United States Senate special election in Vermont, 1854

United States Senate elections, 1854 and 1855

1852 / 1853 ← Various dates → 1856 / 1857

21 of the 62 seats in the United States Senate (with special elections) 32 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party Third party   Party Democratic Whig Republican Last election 34 seats 20 seats [New party] Seats before 36 18 Seats won 8 3 3 Seats after 33 14 3 Seat change 3 4 3 Seats up 11 7   Fourth party Fifth party   Party Free Soil Know Nothing Last election 2 seats 1 seat Seats before 4 1 Seats won 1 0 Seats after 2 1 Seat change 2 Seats up 3 0

Majority Party before election Democratic Party Elected Majority Party Democratic Party

Democratic Party

Democratic Party

The United States Senate elections of 1854 and 1855 were elections which saw the final decline of the Whig Party and the continuing majority of the Democrats. Those Whigs in the South who were opposed to secession ran on the "Opposition Party" ticket, and were elected to a minority. Along with the Whigs, the Senate roster also included Free Soilers, Know Nothings, and a new party: the Republicans. Only five of the twenty-one Senators up for election were re-elected.

As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.

Senate Party Division, 34th Congress (1855-1857)

After the October 14, 1854 special election in Vermont.

In these special elections, the winners were seated during 1854 or in 1855 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1855; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

In these elections, the winners were elected in 1855 after March 4.

The election was held on February 6, 1855. William H. Seward had been elected in 1849 to this seat and his term would expire on March 3, 1855. At the time the Democratic Party was split into two opposing factions: the "Hards" and the "Softs". After most of the "Barnburners" had left the party, joining the Whigs, the majority of "Hunkers" split over the question of reconciliation with the minority of Barnburners who had remained Democrats. The Hard faction (led by Daniel S. Dickinson) was against it, in true Hunker fashion claiming all patronage for themselves; the Soft faction (led by William L. Marcy, which included the former Barnburners, advocated party unity as a necessity to defeat the Whigs.

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