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18 of the 54 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections) 28 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The United States Senate elections of 1844 and 1845 were elections which, coinciding with James K. Polk's election, had the Democratic Party retake control of the United States Senate, gaining a net total of eleven seats from the Whigs.
As these elections were prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.
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✪ War & Expansion: Crash Course US History #17
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✪ American History - Part 067 - Polk Elected President - Texas sneaks in
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✪ The Mexican-American War in 5 Minutes
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✪ Texas annexation
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✪ The Most Underrated American President
Transcription
Episode 17: Expansion and War Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course U.S. history and today we’re going to discuss how the United States came to acquire two of its largest states, Texas and…there is another one. Mr. Green! Mr. Green! I believe the answer you’re looking for is Alaska. Oh me from the past, as you can clearly tell from the globe, Alaskan statehood never happened. No I am referring of course to California. Stan, are we using your computer today? Oh. Stan! We’ve talked about westward expansion a few times here on CrashCourse, but it’s usually about, like, Kentucky or Ohio. This time we’re going really west, I mean, not like Hawaii west, but sea to shining sea west. intro So you might remember that journalist John O’Sullivan coined the phrase Manifest Destiny to describe America’s god given right to take over all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, regardless of who happened to be living there Sorry Native Americans, Mexicans, French fur trappers, beavers, bison, prairie dogs, passenger pigeons. I’m not going to go so far as to give God credit for America’s internal imperialism, but I will say that our expansion had a lot to do with economics, especially when you consider Jefferson’s ideas about the empire of liberty. Stan, did I just say liberty? That means technically I also have to talk about slavery, but we’re gonna kick the slavery can down the road until later in the show. Just like American politicians did in the 19th century. By 1860 nearly 300,000 people had made the trip that has been immortalized by the classic educational video game “Oregon Trail,” which, by the way, is inaccurate in the sense that a family of 6, even a very hungry one, cannot eat a buffalo. But is extremely accurate in that a lot of people died of dysentery and cholera. Frickin disease. So, Oregon at the time was jointly controlled by the U.S. and Britain. Northern Mexico at the time included what are now Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and California. But New Mexico and California were the only two with, like, big settlements. About 30,000 Mexicans lived in New Mexico, and about 3,500 in California, and in both places they were outnumbered by Native Americans. Okay, let’s go to the Thought Bubble. When Mexico became independent, there were only about 2,000 Tejanos there, so to encourage economic development, Mexico’s government granted a huge tract of land to Moses Austin. Austin’s son Stephen made a tidy profit selling off smaller parcels of that land until there were 7,000 American Americans there. This made Mexico nervous so, backpedalling furiously, Mexico annulled the land contracts and banned further emigration into Texas. Even though slavery was already abolished in Mexico, up to now they had allowed Americans to bring slaves. Austin, joined by some Tejano elites, demanded greater autonomy and the right to use slave labor. Thinking the better of it, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana decided to assert control over the restive territory with an army, turning the elite’s demands for autonomy into a full-scale revolt for independence. On March 13, 1836, Santa Ana defeated the American defenders of the Alamo, killing 187 (or 188, sources differ) Americans including Davy Crockett. The Texas rebels would “remember the Alamo” and come back to defeat Santa Ana at the battle of San Jacinto. And Mexico was forced to recognize Texas’s independence. So Texas became the Lone Star Republic and quickly decided that it would be much better to be a less lonely star and join the United States. So, in 1837, Texas’ Congress called for union but all they heard back was, “not so fast, Texas.” Why? Because Texas wanted to be a slave state, and adding another slave state would disrupt the balance in the Senate, so Jackson and Van Buren did what good politicians always do: they ignored Texas. And then after Martin Van Buren wrote a letter denouncing any plan to annex Texas on the grounds that it would probably provoke a war, Democratic convention southerners threw their support behind slaveholding Andrew Jackson pal, James K. Polk. Polk just managed to get a presidential victory over perennial almost-president Henry Clay, and