Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1842

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Beginning August 1, 1842, the House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States . The election was part of the general election for the 28th 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 John Tyler'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 223. The distribution of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1840 census . In the elections, the United States Whig Party , which had won a majority in the House for the first time two years earlier, lost dramatically. This benefited the Democrats, who regained the absolute majority with 147 seats. They were only missing three seats with a two-thirds majority. The reason was the dissatisfaction of the voters with the politics of the Whig Party and its President John Tyler, who came into office after the death of President William Henry Harrison , who was unpopular with both parties and who also opposed his own party on some issues. This gave a picture of Whigs disagreement from which the Democrats could benefit.

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

Election result

Total: 223

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 28th 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 did not join the Union until 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