1806 United States House of Representatives elections in New York explained

Election Name:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1806
Country:New York
Type:legislative
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1804
Previous Year:1804
Next Election:United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1808
Next Year:1808
Seats For Election:All 17 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
Election Date:April 29-May 1, 1806
Party1:Democratic-Republican Party
Last Election1:15
Seats1:15[1]
Popular Vote1:40,740
Percentage1:66.8%
Party2:Federalist Party (United States)
Last Election2:2
Seats2:2
Popular Vote2:20,261
Percentage2:33.2%

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 colspan="2" Democratic-Republican (Clintonian) colspan="2" Federalist colspan="2" Democratic-Republican (Lewisite) colspan="2" Democratic-Republican colspan="2" Democratic-Republican (Lewisite)
1Samuel Riker1,499
2 and 3Gurdon S. Mumford4,617John B. Coles[2] 3,707John R. Livingston173
George Clinton, Jr.4,406Nicholas Fish3,695
4Philip Van Cortlandt969Peter A. Jay855Samuel S. Smith127Peter Taulman[3] 135
5John Blake, Jr.1,396Reuben Hopkins[4] 822
6Daniel C. Verplanck1,208
7Johannes Bruyn[5] 515Barent Gardenier1,408William A. Thompson[6] 1,024
8James I. Van Alen1,735Robert Le Roy Livingston1,725
9Benjamin DeWitt891Killian K. Van Rensselaer1,269Henry Glen562
10Josiah Masters1,282Hosea Moffitt1,146
11John Thompson2,018Asahel Porter[7] 1,381Peter Sailly91
12David Thomas1,574
13Peter Swart2,825Isaac H. Tiffany1,245
14John Russell2,129Solomon Martin[8] 1,034
152,124William Kirkpatrick 2,628
16Reuben Humphrey3,308Thaddeus M. Wood[9] 313John Cantine119Uri Tracy101
17John Harris1,736Daniel W. Lewis[10] 1,661Silas Halsey1,457James 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 colspan="2" Democratic-Republican colspan="2" Federalist
12Nathan Wilson2,327Asa Fitch1,755

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. https://books.google.com/books?id=WrETAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA612 Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856
  13. https://books.google.com/books?id=S54FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA182 Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States
  14. https://books.google.com/books?id=OVwLAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA36 Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856

Sources