Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1878

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The election to the House of Representatives of the United States in 1878 took place from June 3, 1878. The House of Representatives was elected on various election days in the United States . The majority of states voted on November 5, 1878. The election was part of the general election to the 46th 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 term of office of Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes ( 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 38 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 293. The distribution of seats was based on the 1870 census .

In the elections, a rare situation in American history occurred when both major parties lost seats. The Democrats remained the strongest faction, but lost their absolute majority. As a result, however, they were able to maintain a majority in the House of Representatives through alliances with the splinter factions. The background to this election result was an unstable economic situation and the emergence of the United States Greenback Party . This party advocated the permanent use of banknotes (paper money). This, they hoped, would make it easier to pay off debts and, especially for farmers, to get higher prices. Many voters followed this idea and the party was able to send 13 MPs to Congress right away.

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

Election result

Total: 293

Distribution of seats
   
A total of 293 seats
  • Dem .: 141
  • Rep .: 132
  • Otherwise: 20

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 46th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the appropriate 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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