1878–79 United States Senate elections

Dates vary by state (And other dates for special elections)
26 of the 76 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections) 39 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader William A. Wallace[lower-alpha 1] Henry B. Anthony[lower-alpha 2] Party Democratic Republican Leader since March 4, 1877 March 4, 1863 Leader's seat Pennsylvania Rhode Island Seats before 36 38 Seats won 14 10 Seats after 42 31 Seat change 6 7 Seats up 8 17   Third party Fourth party   Party Anti-Monopoly Independent Seats before 1 1 Seats won 0 0 Seats after 1 1 Seat change Seats up 0 0
Results of the elections:      Democratic gain      Democratic hold      Republican gain      Republican hold      Legislature failed to elect
Majority Party before election Republican Elected Majority Party Democratic

The 1878–79 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As these U.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen by state legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1878 and 1879, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due to legislative deadlock.^[1] In these elections, terms were up for the senators in Class 3.

The Democratic Party re-captured control of the Senate for the first time since before the Civil War.

Results summary

Senate party division, 46th Congress (1879–1881)

• Majority party: Democratic (42)
• Minority party: Republican (31)
• Other parties: Independent (1), Anti-Monopoly (1)
• Total seats: 76

Change in composition

Race summaries

Maryland

1878 United States Senate election in Maryland

January 19, 1878
80 members of the Maryland General Assembly
Candidate James Black Groome Lewis Henry Steiner Party Democratic Republican Legislative vote 73 17 Percentage 78.50% 18.28%

James Black Groome was elected by a margin of 60.22%, or 56 votes, for the Class 3 seat.^[7]

New York

Senator Roscoe Conkling

In New York, the election was held on January 21, 1879, by the New York State Legislature. Republican Roscoe Conkling had been re-elected in January 1873 to this seat, and his term would expire on March 3, 1879. At the State election in November 1877, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1878-1879) in the State Senate. At the State election in November 1878, 97 Republicans, 28 Democrats and 3 Greenbackers were elected for the session of 1879 to the Assembly, and Republican Thomas Murphy was elected to fill the vacancy in the State Senate caused by the death of Democrat John Morrissey. The 102nd New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 22, 1879, at Albany, New York.

The caucus of Republican State legislators met on January 20, Temporary President of the State Senate William H. Robertson presided. Present were all Republican legislators except State Senator Louis S. Goebel^[8] (6th D.) and Assemblyman James W. Wadsworth. They re-nominated the incumbent U.S. Senator Conkling unanimously. The caucus of the Democratic State legislators met also on January 20. State Senator Thomas C. E. Ecclesine (8th D.) offered to adopt a prostest against the senatorial election proceedings, claiming that the senatorial and assembly districts were incorrectly apportioned and thus the State Legislature did not represent the wish of the people of the State. The protest was substituted by a resolution to appoint a committee which would elaborate an address on the apportionment at a later date. Ecclesine then marched out, and the remaining legislators nominated Lieutenant Governor William Dorsheimer for the U.S. Senate.

The two Greenback assemblymen John Banfield (Chemung Co.) and George E. Williams (Oswego Co.) voted for 87-year-old Peter Cooper, a New York City inventor, industrialist and philanthropist who had run for U.S. president in 1876 on the Greenback ticket.

Roscoe Conkling was the choice of both the Assembly and the State Senate, and was declared elected.

Note: The votes were cast on January 21, but both Houses met in a joint session on January 22 to compare nominations, and declare the result.

Pennsylvania

Senator J. Donald Cameron

In Pennsylvania, the election was held January 20, 1879. J. Donald Cameron was re-elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.^[10]

After Sen. Simon Cameron resigned from office, his son J. Donald Cameron was elected by the General Assembly, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, in 1877 to serve the remainder of the unexpired term, which was to expire on March 4, 1879. The Pennsylvania General Assembly convened on January 20, 1879, to elect a Senator to serve the term beginning on March 4, 1879. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

See also

• 1878 United States elections
  • 1878–79 United States House of Representatives elections
• 45th United States Congress
• 46th United States Congress

Notes

References

Further reading

• Clark, Dan Elbert (1913). "History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa". Iowa City, Iowa.
• Thompson, E. Bruce (1954). Matthew Hale Carpenter, Webster of the West. Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
• Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present, via Senate.gov
• "VICTORIOUS REPUBLICANS" (PDF). The New York Times. November 6, 1878., gives 1 Greenbacker elected, but Williams of Oswego is not in the list; this seems to have been a preliminary result which was later amended
• "NEW-YORK'S NEXT SENATOR; ROSCOE CONKLING RENOMINATED" (PDF). The New York Times. January 21, 1879.
• "THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS.; A REMARKABLE PROTEST OFFERED AND TABLED; LIEUT.-GOV. DORSHEIMER TENDERED THE EMPTY HONOR OF A NOMINATION" (PDF). The New York Times. January 21, 1879.
• "CONKLING WINS THE SENATORSHIP" (PDF). The New York Times. January 22, 1879.
• "CHOOSING THEIR SENATORS.; ...LIEUT.-GOV. DORSHEIMER FORMALLY ANNOUNCES THE ELECTION" (PDF). The New York Times. January 23, 1879.
• Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682-2006. Wilkes University Election Statistics Project.