Election Name: | United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1824 |
Country: | New York |
Type: | legislative |
Ongoing: | no |
Previous Election: | United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1822 |
Previous Year: | 1822 |
Next Election: | United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1826 |
Next Year: | 1826 |
Seats For Election: | All 34 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives |
Election Date: | November 1–3, 1824 |
Party1: | Anti-Jacksonian Party (United States) |
Last Election1: | 18[1] |
Seats1: | 25 |
Seat Change1: | 8 |
Party2: | Jacksonian Party (United States) |
Last Election2: | 2[2] |
Seats2: | 9 |
Seat Change2: | 6 |
The 1824 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from November 1 to 3, 1824, to elect 34 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 19th United States Congress.
34 U.S. Representatives had been elected in November 1822 to a term in the 18th United States Congress, beginning on March 4, 1823. William B. Rochester had resigned his seat in April 1823, and William Woods was elected to fill the vacancy. Parmenio Adams had contested the election of Isaac Wilson, and was seated in January 1824. The representatives' term would end on March 3, 1825. The elections were held with the annual State election on the first Monday in November and the two succeeding days, about four months before the congressional term began, and a little more than a year before Congress actually met on December 5, 1825.
At this time the Democratic-Republican Party in New York was split 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 disbanded, and most of its former members had joined the Clintonians.
At the same time, party lines broke down concerning the 1824 United States presidential election. The Bucktails' leader Van Buren supported William H. Crawford, and most of the Clintonians supported John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay also disputed the election, but found more support in other States. Since 1792, presidential electors had been elected by the New York State Legislature, but with a four-way race in the offing, a movement to change the mode of election was started: The "People's Party" advocated the election of presidential electors by popular ballot in districts, and nominated DeWitt Clinton for Governor of New York.
The geographical area of the congressional districts remained the same as at the previous elections in 1822. Two new counties were created within the 26th district: Wayne Co. and Yates Co.
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.
23 People's Party men and 11 Bucktails were declared elected. The incumbents Wood, Cambreleng, Strong, Van Rensselaer, Storrs, Taylor, Martindale, Ten Eyck, Marvin, Rose, Hayden and Adams were re-elected; the incumbents Sharpe, Craig, Herkimer, Clark, Litchfield, Day and Woods were defeated.
Note: Of the People's Party candidates, Wood, Sands, Strong, Van Rensselaer, Campbell and Storrs were old Federalists; Haines, Craig, Taylor, Marvin, Hayden and Adams were old Clintonians; and Sharpe, Herkimer, Martindale and Rose were elected as Bucktails in 1822.
No change in the mode of election of presidential electors was enacted this year.[16] On November 11, 1824, the New York State Legislature chose 36 presidential electors of whom 26 voted for John Quincy Adams, 5 for William H. Crawford, 4 for Henry Clay and 1 for Andrew Jackson. No candidate received a majority in the electoral college vote at the 1824 United States presidential election, and the election was referred to the House of Representatives, to choose among the three most voted candidates: Adams, Jackson and Crawford. Henry Clay supported Adams, so that after the contingent election on February 9, 1825, one month before the end of the term of the 18th Congress, the members were back-labeled (according to their actual vote) as "Adams-Clay Democratic-Republicans" (Sharpe, Van Wyck, Williams, Herkimer, Cady, Taylor, Martindale, Lawrence, Marvin, Rose, Hayden, Woods, Adams and Tracy), "Jackson Democratic-Republicans" (Morgan and Craig), "Crawford Democratic-Republicans" (Tyson, Cambreleng, Frost, Jenkins, Hoogeboom, Foote, Eaton, Richards, Ten Eyck, Collins, Clark, Dwinell, Litchfield, Day) and "Adams-Clay Federalists" (Wood, Strong, Van Rensselaer, Storrs).
After this fiasco, Martin Van Buren abandoned Crawford, and re-organized his Bucktails supporting Andrew Jackson. In the 19th Congress the members were split into the supporters of President Adams (known as "Adams men", later becoming the "Anti-Jacksonians" and the National Republican Party) and the supporters of Andrew Jackson (known as "Jacksonians", later becoming the Democratic Party).
The House of Representatives of the 19th United States Congress met for the first time at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 5, 1825, and 32 of the representatives, among them Egbert Ten Eyck took their seats on this day. Rose took his seat on December 7; and Whitmore on January 16, 1826.[17]
On December 9, 1825, Henry R. Storrs presented a petition on behalf of Daniel Hugunin Jr. contesting the election of Egbert Ten Eyck in the 20th District. On December 15, the Committee on Elections submitted its report. They found that 142 votes in St. Lawrence County, and 53 votes in Lewis County had been returned for "Daniel Hugunin"; and 275 votes in Jefferson County had been returned for "Daniel Hugunin, junior"; all these listed among the "scattering votes." The Secretary of State of New York, receiving the abovementioned result, issued credentials for Ten Eyck who took his seat when Congress met on December 5. The petition included testimony by the election inspectors that 271 votes in Watertown, 93 votes in Madrid, and 48 votes in Louisville had been in fact given for "Daniel Hugunin, jun." but had been certified mistakenly. Adding these votes to the 5,188 returned for "Daniel Hugunin, jun.", Hugunin had a recognized total of 5,600 votes, 116 more than Ten Eyck. The committee declared Hugunin Jr., entitled to the seat instead of Ten Eyck. The House concurred without opposition, and Hugunin Jr., took his seat.[18]
After Hugunin Jr. was seated on December 15, 1825, of the 34 representatives from New York there were 25 Adams men and 9 Jacksonians: the People's Party men supported Adams; the Bucktails supported Jackson, except Porter who was described as an "Adams Bucktail."