress
  11. https://books.google.com/books?id=bQ8EfoaTBLsC&pg=PA348 Cases of Contested Elections in Congress 1789 to 1834
  12. https://books.google.com/books?id=dKMFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA138 Journal of the House of Representatives

Sources

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