There would have been a majority of one in the Senate and a tie in the House.
Proceeding to vote under this new rule, John P.Stockton, the Democratic candidate, received forty votes, John C.Ten Eyck, the Republican candidate, thirty-seven votes, and four other candidates one vote each.

Forty-one votes were thus cast against Mr.Stockton, but as he had secured a plurality he was duly elected according to the rule adopted by the joint convention .-- Mr.Stockton was thirty-nine years of age at the time of his election.

His family had been for several generations distinguished in the annals of New Jersey.

His great-grandfather Richard Stockton was a member of the Continental Congress and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence; his grandfather Richard Stockton was a senator of the United States under the administrations of Washington and John Adams; his father was the well-known Commodore Robert F.Stockton, who was conspicuously effective as a naval officer in the conquest of California, and afterwards a senator of the United States.

Mr.Stockton entered the Senate, therefore, with personal _prestige_ and a good share of popularity with his party.
On the 20th of March, five days after the alleged election of Mr.
Stockton, seven senators and thirty-one members of the Assembly forwarded to the Senate of the United States a protest against his admission, for the reason that he was not elected by a majority of the votes of the joint meeting of the Legislature.