25th United States Congress
The 25th 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.
| 25th United States Congress | |
|---|---|
24th ← → 26th | |
 United States Capitol (1827) | |
March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1839 | |
| Members | 52 senators 242 representatives 3 non-voting delegates |
| Senate majority | Democratic |
| Senate President | Richard M. Johnson (D) |
| House majority | Democratic |
| House Speaker | James K. Polk (D) |
| Sessions | |
| Special: March 4, 1837 – March 10, 1837 1st: September 4, 1837 – October 16, 1837 2nd: December 4, 1837 – July 9, 1838 3rd: December 3, 1838 – March 3, 1839 | |
The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1830 United States census. Both houses of congress had a Democratic majority.
Major events
The modern balaam and his ass, an 1837 caricature placing the blame for the Panic of 1837 and the perilous state of the banking system on outgoing President Andrew Jackson, shown riding a donkey, while President Martin Van Buren comments approvingly.
- 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
- [data missing]
Territories organized
- June 12, 1838: Iowa Territory was formed from the Wisconsin Territory.
Party summary
The count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of the first session of this congress. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the "Changes in membership" section.
Senate
| Party (shading shows control) |
Total | Vacant | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (D) |
Whig (W) | Other | |||
| End of previous congress | 31[lower-alpha 1] | 19[lower-alpha 2] | 2[lower-alpha 3] | 52 | 0 |
| Begin | 35 | 17 | 0 | 52 | 0 |
| End | 16 | 51 | 1 | ||
| Final voting share | 68.6% | 31.4% | 0.0% | ||
| Beginning of 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 previous congress | 14 | 139[lower-alpha 4] | 7 | 81[lower-alpha 5] | 0 | 241 | 1 |
| Begin | 7 | 128 | 4 | 101 | 0 | 240 | 2 |
| End | 123 | 106 | |||||
| Final voting share | 2.9% | 51.3% | 1.7% | 44.2% | 0.0% | ||
| Non-voting members | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Beginning of 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 by class, and representatives 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, ending in 1839; Class 2 meant their term began in the last Congress, ending in 1841; and Class 3 meant their term began in this Congress, ending in 1843.
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) |
Vacated by | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's formal installation[lower-alpha 6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Tennessee (1) |
Ephraim H. Foster (W) | Resigned March 3, 1839 before start of new Congress under orders of state legislature. | Vacant |
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 | Vacated by | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's formal installation[lower-alpha 6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Wallace 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 Wallace 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 (Chairman: Perry Smith)
- Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate (Chairman: Samuel McKean)
- Claims (Chairman: Henry Hubbard)
- Commerce (Chairman: William R. King)
- Danger of Steam Vessels (Select)
- Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
- District of Columbia (Chairman: William H. Roane)
- Engrossed Bills (Chairman: John Norvell)
- Finance (Chairman: Silas Wright)
- Foreign Relations (Chairman: James Buchanan)
- Indian Affairs (Chairman: Hugh Lawson White)
- Judiciary (Chairman: Felix Grundy)
- Letter of Mr. Ruggles (Select)
- Manufactures (Chairman: John M. Niles)
- 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 (Chairman: Thomas Hart Benton)
- Militia (Chairman: Clement C. Clay)
- Naval Affairs (Chairman: William C. Rives)
- Occupation of the Columbia River (Select)
- Oregon Territory (Select)
- Patents and the Patent Office (Chairman: John Ruggles then Robert Strange)
- Pensions (Chairman: Thomas Morris)
- Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: John M. Robinson)
- Private Land Claims (Chairman: Lewis F. Linn)
- Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: N/A)
- Public Lands (Chairman: Robert J. Walker)
- Purchasing Boyd Reilly's Gas Apparatus (Select)
- Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Bedford Brown)
- Roads and Canals (Chairman: Thomas Tipton)
- Tariff Regulation (Select)
- Whole
House of Representatives
- Accounts (Chairman: Joseph Johnson)
- Agriculture (Chairman: Edmund Deberry)
- Amendment to the Constitution (Select)
- Claims (Chairman: John Chambers)
- Commerce (Chairman: Samuel Cushman)
- District of Columbia (Chairman: James W. Bouldin)
- Elections (Chairman: Andrew Buchanan)
- Expenditures in the Navy Department (Chairman: John C. Brodhead)
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Chairman: Timothy Childs)
- Expenditures in the State Department (Chairman: Mathias Morris)
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Chairman: Heman Allen)
- Expenditures in the War Department (Chairman: William K. Clowney)
- Expenditures on Public Buildings (Chairman: Samuel T. Sawyer)
- Foreign Affairs (Chairman: Benjamin C. Howard)
- Indian Affairs (Chairman: John Bell)
- Invalid Pensions (Chairman: William Taylor)
- Judiciary (Chairman: Francis Thomas)
- Manufactures (Chairman: John Quincy Adams)
- Mileage (Chairman: William C. Dawson)
- Military Affairs (Chairman: James I. McKay)
- Militia (Chairman: David D. Wagener)
- Naval Affairs (Chairman: Samuel Ingham)
- Patents (Chairman: Isaac Fletcher)
- Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: Henry W. Connor)
- Private Land Claims (Chairman: William L. May)
- Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: Levi Lincoln Jr.)
- Public Expenditures (Chairman: Elisha Haley)
- Public Lands (Chairman: Ratliff Boon until 1838, then Zadok Casey)[1]
- Revisal and Unfinished Business (Chairman: Matthias Shepler)
- Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Robert Craig)
- Revolutionary Pensions (Chairman: William S. Morgan)
- Roads and Canals (Chairman: Charles F. Mercer)
- Rules (Select)
- Standards of Official Conduct
- Territories (Chairman: Isaac H. Bronson)
- Ways and Means (Chairman: Churchill C. Cambreleng)
- Whole
Joint committees
Employees
Senate
- Chaplain: John R. Goodman (Episcopalian), until September 11, 1837
- Henry Slicer (Methodist), elected September 11, 1837
- Secretary: Asbury Dickins
- 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
- Reading Clerks: [data missing]
- Sergeant at Arms: Roderick Dorsey
See also
- 1836 United States elections (elections leading to this Congress)
- 1838 United States elections (elections during this Congress, leading to the next Congress)
Notes
- Jacksonians
- Anti-Jacksonians
- Nullifier
- Jacksonians
- Anti-Jacksonians
- When seated or oath administered, not necessarily when service began.
References
- "Committee History". House Committee on Natural Resources. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
- 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.
- Congressional Directory for the 25th Congress, 3rd Session (Revision).
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