Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1864

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The election to the United States House of Representatives 1864 took place from June 5, 1864. The House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States . The election was part of the general election for the 39th United States Congress that year, in which a third of the US Senators were elected. At the same time, the presidential election of 1864 took place, which was won by the Republican incumbent Abraham Lincoln . The elections were overshadowed by the events of the American Civil War .

At the time of the elections, the United States consisted of 36 states from the perspective of the Northern States ( West Virginia and Nevada had since been added). In reality, the eleven southern states that had left the Union, which are now the Confederate States , did not take part in the election. Hence, the number of MPs to be elected in the remaining 25 states was 193. The distribution of seats was based on the 1860 census .

The Republicans were able to achieve significant gains in the election. They won 51 mandates and now have a two-thirds majority with 136 mandates. On the other hand, the Democrats lost 34 seats and only got 38 seats. The unionists lost 7 seats and now had 18 seats in the House of Representatives. The reasons for the turnaround in favor of the Republicans were, on the one hand, an internal split in the Democrats. One wing advocated negotiations with the South to end the war (which would have meant Confederation recognition) while the other wing was in favor of continuing the war. Another reason was the Union's military successes in the summer of 1864, which helped in the election of the Republican government.

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

Election result

Total: 193

Distribution of seats
    
A total of 193 seats
  • Dem .: 38
  • Otherwise: 1
  • UP : 18
  • Rep .: 136

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 39th 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

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