The U.S. House election, 1816 was an election for the United States House of Representatives

United States House of Representatives

The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 to the Fifteenth United States Congress. Voting in the various states took place between April 1816 (New York)

United States House of Representatives elections in New York, 1816

The 1816 United States House of Representatives elections in New York were held from April 23 to 25, 1816, to elect 27 U.S. Representatives to represent the State of New York in the United States House of Representatives of the 15th United States Congress. At the same time, a vacancy was filled in...

 and August 14, 1817 (North Carolina). The Congress met on December 1, 1817. Illinois elected its first Representative on September 17, 1818.

The Democratic-Republican Party made huge gains during this election cycle, which helped to usher in what is known as the Era of Good Feelings

Era of Good Feelings

The Era of Good Feelings was a period in United States political history in which partisan bitterness abated. It lasted approximately from 1815 to 1825, during the administration of U.S...

 under President James Monroe

James Monroe

James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...

. The Federalist Party was in a state of collapse, as the publication of the secessionist doctrine authored by party members at the Hartford Convention

Hartford Convention

The Hartford Convention was an event spanning from December 15, 1814–January 4, 1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed...

 had created an almost treasonous image of the group outside its base in urban New England. The conclusion of the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, where the small American military fought to a draw with the powerful British forces, had increased nationalistic pride and had caused the public to rally around its ruling party. These two factors led to a period of nonpartisan, consensus rule, despite the remnants of party divisions.

Overall results

Party	Total seats (change)		Seat percentage
Democratic-Republicans Democratic-Republican Party (United States) The Democratic-Republican Party or Republican Party was an American political party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Political scientists use the former name, while historians prefer the latter one; contemporaries generally called the party the "Republicans", along...	146	+27	78.9%
Federalists Federalist Party (United States) The Federalist Party was the first American political party, from the early 1790s to 1816, the era of the First Party System, with remnants lasting into the 1820s. The Federalists controlled the federal government until 1801...	39	-25	21.1%
Totals	185	+2	100%

External links

• http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/index.aspx