25th United States Congress
"25th Congress" redirects here. For the Soviet congress, see 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
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The Twenty-fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, 1837 to March 4, 1839, during the first two years of Martin Van Buren's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Fifth Census of the United States in 1830. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.
Major events
"The modern balaam and his ass."
A gaunt figure labeled Bankrupts of 1837 "the Regency" "Safety Fund" "Deposit Banks" "Old Hickory" & Uncle Sam $300,000,000 holds a fiery sword labeled Protest $200,000. The figure says "Wherefore hast thou smitten thine Ass? Behold I went out to Protest thee, because thy way is perverse before me!!" An ass carrying a man and a sack with the words Specie Currency Circulating Medium replies to the figure, "Am not I thine Ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day?" The man ontop the talking Ass wields a cane with the word Veto on it and says to the figure, "Because thou hast mocked me, I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I veto thee!!" The man also has part of his garment labeled Farewell Address. A man walking behind him with a bulge in his pocket labeled $300,000 says, "I shall tread in the footsteps of my illustrious predecessor."
A gaunt figure labeled Bankrupts of 1837 "the Regency" "Safety Fund" "Deposit Banks" "Old Hickory" & Uncle Sam $300,000,000 holds a fiery sword labeled Protest $200,000. The figure says "Wherefore hast thou smitten thine Ass? Behold I went out to Protest thee, because thy way is perverse before me!!" An ass carrying a man and a sack with the words Specie Currency Circulating Medium replies to the figure, "Am not I thine Ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day?" The man ontop the talking Ass wields a cane with the word Veto on it and says to the figure, "Because thou hast mocked me, I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I veto thee!!" The man also has part of his garment labeled Farewell Address. A man walking behind him with a bulge in his pocket labeled $300,000 says, "I shall tread in the footsteps of my illustrious predecessor."
- March 4, 1837: Martin Van Buren became President of the United States
- May 10, 1837: Panic of 1837
- January 6, 1838: First public demonstration of Samuel Morse's telegraph
- May 26, 1838: Trail of Tears: The Cherokee removal began
Major legislation
Main article: Major legislation: 25th United States Congress
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States admitted and/or territories organized
- June 12, 1838: Iowa Territory was formed from the Wisconsin Territory.
Party summary
Senate
| Party (shading shows control) |
Total | Vacant | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (D) |
Whig (W) | Other | |||
| End of the previous congress | (Jacksonian) 31 |
(Anti-Jacksonian) 19 |
(Nullifier) 2 |
52 | 0 |
| Begin | 35 | 17 | 0 | 52 | 0 |
| End | 16 | 1 | |||
| Final voting share | 67.3% | 30.8% | 1.9% | ||
| Beginning of the next congress | 28 | 19 | 0 | 47 | 5 |
House of Representatives
| Party (shading shows control) |
Total | Vacant | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti- Masonic (AM) |
Democratic (D) | Nullifier (N) | Whig (W) | Other | |||
| End of the previous congress | 14 | (Jacksonian) 139 |
7 | (Anti-Jacksonian) 81 |
0 | 241 | 1 |
| Begin | 7 | 121 | 7 | 100 | 0 | 235 | 0 |
| End | 114 | 105 | 233 | 2 | |||
| Final voting share | 3.0% | 48.9% | 3.0% | 45.1% | 0.0% | ||
| Non-voting members | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Beginning of the next congress | 6 | 124 | 0 | 109 | 2 | 241 | 1 |
Leadership
President of the Senate
Richard M. Johnson
Richard M. Johnson
Senate
House of Representatives
- Speaker: James K. Polk (D)
Members
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district.
Senate
Senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election. In this Congress, Class 1 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1838; Class 2 meant their term began in the last Congress, requiring reelection in 1840; and Class 3 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1842.
House of Representatives
The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.
