1810 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania

Background

Eighteen Representatives had been elected in 1808, 16 Democratic-Republicans and 2 Federalists. One Democratic-Republican resigned and was replaced by another Representative from the same party, so that there was still a 16-2 division. Four of the Democratic-Republicans and two of the Federalists were "quids", a short-lived alliance of moderate Democratic-Republicans and Federalists. That was the last year in which the quids as a movement existed.

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:

• The (3 seats) consisted of Delaware and Philadelphia counties (including the City of Philadelphia)
• The (3 seats) consisted of Bucks, Luzerne, Montgomery, Northampton, Susquehanna, and Wayne Counties
• The (3 seats) consisted of Berks, Chester, and Lancaster Counties
• The (2 seats) consisted of Cumberland, Dauphin, Huntingdon, and Mifflin Counties
• The consisted of Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, McKean, Northumberland, Potter, and Tioga Counties
• The consisted of Adams and York Counties
• The consisted of Bedford and Franklin Counties
• The consisted of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Somerset, and Westmoreland Counties
• The consisted of Fayette and Greene Counties
• The consisted of Washington County
• The consisted of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango, and Warren Counties

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

Election results

Fifteen incumbents (14 Democratic-Republicans and 1 Federalist) ran for re-election, of whom ten were re-elected. The incumbents John Ross (DR) of the , Robert Jenkins (F) of the and Matthias Richards (DR) also of the 3rd district did not run for re-election. Two seats changed from Federalist to Democratic-Republican control and one seat changed from Democratic-Republican to Federalist control, for a net loss of 1 seat by the Federalists. In the 1st district, there was a split between three "New School" and one "Old School" Democratic-Republicans, which split the Democratic-Republican vote enough to allow one of the three seats in that district to be won by a Federalist.

Post-Election

All 18 Representatives elected in October appeared in Washington at the start of the 12th Congress. John Smilie (DR) of the died December 30, 1812. Abner Lacock (DR) of the resigned February 24, 1813, after being elected to the Senate. Both had been re-elected to the 13th Congress, and both districts were left vacant for the remainder of the 12th Congress.

References

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

References

1. New School
2. Old School
3. Changed parties
4. Quid
5. "12th Congress membership roster".