Federalist Party - Party Strength in Congress

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.

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