Changes in membership
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
Senate
- Replacements: 6
- Democrats: no net change
- Whigs: no net change
- Deaths: 1
- Resignations: 6
- Total seats with changes: 7
| State (class) |
Vacator | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's formal installation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virginia (2) |
Richard E. Parker (D) | Resigned March 4, 1837 after accepting a seat on the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals | William H. Roane (D) | Elected March 14, 1837 |
| Alabama (3) |
John McKinley (D) | Resigned April 22, 1837 after being appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court | Clement C. Clay (D) | Elected June 19, 1837 |
| Georgia (2) |
John P. King (D) | Resigned November 1, 1837 | Wilson Lumpkin (D) | Elected November 22, 1837 |
| Maryland (1) |
Joseph Kent (W) | Died November 24, 1837 | William D. Merrick (W) | Elected January 4, 1838 |
| Mississippi (1) |
John Black (W) | Resigned January 22, 1838 | James F. Trotter (D) | Appointed January 22, 1838 |
| Tennessee (1) |
Felix Grundy (D) | Resigned July 4, 1838 after being appointed United States Attorney General | Ephraim H. Foster (W) | Elected September 17, 1838 |
| Mississippi (1) |
James F. Trotter (D) | Resigned July 10, 1838 | Thomas H. Williams (D) | Appointed November 12, 1838 and subsequently elected |
House of Representatives
- Replacements: 16
- Democrats: 5-seat net loss
- Whigs: 5-seat net gain
- Deaths: 9
- Resignations: 6
- Contested election:1
- Total seats with changes: 20
| District | Vacator | Reason for change | Successor | Date successor seated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi At-large | Vacant | Rep-elect Claiborne presented credentials July 18, 1837 | John F. H. Claiborne (D) | Seated July 18, 1837 |
| Mississippi At-large | Vacant | Rep-elect Gholson presented credentials July 18, 1837 | Samuel J. Gholson (D) | Seated July 18, 1837 |
| Pennsylvania 3rd | Francis J. Harper (D) | Died March 18, 1837 | Charles Naylor (W) | Seated June 29, 1837 |
| Tennessee 4th | James I. Standifer (W) | Died August 20, 1837 | William Stone (W) | Seated September 14, 1837 |
| Ohio 17th | Elisha Whittlesey (W) | Resigned October 20, 1837 | Charles D. Coffin (W) | Seated December 20, 1837 |
| Mississippi At-large | John F. H. Claiborne (D) | Seat declared vacant February 5, 1838 | Seargent S. Prentiss (W) | Seated May 30, 1838 |
| Mississippi At-large | Samuel J. Gholson (D) | Seat declared vacant February 5, 1838 | Thomas J. Word (W) | Seated May 30, 1838 |
| Pennsylvania 9th | Henry A. P. Muhlenberg (D) | Resigned February 9, 1838 after being appointed Minister to Austrian Empire | George M. Keim (D) | Seated March 17, 1838 |
| Maine 3rd | Jonathan Cilley (D) | Killed in a duel February 24, 1838 by Rep. William J. Graves | Edward Robinson (W) | Seated April 28, 1838 |
| Maine 5th | Timothy J. Carter (D) | Died March 14, 1838 | Virgil D. Parris (D) | Seated May 29, 1838 |
| Maryland 4th | Isaac McKim (D) | Died April 1, 1838 | John P. Kennedy (W) | Seated April 25, 1838 |
| Virginia 13th | John M. Patton (D) | Resigned April 7, 1838 | Linn Banks (D) | Seated April 28, 1838 |
| Alabama 3rd | Joab Lawler (W) | Died May 8, 1838 | George W. Crabb (W) | Seated October 5, 1835 |
| Ohio 19th | Daniel Kilgore (D) | Resigned July 4, 1838 | Henry Swearingen (D) | Seated December 3, 1838 |
| Ohio 16th | Elisha Whittlesey (W) | Resigned July 9, 1838 | Joshua R. Giddings (W) | Seated December 3, 1838 |
| New York 22nd | Andrew D. Bruyn (D) | Died July 27, 1838 | Cyrus Beers (D) | Seated December 3, 1838 |
| New York 29th | William Patterson (W) | Died August 14, 1838 | Harvey Putnam (W) | Seated November 7, 1838 |
| Iowa Territory At-large | New seat | Iowa Territory seated its first delegate September 10, 1838 | George W. Jones (D) | Seated September 10, 1838 |
| Massachusetts 2nd | Stephen C. Phillips (W) | Seat declared vacant September 28, 1838 | Leverett Saltonstall (W) | Seated December 15, 1838 |
| Maine 1st | John Fairfield (D) | Resigned December 24, 1838 after being elected Governor of Maine | Vacant | Not filled this congress |
| Wisconsin Territory At-large | George W. Jones (D) | Lost contested election January 14, 1839 | James D. Doty (D) | Seated January 14, 1839 |
| Louisiana 2nd | Eleazar W. Ripley (D) | Died March 2, 1839 | Vacant | Not filled this congress |
Committees
Lists of committees and their party leaders.
