1878–79 United States Senate elections

← 1876 & 1877 Dates vary by state (And other dates for special elections) 1880 & 1881 →
26 of the 76 seats in theUnited States Senate (with special elections) 39 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader William A. Wallace[a] Henry B. Anthony[b] Party Democratic Republican Leader since March 4, 1877 March 4, 1863 Leader's seat Pennsylvania Rhode Island Seats before 36 38 Seats won 14 10 Seats after 42 31 Seat change 6 7 Seats up 8 17   Third party Fourth party   Party Anti-Monopoly Independent Seats before 1 1 Seats won 0 0 Seats after 1 1 Seat change Seats up 0 0
Results of the elections:      Democratic gain     Democratic hold      Republican gain     Republican hold      Legislature failed to elect
Majority Party before election Republican Elected Majority Party Democratic

The1878–79 United States Senate elections were held on various dates in various states. As theseU.S. Senate elections were prior to the ratification of theSeventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were chosen bystate legislatures. Senators were elected over a wide range of time throughout 1878 and 1879, and a seat may have been filled months late or remained vacant due tolegislative deadlock.^[1] In these elections, terms were up for the senators inClass 3.

TheDemocratic Party recaptured control of the Senate for the first time since before theCivil War.

Senate party division,46th Congress (1879–1881)

• Majority party: Democratic (42)
• Minority party: Republican (31)
• Other parties: Independent (1),Anti-Monopoly (1)
• Total seats: 76

In these elections, the winners were seated in 1879 before March 4; ordered by election date.

In these regular elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning March 4, 1885; ordered by state.

All of the elections involved the Class 3 seats.

In this election, the winner was elected in 1879 after March 4.

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1878 United States Senate election in Maryland

← 1872 January 19, 1878 1884 →
80 members of theMaryland General Assembly
Candidate James Black Groome Lewis Henry Steiner Party Democratic Republican Legislative vote 73 17 Percentage 78.50% 18.28%

James Black Groome was elected by a margin of 60.22%, or 56 votes, for the Class 3 seat.^[9]

In New York, the election was held on January 21, 1879, by theNew York State Legislature. RepublicanRoscoe Conkling had been re-elected in January 1873 to this seat, and his term would expire on March 3, 1879. At theState election in November 1877, 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats were elected for a two-year term (1878–1879) in the State Senate. At theState election in November 1878, 97 Republicans, 28 Democrats and 3 Greenbackers were elected for the session of 1879 to the Assembly, and RepublicanThomas Murphy was elected to fill the vacancy in the State Senate caused by the death of DemocratJohn Morrissey. The102nd New York State Legislature met from January 7 to May 22, 1879, atAlbany, New York.

The caucus ofRepublican State legislators met on January 20, Temporary President of the State SenateWilliam H. Robertson presided. Present were all Republican legislators except State SenatorLouis S. Goebel^[10] (6th D.) and AssemblymanJames W. Wadsworth. They re-nominated the incumbent U.S. Senator Conkling unanimously. The caucus of theDemocratic State legislators met also on January 20. State SenatorThomas C. E. Ecclesine (8th D.) offered to adopt a prostest against the senatorial election proceedings, claiming that the senatorial and assembly districts were incorrectly apportioned and thus the State Legislature did not represent the wish of the people of the State. The protest was substituted by a resolution to appoint a committee which would elaborate an address on the apportionment at a later date. Ecclesine then marched out, and the remaining legislators nominated Lieutenant GovernorWilliam Dorsheimer for the U.S. Senate.

The two Greenback assemblymen John Banfield (Chemung Co.) and George E. Williams (Oswego Co.) voted for 87-year-oldPeter Cooper, aNew York City inventor, industrialist and philanthropist who hadrun for U.S. president in 1876 on the Greenback ticket.

Roscoe Conkling was the choice of both the Assembly and the State Senate, and was declared elected.

Note: The votes were cast on January 21, but both Houses met in a joint session on January 22 to compare nominations, and declare the result.

In Pennsylvania, the election was held January 20, 1879.J. Donald Cameron was re-elected by thePennsylvania General Assembly to theUnited States Senate.^[12]

After Sen.Simon Cameron resigned from office, his son J. Donald Cameron was elected by the General Assembly, consisting of theHouse of Representatives and theSenate, in1877 to serve the remainder of the unexpired term, which was to expire on March 4, 1879. The Pennsylvania General Assembly convened on January 20, 1879, to elect a Senator to serve the term beginning on March 4, 1879. The results of the vote of both houses combined are as follows:

• 1878 United States elections
  • 1878–79 United States House of Representatives elections
• 45th United States Congress
• 46th United States Congress

• Clark, Dan Elbert (1913)."History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa".Iowa City, Iowa.
• Thompson, E. Bruce (1954).Matthew Hale Carpenter, Webster of the West. Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
• Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present, via Senate.gov
• "VICTORIOUS REPUBLICANS"(PDF).The New York Times. November 6, 1878., gives 1 Greenbacker elected, but Williams of Oswego is not in the list; this seems to have been a preliminary result which was later amended
• "NEW-YORK'S NEXT SENATOR; ROSCOE CONKLING RENOMINATED"(PDF).The New York Times. January 21, 1879.
• "THE DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS.; A REMARKABLE PROTEST OFFERED AND TABLED; LIEUT.-GOV. DORSHEIMER TENDERED THE EMPTY HONOR OF A NOMINATION"(PDF).The New York Times. January 21, 1879.
• "CONKLING WINS THE SENATORSHIP"(PDF).The New York Times. January 22, 1879.
• "CHOOSING THEIR SENATORS.; ...LIEUT.-GOV. DORSHEIMER FORMALLY ANNOUNCES THE ELECTION"(PDF).The New York Times. January 23, 1879.
• Pennsylvania Election Statistics: 1682-2006.Wilkes University Election Statistics Project.

• 1878 United States Senate elections
• 1879 United States Senate elections

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