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1822 Indiana's at-large congressional district special election

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1822 Indiana's at-large congressional district special election
← 1820
August 5, 1822
1822 (regular) →
 
Nominee Jonathan Jennings Davis Floyd
Popular vote 13,531 5,971
Percentage 69.32% 30.59%
County results
Jennings:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Floyd:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%
     No data      Non-voting area
U.S. representative before election

Vacant

 Elected U.S. representative

Jonathan Jennings

A special election in Indiana's at-large congressional district took place on August 5, 1822. Governor Jonathan Jennings defeated judge Davis Floyd to represent Indiana for the remainder of the 17th United States Congress.[1]

William Hendricks won the 1820 election for this seat, but resigned in May 1822 to run for governor of Indiana in the 1822 Indiana gubernatorial election. Jennings was popular following his tenure as governor and entered the race at the behest of his supporters. On Election Day, Jennings defeated Floyd by a greater than two-to-one margin.[2]

Political parties did not play an important role in Indiana congressional elections during the 1820s.[3] Both Floyd and Jennings belonged to the eastern, antislavery political faction that came to power after 1809.[4]

Candidates

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Jennings

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Jennings was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in 1794 and read law in Washington, Pennsylvania. He moved to Indiana Territory in 1807, where he worked as an attorney at law.[5] Jennings settled first in Vincennes, Indiana, where he briefly served as clerk of the territorial legislature, but left the capital sometime after 1808. He settled next in Corydon, Indiana, where he emerged as a leader in the eastern, antislavery faction in territorial politics.[6] Jennings's victory in the 1809 United States House of Representatives election in Indiana Territory signaled the rise of the antislavery movement in Indiana and the decline of the formerly-dominant proslavery faction.[7]

Jennings presided over the Indiana constitutional convention in 1816 and was elected governor later that year.[8] As governor, Jennings negotiated the Treaty of St. Mary's and supported legislation to penalize kidnapping free people of color by slavecatchers.[9] He resisted calls to increase taxes to address the state budget deficit, relying on issuing treasury notes and projected future revenues from the settlement of new lands to reduce the deficit over time.[10]

Floyd

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Floyd was in Indiana Territory as early as 1801, when he opened a tavern at Clarksville, Indiana. He later moved to Corydon, Indiana,[11] and represented Clark County in the territorial legislature in 1805. He was implicated in the Burr conspiracy, but received only a light sentence, and was subsequently elected clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives. He was a delegate to the Indiana constitutional convention from Harrison County, Indiana,[12] and served as presiding judge of one of the Indiana circuit courts from 1816 to 1823.[13]

An opponent of slavery, Floyd belonged to the antislavery faction in the Indiana Territory.[14] He served as secretary of a Clark County convention that petitioned Congress to uphold the ban on slavery in Indiana in 1807.[15] Following statehood, Floyd's antislavery judicial record earned him the nickname "the great emancipator." His attempts to secure the extradition of a Kentucky resident for the 1818 kidnapping of a freedom seeker living in Indiana brought him into conflict with the Kentucky General Assembly and the proslavery sheriff of Harrison County, Indiana, John Tipton.[16]

General election

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Campaign

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Floyd was the first to announce his candidacy. Jennings entered the race several weeks later at the behest of his supporters in different parts of the state. The special election took place concurrently with regular elections for the 18th United States Congress, in which Jennings was a candidate to represent Indiana's newly-created 2nd congressional district. Floyd campaigned on his record and long residence in the state.[17] Jennings's opponents distributed handbills attacking his official conduct, but these efforts did little to damage the governor's popularity.[18]

Results

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1822 Indiana's at-large congressional district special election[19]
Party Candidate Votes %
Nonpartisan Jonathan Jennings 13,531 69.32
Nonpartisan Davis Floyd 5,971 30.59
Nonpartisan James Scott 16 0.08
Nonpartisan Henry P. Thornton 1 0.00
Total votes 19,519 100.00