Senate
- Agriculture
- Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
- Claims
- Commerce
- Danger of Steam Vessels (Select)
- Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
- District of Columbia
- Finance
- Foreign Relations
- Indian Affairs
- Judiciary
- Letter of Mr. Ruggles (Select)
- Manufactures
- Memorial of A. B. Quinby (Select)
- Memorial of the Citizens of Georgetown (DC) for the Retrocession of that Part of the District (Select)
- Memorial of Duff Green (Select)
- Memorial of Edward D. Tippett (Select)
- Mileage of Members of Congress (Select)
- Military Affairs
- Militia
- Naval Affairs
- Occupation of the Columbia River (Select)
- Oregon Territory (Select)
- Patents and the Patent Office
- Pensions
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Private Land Claims
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Lands
- Purchasing Boyd Reilly's Gas Apparatus (Select)
- Revolutionary Claims
- Roads and Canals
- Tariff Regulation (Select)
- Whole
House of Representatives
- Accounts
- Agriculture
- Amendment to the Constitution (Select)
- Claims
- Commerce
- District of Columbia
- Elections
- Expenditures in the Navy Department
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department
- Expenditures in the State Department
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department
- Expenditures in the War Department
- Expenditures on Public Buildings
- Foreign Affairs
- Indian Affairs
- Invalid Pensions
- Manufactures
- Mileage
- Military Affairs
- Militia
- Naval Affairs
- Patents
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Expenditures
- Public Lands
- Revisal and Unfinished Business
- Revolutionary Claims
- Roads and Canals
- Rules (Select)
- Standards of Official Conduct
- Territories
- Ways and Means
- Whole
Joint committees
Employees
Senate
- Chaplain: John R. Goodman (Episcopalian), elected December 28, 1836
- Henry Slicer (Methodist), elected September 11, 1837
- Secretary: Asbury Dickens
- Sergeant at Arms: John Shackford (died)
- Stephen Haight, elected September 4, 1837
House of Representatives
- Chaplain: Septimus Tustin (Presbyterian), elected September 4, 1837
- Levi R. Reese (Methodist), elected December 4, 1837
- Clerk: Walter S. Franklin, until September 20, 1838 (died)
- Hugh A. Garland, elected December 3, 1838
- Doorkeeper: Overton Carr
- Postmaster: William J. McCormick
- Sergeant at Arms: Roderick Dorsey
See also
- United States elections, 1836 (elections leading to this Congress)
- United States elections, 1838 (elections during this Congress, leading to the next Congress)
References
- Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
- Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
External links
- Statutes at Large, 1789-1875
- Senate Journal, First Forty-three Sessions of Congress
- House Journal, First Forty-three Sessions of Congress
- Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
- U.S. House of Representatives: House History
- U.S. Senate: Statistics and Lists
- Congressional Directory for the 25th Congress, 3rd Session.
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