1866–67 United States House of Representatives elections

June 4, 1866 – September 6, 1867[lower-alpha 1]
All 224[lower-alpha 2] seats in the United States House of Representatives 113 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Schuyler Colfax Samuel Marshall Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat Indiana 9th Illinois 11th Last election 150 seats[lower-alpha 3] 33 seats Seats won 173 47 Seat change 23 14 Popular vote 2,611,309 1,919,507 Percentage 55.36% 40.69% Swing 1.89%[lower-alpha 4] 1.28%   Third party Fourth party   Party Conservative Independent Last election 5 seats 1 seat Seats won 2 2[lower-alpha 5] Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 94,455 83,205 Percentage 2.00% 1.76% Swing 0.19% 0.70%
House election results map. Red represents seats won by the Republicans and blue denotes those won by the Democrats.
Speaker before election Schuyler Colfax Republican Elected Speaker Schuyler Colfax Republican

The 1866–67 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between June 4, 1866, and September 6, 1867. They occurred during President Andrew Johnson's term just one year after the American Civil War ended when the Union defeated the Confederacy. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives. Members were elected before or after the first session of the 40th United States Congress convened on March 4, 1867, including the at-large seat from the new state of Nebraska. Ten secessionist states still had not yet been readmitted, and therefore were not seated.

The 1866 elections were a decisive event in the early Reconstruction era, in which President Johnson faced off against the Radical Republicans in a bitter dispute over whether Reconstruction should be lenient or harsh toward the vanquished white South.

Most of the congressmen from the former Confederate states were either prevented from leaving the state or were arrested on the way to the capital. A Congress consisting of mostly Radical Republicans sat early in the Capitol and aside from the delegation from Tennessee who were allowed in, the few Southern Congressmen who arrived were not seated.

Background

Johnson, a War Democrat, had been elected Vice President in the 1864 presidential election as the running mate of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. (The Republicans had chosen not to re-nominate Hannibal Hamlin for a second term as vice president).

Lincoln and Johnson ran together under the banner of the National Union Party, which brought together Republicans (with the exception of some hard-line abolitionist Radical Republicans who backed John C. Frémont, who eventually dropped out of the race after brokering a deal with Lincoln) and the War Democrats (the minority of Democrats who backed Lincoln's prosecution of the war, as opposed to the Peace Democrats, or Copperheads, who favored a negotiated settlement with the Confederates).

After the assassination of Lincoln, Johnson became president. He immediately became embroiled in a dispute with the Radical Republicans over the conditions of Reconstruction; Johnson favored a lenient Reconstruction, while Radical Republicans wanted to continue the military occupation of the South and force Southern states to give freedmen (the newly freed slaves) civil rights (and the right to vote).

Campaign and results

Johnson stumped the country in a public speaking tour known as the Swing Around the Circle; he generally supported Democrats but his speeches were poorly received.

The Republicans won in a landslide, capturing enough seats to override Johnson's vetoes. Only the border states of Delaware, Maryland, and Kentucky voted for Democrats. Recently Reconstructed Tennessee sent a Republican delegation. The other 10 ex-Confederate states did not vote. As a percentage of the total number of seats available in the House of Representatives, the Republican majority attained in the election of 1866 has never been exceeded in any subsequent Congress. The Democratic Party was able to achieve similar success only in the political environment of the era of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Election summaries

Seven secessionist states were readmitted during this Congress, filling 32 vacancies, but are not included in this table if they were not elected within 1866 through 1867.^[1]

