1794 United States House of Representatives elections in New York explained

Election Name:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1794
Country:New York
Type:legislative
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1793
Previous Year:1793
Next Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1796
Next Year:1796
Seats For Election:All 10 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
Election Date:December 12, 1794
Party1:Democratic-Republican Party
Last Election1:3
Seats1:6
Seat Change1: 3
Popular Vote1:11,694
Percentage1:49.5%
Party2:Federalist Party (United States)
Last Election2:7
Seats2:4
Seat Change2: 3
Popular Vote2:11,921
Percentage2:50.5%

The 1794 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held on December 12, 1794, to elect ten United States Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 4th United States Congress.

Background

Ten U.S. Representatives had been elected in January 1793 to a term in the 3rd United States Congress beginning on March 4, 1793. One representative, Silas Talbot (10th D.), had accepted in June 1794 an appointment to the United States Navy, and thus vacated his seat. No special election was called to fill the vacancy. The other nine representatives' term would end on March 3, 1795.

Congressional districts

On January 27, 1789, the New York State Legislature had divided the State of New York into six congressional districts which were not numbered.[1] On December 18, 1792, the Legislature divided the State into ten districts, which were still not numbered, taking into account the new counties created in 1791. The congressional districts remained at this election the same as at the previous election, only inside the Tenth District a new county, Onondaga, was created in 1794.

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

6 Democratic-Republicans and 4 Federalists were elected. Thomas Tredwell, the incumbent from the 1st District, had moved to Plattsburgh and ran for re-election in the 7th District, but was defeated by the local incumbent John E. Van Alen. Of the other incumbents, Watts was defeated; Glen, Gilbert, Bailey and Van Cortlandt were re-elected; and Peter Van Gaasbeck and James Gordon did not run for re-election.

1794 United States House election result
District colspan="2" Democratic-Republican colspan="2" Federalist colspan="2" Democratic-Republican colspan="2" Federalist colspan="2" Democratic-Republican
1Jonathan Nicoll Havens815Samuel Jones494Whitehead Cornwell554John Smith251
2Edward Livingston1,843John Watts1,638
3Philip Van Cortlandt992Richard Morris972
4John Hathorn1,519Conrad E. Elmendorf583Peter Gansevoort2William Thompson41
5Theodorus Bailey1,449David Brooks1,090
6John Bay441Ezekiel Gilbert1,168Mathew Adgate[2] 419
7Thomas Tredwell298John E. Van Alen1,109
8Abraham Yates20Henry Glen677John Tayler19James Fairlie4
9John Williams1,297Ebenezer Russell1,079Alexander Webster305
10John Winn1,426William Cooper2,535Jonathan Fitch40James Cochran535

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.

Aftermath

The House of Representatives of the 4th United States Congress met for the first time at Congress Hall in Philadelphia on December 7, 1795, and nine of the ten representatives took their seats on this day. Only John Hathorn arrived late, and took his seat on December 17.[3]

Notes

  1. The numbers which are used nowadays to describe these districts at this time derive from the numbers of the districts officially introduced in 1797, considering the sequence of the districts in the official listing and the approximate geographical equivalence.
  2. Matthew Adgate (1737-1818), assemblyman 1780-85, 1788-89, 1791, 1792-95, delegate from Columbia Co. to the State convention which adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1788 and voted against it
  3. https://books.google.com/books?id=A8VCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA604 Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856

Sources