United States House of Representatives elections, 1808

← 1806

April 26, 1808 - May 5, 1809

1810 →

All 142 seats to the United States House of Representatives
72 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Joseph Bradley Varnum	Timothy Pitkin
Party	Democratic-Republican	Federalist
Leader's seat	Massachusetts-4th	Connecticut-AL
Last election	116 seats	26 seats
Seats won	94	48
Seat change	22	22

Speaker before election

Joseph Bradley Varnum
Democratic-Republican

Elected Speaker

Joseph Bradley Varnum
Democratic-Republican

Elections to the United States House of Representatives for the 11th Congress were held in the various states between April 1808 (in New York) and May 1809 (in Tennessee). The Congress first met on May 22, 1809.

Although the Democratic-Republicans maintained control of the presidency (under James Madison) and Congress after the election of 1808, Federalists made significant gains in the House, mainly due to the unpopularity of the Embargo Act of 1807. In particular, voters in New England, who often had ties to the shipping or manufacturing industries, overwhelmingly chose to send Federalists to Washington. Economic stagnation due to the closing of the export market and fears that Democratic-Republican policies had the potential for leading America into a naval war with France or Britain were key issues that allowed for a brief Federalist resurgence. The Democratic-Republicans were left with a majority under two-thirds for the first time since the election of 1800.

Samuel W. Dana (F) resigned on May 10, 1810, having been elected to the Senate and was replaced by Ebenezer Huntington (F)

In the 5th district, Benjamin Howard (DR) resigned on April 10, 1810 to become Governor of Louisiana Territory and was replaced in a special election by William T. Barry (DR)

...
Wikipedia