Results by county

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County Jonathan Jennings Davis Floyd Others Margin Total
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
Bartholomew ** ** ** ** —
Clark 800 74.63 267 24.91 5 0.47 533 49.72 1,072
Crawford 185 69.29 82 30.71 — 103 38.58 267
Daviess 268 61.05 171 38.95 — 97 22.10 439
Dearborn 1,006 63.83 570 36.17 — 436 27.66 1,576
Decatur 104 73.24 38 26.76 — 66 46.48 142
Dubois 121 79.60 31 20.39 — 90 59.21 152
Fayette 558 78.92 149 21.07 — 409 57.85 707
Floyd 321 89.66 37 10.34 — 284 79.33 358
Franklin 789 69.27 350 30.73 — 439 38.54 1,139
Gibson 57 14.21 344 85.78 — -287 -71.57 401
Greene 75 51.72 70 48.28 — 5 3.45 145
Harrison 724 65.46 382 34.54 — 342 30.92 1,106
Henry 34 34.34 65 65.66 — -31 -31.31 99
Jackson 460 80.56 111 19.44 — 349 61.12 571
Jefferson 392 34.66 739 65.34 — -347 -30.68 1,131
Jennings 351 93.85 23 6.15 — 328 87.70 374
Knox 158 25.82 454 74.18 — -296 -48.37 612
Lawrence 384 90.14 42 9.86 — 342 80.28 426
Marion 282 92.46 15 4.92 8 2.62 267 87.54 305
Martin 177 93.16 13 6.84 — 164 86.32 190
Monroe 296 71.67 117 28.33 — 179 43.34 413
Morgan 125 86.11 16 11.11 3 2.08 109 75.69 144
Orange 422 81.62 95 18.38 — 327 63.25 517
Owen 61 47.29 68 52.71 — -7 -5.43 129
Parke 225 100.00 — — 225 100.00 225
Perry 160 77.67 46 22.33 — 114 55.37 206
Pike 148 83.62 29 16.38 — 119 67.23 177
Posey 307 69.77 133 30.23 — 174 39.54 440
Putnam 81 81.00 19 19.00 — 62 62.00 100
Randolph 107 99.07 — 1 0.92 106 98.15 108
Ripley 335 90.54 35 9.46 — 300 81.08 370
Rush ** ** ** ** **
Scott 204 54.99 167 45.01 — 37 9.97 371
Shelby 192 87.27 28 12.73 — 164 74.54 220
Spencer 180 78.60 49 21.40 — 131 57.20 229
Sullivan 288 80.22 71 19.78 — 217 60.44 359
Switzerland 566 83.98 108 16.02 — 458 67.95 674
Union 286 63.98 161 36.02 — 127 28.41 447
Vanderburgh 117 49.37 120 50.63 — -3 -1.26 237
Vigo 412 98.56 6 1.44 — 406 97.13 418
Warrick 226 89.68 26 10.32 — 200 79.36 252
Washington 824 74.10 288 25.90 — 536 48.20 1,112
Wayne 724 63.01 425 36.99 — 299 26.02 1,149
TOTAL 13,531 69.32 5,971 30.59 17 0.09 7,560 39.19 19,519

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Riker & Thornbrough 1960, pp. 74–75.
  2. ↑ Carmony 1998, pp. 455, 80, 456–57.
  3. ↑ Riker & Thornbrough 1960, p. xx.
  4. ↑ Salafia 2013, pp. 141, 101, 103.
  5. ↑ Riker 1932, p. 223, 225.
  6. ↑ Cayton 1996, pp. 244–46.
  7. ↑ Salafia 2013, p. 103.
  8. ↑ Cayton 1996, pp. 253, 258.
  9. ↑ Carmony 1998, p. 15; Salafia 2013, p. 139.
  10. ↑ Carmony 1998, p. 25.
  11. ↑ Esarey 1922, p. 205n1.
  12. ↑ Riker & Barnhart 1994, p. 345n2, 351n19, 447.
  13. ↑ Carmony 1998, p. 457; Esarey 1922, p. 205n1.
  14. ↑ Salafia 2013, p. 141.
  15. ↑ Cayton 1996, p. 246.
  16. ↑ Salafia 2013, pp. 142–44.
  17. ↑ Carmony 1998, p. 457.
  18. ↑ Riker 1932, p. 235.
  19. ↑ Lampi 2012, Final Result.

Bibliography

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  • Carmony, Donald Francis (1998). Indiana 1816-1850: the Pioneer Era. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-87195-125-8.
  • Cayton, Andrew L. (1996). Frontier Indiana. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Esarey, Logan, ed. (1922). Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison. Vol. 1: 1800–1811. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Commission.
  • Lampi, Philip J. (2012). "Indiana 1822 U.S. House of Representatives, Special". A New Nation Votes. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved July 24, 2026.
  • Riker, Dorothy; Thornbrough, Gayle (1960). Indiana Election Returns: 1816-1851. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau.
  • Riker, Dorothy; Barnhart, John D. (1994). Indiana to 1816: The Colonial Period. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society.
  • Riker, Dorothy (December 1932). "Jonathan Jennings". Indiana Magazine of History. 28 (4): 223–239.
  • Salafia, Matthew (2013). Slavery's Borderland: Slavery and Bondage Along the Ohio River. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
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