1810 United States House of Representatives elections in Pennsylvania
Elections to the United States House of Representatives in Pennsylvania were held 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: 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. 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.