1884–85 United States Senate elections explained

Election Name:	1884–1885 United States Senate elections
Country:	United States
Flag Year:	1877
Type:	legislative
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1882–83 United States Senate elections
Next Election:	1886–87 United States Senate elections
Seats For Election:	27 of the 76 seats in the United States Senate (as well as special elections)
Majority Seats:	39
Election Date:	Dates vary by state
1Blank:	Seats up
Party1:	Republican Party (US)
Leader1:	John Sherman
Image1:	John-Sherman-2.jpg
Leader Since1:	March 4, 1883
Leaders Seat1:	Ohio
Seats Before1:	38
Seats1:	10
Seats After1:	37
Seat Change1:	1
1Data1:	11
Party2:	Democratic Party (US)
Leader2:	George H. Pendleton (Lost re-election)
Leader Since2:	March 4, 1881
Leaders Seat2:	Ohio
Seats Before2:	36
Seats2:	12
Seats After2:	34
Seat Change2:	2
1Data2:	14
Party4:	Readjuster Party
Seats Before4:	2
Seats4:	0
Seats After4:	2
1Data4:	0
Majority Party
Before Party:	Republican^[1]
After Party:	Republican

The 1884–85 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states, coinciding with the presidential election of 1884. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1884 and 1885, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock.^[2] In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 3.

With three state legislatures failing to elect their senators in time, both Republicans and Democrats lost seats. Republicans, nevertheless, retained majority control and the Readjusters joined their caucus. By the beginning of the first session, in December 1885, Republicans had won all three vacant seats, increasing their majority.

Results summary

Senate party division, 49th Congress (1885–1887)

• Majority party: Republican (42)
• Minority party: Democratic (34)
• Other parties: (0)
• Total seats: 76

Change in Senate composition

Before the elections

	D8		D7		D6		D5		D4		D3		D2		D1
width=50px	D9	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D12	width=50px	D13	width=50px	D14	width=50px	D15	width=50px	D16	width=50px	D17	width=50px	D18
	D28 Ran		D27 Ran		D26 Ran		D25 Ran		D24 Ran		D23 Ran		D22		D21		D20		D19
	D29 Ran		D30 Ran		D31 Ran		D32 Ran		D33 Unknown		D34 Retired		D35 Retired		D36 Retired		RA1		RA2
Majority, with Readjusters in caucus →	R38 Retired
	R29 Ran		R30 Ran		R31 Ran		R32 Ran		R33 Ran		R34 Ran		R35 Unknown		R36 Unknown		R37 Retired
	R28 Ran		R27		R26		R25		R24		R23		R22		R21		R20		R19
	R9		R10		R11		R12		R13		R14		R15		R16		R17		R18
	R8		R7		R6		R5		R4		R3		R2		R1

After the elections

	D8		D7		D6		D5		D4		D3		D2		D1
width=50px	D9	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D12	width=50px	D13	width=50px	D14	width=50px	D15	width=50px	D16	width=50px	D17	width=50px	D18
	D28 Re-elected		D27 Re-elected		D26 Re-elected		D25 Re-elected		D24 Re-elected		D23 Re-elected		D22		D21		D20		D19
	D29 Re-elected		D30 Hold		D31 Hold		D32 Hold		D33 Hold		D34 Hold		V1 D Loss		V2 R Loss		V3 R Loss		RA1
Majority due to three vacancies ↓	RA2
	R29 Re-elected		R30 Re-elected		R31 Re-elected		R32 Re-elected		R33 Re-elected		R34 Hold		R35 Hold		R36 Hold		R37 Gain
	R28 Re-elected		R27		R26		R25		R24		R23		R22		R21		R20		R19
	R9		R10		R11		R12		R13		R14		R15		R16		R17		R18
	R8		R7		R6		R5		R4		R3		R2		R1

