List of Senate Members of the 1st United States Congress

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The Senators in the first Congress of the United States were in 1788 and 1789 selected at different times. Before the 17th Amendment was passed in 1913, the Senate was not directly elected, but the Senators were appointed by the state parliaments. Each state elects two senators who belong to different classes . The term of office is six years, every two years one of the three classes is elected for the seats. As an exception, the seats in the first congress were all elected together, after the election a drawing was drawn to determine which senators should belong to which class and thus whether the first term of office should last two, four or a full six years.

The term of office of the 1st Congress ran from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1791; its first session took place in New York from March 4 to September 29, 1789 , as did the second period from January 4 to March 12 , 1789 August 1790. Through the compromise of 1790 , Philadelphia became the provisional capital of Washington, DC for the period up to the completion ; the third session there took place from December 6, 1790 to March 3, 1791.

Since there were as yet no parties, the senators are divided into supporters ( Pro-Administration Party , later Federalist Party ) and opponents ( Anti-Administration Party ) of the George Washington government according to their voting behavior .

Composition and changes

Initially, only the senators from ten of the thirteen states met because North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the constitution and the New York Parliament had failed to vote in time. Of the 20 senators, 13 were supporters of the government and seven were opponents . With the senators from New York and North Carolina and John Walker , who was appointed to replace the late William Grayson , Washington’s majority grew to 18 to 6 seats. With the two Senators from Rhode Island, the Senate reached its constitutional size of 26 seats, 19 Senators supported the government, 7 were opponents. The resignation of William Paterson , who had been elected Governor of New Jersey , did nothing to change the ratio, as his successor Philemon Dickinson supported the government like him, the election of the government opponent (and later President) James Monroe left the majority to 18 to 8 fall.

Special functions

Under the United States Constitution , the vice president is the chairman of the Senate without being a member. In the event of a tie, his vote is decisive. During the 1st Congress, John Adams served as Vice President. Contrary to current practice, the vice president actually presided over the Senate meetings until the late 19th century. A senator was elected pro tempore president, who assumed the chairmanship in the absence of the vice-president. From April 6 to April 21, 1789 and from August 7 to August 9, 1789, John Langdon served as the first President pro tempore of the Senate.

List of Senators

Under Attitude, it is noted whether a senator is counted among the supporters or opponents of the government, under State the lists of the senators of the respective state are linked. Class I senators were elected until March 3, 1791, Class II until March 3, 1793, and Class III until March 3, 1795. The date indicates when the relevant senator was admitted to the Senate. Under Sen. is the consecutive number of the senators in chronological order; the lower this is, the greater the senator's seniority . Since it is not known in which order they were sworn in for the first senators, they are usually sorted alphabetically, so that Richard Bassett is considered the senator with the highest seniority of all senators ever elected. The table can be sorted with the arrow keys.

senator attitude Country class date Sen. annotation
Oliver Ellsworth supporter Connecticut I. 0March 4, 1789 05
William Samuel Johnson supporter Connecticut III 0March 4, 1789 12
George Read supporter Delaware I. 0March 4, 1789 18th
Richard Bassett opponent Delaware II 0March 4, 1789 01
William Few opponent Georgia II 0March 4, 1789 07th
James Gunn opponent Georgia III 0March 4, 1789 09
Charles Carroll supporter Maryland I. 0March 4, 1789 03
John Henry supporter Maryland III 0March 4, 1789 10
Tristram Dalton supporter Massachusetts I. 0March 4, 1789 04th
Caleb Strong supporter Massachusetts II 0March 4, 1789 20th
Paine Wingate opponent New Hampshire II 0March 4, 1789 21st
John Langdon supporter New Hampshire III 0March 4, 1789 13
Jonathan Elmer supporter New Jersey I. 0March 4, 1789 06th
William Paterson supporter New Jersey II 0March 4, 1789 17th resigned November 13, 1790
Philemon Dickinson supporter New Jersey II November 23, 1790 29 elected to replace Paterson
Philip Schuyler supporter new York I. July 16, 1789 19 a
Rufus King supporter new York III July 16, 1789 22nd
Samuel Johnston supporter North Carolina II November 26, 1789 23
Benjamin Hawkins supporter North Carolina III 0December 8, 1789 24
William Maclay opponent Pennsylvania I. 0March 4, 1789 15th
Robert Morris supporter Pennsylvania III 0March 4, 1789 16
Theodore Foster supporter Rhode Island I. June 12, 1790 26th
Joseph Stanton opponent Rhode Island II June 12, 1790 27
Pierce Butler supporter South carolina II 0March 4, 1789 02
Ralph Izard supporter South carolina III 0March 4, 1789 11
William Grayson opponent Virginia I. 0March 4, 1789 08th died on March 12, 1790
John Walker supporter Virginia I. January 31, 1790 25th appointed to replace Grayson
James Monroe opponent Virginia I. 0November 9, 1790 28 chosen to replace Grayson
Richard Henry Lee opponent Virginia II 0March 4, 1789 14th
  • a) Schuyler is included in the list of the Senate when he took office on March 4th, which, according to all other sources, is wrong

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dates of Sessions of the Congress , senate.gov, accessed July 5, 2020
  2. ^ Party Division , www.senate.gov, accessed October 8, 2019
  3. ↑ PATERSON, William (1745-1806) , Biographical Directory of the United States Congress retrieved June 15, 2020
  4. ↑ President Pro Tempore on senate.gov, accessed June 18, 2020
  5. ↑ A Chronological Listing of US Senators , US Senate, PDF (approx. 356 kB), accessed June 19, 2020