seeing the writing on the wall, Congress annexed Texas in March of 1845, days before Polk took office. Congress then forged an agreement with Britain to divide Oregon at the 49th parallel, which restored the slave state/free state balance in the Senate. Thanks, Thought Bubble. Hey, Stan, can I get the foreshadowing filter? I wonder if we’re going to be able to keep that slave state/free state balance...forever. The land-hungry James K. Polk had another goal as president: acquire California from Mexico. He tried to purchase it from Mexico, but they were like, “No,” which is Spanish for “No.” So Polk decided to do things the hard way – he sent troops under future president Zachary Taylor into this disputed border region. As expected, by which I mean intended, fighting broke out between American and Mexican forces. Polk, in calling for a declaration of war, claimed that the Mexicans had “shed blood upon American soil,” although the soil in question was arguably not American, unless you think of America as being, you know, all of this. A majority of Americans supported this war, although to be fair, a majority of Americans will support almost any war. I’m sorry, but it is true. At least at first. It was the first war fought by American troops primarily on foreign soil, as most of the fighting was done in Mexico. Among the dissenters was a Massachusetts Transcendentalist who is probably better known than the war itself. Henry David Thoreau was in fact thrown in jail for refusing to pay taxes in protest of the war and wrote “On Civil Disobedience” in his defence, which many American high-schoolers are assigned to read and expected not to understand, lest they take the message to heart and stop doing assignments like reading “On Civil Disobedience.” Another critic was concerned about the increase in executive power that Polk seemed to show, saying: “Allow the president to invade a neighboring country whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to make war at pleasure” That critic was none other than noted peacenik Abraham Lincoln, who would go on to do more to expand executive power than any president in the 19th century except maybe Andrew Jackson. Right so Santa Ana’s army was defeated in February 1847 but Mexico refused to give up. So Winfield Scott, who had the unfortunate nickname “old fuss and feathers,” captured Mexico City itself in September. A final peace treaty, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, under which Mexico confirmed the annexation of Texas and further ceded California as well as several other places that would later become states but we couldn’t fit on the map. In return, the U.S. paid Mexico $15 million and agreed to a no backsies deal in re Texas thereby freeing Mexico from the shackles of Amarillo. I’m sorry Amarillians. No I’m not. I am. I am. I’m not. I am. This is great, Stan. The people of Amarillo hate me, also the people of New Jersey, Alaska is in the green-parts-of-not-America, We don’t even have Arizona and New Mexico on the chalkboard. Pretty soon I will have alienated everyone. Anyway, thanks to the land from Mexico, our dream of expanding from the Atlantic to the Pacific was finally complete. And as always happens when dreams come true, trouble started. After the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, between 75,000 and 100,000 Spanish-speaking Mexicans and 150,000 Native Americans were under the jurisdiction of the United States. Despite the fact that the treaty granted Spanish descended Mexican “male citizens” legal and property rights, the Mexicans were still seen as inferior to Anglo-Saxons whose manifest destiny it was, of course, to overspread the continent. And the fact that these Mexicans were Catholic didn’t help either, especially because in the eastern part of the United States, there was a rising tide of anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment known as nativism. And there was a new political party, The American Party, dedicated entirely to such sentiment. They were referred to as the “Know-nothings” because when you asked them about their politics they would answer that they didn’t know anything. And indeed, they didn’t. This was not an expert branding strategy, although they did manage to win an unexpected number of local offices in a state heralded for its ignorance … Massachusetts. You thought I was going to say New Jersey, but I’m trying to make nice with the New Jersey people because they take it pretty personally. Meanwhile, in California, there weren’t enough white, English speaking American residents to apply for statehood until gold was discovered in 1848, leading of course to San Francisco’s NFL team, the San Francisco 48ers. By 1852, the non-Indian population in California had risen from 15,000 to 200,000 and it was 360,000 on the eve of the Civil War. Now not all of those migrants – mainly young men seeking their fortunes – were white. Nearly 25,000 Chinese people migrated to California, most as contract workers working for mining and railroad companies. And there were women, too, who ran restaurants, and worked as cooks, and laundresses, and prostitutes, but the ratio of men to women in California in 1860 was 3 to 1. Aw shmerg. It’s time for the