Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1838

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The election to the House of Representatives of the United States in 1838 took place from July 2, 1838. The House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States . The election was part of the general election to the 26th United States Congress that year, in which a third of the US Senators were elected. Since the elections took place around the middle of President Martin Van Buren's term of office ( midterm election ), they were also considered a vote on the previous policy of the president.

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 26 states . The number of MPs to be elected was 242. The distribution of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1830 census . The Democratic Party lost three seats in the elections, but was just able to maintain its absolute majority. In contrast, the United States Whig Party was able to win nine seats. The Anti-Masonic Party lost one seat and only had six congressmen. The so-called Nullifiers from South Carolina left the House of Representatives. Reasons for the election result were, among other things, an economic crisis that broke out in 1837 , for which voters blamed the government of the already unpopular Democratic President Martin Van Buren. This benefited the Whigs, who were now able to win for the third time in a row in elections to the House of Representatives.

Women and slaves were neither eligible nor eligible to vote. Free African Americans were also excluded from voting in many states .

Election result

Total: 242

The results of the last election two years earlier are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections themselves are not included in these figures, but are noted in the article on the 26th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the relevant names of the representatives. 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