1856–57 United States House of Representatives elections

Common card · No. 477310

States held the 1856–57 United States House of Representatives elections between August 4, 1856, and November 4, 1857. Each state, including the pending new state of Minnesota, set a date to elect 236 Representatives to the House before the first session of the 35th United States Congress convened on December 7, 1857. The elections briefly returned a semblance of normalcy to the Democratic Party, restoring its House majority alongside the election of Democratic President James Buchanan. However, superficial victory masked severe, ultimately irretrievable divisions over slavery. Voters next would return a Democratic House majority only in 1874. Party realignments continued. In 1856, the Whig Party disbanded, the Know Nothing movement declined, and its vehicle, the American Party, collapsed. Many Northern Whig, American, and other Representatives who opposed the Democrats joined the new, rapidly consolidating Republican Party, whose attitude toward slavery was stridently negative. It...

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