Elections to the House of Representatives were held in Pennsylvania on October 14, 1794, for the Fourth Congress.
Background Thirteen Representatives, 8 Anti-Administration (Democratic-Republican) and 5 Pro-Administration (Federalist), had been elected in the previous election on an at-large basis, the last time that Pennsylvania elected all of its representatives at-large. Ten incumbents (6 Anti-Administration and 4 Pro-Administration) ran for re-election.
Congressional districts For the 1794 elections, Pennsylvania divided itself into 12 districts, one of which (the ) was a plural district, with 2 Representatives. These districts remained in use until redistricting after the census of 1800. The consisted of the City of Philadelphia The consisted of Philadelphia County The consisted of Chester and Delaware Counties The (2 seats) consisted of Montgomery, Bucks and Northampton Counties The consisted of Berks and Luzerne County The consisted of Northumberland and Dauphin Counties The consisted of Lancaster County The consisted of York County The consisted of Mifflin and Cumberland County The consisted of Bedford, Huntingdon and Franklin Counties The consisted of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties The consisted of Allegheny and Washington Counties
The counties that made up the 5th district did not border each other. That district was therefore made up of two separate pieces rather than being a single contiguous entity
Note: Many of these counties covered much larger areas in 1794 than they do today, having since been divided into numerous counties
Election returns Ten incumbents (6 Democratic-Republicans and 4 Federalists) ran for re-election. The incumbents James Armstrong (F), from the 9th district, William Montgomery (DR) from the 11th district, and John Smilie (DR) from the 12th district did not run for re-election.District assignments based on residence information given in the 1792 returns Smilie would later return to the House in 1798, where he would remain until his death in 1812. Of the ten who ran for re-election, 6 (4 Democratic-Republicans and 2 Federalists) were re-elected. A total of 9 Democratic-Republicans and 4 Federalists were elected, a net gain of one seat for the Democratic-Republicans over the previous election.
Election results are unavailable from the 5th, 7th, 8th, and 11th districts, and are incomplete for the 9th.
+1794 United States House election results District Democratic-Republican Federalist Other candidates John Swanwick 1,240 51.2% Thomas Fitzsimons (I) 1,182 48.8% Frederick Muhlenberg (I) 656 56.3% Samuel Miles 510 43.7% Thomas Ross 571 31.8% Richard Thomas 1,222 68.2% 2 seats James Morris 1,648A dispute arose over whether James Morris or John Richards was in second place, see below for more details 20.2% Samuel Sitgreaves 2,594 36.2% James Barclay (party unknown) 195 2.4% John Richards 1,635 20.0% Robert Lollar 1,072 13.1% Peter Muhlenberg (I) 661 8.1% Daniel Hiester (I) Samuel Maclay 1,882 46.0% John Carson 438 10.7% John A. Hanna 1,722 43.3% John W. Kittera (I) Thomas Hartley (I) Andrew Gregg (I) James Wallace William Irvine (I) David Bard 1,808 52.9% James Chambers 519 15.2% James McLane 1,090 31.9% William Findley (I) Albert Gallatin 769 33.1% Thomas Scott (I) 643 27.7% Daniel Hamilton 377 16.2% Isaac Tichenor 256 11.0% Hugh H. Brackenridge 140 6.0% John Woods 197 5.9%
In the , John Richards (DR) disputed the official returns (shown above) which showed himself in 3rd place and James Morris (DR) in 2nd. The Governor of Pennsylvania only issued certification for Samuel Sitgreaves (F). On July 10, 1795, before the House could act on the dispute, Morris died. The House voted Richards the legitimate winner of 2nd place, with the revised vote totals being 1,791 for Richards and 1,688 for Morris
Special elections Daniel Hiester (DR), re-elected to the 5th district, resigned on July 1, 1796. A special election was held on October 11, 1796 (the same day as the 1796 general elections) to fill the resulting vacancy. Hiester would later be elected to in 1800
+1796 Special election District Democratic-Republican Federalist Joseph Hiester 1,553 43.2% George Ege 2,039 56.8%
Joseph Hiester was a cousin of Daniel.
See also United States House of Representatives elections, 1794 and 1795
References Electoral data and information on districts are from the Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project