Mapping Early American Elections

4th Congress: Massachusetts 1794

Massachusetts elected eleven Federalists and three Democratic-Republicans to the Fourth Congress.

Although Massachusetts used the district system for electing members to Congress, state law required that candidates receive a majority of votes in order to win. As a result, four districts required multiple ballots to elect their members in elections November 1794 through April 1795:

Massachusetts held a special election, which went to two ballots, in which Thompson Skinner was elected to replace Theodore Sedgwick, who resigned to serve in the US Senate.

Massachusetts held a special election, which went to two ballots, in which Samuel Sewall was elected to replace Benjamin Goodhue, who resigned to serve in the US Senate.

District	Candidate	Party	Vote	Percentage	Elected
1	Theodore Sedgwick	Federalist	731	52.1%	✓
1	Tompson J. Skinner	Democratic-Republican	639	45.5%
2	William Lyman	Democratic-Republican	774	50.8%	✓
2	William Shepard	Federalist	713	46.8%
3	Samuel Lyman	Federalist	677	56.3%	✓
3	Daniel Bigelow	Democratic-Republican	357	29.7%
3	Other candidates		103	8.6%
3	Ebenezer Mattoon, Jr.	Federalist	66	5.5%
4	Dwight Foster	Federalist	634	51.5%	✓
4	Levi Lincoln	Democratic-Republican	575	46.7%
5	Nathaniel Freeman, Jr.	Federalist	1,034	68.4%	✓
5	Peleg Coffin, Jr.	Democratic-Republican	475	31.4%
6	John Reed	Federalist	650	64.6%	✓
6	George Partridge	Democratic-Republican	222	22.1%
6	John Davis		88	8.7%
7	George Leonard	Federalist	606	70.5%	✓
7	Elisha May	Federalist	131	15.3%
7	Other candidates		65	7.4%
7	Phanuel Bishop	Democratic-Republican	57	6.6%
8	Fisher Ames	Federalist	2,178	56.5%	✓
8	Charles Jarvis	Democratic-Republican	1,668	43.2%
9	Joseph B. Varnum	Democratic-Republican	1,509	50.4%	✓
9	Samuel Dexter, Jr.	Federalist	1,429	47.7%
10	Benjamin Goodhue	Federalist	367	52.6%	✓
10	Samuel Holten	Federalist	171	24.5%
10	Loammi Baldwin	Federalist	92	13.2%
10	Other candidates		68	9.6%
11	Theophilus Bradbury	Federalist	753	90%	✓
11	Other candidates		84	10%
12	Henry Dearborn	Democratic-Republican	464	51.2%	✓
12	Jonathan Bowman	Federalist	260	28.7%
12	Other candidates		81	8.9%
12	Daniel Coney	Federalist	51	5.6%
12	Isaac Parker	Federalist	50	5.5%
13	Peleg Wadsworth	Federalist	607	52%	✓
13	William Wedgery	Democratic-Republican	399	34.2%
13	Other candidates		92	7.9%
13	William Martin		69	5.9%
14	George Thacher	Federalist	307	68.4%	✓
14	Nathaniel Wells	Federalist	92	20.5%
14	Joseph Tucker		29	6.5%

In most cases, only candidates who received more than 5 percent of the vote in a district are reported. Other candidates are reported as a group, but only if they in aggregate received more than 5 percent of the vote. In addition, percentages for each district may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding. The term Dissenting Republican includes various breakaway factions of the Democratic-Republican party.

Mapping Early American Elections

4th Congress: Massachusetts 1794

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