Mystery Document? The rules here are simple. I read the Mystery Document and I’m either shocked by electricity or by the fact that I got it right. “We would beg to remind you that when your nation was a wilderness, and the nation from which you sprung barbarous, we exercised most of the arts and virtues of civilized life; that we are possessed of a language and a literature, and that men skilled in science and the arts are numerous among us; that the productions of our manufactories, our sail, and workshops, form no small share of commerce of the world; and that for centuries, colleges, schools, charitable institutions, asylums, and hospitals have been as common as in your own land. (…) And we beg to remark, that so far as the history of our race in California goes, it stamps with the test of truth that we are not the degraded race you would make us.” So it’s someone who said that “we” had a great civilization when “you” were a wilderness, plus they called us “barbarous,” so it’s either ancient Rome or China. I’m gonna lean toward China. That only gets me halfway there. Now I have to think of the name of the person. And I don’t know any famous people from mid-19th century China who lived in the U.S. ...People say I can’t sing. Norman Asing? Who the hell is Normal Asing? AHHHH. So these days California is known for its groovy, laid back, “oh your back hurts? here’s some pot” attitude, but that was not the case in the 19th century. The California constitution of 1850 limited civil participation to whites – no Asians, no Black people or Native Americans could vote or testify in court. Indians were kicked off their land if it had any mineral value, and thousands of their orphaned children were sold as slaves. And all of this led to the Indian population of California dropping from 150,000 to about 30,000 between 1848 and 1860. So it wasn’t at all clear whether California was the kind of place to be admitted to the U.S. as a free state or as a slave state. The Missouri Compromise was of no help here because half of California is below the 36 30 line, and half is above it. A new “Free Soil” party formed in 1848 calling for the limiting of slavery’s expansion in the west so that it could be open for white people to live and work. I just want to be clear that most of the people who were for limiting slavery were not, like, un-racist. So, they nominated the admirably-whiskered Martin Van Buren for the presidency, and Van Buren and Democratic nominee Lewis Cass then split the northern vote, allowing the aforementioned Zachary Taylor, to win. So in 1850, when California finally did ask to be admitted into the Union, it was as a free state. Southerners freaked out because they saw it as the beginning of the end of slavery, but then, to the rescue came Henry Clay, for his last hurrah. He said, “We can kick this problem down the road once more” and brokered a four-part plan that became known rather anticlimactically as the Compromise of 1850. Historians, can you name nothing?! The four points were: 1. California would be admitted as a free state 2. The slave trade, but not slavery, would be outlawed in Washington D.C. 3. A new, super harsh fugitive slave law would be enacted, and 4. Popular sovereignty The idea was that in the remaining territories taken from Mexico, the local white inhabitants could decide for themselves whether the state would be slave or free when it applied to be part of the U.S. Ah, the Compromise of 1850. A great reminder that nothing protects the rights of minorities like the tyranny of the majority. There was a huge debate over the bill in which noted asshat John C. Calhoun was so sick that he had to have his pro-slavery, anti-compromise remarks read by a colleague. On the other side, New York’s Senator William Seward, an abolitionist, also argued against compromise, based on slavery’s being, you know, wrong. But, eventually the compromise did pass, thus averting a greater crisis for ten whole years. Ralph Waldo Emerson predicted that if the United States acquired part of Mexico, it would be like swallowing arsenic. And indeed, arsenic can be a slow-acting poison. Now I don’t think Ralph Waldo Emerson was a good enough writer to have thought that far ahead, but he was right. Some people say that manifest destiny made the Civil War inevitable. But, as we’ll see next week, what really made the Civil War inevitable was slavery. But, we see in the story of manifest destiny the underlying problem, the United States didn’t govern according to its own ideals. It didn’t extend liberties to Native Americans or Mexican Americans or immigrant populations or slaves. Thanks for watching. And we’ll see you next week when things will get much worse. Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan Muller. Our script supervisor is Meredith Danko. The show is written by my high school history teacher Raoul Meyer and myself. Our associate producer is Danica Johnson. And our graphics team is Thought Café. If you’d like to contribute to the libertage, you can suggest captions. You can also ask questions in comments where they will be answered by our team of historians. Thank you for watching Crash Course and as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.
