Elections to the United States House of Representatives were held in Pennsylvania on October 9, 1810, for the 12th Congress. The Federalists were in decline in Pennsylvania at this time. In six of the eleven districts there were no Federalist candidates.
Background Eighteen Representatives had been elected in 1808, 16 Democratic-Republicans and 2 Federalists. One Democratic-Republican resigned and was replaced by another Representative from the same party, so that there was still a 16-2 division. Four of the Democratic-Republicans and two of the Federalists were "quids", a short-lived alliance of moderate Democratic-Republicans and Federalists. That was the last year in which the quids as a movement existed.
Congressional districts Pennsylvania was divided into 11 districts, of which four were plural districts with 11 Representatives between them, with the remaining 7 Representatives elected from single-member districts. The districts were: The (3 seats) consisted of Delaware and Philadelphia counties (including the City of Philadelphia) The (3 seats) consisted of Bucks, Luzerne, Montgomery, Northampton, Susquehanna, and Wayne Counties The (3 seats) consisted of Berks, Chester, and Lancaster Counties The (2 seats) consisted of Cumberland, Dauphin, Huntingdon, and Mifflin Counties The consisted of Bradford, Centre, Clearfield, Lycoming, McKean, Northumberland, Potter, and Tioga Counties The consisted of Adams and York Counties The consisted of Bedford and Franklin Counties The consisted of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Somerset, and Westmoreland Counties The consisted of Fayette and Greene Counties The consisted of Washington County The consisted of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango, and Warren Counties
Note: Many of these counties covered much larger areas than they do today, having since been divided into smaller counties
Election results Fifteen incumbents (14 Democratic-Republicans and 1 Federalist) ran for re-election, of whom ten were re-elected. The incumbents John Ross (DR) of the , Robert Jenkins (F) of the and Matthias Richards (DR) also of the 3rd district did not run for re-election. Two seats changed from Federalist to Democratic-Republican control and one seat changed from Democratic-Republican to Federalist control, for a net loss of 1 seat by the Federalists. In the 1st district, there was a split between three "New School" and one "Old School" Democratic-Republicans, which split the Democratic-Republican vote enough to allow one of the three seats in that district to be won by a Federalist.
+1810 United States House election results District Democratic-Republican Federalist 3 seats Adam SeybertNew School (I) 6,276 19.8% James Milnor 4,359 13.7% William Anderson (I) 6,218 19.6% Thomas Truxton 4,343 13.7% John Porter (I) 3,143 9.9% Thomas Dick 4,269 13.4% Robert McMullinOld School 3,127 9.9% 3 seats Robert Brown (I) 5,444 19.1% William Milnor (I) 4,132 14.5% Jonathan Roberts 5,409 19.0% Levi Paulding 4,033 14.2% William Rodman 5,377 18.9% William Latimere 3,955 13.9% Charles Miner 102 0.4% 3 seats Joseph Lefever 6,616 18.4% Daniel HiesterChanged parties (I) 5,770 16.0% Roger Davis 6,612 18.3% Samuel Bethel 5,437 15.1% John M. Hyneman 6,201 17.2% Mark J. Biddle 5,410 15.0% 2 seats David Bard (I) 5,436 50.0% Robert Whitehill (I) 5,429 50.0% George Smith (I) 3,576 100% William Crawford (I) 2,332 56.6% David Cassat 1,790 43.4% William Piper 1,428 58.5% John Rea (I) 1,015 41.5% William FindleyQuid (I) 2,735 60.9% John Kirkpatrick 1,757 39.1% John Smilie 1,401 100% Aaron Lyle (I) 1,344 70.4% Thomas L. Birch 564 29.6% Abner Lacock 2,897 51.0% Adamson Tannehill 2,455 43.2% Samuel Smith (I) 326 5.7%
Post-Election All 18 Representatives elected in October appeared in Washington at the start of the 12th Congress. John Smilie (DR) of the died December 30, 1812. Abner Lacock (DR) of the resigned February 24, 1813, after being elected to the Senate. Both had been re-elected to the 13th Congress, and both districts were left vacant for the remainder of the 12th Congress.
References Electoral data and information on districts are from the Wilkes University Elections Statistics Project