Election to the United States House of Representatives 1860

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From August 6, 1860, House representatives were elected on various election days in the United States . The election was part of the general election for the 37th United States Congress that year, in which a third of the US Senators were elected. The 1860 presidential election , won by Republican Abraham Lincoln , took place at the same time . The election of Lincoln provided the final impetus for secession in the southern states. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to leave the Union.

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 33 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 240. However, 57 MPs from the southern states who had declared their withdrawal from the Union were no longer represented at the meeting of the newly elected Congress. Therefore, at the beginning of the new legislative period, there were only 183 MPs in the House of Representatives. The distribution of seats was based on the 1850 census .

The 1860 election was the last before the American Civil War and was overshadowed by the issues of conflict between the Northern and Southern states. The election campaign was also under this sign. Between the congressional elections and the beginning of the 37th Congress, the states of South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana and Texas had left the Union, but they did not recognize it. These states withdrew their MPs, who had been elected in the previous elections, from Washington. The candidates from these states elected in 1860 did not even take office. Therefore, the election result relevant for the legislative period is only related to the remaining 183 congressmen. Comparisons with the election of 1858 are therefore not very meaningful. The Democrats, who lost one of their home regions with the southern states, won only 44 seats. The Republicans had 108 seats, a majority. However, they had to give up eight seats compared to 1858, which had nothing to do with the southern exit. Rather, the new short-lived Union Constitutional Party benefited from it. This party stood up for the preservation of the Union and won 26 seats.

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

Election result

Total: 183 (reduction due to the withdrawal of the southern states, loss of 57 seats)

Distribution of seats
    
A total of 183 seats
  • Dem . : 44
  • Otherwise: 5
  • CUP : 26
  • Rep .: 108

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 37th 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