Contents
Results summary
Senate Party Division, 29th Congress (1845–1847)
- Majority Party: Democratic (26–31)
- Minority Party: Whig (24)
- Other Parties: (0–1)
- Vacant: (4–2)
- Total Seats: 54–58
Change in Senate composition
Before the elections
D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | ||||
D16 | D15 | D14 | D13 | D12 | D11 | D10 | D9 | D8 | D7 |
D17 | D18 | D19 | D20 Ran |
D21 Ran |
D22 Ran |
D23 Ran |
D24 Retired |
LO1 Retired |
W27 Retired |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Majority → | |||||||||
W17 Ran |
W18 Ran |
W19 Ran |
W20 Ran |
W21 Unknown |
W22 Unknown |
W23 Retired |
W24 Retired |
W25 Retired |
W26 Retired |
W16 | W15 | W14 | W13 | W12 | W11 | W10 | W9 | W8 | W7 |
W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 |
Result of the elections
D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | |||
D17 | D16 | D15 | D14 | D13 | D12 | D11 | D10 | D9 | D8 |
D18 | D19 | D20 Re-elected |
D21 Re-elected |
D22 Re-elected |
D23 Re-elected |
D24 Gain |
D25 Gain |
D26 Gain |
D27 Gain |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Majority → | |||||||||
W18 Re-elected |
W19 Re-elected |
W20 Hold |
W21 Hold |
W22 Hold |
W23 Gain |
W24 Gain |
V1 W Loss |
V2 New seat |
V3 New seat |
W17 Re-elected |
W16 | W15 | W14 | W13 | W12 | W11 | W10 | W9 | W8 |
W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 |
Beginning of the next Congress
D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | |||
D17 | D16 | D15 | D14 | D13 | D12 | D11 | D10 | D9 | D8 |
D18 | D19 | D20 | D21 | D22 | D23 | D24 | D25 | D26 | V4 D Loss |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Majority ↑ | |||||||||
W18 | W19 | W20 | W21 | W22 | W23 | W24 | V1 | V2 | V3 |
W17 | W16 | W15 | W14 | W13 | W12 | W11 | W10 | W9 | W8 |
W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 |
Beginning of the first session of the next Congress (December 1, 1845)
D1 | D2 | D3 | D4 | D5 | D6 | D7 | |||
D17 | D16 | D15 | D14 | D13 | D12 | D11 | D10 | D9 | D8 |
D18 | D19 | D20 | D21 | D22 | D23 | D24 Hold |
D25 Hold |
D26 Hold |
D27 Gain |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Majority → | D28 Gain | ||||||||
W18 | W19 | W20 | W21 | W22 | W23 Hold |
W24 Hold |
D30 Gain |
D29 Gain | |
W17 | W16 | W15 | W14 | W13 | W12 | W11 | W10 | W9 | W8 |
W1 | W2 | W3 | W4 | W5 | W6 | W7 |
Key: |
|
---|
Race summaries
Special elections during the 28th Congress
In these special elections, the winners were seated during 1844 or in 1845 before March 4; ordered by election date.
