1804 United States House of Representatives elections in New York

The 1804 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from April 24 to 26, 1804, to elect 17 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 9th United States Congress. At the same time, a vacancy was filled in the 8th United States Congress.

United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1804

← 1802 April 24–26, 1804 1806 →

All 17 New York seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 12 5
Seats won 15 2
Seat change Increase 3 Decrease 3
Popular vote 44,889 24,682
Percentage 64.5% 35.5%

Background

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17 U.S. Representatives had been elected in April 1802 to a term in the 8th United States Congress beginning on March 4, 1803. John Cantine had resigned his seat, and Isaac Bloom had died in April 1803. Josiah Hasbrouck and Daniel C. Verplanck were elected to fill the vacancies. In February 1804, John Smith was elected to the U.S. Senate, leaving a vacancy in the 1st District. The other 16 representatives' term would end on March 3, 1805. The congressional elections were held together with the State elections in late April 1804, about ten months before the term would start on March 4, 1805, and about a year and a half before Congress actually met on December 2, 1805.

Congressional districts

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After the U.S. census of 1800, New York's representation in the House was increased to 17 seats. On March 30, 1802, the New York State Legislature had re-apportioned the congressional districts, dividing New York County seemingly at random into two districts. After the election of one Democratic-Republican and one Federalist in 1802, the Dem.-Rep. majority in the State Legislature gerrymandered the two districts together in an Act passed on March 20, 1804, so that two congressmen would be elected on a general ticket by the voters of both districts, assuring the election of two Democratic-Republicans.

Besides, Seneca Co. was split from Cayuga Co. inside the 17th District.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Result

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15 Democratic-Republicans and 2 Federalists were elected to the 9th Congress, and one Democratic-Republican to fill the vacancy in the 8th Congress. The incumbents Mitchill, Van Cortlandt, Verplanck, Livingston, Van Rensselaer, Thomas and Sammons were re-elected; the incumbent Root was defeated.

1804 United States House election result
District Democratic-Republican Federalist Democratic-Republican Federalist Democratic-Republican Federalist
1 Eliphalet Wickes 1,052 Joshua Smith 840 Samuel Riker[1] 1,044
2 and 3 Samuel L. Mitchill 4,056 Nicholas Fish 3,245
Daniel D. Tompkins 4,040 Wynandt Van Zandt 3,236
4 Philip Van Cortlandt 1,545 John Herring 838
5 John Blake, Jr. 1,411 David M. Westcott[2] 826
6 Daniel C. Verplanck 2,291 Benjamin Akin[3] 1,658
7 Martin G. Schuneman 2,361 Gerrit Abeel[4] 1,578
8 Edward P. Livingston 1,610 Henry W. Livingston 1,951
9 David McCarty[5] 1,465 Killian K. Van Rensselaer 1,894
10 Josiah Masters 1,851 Jonathan Brown[6] 1,492
11 Peter Sailly 2,846
12 David Thomas 2,367 Reuben Skinner 1,001
13 Thomas Sammons 3,290
14 John Russell 2,512 Benjamin Gilbert 177 Erastus Root 105 Solomon Martin[7] 105 Thomas R. Gold 28
15 Nathan Williams 3,633 Thomas R. Gold 2,697
16 Uri Tracy 3,222 Edward Edwards[8] 1,911
17 Silas Halsey 2,167 Nathaniel W. Howell 2,013 Joseph Grover 602 Peter Hughes[9] 581

Note: The Anti-Federalists called themselves "Republicans." However, at the same time, the Federalists called them "Democrats" which was meant to be pejorative. After some time both terms got more and more confused, and sometimes used together as "Democratic Republicans" which later historians have adopted (with a hyphen) to describe the party from the beginning, to avoid confusion with both the later established and still existing Democratic and Republican parties.

Aftermath and special elections

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Daniel D. Tompkins, elected in the 2nd/3rd D., was appointed on July 2, 1804, to the New York Supreme Court and resigned his seat, before the congressional term began. A special election to fill the vacancy was held in October 1804, and was won by Gurdon S. Mumford, of the same party.

Samuel L. Mitchill, who had been re-elected in the 2nd/3rd D. to a third term, resigned his seat on November 22, 1804, after his election to the U.S. Senate. A special election to fill both vacancies (the remainder of his term in the 8th Congress and his seat in the 9th Congress) was held, and was won by George Clinton, Jr., of the same party. Clinton took his seat in the 8th Congress on February 14, 1805, and remained in office after March 4 in the 9th Congress.[10]

Candidate Party Votes
George Clinton, Jr. Democratic-Republican 1,065
James Smith 63
James Woods 52
other 22

The House of Representatives of the 9th United States Congress met for the first time at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 2, 1805, and Blake, Halsey, Masters, Mumford, Russell, Sailly, Sammons, Schuneman, Thomas, Tracy, Van Rensselaer and Williams took their seats on this day. Livingston and Wickes took their seats on December 9; Van Cortlandt on December 10; Verplanck on December 11; and Clinton on December 16.[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ The vacancy in the 8th Congress and the next term in the 9th Congress were filled at the same election. Wickes won the full term, Riker was elected to fill the vacancy.
  2. ^ David M. Westcott, assemblyman 1798-99
  3. ^ Benjamin Akin, assemblyman 1800-01 and 1802
  4. ^ Gerrit Abeel, assemblyman 1796 and 1798-99
  5. ^ David McCarty, assemblyman 1792
  6. ^ Jonathan Brown, assemblyman 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795 and 1800-01
  7. ^ Solomon Martin, assemblyman 1800-01 and 1802
  8. ^ Edward Edwards, assemblymen from Tioga Co. 1800-01
  9. ^ Peter Hughes, sheriff of Cayuga Co. 1801-1804
  10. ^ Special election result, 2nd/3rd D. Archived April 6, 2020, at the Wayback Machine at A New Nation Votes
  11. ^ Abridgment of the Debates in Congress from 1789 to 1856 (Vol. III; pages 377, 379f and 383)

Sources

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