Election to the United States House of Representatives 1812

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In the election to the United States House of Representatives in 1812, the House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States from August 3, 1812 . The election was part of the general election for the 13th United States Congress that year, which also saw a third of the US Senators elected. The presidential election of 1812 , won by incumbent James Madison of the Democratic Republican Party, took place at the same time .

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 18 states ( Louisiana was a new addition). The number of MPs to be elected was 182. The distribution of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1810 census , which also resulted in the increase in the number of MPs. Due to the increase in the number of MPs to be elected, a one-to-one comparison with the elections of 1810 does not make sense. It can be said, however, that the Democratic Republican Party lost its previous two-thirds majority, but was able to maintain its absolute majority. At the same time, the federalists were able to increase their percentage of MPs significantly. The reason for this development was the British-American War that broke out in 1812 , which was also the dominant election campaign theme. The federalists were firmly against the war and, for trade-policy reasons, found it particularly popular in their home country of New England . In the meantime, the mood against the war was so great there that a little later even thinking about leaving the Union ( Hartford Convention ).

Women and slaves were neither eligible nor eligible to vote. Free African Americans were also excluded from voting in many states . The right to vote for free men was also tied to a certain property or tax revenue.

Election result

Total : 182

Distribution of seats
  
A total of 182 seats
  • Federalist Party : 68
  • Democratic Republican Party : 114

The results of the last regular elections of 1810 are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections as such are not included in these figures, but are included in the article on the 13th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives noted the corresponding names of the MPs. The same applies to elections in states that joined the Union after the beginning of the legislative period. As a result, the sources sometimes contain different information, as changes during the legislative period were sometimes incorporated into the figures and sometimes not.

See also

Web links