State | Incumbent | Results | Candidates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Senator | Party | Electoral history | |||
Rhode Island (Class 1) |
William Sprague | Whig | 1842 (Special) | Incumbent resigned January 17, 1844. New senator elected January 25, 1844. Law and Order gain. |
|
Louisiana (Class 3) |
Alexander Porter | Whig | 1833 (Special) 1837 (Resigned) 1843 |
Incumbent died January 13, 1844. New senator elected February 12, 1844. Whig hold. |
|
Arkansas (Class 2) |
William S. Fulton | Democratic | 1836 (Special) 1840 |
Incumbent died August 15, 1844. New senator elected November 8, 1844. Democratic hold. |
|
New York (Class 1) |
Daniel S. Dickinson | Democratic | 1844 (Appointed) | Appointee elected January 18, 1845. New senator would later be elected to the next term, see below. |
|
New York (Class 3) |
Henry A. Foster | Democratic | 1844 (Appointed) | Unknown if appointee retired or lost election. New senator elected January 18, 1845. Democratic hold. |
|
Races leading to the 29th Congress
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1845; ordered by state.
All of the elections involved the Class 1 seats.
State | Incumbent | Results | Candidates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Senator | Party | Electoral history | |||
Connecticut | Jabez W. Huntington | Whig | 1840 (Special) | Incumbent re-elected in 1844 or 1845. |
|
Delaware | Richard H. Bayard | Whig | 1836 (Special) 1838 or 1839 1839 (Resigned) 1841 (Special) |
Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1845. Whig hold. |
|
Florida | New state | Florida was admitted March 3, 1845, but its first Class 1 senator was elected late, during the next Congress. Vacant. |
None. | ||
Indiana | Albert White | Whig | 1838 | Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1844. Democratic gain. |
|
Maine | John Fairfield | Democratic | 1843 (Special) | Incumbent re-elected in 1844 or 1845. |
|
Maryland | William Merrick | Whig | 1838 (Special) 1839 |
Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1844 or 1845. Whig hold. |
|
Massachusetts | Rufus Choate | Whig | 1841 (Special) | Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1845. Whig hold. |
|
Michigan | Augustus S. Porter | Whig | 1840 (Special) | Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1844 or 1845. Democratic gain. |
|
Mississippi | John Henderson | Whig | 1838 | Unknown if incumbent retired or lost. New senator elected in 1844. Democratic gain. |
|
Missouri | Thomas H. Benton | Democratic | 1821 1827 1833 1839 |
Incumbent re-elected in 1845. |
|
New Jersey | William L. Dayton | Whig | 1842 (Appointed) ? (Special) |
Incumbent re-elected in 1845. |
|
New York | Daniel S. Dickinson | Democratic | 1844 (Appointed) 1845 (Special) |
Incumbent re-elected February 4, 1845. |
|
Ohio | Benjamin Tappan | Democratic | 1838 | Incumbent retired. New senator elected December 5, 1844.[1] Whig gain. |
|
Pennsylvania | Daniel Sturgeon | Democratic | 1840 | Incumbent re-elected January 14, 1845. |
|
Rhode Island | John B. Francis | Law and Order | 1844 (Special) | Incumbent retired. New senator elected in 1844 or 1845. Whig gain. |
|
Tennessee | Ephraim H. Foster | Whig | 1838 (Special) 1839 (Re-elected, but resigned) 1843 (Special) |
Unknown if incumbent retired or lost re-election. New senator elected in 1844. Democratic gain. |
|
Vermont | Samuel S. Phelps | Whig | 1839 | Incumbent re-elected in 1845. |
|
Virginia | William C. Rives | Whig | 1832 (Special) 1834 (Resigned) 1836 (Special) 1839 (Legislature failed to elect) 1841 (Special) |
Legislature failed to elect. Whig loss. |
[Data unknown/missing.] |
Special elections during the 29th Congress
In these special elections, the winners were elected in 1845 after March 4; ordered by election date.
