1850 Federal Election

Date: From 1850-08-05 to 1851-11-04

Set against the backdrop of the Compromise of 1850, the Congressional election in 1850 saw the Democrats increase their majority in both houses, especially the U.S. House of Representatives, while the Whigs showed early signs of their dissolution later in the decade. The politicial realignment brought on by the Compromise was in evidence, as theFree Soil Party, the American Party, independents, and Unionist secured seats in the House and Senate.

Michael F. Holt, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 551-97; Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989 (New York: MacMillan, 1989), 102.