1791 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania
Elections to the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania were held on October 11, 1791 for the 2nd Congress.
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All 8 Pennsylvania seats to the United States House of Representatives | ||||||||||||||||
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Background
Six Pro-Administration and two Anti-Administration Representatives had been elected on an at-large basis in the previous election. The elections in Pennsylvania were the last elections held for the 2nd Congress, out of the states that were in the Union at the start of the Congress.
Congressional districts
The previous election had been held at-large, but for the 2nd Congress, Pennsylvania divided itself up into 8 districts.
- The 1st district consisted of Delaware and Philadelphia Counties (including the city of Philadelphia).
- The 2nd district consisted of Bucks County
- The 3rd district consisted of Chester and Montgomery Counties
- The 4th district consisted of Luzerne, Northampton, and Berks Counties
- The 5th district consisted of Dauphin and Lancaster Counties
- The 6th district consisted of Northumberland, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Bedford and Franklin Counties
- The 7th district consisted of Cumberland and York Counties
- The 8th district consisted of Allegheny, Westmoreland, Washington, and Fayette Counties
Note: Many of these counties covered much larger areas in 1791 than they do today, having since been divided into smaller counties.
Election Returns
Five incumbents (3 Anti-Administration and 2 Pro-Administration) ran for re-election, four of whom won. The incumbents George Clymer (P) and Henry Wynkoop (P) of the 2nd district and Thomas Scott (P) of the 8th district did not run for re-election.[1] In addition, Frederick A. Muhlenberg switched from Pro-Administration to Anti-Administration. Four Pro-Administration and four Anti-Administration candidates were elected, a net gain of 2 seats for the Anti-Administration Party.
Election data are incomplete for the 1st and 2nd districts and are missing for the 4th and 5th districts.
| District | Pro-Administration | Anti-Administration | Other candidates | ||||||
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| 1st | Thomas Fitzsimons (I) | 1,291 | 85.1% | Charles Thompson | 226 | 14.9% | |||
| 2nd | Frederick A. Muhlenberg (I) | Dr. Jones[2] | |||||||
| Amos Gregg | |||||||||
| 3rd | Israel Jacobs | 1,221 | 61.2% | Peter Muhlenberg (I) | 774 | 38.8% | |||
| 4th | Daniel Hiester (I) | ||||||||
| 5th | John W. Kittera | ||||||||
| 6th | John Allison | 1,229 | 18.3% | Andrew Gregg | 3,437 | 51.2% | |||
| Thomas Johnston | 692 | 10.3% | John McLean | 728 | 10.9% | ||||
| William Montgomery | 623 | 9.3% | |||||||
| 7th | Thomas Hartley (I) | 2,908 | 71.1% | William Irvine | 1,180 | 28.9% | |||
| 8th | John Woods | 1,517 | 34.8% | William Findley | 2,839 | 65.2% | |||
References
- Electoral data and information on districts are from the Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project
- Residence information from the 1788 results here
- Party affiliation and full name unknown