Beginning of the first session, December 7, 1885

	D8		D7		D6		D5		D4		D3		D2		D1
width=50px	D9	width=50px	D10	width=50px	D11	width=50px	D12	width=50px	D13	width=50px	D14	width=50px	D15	width=50px	D16	width=50px	D17	width=50px	D18
	D28		D27		D26		D25		D24		D23		D22		D21		D20		D19
	D29		D30		D31		D32		D33		D34		RA1		RA2		R40 Gain	R39 Gain
Majority →
	R29		R30		R31		R32		R33		R34		R35		R36		R37		R38 Gain
	R28		R27		R26		R25		R24		R23		R22		R21		R20		R19
	R9		R10		R11		R12		R13		R14		R15		R16		R17		R18
	R8		R7		R6		R5		R4		R3		R2		R1

Key:	align=center width=35px D# Democratic align=center width=35px RA# Readjuster align=center width=35px R# Republican align=center width=35px V# Vacant

Race summaries

Special elections during the 48th Congress

In this election, the winner was seated in 1885 before March 4.

Races leading to the 49th Congress

In these regular elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1885; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Senator	Party	Electoral history
Alabama	James L. Pugh		Democratic	nowrap	1880	Incumbent re-elected in August 1884.	nowrap	James L. Pugh (Democratic)
Arkansas	James D. Walker		Democratic	nowrap	1878		Incumbent retired. Winner elected in 1885. Democratic hold.	nowrap	James K. Jones (Democratic)
California	James T. Farley		Democratic	nowrap	1878		Incumbent retired. Winner elected in 1885. Republican gain.	nowrap	Leland Stanford (Republican)
Colorado	Nathaniel P. Hill		Republican	nowrap	1879		Incumbent lost renomination. Winner elected in 1885. Republican hold.	nowrap	Henry M. Teller (Republican)
Connecticut	Orville H. Platt		Republican	nowrap	1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	Orville H. Platt (Republican)
Florida	Wilkinson Call		Democratic	nowrap	1879	Incumbent re-elected January 20, 1885.^[3]	nowrap	Wilkinson Call (Democratic)
Georgia	Joseph E. Brown		Democratic	nowrap	1880	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	Joseph E. Brown (Democratic)
Illinois	John A. Logan		Republican	nowrap	1879		Unknown if incumbent ran for re-election. Legislature failed to elect. Republican loss. Incumbent was later elected to continue the vacant term, see below.	nowrap	None.
Indiana	Daniel W. Voorhees		Democratic	nowrap	1877 1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	Daniel W. Voorhees (Democratic)
Iowa	William B. Allison		Republican	nowrap	1872 1878	Incumbent re-elected January 23, 1884.	nowrap
Kansas	John Ingalls		Republican	nowrap	1873 1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	John Ingalls (Republican)
Kentucky	John Stuart Williams		Democratic	nowrap	1879		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected in 1884. Democratic hold.	nowrap	Joseph Blackburn (Democratic)
Louisiana	Benjamin F. Jonas		Democratic	nowrap	1879		Incumbent lost re-election. Winner elected in 1884 or 1885. Democratic hold.	nowrap	James B. Eustis (Democratic)
Maryland	James Black Groome		Democratic	nowrap	1878 or 1879		Unknown if incumbent retired or lost re-election. Winner elected in 1884. Democratic hold.	nowrap	Ephraim Wilson (Democratic)
Missouri	George G. Vest		Democratic	nowrap	1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	George G. Vest (Democratic)
Nevada	John P. Jones		Republican	nowrap	1873 1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1885.	nowrap	John P. Jones (Republican)
New Hampshire	Henry W. Blair		Republican	nowrap	1879		Unknown if incumbent retired or lost re-election. Legislature failed to elect. Republican loss. Incumbent was later appointed, and then elected, to continue the vacant term, see below.	nowrap
New York	Elbridge G. Lapham		Republican	nowrap	1881		Incumbent retired. Winner elected January 20, 1885. Republican hold.	nowrap
North Carolina	Zebulon Vance		Democratic	nowrap	1879	Incumbent re-elected in 1884.	nowrap	Zebulon Vance (Democratic)
Ohio	George H. Pendleton		Democratic	nowrap	1878 or 1879		Incumbent lost renomination. Winner elected January 15, 1884. Democratic hold.	nowrap	Henry B. Payne (Democratic)
Oregon	James H. Slater		Democratic	nowrap	1878 or 1879		Incumbent retired. Legislature failed to elect. Democratic loss.	nowrap
Pennsylvania	J. Donald Cameron		Republican	nowrap	1877 1879	Incumbent re-elected January 20, 1885.	nowrap
South Carolina	Wade Hampton III		Democratic	nowrap	1878	Incumbent re-elected in 1884.	nowrap	Wade Hampton III (Democratic)
Vermont	Justin S. Morrill		Republican	nowrap	1866 1872 1878	Incumbent re-elected in 1884.	nowrap	Justin S. Morrill (Republican)
Wisconsin	Angus Cameron		Republican	nowrap	1881		Incumbent retired. Winner elected January 27, 1885. Republican hold.	nowrap	John C. Spooner (Republican)

