1794 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania

Elections to the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania for the Fourth Congress were held on October 14, 1794.

United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania, 1794

October 14, 1794

All 13 Pennsylvania seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 8 5
Seats won 9 4
Seat change 1 1

Results:
  Democratic-Republican
  Federalist

Background

Thirteen Representatives, 8 Anti-Administration (Democratic-Republican) and 5 Pro-Administration (Federalist), had been elected in the previous election on an at-large basis, the last time that Pennsylvania elected all of its representatives at-large. Ten incumbents (6 Anti-Administration and 4 Pro-Administration) ran for re-election.

Congressional districts

For the 1794 elections, Pennsylvania divided itself into 12 districts, one of which (the 4th) was a plural district, with 2 Representatives. These districts remained in use until redistricting after the Census of 1800.

The counties that made up the 5th district did not border each other. That district was therefore made up of two separate pieces rather than being a single contiguous entity

Note: Many of these counties covered much larger areas in 1794 than they do today, having since been divided into numerous counties

Election returns

Ten incumbents (6 Democratic-Republicans and 4 Federalists) ran for re-election. The incumbents James Armstrong (F), from the 9th district, William Montgomery (DR) from the 11th district, and John Smilie (DR) from the 12th district did not run for re-election.[1] Smilie would later return to the House in 1798, where he would remain until his death in 1812. Of the ten who ran for re-election, 6 (4 Democratic-Republicans and 2 Federalists) were re-elected. A total of 9 Democratic-Republicans and 4 Federalists were elected, a net gain of one seat for the Democratic-Republicans over the previous election.

Election results are unavailable from the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 11th districts, and are incomplete for the 9th.

1794 United States House election results
District Democratic-Republican Federalist Other candidates
1st John Swanwick 1,240 51.2% Thomas Fitzsimons (I) 1,182 48.8%
2nd Frederick Muhlenberg (I) 656 56.3% Samuel Miles 510 43.7%
3rd Thomas Ross 571 31.8% Richard Thomas 1,222 68.2%
4th
2 seats
James Morris 1,648[2] 20.2% Samuel Sitgreaves 2,594 36.2% James Barclay (party unknown) 195 2.4%
John Richards[2] 1,635 20.0%
Robert Lollar 1,072 13.1%
Peter Muhlenberg (I) 661 8.1%
5th Daniel Hiester (I)
6th Samuel Maclay 1,882 46.0% John Carson 438 10.7%
John A. Hanna 1,722 43.3%
7th John W. Kittera (I)
8th Thomas Hartley (I)
9th Andrew Gregg (I) James Wallace
William Irvine (I)
10th David Bard 1,808 52.9% James Chambers 519 15.2%
James McLane 1,090 31.9%
11th William Findley (I)
12th Albert Gallatin 769 33.1% Thomas Scott (I) 643 27.7%
Daniel Hamilton 377 16.2% Isaac Tichenor 256 11.0%
Hugh H. Brackenridge 140 6.0% John Woods 197 5.9%

In the 4th district, John Richards (DR) disputed the official returns (shown above) which showed himself in 3rd place and James Morris (DR) in 2nd. The Governor of Pennsylvania only issued certification for Samuel Sitgreaves (F). On July 10, 1795, before the House could act on the dispute, Morris died. The House voted Richards the legitimate winner of 2nd place, with the revised vote totals being 1,791 for Richards and 1,688 for Morris

Special elections

Daniel Hiester (DR), re-elected to the 5th district, resigned on July 1, 1796. A special election was held on October 11, 1796 (the same day as the 1796 general elections) to fill the resulting vacancy. Hiester would later be elected to Maryland's 4th congressional district in 1800

1796 Special election
District Democratic-Republican Federalist
5th Joseph Hiester 1,553 43.2% George Ege 2,039 56.8%

Joseph Hiester was a cousin of Daniel.

See also

References

  1. District assignments based on residence information given in the 1792 returns
  2. A dispute arose over whether James Morris or John Richards was in second place, see below for more details
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