State | Incumbent | Results | Candidates | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Senator | Party | Electoral history | |||
Pennsylvania (Class 3) |
James Buchanan | Democratic | 1834 (Special) 1836 1843 |
Incumbent resigned March 5, 1845 to become U.S. Secretary of State. New senator elected March 13, 1845. Democratic hold. |
|
Massachusetts (Class 2) |
Isaac C. Bates | Whig | 1841 (Special) 1841 |
Incumbent died March 16, 1845. New senator elected March 24, 1845. Whig hold. |
|
Florida (Class 1) |
New state | Florida was admitted March 3, 1845. Its first senators were elected July 1, 1845. Democratic gain. |
| ||
Florida (Class 3) |
New state | Florida was admitted March 3, 1845. Its first senators were elected July 1, 1845. Democratic gain. |
| ||
Georgia (Class 2) |
John M. Berrien | Whig | 1825 1829 (Resigned) 1840 |
Incumbent resigned in May 1845 to become judge of the Supreme Court of Georgia. He did not remain on the court, however, and was re-elected November 13, 1845. Whig hold. |
|
South Carolina (Class 2) |
Vacant | Incumbent Democrat Daniel E. Huger had resigned in the previous Congress. New senator was elected November 26, 1845. Democratic gain. |
| ||
Virginia (Class 1) |
Vacant | Legislature had failed to elect. New senator elected late December 3, 1845. Democratic gain. |
|
New York
Two special elections were held on January 18, 1845 and one regular election was held on February 4, 1845.
Nathaniel P. Tallmadge had been re-elected in 1840 to the Class 1 seat (term 1839-1845), but resigned on June 17, 1844, to be appointed Governor of Wisconsin Territory by President John Tyler. On November 30, Governor William C. Bouck appointed Lieutenant Governor Daniel S. Dickinson to fill the vacancy temporarily, and Dickinson took his seat on December 9, 1844.
Silas Wright, Jr. had been re-elected in 1843 to the Class 3 seat (term 1843-1849), but resigned on November 26, 1844, after his election as Governor of New York. On November 30, Governor William C. Bouck appointed State Senator Henry A. Foster to fill the vacancy temporarily, and Foster took his seat on December 9, 1844.
The 68th New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 14, 1845, and the majority Democrats were split between two factions: the "Hunkers" and the "Barnburners". At the Democratic caucus for Speaker Hunker Horatio Seymour received 35 votes against 30 for Barnburner William C. Crain. Both of the temporarily appointed U.S. Senators, Dickinson and Foster, were also Hunkers, but the Barnburners claimed one of the seats.
A Democratic caucus to nominate candidates for the U.S. Senate met in January[2] with 93 state legislators present. To fill the Class 3 vacancy caused by the resignation of Silas Wright, Barnburner John Adams Dix was nominated with 51 votes against Hunker Chief Justice Samuel Nelson with 41 votes. To fill the Class 1 vacancy caused by the resignation of Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, for the remainder of the term which would expire on March 3 next, the incumbent Hunker appointee, Daniel S. Dickinson, was re-nominated.
After these nominations were made, it was moved to adjourn, and to postpone the nomination of a candidate for the full term beginning on March 4, which was rejected by a vote of 55 to 37. Dickinson was then nominated to succeed himself for a full term (1845-1851). The vote was 54 for Dickinson, 13 votes for the Barnburner ex-Congressman Michael Hoffman, 3 votes for the Barnburner ex-Congressman Freeborn G. Jewett , 1 for Hunker Samuel Nelson, and 4 blanks. Many Barnburners refused to vote on this nomination, and then opposed the motion to make the nomination unanimous.
House | Democratic | Whig | American Republican | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
State Senate (32 members) | ![]() |
27 | Willis Hall | 3 | Harman B. Cropsey | 1 |
State Assembly (128 members) | ![]() |
House | Democratic | Whig | American Republican | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
State Senate (32 members) | ![]() |
27 | Millard Fillmore | 3 | Jonathan Thompson | 1 |
State Assembly (128 members) | ![]() |
House | Democratic | Whig | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
State Senate (32 members) | ![]() |
25 | John C. Clark | 4 |
State Assembly (128 members) | ![]() |
Dickinson re-took his seat under the new credentials on January 27, 1845, and re-elected, remained in office until March 3, 1851, when his term expired. Dix took his seat on January 27, 1845, and remained in office until March 3, 1849, when his term expired.
