List of Senate Members of the 4th United States Congress

The senators in the 4th Congress of the United States were one-third in 1794 and 1795 re-elected. 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. Two thirds of the Senate therefore consists of senators whose term of office is still in force.

The term of office of the 4th Congress ran from March 4, 1795 to March 3, 1797, its first session took place from December 7, 1795 to June 1, 1796 in Philadelphia , the second period from December 5, 1796 to December 3. March 1797. Before that, a special meeting took place from June 8th to 26th, 1795.

In the mid-1790s, the supporters of George Washington's government formed as the Federalist Party , the opponents of the government as the Republican Party, which today is usually called the Democratic-Republican Party in contrast to the Grand Old Party , which was founded later . Both were not parties in the modern sense, but were much more organized than the informal groups before.

Composition and changes

At the end of his term in office, the 3rd Congress had 17 supporters and 13 opponents of the government. James Gunn , still an opponent of the government in the 3rd Congress, joined the federalists. With two more seats won by the federalists from opponents of the government, 20 federalists and 10 Republicans sat in the Senate at the constituent session of the 4th Congress . As the successor to Republican James Jackson , Governor George Mathews appointed federalist George Walton , which briefly increased their majority to 21 to 9. In February 1796, Josiah Tattnall was succeeded by a Republican again. The resignations of Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut and George Cabot and Caleb Strong from Massachusetts did not change the majority, as federalists were also elected to the Senate with James Hillhouse , Benjamin Goodhue and Theodore Sedgwick .

With the addition of Tennessee as the 16th state in the union, the Senate grew to 32 members. The two new Senators, William Cocke and William Blount, were both Republicans, so these could be shortened to 20 to 12. Six other senators resigned later in the year. Their successors mostly belonged to the same party, only in Vermont the federalist Isaac Tichenor was elected as the successor to the Republican Moses Robinson , whereby the majority of the federalists rose to 21 to 11, which was also the status at the end of the 4th Congress.

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 4th Congress, the future President John Adams was 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 March 4th to June 7th and 7th / 8th December 1795 was Henry Tazewell president pro tempore, from 6 May to December 4, 1796 Samuel Livermore and from 16 February to the end of the Congress on March 3, 1797 William Bingham .

List of Senators

Under Party it is noted whether a senator is assigned to the Federalist Party or the Republican Party , under State the lists of the senators of the respective state are linked. The regular term of office depends on the Senate class . Class I senators were elected until March 3, 1797, Class II until March 3, 1799, and Class III until March 3, 1801. 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 . The table can be sorted with the arrow keys.

senator	Political party	Country	class	date	Sen.	annotation
Oliver Ellsworth	federalist	Connecticut	I.	0March 4, 1789	05	resigned March 8, 1796
James Hillhouse	federalist	Connecticut	I.	May 18, 1796	59	elected to succeed Ellsworth
Jonathan Trumbull	federalist	Connecticut	III	0March 4, 1795	56	resigned June 10, 1796
Uriah Tracy	federalist	Connecticut	III	October 13, 1796	64	elected to succeed Trumbull
Henry Latimer	federalist	Delaware	I.	0February 7, 1795	50
John M. Vining	federalist	Delaware	II	0March 4, 1793	45
James Jackson	republican	Georgia	II	0March 4, 1793	42	resigned October 31, 1795
George Walton	federalist	Georgia	II	November 16, 1795	57	appointed to succeed Jackson
Josiah Tattnall	republican	Georgia	II	April 12, 1796	58	elected to succeed Jackson
James Gunn	federalist	Georgia	III	0March 4, 1789	09
John Brown	republican	Kentucky	II	June 18, 1792	36
Humphrey Marshall	federalist	Kentucky	III	0March 4, 1795	53
Richard Potts	federalist	Maryland	I.	January 10, 1793	39	resigned October 24, 1796
John Eager Howard	federalist	Maryland	I.	November 21, 1796	68	elected to succeed Potts
John Henry	federalist	Maryland	III	0March 4, 1789	10
George Cabot	federalist	Massachusetts	I.	0March 4, 1791	32	resigned June 9, 1796
Benjamin Goodhue	federalist	Massachusetts	I.	June 11, 1796	60	elected to succeed Cabot
Caleb Strong	federalist	Massachusetts	II	0March 4, 1789	20th	resigned June 1, 1796
Theodore Sedgwick	federalist	Massachusetts	II	June 11, 1796	61	elected to succeed Strong
Samuel Livermore	federalist	New Hampshire	II	0March 4, 1793	43	President pro tempore
John Langdon	republican	New Hampshire	III	0March 4, 1789	13
John Rutherfurd	federalist	New Jersey	I.	0March 4, 1791	33
Frederick Frelinghuysen	federalist	New Jersey	II	0March 4, 1793	41	resigned November 12, 1796
Richard Stockton	federalist	New Jersey	II	November 12, 1796	67	elected as successor to Frelinghuysen
Aaron Burr	republican	new York	I.	0March 4, 1791	31
Rufus King	federalist	new York	III	July 16, 1789	22nd	resigned May 23, 1796
John Laurance	federalist	new York	III	0November 9, 1796	66	elected to succeed King
Alexander Martin	republican	North Carolina	II	0March 4, 1793	44
Timothy Bloodworth	republican	North Carolina	III	0March 4, 1795	52
James Ross	federalist	Pennsylvania	I.	April 24, 1794	47
William Bingham	federalist	Pennsylvania	III	0March 4, 1795	51	President pro tempore
Theodore Foster	federalist	Rhode Island	I.	June 12, 1790	26th
William Bradford	federalist	Rhode Island	II	0March 4, 1793	40
Pierce Butler	republican	South carolina	II	0March 4, 1789	02	resigned October 25, 1796
John Hunter	republican	South carolina	II	0December 8, 1796	69	elected to succeed Butler
Jacob Read	federalist	South carolina	III	0March 4, 1795	55
William Cocke	republican	Tennessee	I.	0August 2, 1796	63
William Blount	republican	Tennessee	II	0August 2, 1796	62
Moses Robinson	republican	Vermont	I.	October 17, 1791	35	resigned October 15, 1796
Isaac Tichenor	federalist	Vermont	I.	October 18, 1796	65	elected to succeed Robinson
Elijah Paine	federalist	Vermont	III	0March 4, 1795	54
Stevens Mason	republican	Virginia	I.	November 18, 1794	48
Henry Tazewell	republican	Virginia	II	December 29, 1794	49 a	President pro tempore

• a) Tazewell is listed in the Senate with inauguration November 18, which is wrong according to all other sources

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. ↑ President Pro Tempore on senate.gov, accessed June 18, 2020
4. ↑ A Chronological Listing of US Senators , US Senate, PDF (approx. 356 kB), accessed June 19, 2020