Elections during the 49th Congress

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1885 after March 4, sorted by election date.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
	Senator	Party	Electoral history
Delaware (Class 1)	Thomas F. Bayard		Democratic	nowrap	1869 1875 1881		Incumbent resigned March 6, 1885, to become U.S. Secretary of State. Winner elected March 18, 1885.	nowrap	George Gray (Democratic)
Arkansas (Class 2)	Augustus Garland		Democratic	nowrap	1876 1883		Incumbent resigned March 6, 1885, to become U.S. Attorney General. Winner elected March 20, 1885. Democratic hold.	nowrap	James H. Berry (Democratic)
Illinois (Class 3)	Vacant				Legislature had failed to elect. Winner elected May 19, 1885. Republican gain.	nowrap
New Hampshire (Class 3)	Henry W. Blair		Republican	nowrap	1879 1885	Interim appointee elected June 17, 1885.	nowrap	Henry W. Blair (Republican)
Oregon (Class 3)	Vacant				Legislature had failed to elect. Winner elected November 18, 1885. Republican gain.	nowrap	John H. Mitchell (Republican)

Complete list of races

Maryland

See also: List of United States senators from Maryland.

Election Name:	1884 United States Senate election in Maryland
Popular Vote1:	-
Colour1:	B0CEFF
Percentage1:	-%
Party1:	Democratic Party (United States)
Candidate1:	Ephraim King Wilson II
Image1:	WILSON, Ephraim King, (1821 - 1891).jpg
Percentage2:	%
Next Year:	1890
Next Election:	1890 United States Senate election in Maryland
Previous Year:	1878
Previous Election:	1878 United States Senate election in Maryland
Votes For Election:	80 members of the Maryland General Assembly
Vote Type:	Legislative
Election Date:	January 1884
Type:	presidential

Ephraim King Wilson II was elected by an unknown margin of votes, for the Class 3 seat.^[4]

New York

See main article: article and United States Senate election in New York, 1885. The New York election was held January 20, 1885, by the New York State Legislature.

Republican Elbridge G. Lapham had been elected to this seat in a special election in 1881 to succeed Roscoe Conkling who had resigned. Lapham's term would expire on March 3, 1885.

At the State election in November 1883, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1884–1885) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1884, 73 Republicans and 55 Democrats were elected for the session of 1885 to the Assembly. The 108th New York State Legislature met from January 6 to May 22, 1885, at Albany, New York.

The caucus of Republican State legislators met on January 19, President pro tempore of the State Senate Dennis McCarthy presided. 19 State senators and 73 assemblymen attended. The Evarts faction required the nomination to be made by viva voce vote, which was opposed by the Morton faction, but was carried by a vote of 64 to 28. The caucus nominated Ex-U.S. Secretary of State William M. Evarts on the first ballot.

1885 Republican caucus nominee

Candidate	First ballot
William M. Evarts	61
Levi P. Morton	28
Chauncey M. Depew	3

The Democratic caucus nominated Ex-Mayor of New York Edward Cooper.

