# 1870 Midterm Elections First-term [[Ulysses S. Grant]] administration midterm. The first national election with **all states represented** since the [[American Civil War]] (the last Confederate states had been readmitted to Congress under the Reconstruction Acts by 1870), and the first election after the **[[15th Amendment]]** ratification (March 1870) protecting Black male suffrage. Republicans lost seats from their 1866 high-water mark but retained substantial control. ## Result - **House:** Republicans lost ~31 seats but held majority (~142 of 243 Republicans vs. ~101 Democrats in the 42nd Congress) - **Senate:** Republicans held strong majority - **Chambers flipped:** None - **Net change:** Republican losses (normalization from 1866 peak) but continued majority control ## Notable - The Reconstruction-era Black congressional caucus reached a peak — **Hiram Revels** (Mississippi) had become the first Black Senator in 1870, replaced by **Blanche Bruce** in 1874; **Joseph Rainey** (South Carolina) had become the first Black House member in 1870 - White supremacist paramilitary violence in the South (Ku Klux Klan, White League) substantially affected congressional elections in several Southern states; the 42nd Congress passed the **Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871** in response - Liberal Republican faction emerged during this Congress, prefiguring the 1872 Grant-Greeley election split ## Connections - [[Ulysses S. Grant]] — Sitting president.