The 1798âÂÂ99 United States House of Representatives elections were held on various dates in various states between April 24, 1798, in New York and August 1, 1799, in Tennessee. Each state set its own date for its elections to the House of Representatives, with some after the official start of the 6th United States Congress on March 4, 1799, but before the start of the first session of this Congress in Philadelphia on December 2, 1799. These elections were held during President John Adams' term. It was the last congressional session before the move to the new capital at Washington, D.C. Elections were held for all 106 seats, representing 16 states.
President Adams, a Federalist elected two years prior in the election of 1796, remained popular during a time of national economic growth, and the Federalists made a modest gain of three seats at the expense of the opposition Democratic-Republicans, the party of Vice President and future President Thomas Jefferson. This resulted in an increased Federalist majority in the House, 60-46 seats.
The Federalist party squandered its popularity by passing a series of controversial new laws in the summer of 1798, including the Naturalization Act of 1798 and the Alien and Sedition Acts. Their passage seriously injured the chances of President Adams and Federalist congressional candidates in the elections of 1800.
The House that met during this Congress would ultimately elect Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr in the presidential election of 1800.
There were special elections in 1798 and 1799 during the 5th United States Congress and 6th United States Congress.
Elections are sorted here by date then district.
Massachusetts required a majority for election. This was not met in the and necessitating additional ballots in those districts.
New Jersey switched to district representation for this election. The districts were not numbered at the time, but are retroactively numbered here as 1âÂÂ5. New Jersey would go back to an the following election.
Between the 1796 and 1798 elections, New York re-districted. This marked the first time that its districts were numbered.
See Non-voting delegates, below.
Rhode Island used at-large districts, but elected the candidates on separate tickets instead of using a general ticket.
Majority vote required to win, necessitating a run-off election in the 1st (Western) district.
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