List of Senate Members of the 5th United States Congress

The senators in the 5th Congress of the United States were one-third in 1796 and 1797 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 5th Congress ran from March 4, 1797 to March 3, 1799, on March 4, 1797 the constituent special session took place in Philadelphia , the then capital. The first regular conference period ran from May 15 to July 10, 1797, the second from November 13, 1797 to July 16, 1798. A special session took place from July 17 to 19, the third regular period ran from 3 November 1797. December 1798 to March 3, 1799.

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

Composition and changes

In the 4th Congress sat 21 federalists and 11 republicans at the end of his term . Through the election, the federalists were able to win one of the seats previously held by the Republicans, another previously Republican seat remains vacant, so that the 5th Congress was opened with 22 federalist and nine Republican senators. In May, William Cocke was named his own successor, bringing back ten Republicans to the Senate. Various new elections because of the resignation or death of senators did not lead to any changes in the party political composition. Due to the death of Republican Henry Tazewell from Virginia , whose seat was not immediately occupied again, 22 federalists were again sitting in the Senate at the end of the 5th Congress against nine Republicans, one seat was vacant.

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 5th Congress, later President Thomas Jefferson 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 July 6 to October 1797, William Bradford was president pro tempore, from December 22 to December 12 Jacob Read , from June 27 to December 5, 1798, Theodore Sedgwick , from December 6 to December 27, John Laurance and from March 1 to the end of Congress on March 3, 1799, James Ross , who remained in the 6th Congress until December 1, 1799.

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, 1803, those of class II until March 3, 1799, and those of 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
James Hillhouse	federalist	Connecticut	I.	May 18, 1796	59
Uriah Tracy	federalist	Connecticut	III	October 13, 1796	64
Henry Latimer	federalist	Delaware	I.	0February 7, 1795	50
John M. Vining	federalist	Delaware	II	0March 4, 1793	45	resigned January 19, 1798
Joshua Clayton	federalist	Delaware	II	January 19, 1798	76	elected to succeed Vining, died August 11, 1798
William H. Wells	federalist	Delaware	II	January 17, 1799	82	elected to succeed Clayton
Josiah Tattnall	republican	Georgia	II	April 12, 1796	58
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
John Eager Howard	federalist	Maryland	I.	November 21, 1796	68
John Henry	federalist	Maryland	III	0March 4, 1789	10	resigned December 10, 1797
James Lloyd	federalist	Maryland	III	0December 8, 1797	74	elected to succeed Henry
Benjamin Goodhue	federalist	Massachusetts	I.	June 11, 1796	60
Theodore Sedgwick	federalist	Massachusetts	II	June 11, 1796	61	President pro tempore
Samuel Livermore	federalist	New Hampshire	II	0March 4, 1793	43
John Langdon	republican	New Hampshire	III	0March 4, 1789	13
John Rutherfurd	federalist	New Jersey	I.	0March 4, 1791	33	resigned November 26, 1798
Franklin Davenport	federalist	New Jersey	I.	0December 5, 1798	80	appointed as successor to Rutherfurd
Richard Stockton	federalist	New Jersey	II	November 12, 1796	67
Philip Schuyler	federalist	new York	I.	0March 4, 1797	19th	resigned January 3, 1798 earlier in the 1st Congress
John Sloss Hobart	federalist	new York	I.	January 11, 1798	75	elected to succeed Schuyler , resigned April 16, 1798
William North	federalist	new York	I.	0May 5, 1798	77	appointed to succeed Hobart
James Watson	federalist	new York	I.	17th August 1798	78	elected to succeed Hobart
John Laurance	federalist	new York	III	0November 9, 1796	66	President pro tempore
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	President pro tempore
William Bingham	federalist	Pennsylvania	III	0March 4, 1795	51
Theodore Foster	federalist	Rhode Island	I.	June 12, 1790	26th
William Bradford	federalist	Rhode Island	II	0March 4, 1793	40	President pro tempore resigned in October 1797
Ray Greene	federalist	Rhode Island	II	November 13, 1797	73	elected to succeed Bradford
John Hunter	republican	South carolina	II	0December 8, 1796	69	resigned November 26, 1798
Charles Pinckney	republican	South carolina	II	0December 6, 1798	81	elected to succeed Hunter
Jacob Read	federalist	South carolina	III	0March 4, 1795	55	President pro tempore
William Cocke	republican	Tennessee	I.	0August 2, 1796	63	appointed May 15, 1797
Andrew Jackson	republican	Tennessee	I.	September 26, 1797	71	elected as successor to Cocke resigned April 1798
Daniel Smith	republican	Tennessee	I.	0October 6, 1798	79	appointed to succeed Jackson
William Blount	republican	Tennessee	II	0August 2, 1796	62	excluded July 8, 1797
Joseph Anderson	republican	Tennessee	II	September 26, 1797	70	elected to succeed Blount
Isaac Tichenor	federalist	Vermont	I.	October 18, 1796	65	resigned October 17, 1797
Nathaniel Chipman	federalist	Vermont	I.	October 17, 1797	72	elected to succeed Tichenor
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	died January 24, 1799

• 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