Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1874

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The election to the United States House of Representatives in 1874 began on June 1, 1874. The House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States . The majority of states voted on November 3, 1874. The election was part of the general election to the 44th United States Congress that year, in which one-third of the US Senators were also elected. Since the elections took place around the middle of the second term of the Republican President Ulysses S. Grant ( 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 37 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 293. The distribution of seats was based on the 1870 census .

The Republicans suffered heavy losses in the elections. They lost 96 seats and lost their absolute majority. On the other hand, the Democrats gained 94 seats. With this, they were able to provide a majority in the House of Representatives with 182 members. The main reasons for this enormous shift in the balance of power were an economic crisis that broke out in 1873 and was still ongoing at the time of the election. The voters blamed the Republican-led federal government for this. On the other hand, there were massive allegations of corruption against the government of President Grant, which also had a negative impact on the Republican election results. The turnaround in favor of the Democrats also signaled the imminent end of the Reconstruction , which took place two years later.

Only men were entitled to vote and eligible for election. Women were still banned from voting at the federal level until 1920. Gradually, however, especially in the southern states, the right to vote was restricted by laws that linked this right to a certain tax revenue. As a result, poor whites, but above all many African-Americans, were again excluded from voting.

Election result

Total: 293

Distribution of seats
   
A total of 293 seats
  • Dem .: 182
  • Rep .: 103
  • Otherwise: 8

The results of the last election two years earlier are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the election as such are not included in these figures, but are noted in the article on the 44th 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

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