1794 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania

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 ) was a plural district, with 2 Representatives. These districts remained in use until redistricting after the census of 1800.

• The consisted of the City of Philadelphia
• The consisted of Philadelphia County
• The consisted of Chester and Delaware Counties
• The (2 seats) consisted of Montgomery, Bucks and Northampton Counties
• The consisted of Berks and Luzerne County
• The consisted of Northumberland and Dauphin Counties
• The consisted of Lancaster County
• The consisted of York County
• The consisted of Mifflin and Cumberland County
• The consisted of Bedford, Huntingdon and Franklin Counties
• The consisted of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties
• The consisted of Allegheny and Washington Counties

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. 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.

In the , 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 in 1800

Joseph Hiester was a cousin of Daniel.

References

• Electoral data and information on districts are from the Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project

References

1. District assignments based on residence information given in [http://staffweb.wilkes.edu/harold.cox/rep/Congress%201792.pdf the 1792 returns]
2. A dispute arose over whether James Morris or John Richards was in second place, see below for more details