State	Type	Date	Total seats	Democratic		Conservative		Republican		Others
				Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change	Seats	Change
Oregon	At-large	June 4, 1866	1	0		0		1		0
Vermont	Districts	Sep 4, 1866	3	0		0		3		0
Maine	Districts	Sep 10, 1866	5	0		0		5		0
Indiana	Districts	Oct 9, 1866	11	3	1	0		8	1	0
Iowa	Districts	Oct 9, 1866	6	0		0		6		0
Nebraska	At-large	Oct 9, 1866	1	0		0		1		0
Ohio	Districts	Oct 9, 1866	19	2		0		17		0
Pennsylvania	Districts	Oct 9, 1866	24	6	3	0		18	3	0
West Virginia	Districts	Oct 25, 1866	3	0		0		3	3	0	3[lower-alpha 7]
Delaware	At-large	Nov 6, 1866 (Election Day)[lower-alpha 8]	1	1		0		0		0
Illinois	District + 1 at-large		14	3		0		11		0
Kansas	At-large		1	0		0		1		0
Maryland	Districts		5	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	3[lower-alpha 7]
Massachusetts	Districts		10	0		0		10		0
Michigan	Districts		6	0		0		6		0
Minnesota	Districts		2	0		0		2		0
Missouri	Districts		9	1		0		8		0
Nevada	At-large		1	0		0		1		0
New Jersey	Districts		5	2	1	0		3	1	0
New York	Districts		31	10	1	0		21[lower-alpha 5]	1	0
Wisconsin	Districts		6	1		0		5		0
Late elections (after the March 4, 1867 beginning of Congress)
New Hampshire	Districts	Mar 12, 1867	3	0		0		3		0
Connecticut	Districts	Apr 1, 1867	4	3	3	0		1	3	0
Rhode Island	Districts	Apr 3, 1867	2	0		0		2		0
Kentucky	Districts	May 4, 1867	9[lower-alpha 9]	7	2	0		1	1	0	4[lower-alpha 10]
Tennessee	Districts	Aug 3, 1867	8	0		0		8	8	0	8[lower-alpha 11]
California	Districts	Sep 6, 1867	3	2	2	0		1	2	0
Secessionist states not yet readmitted
Alabama	Districts	—	6	0		0		0		0
Arkansas	Districts	—	3	0		0		0		0
Florida	At-large	—	1	0		0		0		0
Georgia	Districts	—	7	0		0		0		0
Louisiana	Districts	—	5	0		0		0		0
Mississippi	Districts	—	5	0		0		0		0
North Carolina	Districts	—	7	0		0		0		0
South Carolina	Districts	—	4	0		0		0		0
Texas	Districts	—	4	0		0		0		0
Virginia	Districts	—	8	0		0		0		0
Total[lower-alpha 2]			193[lower-alpha 12]	44 22.8%	4	1 0.5%	1	147[lower-alpha 5] 76.2%	12	0 0.0%	18[lower-alpha 13]

Results shaded according to winning candidate's share of vote. Data from Electing the House of Representatives by the University of Richmond

The party affiliations of the 4 Representatives elected in Texas's rejected elections are unknown.

Special elections

California

California elections

September 6, 1867
3 seats
Majority party Minority party   Party Democratic Republican Last election 0 3 Seats won 2 1 Seat change 2 2 Popular vote 48,346 44,436 Percentage 52.1% 47.9%
Democratic gain   Republican hold

Colorado Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

Connecticut

Dakota Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

Delaware

Idaho Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Montana Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

Nebraska

There were two elections in the new state of Nebraska in 1866: on June 6 for the remainder of the current term, and October 9 for the next term.

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

New York

Ohio

Democrats gained one seat this election in Ohio. It was later contested and awarded to the Republican for a net gain of zero.

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

Tennessee

Elections held late, on August 1, 1867.

Utah Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

Vermont

Washington Territory

See non-voting delegates, below.

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wisconsin elected six members of congress on Election Day, November 4, 1866.^[25]

Non-voting delegates

See also

• 1866 United States elections
  • 1866–67 United States Senate elections
• 39th United States Congress
• 40th United States Congress

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Beale, Howard K. (1930). The Critical Year.
• Dubin, Michael J. (March 1, 1998). United States Congressional Elections, 1788-1997: The Official Results of the Elections of the 1st Through 105th Congresses. McFarland and Company. ISBN 978-0786402830.
• Martis, Kenneth C. (January 1, 1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989. Macmillan Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0029201701.
• ▌McPherson, Edward (1875). The Political History of the United States of America During the Period of Reconstruction. Solomons & Chapman. mcpherson period of reconstruction., large collection of speeches and primary documents, 1865–1870, complete text online (the copyright has expired)
• Moore, John L., ed. (1994). Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections (Third ed.). Congressional Quarterly Inc. ISBN 978-0871879967.
• Riddleberger, Patrick W. (1979). 1866, the critical year revisited.
• Trefousse, Hans L. (1989). Andrew Johnson: A Biography.
• "Party Divisions of the House of Representatives* 1789–Present". Office of the Historian, House of United States House of Representatives. Retrieved January 21, 2015.

External links

• Office of the Historian (Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)