Party Strength in Congress
Many Congressmen were very hard to classify in the first few years, but after 1796 there was less uncertainty.
Election year | |||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
House | 1788 | 1790 | 1792 | 1794 | 1796 | 1798 | 1800 | 1802 | 1804 | 1806 | 1808 | 1810 | 1812 | 1814 | 1816 | 1818 | 1820 |
Federalist | 37 | 39 | 51 | 47 | 57 | 60 | 38 | 39 | 25 | 24 | 50 | 36 | 68 | 64 | 39 | 26 | 32 |
Democratic-Republican | 28 | 30 | 54 | 59 | 49 | 46 | 65 | 103 | 116 | 118 | 92 | 107 | 114 | 119 | 146 | 160 | 155 |
% Democratic-Republican | 43% | 43% | 51% | 56% | 46% | 43% | 63% | 73% | 82% | 83% | 65% | 75% | 63% | 65% | 79% | 86% | 83% |
Senate | 1788 | 1790 | 1792 | 1794 | 1796 | 1798 | 1800 | 1802 | 1804 | 1806 | 1808 | 1810 | 1812 | 1814 | 1816 | 1818 | 1820 |
Federalist | 18 | 16 | 16 | 21 | 22 | 22 | 15 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 9 | 7 |
Democratic-Republican | 8 | 13 | 14 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 17 | 25 | 27 | 28 | 27 | 30 | 28 | 26 | 30 | 37 | 44 |
% Democratic-Republican | 31% | 45% | 47% | 34% | 31% | 31% | 53% | 74% | 71% | 82% | 79% | 83% | 78% | 68% | 71% | 80% | 92% |
Source: Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789–1989 (1989); the numbers are estimates by historians.
The affiliation of many Congressmen in the earliest years is an assignment by later historians. The parties were slowly coalescing groups; at first there were many independents. Cunningham noted that only about a quarter of the House of Representatives, up until 1794, voted with Madison as much as two-thirds of the time, and another quarter against him two-thirds of the time, leaving almost half as fairly independent.
Read more about this topic: Federalist Party
Famous quotes containing the words party, strength and/or congress:
“DORIS: Heres the two of spades.
DUSTY: The two of spades!
THATS THE COFFIN!!
DORIS: THATS THE COFFIN?
Oh good heavens whatll I do?
Just before a party too!”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“I came to love my rows, my beans, though so many more than I wanted. They attached me to the earth, and so I got strength like Antæus. But why should I raise them? Only Heaven knows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (18571930)