Pennsylvania
The general election was held on January 14, 1845. Incumbent Daniel Sturgeon was re-elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.[3] The Pennsylvania General Assembly, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate, convened on January 14, 1845, to elect a Senator to serve the term beginning on March 4, 1845. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Daniel Sturgeon (Incumbent) | 72 | 54.14 | |
Whig | James Cooper | 49 | 36.84 | |
Know Nothing | John Ashmead | 5 | 3.76 | |
Know Nothing | E. W. Keyser | 2 | 1.50 | |
Know Nothing | Jacob Broom | 1 | 0.75 | |
Know Nothing | E. C. Reigert | 1 | 0.75 | |
Whig | John Sergeant | 1 | 0.75 | |
N/A | Not voting | 2 | 1.50 | |
Totals | 133 | 100.00% |
A special election was held on March 13, 1845. Simon Cameron was elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly to the United States Senate.[5] Democrat and future President of the United States James Buchanan was elected to the United States Senate by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, in an 1834 special election and was re-elected in 1836 and 1843. Sen. Buchanan resigned on March 5, 1845, after being appointed U.S. Secretary of State by President James K. Polk.[6] Following the resignation of Sen. Buchanan, the Pennsylvania General Assembly convened on March 13, 1845, to elect a new Senator to fill the vacancy and serve the remainder of the term set to expire on March 4, 1849. Five ballots were recorded. The results of the fifth and final ballot of both houses combined are as follows:
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Simon Cameron | 67 | 50.38 | |
Democratic | George W. Woodward | 55 | 41.35 | |
Whig | J. R. Ingersoll | 2 | 1.50 | |
Whig | John Banks | 1 | 0.75 | |
Know Nothing | Peter A. Brown | 1 | 0.75 | |
Unknown | Thomas S. Bell | 1 | 0.75 | |
Whig | T. D. Cochran | 1 | 0.75 | |
N/A | Not voting | 5 | 3.76 | |
Totals | 133 | 100.00% |
See also
References
- ^ a b Taylor & Taylor, p. 215, vol I.
- ^ The exact date is unclear. Hammond writes on February 24, which is an obvious mistake.[citation needed] Hammond also confuses the date of the special election and the regular election. Although the nominations for the special and the regular elections were made at the same caucus, the elections were held on different dates. The special election took place in January, the U.S. Senators were recorded in the congressional journals as taking their seats on January 27. The regular election took place on the regular election day, the first Tuesday in February, together with the election of the other State officers.
- ^ a b "U.S. Senate Election - 14 January 1845" (PDF). Wilkes University. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
- ^ "PA US Senate". OurCampaigns. Retrieved December 22, 2012.
- ^ a b "U.S. Senate Election - 13 March 1845" (PDF). Wilkes University. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
- ^ "BUCHANAN, James, (1791 - 1868)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
Sources and external links
- Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present, via Senate.gov
- Members of the 28th United States Congress, via GPOaccess.gov
- Members of the 29th United States Congress, via GPOaccess.gov
- Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682-2006 from the Wilkes University Election Statistics Project
- Taylor, William Alexander; Taylor, Aubrey Clarence (1899). Ohio statesmen and annals of progress: from the year 1788 to the year 1900. State of Ohio.
- The New York Civil List compiled in 1858 (see: pg. 63 for U.S. Senators; pg. 134f for State Senators 1845; pg. 230f for Members of Assembly 1845)
- Political History of the State of New York, from Jan. 1, 1841, to Jan. 1, 1847; Vol. III by Jabez Delano Hammond (State election, 1844: pg. 505f; appointments, 1844: pg. 508f; Speaker election, 1845: pg. 518; U.S. Senate nominations, 1845: pg. 526ff) [gives wrong date for caucus, and election]
- Abridgment of the Debates in Congress, from 1789 to 1856: Dec. 4, 1843 to June 18, 1846 (page 197)
- Journal of the Senate (68th Session) (1845; pg. 77f and 142f)