William M. Evarts was the choice of both the Assembly and the State Senate, and was declared elected.

1885 United States Senator election result

House	Republican		Democratic
State Senate (32 members)	William M. Evarts	19	Edward Cooper	13
State Assembly (128 members)	William M. Evarts	73	Edward Cooper	52

Note: The votes were cast on January 20, but both Houses met in a joint session on January 21 to compare nominations, and declare the result.

Ohio

See main article: article and United States Senate election in Ohio, 1884. In 1884, the Democrats held a majority in the Ohio legislature. In a caucus meeting to determine the party's choice for United States Senator, many Democratic legislators looked to replace the incumbent Senator, Democrat George H. Pendleton, because they disagreed with his advocacy of civil service reform and low tariffs. Some of Pendleton's opponents, led by Oliver Payne, promoted Henry B. Payne for the Senate seat, recalling his opposition to both of those positions during his time in the House. After a secret ballot by the Democratic caucus, Henry B. Payne received 46 out of 80 votes. Because Oliver was a trustee and treasurer of the Standard Oil company, many of the Pendleton supporters immediately alleged that $100,000 from the oil trust had been used to bribe Democratic legislators, and claimed that an open ballot would not have favored Payne.

When the full legislature met, Henry B. Payne was elected with 78 votes out of 120. The Democratic legislature initially refused to investigate their members' alleged corruption, but when Republicans regained the majority in the next session, the legislature looked into the allegations and forwarded the results to the federal Senate. The evidence gathered was voluminous, but the Senate declined to expel Payne, who proclaimed his innocence. While there was never enough evidence for definitive proof of bribery, biographer Dewayne Burke wrote that the "circumstantial evidence seems to convict Payne" of the charge.

Pennsylvania

See main article: article and United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1885. The Pennsylvania election was held January 20, 1885. The Pennsylvania General Assembly convened January 20, 1885. Incumbent Republican J. Donald Cameron, who was elected in an 1877 special election and re-elected in 1879, was a successful candidate for re-election to another term.^[5] The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

|-|-bgcolor="#EEEEEE"| colspan="3" align="right" | Totals| align="right" | 251| align="right" | 100.00%|}

See also

• 1884 United States elections
  • 1884 United States presidential election
  • 1884 United States House of Representatives elections
• 48th United States Congress
• 49th United States Congress

Further reading

• Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present, via Senate.gov
• Burke . Dewayne . 1938 . Henry B. Payne: His Congressional Career . M.A. thesis . Ohio State University . February 20, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160826191505/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/rws_etd/document/get/osu1187639438/inline . August 26, 2016 . dead .
• Book: Byrd, Robert C. . The Senate, 1789-1989: Historical Statistics, 1789-1992 . volume 4 Bicentennial . Robert Byrd . Wendy . Wolff . . Washington, DC . . October 1, 1993 . 9780160632563 .
• Web site: Clark . Dan Elbert. History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa. Iowa City, Iowa. 1913.
• Web site: Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682-2006 . The Wilkes University Election Statistics Project . Wilkes University . January 31, 2007 . Harold . Cox.
• Book: Walker , Albert H. . 1886 . The Payne Bribery Case and the United States Senate . Clark & Smith . Hartford, Connecticut . 17693469 .
• Encyclopedia: Weisenburger . Francis Phelps . Henry B. Payne . . XIV . 325–326 . C. Scribner's Sons . New York, New York . 1934.
• Web site: MR. EVARTS TO BE SENATOR . . January 20, 1885.
• Web site: EVARTS ELECTED SENATOR . . January 22, 1885.

Notes and References

1. The Readjusters caucused with the Republicans.
2. Web site: 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913). National Archives and Records Administration. February 8, 2022.
3. News: SELECTING NEW SENATORS. . . January 20, 1885 . 1 .
4. Web site: Our Campaigns - MD US Senate Race - Jan 00, 1884. 2022-11-05. www.ourcampaigns.com.
5. Web site: U.S. Senate Election - 20 January 1885. Wilkes University. December 22, 2013.