United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1822

Background

27 U.S. Representatives had been elected in April 1821 to a term in the 17th United States Congress which had begun on March 4, 1821. Selah Tuthill died on September 7, 1821, before Congress met, and Charles Borland, Jr. had been elected to fill the vacancy. Solomon Van Rensselaer resigned his seat in January 1822, and Stephen Van Rensselaer had been elected to fill the vacancy. The representatives' term would end on March 3, 1823. Most previous congressional elections in New York had been held together with the annual State elections in late April, but under the New York Constitution of 1821, the elections were moved permanently to November: about four months before the congressional term began, and a little more than a year before Congress actually met on December 1, 1823.

At this time the Democratic-Republican Party in New York was split into two opposing factions: on one side, the supporters of DeWitt Clinton and his Erie Canal project; on the other side, the Bucktails (including the Tammany Hall organization in New York City), led by Martin Van Buren. At the same time, the Federalist Party had already disbanded, and most of its former members had joined the Clintonians.

Congressional districts

On April 17, 1822, the New York State Legislature re-apportioned the congressional districts according to the figures of the 1820 United States census. The number of district was increased to 30, creating eight new districts; the number of seats was increased to 34, creating for the first time a triple-seat district, and keeping two double-seat districts.

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Result

23 Bucktails and 11 Clintonian/Federalists were declared elected. The incumbents Wood, Morgan, Cambreleng, Van Wyck, Van Rensselaer, Taylor, Litchfield, Rochester and Tracy were re-elected; the incumbents Ruggles, Dickinson, Campbell and Woodcock were defeated.

Note: In Congress both Bucktails and Clintonians aligned with the Democratic-Republicans from the other States. Of the Anti-Bucktails Wood, Ruggles, Strong, Dickinson, Van Rensselaer, Storrs and Russell were old Federalists; Stockholm, Craig, Beck, Cady, Taylor, Gross, Richmond, Lawrence, Marvin, Thompson, Hayden, Adams and Tracy were Clintonians.

Aftermath, special election and contested election

William B. Rochester, re-elected in the 28th District, was appointed Judge of the Eighth Circuit Court on April 21, 1823, and resigned his seat before Congress met. A special election to fill the vacancy was held, and was won by William Woods, of the same faction.

The House of Representatives of the 18th United States Congress met for the first time at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., on December 1, 1823, and 30 of the representatives, among them Isaac Wilson and William Woods, took their seats on this day. Lawrence took his seat on December 5; Herkimer on December 8; Tracy on December 16; and Morgan on December 18.

A petition on behalf of Parmenio Adams was presented to contest the election of Isaac Wilson in the 29th District. On December 30, 1823, the Committee on Elections submitted its report. They found that in the town of China by mistake 67 votes had been returned for Wilson, although he had polled only 45. They also found that in the town of Attica by mistake 98 votes had been returned for Adams, although he had polled only 93. The Secretary of State of New York, receiving the abovementioned result, issued credentials for Wilson who took his seat when Congress met on December 1. Correcting the mistakes in the China and Attica returns, Adams had 2,072 and Wilson 2,071 votes. Wilson also claimed that he had received 1 vote in Middlebury which was counted as a "blank vote" by the election inspectors because the name printed on the ballot was "partially erased with the stroke of a pen," and that he had received 2 votes in the Town of Stafford and 4 votes in the Town of Byron which were not counted by the election inspectors because the ballots were folded together in pairs. The committee upheld the decision of the election inspectors in both cases, and declared Adams entitled to the seat, winning the election by a single vote. On January 7, 1824, after much debate, the House declared Parmenio Adams entitled to the seat instead of Wilson, and Adams took it.

During this congressional term party lines broke down while four candidates lined up to succeed President James Monroe. At the United States presidential election, 1824, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay and William H. Crawford received electoral votes, but no candidate received a majority. Thus the election was referred to the House of Representatives, to choose among the three most voted candidates: Adams, Jackson and Crawford. Henry Clay supported Adams, so that after the election on February 9, 1825, one month before the end of the term, the members were back-labeled (according to their actual vote) as "Adams-Clay Democratic-Republicans" (Sharpe, Van Wyck, Williams, Herkimer, Cady, Taylor, Martindale, Lawrence, Marvin, Rose, Hayden, Woods, Adams and Tracy), "Jackson Democratic-Republicans" (Morgan and Craig), "Crawford Democratic-Republicans" (Tyson, Cambreleng, Frost, Jenkins, Hoogeboom, Foote, Eaton, Richards, Ten Eyck, Collins, Clark, Dwinell, Litchfield, Day) and "Adams-Clay Federalists" (Wood, Strong, Van Rensselaer, Storrs).