United States House of Representatives elections, 1854

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 34th Congress were held at various dates in each State, the earliest being in the middle of President Franklin Pierce's term on August 4, 1854 (in Arkansas) and the latest on November 6, 1855 (in Louisiana and Maryland).

Contents

• California
• Wisconsin
• References

The American Party (commonly called the Know Nothings) and the Opposition Party formed a coalition government which elected Nathaniel P. Banks as House Speaker even though the Democratic Party was the single party with the largest plurality of seats. The Opposition Party included members of the Whig Party (which would soon collapse), the People's Party of Indiana, Anti-Nebraska candidates, and members of the nascent Republican Party.

The major issue of the election was the Kansas-Nebraska Act which had been passed on May 30, 1854. The Act infuriated much of the North, as it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the Federal territories to slavery. Because the Pierce Administration and Democrats in Congress had been the primary supporters of the Act, the party lost many seats in the Northern states; this included 16 in New York, 12 in Ohio and 9 in Pennsylvania. The new Anti-Nebraska movement (a loose group of independent, Free Soil, and early Republican politicians) gained a combined 37 seats in the North. The American Party gained seats in both the North and South. It ignored the slavery issue and focused on pushing for reduced immigration, especially from Catholic areas of Ireland and Germany.

The fragmentation of the Democratic and Whig parties led to a drawn out election for Speaker of the House. The Democratic Party supported William Alexander Richardson of Illinois as their candidate. Whigs, Republicans, Americans, and Free Soil members of the House supported various candidates, and no candidate received a majority vote. In the end, the House agreed to elect a Speaker by plurality vote, as the elections were taking up time for legislative matters. Non-Democratic members of Congress then elected Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts as their Speaker.