United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania, 1808

United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania, 1808
Pennsylvania
October 11, 1808

All 18 Pennsylvania seats to the United States House of Representatives
  Majority party Minority party
 
Party Democratic-Republican Federalist
Last election 15 3
Seats won 16 2
Seat change Increase 1 Decrease 1

Elections to the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania were held October 11, 1808 for the 11th Congress.

Background

Eighteen Representatives had been elected in the previous election, 15 Democratic-Republicans and 3 Federalists. All three Federalists and two of the Democratic-Republicans were quids, an alliance of moderate Democratic-Republicans and Federalists. One seat held by a Democratic-Republican had become vacant prior to this election and was filled in a special election held at the same time as this election.

Congressional districts

Pennsylvania was divided into 11 districts, of which four were plural districts with 11 Representatives between them, with the remaining 7 Representatives elected from single-member districts. The districts were:

Luzerne County's western border was altered between the 1806 and 1808 elections, altering the boundary between the 2nd and 5th districts

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

Election results

Thirteen incumbents (10 Democratic-Republicans and 3 Federalists) ran for re-election, of whom 11 won re-election. The incumbents Jacob Richards (DR) of the 1st district, John Hiester (DR) of the 3rd district, Daniel Montgomery (DR) of the 5th district and William Hoge (DR) of the 10th district did not run for re-election. There was also a vacancy in the 1st district. One seat changed from Federalist to Democratic-Republican control.

1808 United States House election results
District Democratic-Republican Quid Federalist
1st
3 seats
Benjamin Say[1] 7,598 18.5% Joseph Hemphill 6,123 14.9%
John Porter (I) 7,589 18.5% Derick Peterson 6,098 14.9%
William Anderson 7,559 18.4% Charles W. Hare 6,052 14.8%
2nd
3 seats
Robert Brown (I) 9,218 16.9% John Ross[2] 9,167 16.8%
John Pugh (I) 9,090 16.7% William Milnor[3] (I) 9,095 16.7%
John Hahn 9,026 16.6% Roswell Wells[3] 8,941 16.4%
3rd
3 seats
John Whitehill 10,216 16.4% Matthias Richards[2] (I) 10,652 17.1%
Roger Davis 10,161 16.3% Daniel Hiester[2] 10,652 17.1%
William Witman 10,121 16.2% Robert Jenkins[3] (I) 10,542 16.9%
4th
2 seats
Robert Whitehill (I) 8,807 36.7% John Gloninger 3,228 13.5%
David Bard (I) 8,774 36.6% William Alexander 3,165 13.2%
5th George Smith 7,191 82.3% John Bull 1,549 17.7%
6th William Crawford 3,506 52.4% James Kelly (I) 3,188 47.6%
7th John Rea (I) 3,496 61.5% Andrew Dunlap 2,191 38.5%
8th John Kirkpatrick 1,732 29.1% William Findley[2] (I) 2,718 45.7%
Robert Philson 1,502 25.2%
9th John Smilie (I) 3,183 67.3% Thomas Meason 1,550 32.7%
10th Aaron Lyle (I) 3,425 76.5% John Hamilton[3] 1,053 23.5%
11th Samuel Smith (I) 6,206 68.3% Alexander Foster 2,885 31.7%
1st (special) Benjamin Say 7,598 55.7% Charles W. Hare 6,046 44.3%

Special election

Benjamin Say (DR) of the 1st district resigned in June, 1809, and a special election was held to fill the resulting vacancy

1809 Special election results
District Democratic-Republican
1st Adam Seybert 5,936 59.5%
Richard R. Smith[4] 4,043 40.5%

References

  1. Won special election to 10th Congress
  2. 1 2 3 4 Aligned with the Democratic-Republicans
  3. 1 2 3 4 Aligned with the Federalists
  4. Ran as "American Republican"
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