UNITED STATES HOUSE ELECTIONS, 1858

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The 'U.S. House election, 1858' was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1858.
The Republicans gained control of the House for the first time in 1858, benefiting from the continued breakdown in the anti-immigration and anti-Catholic American Party of the Know Nothing Movement and internal strife within the Democratic Party. The Republicans were actually several seats short of a true majority, but were able to muster up enough support from members of other parties to have authority. The deeply divided Democrats continued to fall apart due to the slavery issue, losing a number of seats, and the American Party all but collapsed. A number of former Whigs who were dissatisfied with their short membership in the Republican Party, as well as some former Know Nothings, formed the Opposition Party, which generally allied more with the Republicans than Democrats.

Contents

Overall results

See also

Overall results

Party	Total Seats (change)		Seat percentage
Republican Party	116	+26	48.7%
Democratic Party	83	-49	34.9%
Opposition Party	19	+19	8.0%
Anti-Lecompton Democrat	8	+8	3.3%
Independent Democrats	7	+6	2.9%
American Party	5	-9	2.1%
'Totals'	238	+1	100%

See also

http://clerk.house.gov/histHigh/Congressional_History/index.html