THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS: FIRST SESSION: LIST OF MEMBERS: ORGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE.
The Senate, now consisting of sixty members was composed as follows:
Maine.—Hannibal Hamlin, James W. Bradbury.
New Hampshire.—John P. Hale, Moses Norris, jr.
Massachusetts.—Daniel Webster, John Davis.
Rhode Island.—Albert C. Greene, John H. Clarke.
Connecticut.—Roger S. Baldwin, Truman Smith.
Vermont.—Samuel S. Phelps, William Upham.
New York.—Daniel S. Dickinson, William H. Seward.
New Jersey.—William L. Dayton, Jacob W. Miller.
Pennsylvania.—Daniel Sturgeon, James Cooper.
Delaware.—John Wales, Presley Spruance.
Maryland.—David Stuart, James A. Pearce.
Virginia.—James M. Mason, Robert M. T. Hunter.
North Carolina.—Willie P. Mangum, George E. Badger.
South Carolina.—John C. Calhoun, Arthur P. Butler.
Georgia.—John M. Berrien, William C. Dawson.
Kentucky.—Joseph R. Underwood, Henry Clay.
Tennessee.—Hopkins L. Turney, John Bell.
Ohio.—Thomas Corwin, Salmon P. Chase.
Louisiana.—Solomon W. Downs, Pierre Soulé.
Indiana.—Jesse D. Bright, James Whitcomb.
Mississippi.—Jefferson Davis, Henry S. Foote.
Illinois.—Stephen A. Douglass, James Shields.
Alabama.—Jeremiah Clemens, William R. King.
Missouri.—Thomas H. Benton, David R. Atchison.
Arkansas.—William R. Sebastian, Solon Borland.
Florida.—David L. Yulee, Jackson Morton.
Michigan.—Lewis Cass, Alpheus Felch.
Texas.—Thomas J. Rusk, Sam Houston.
Wisconsin.—Henry Dodge, Isaac P. Walker.
Iowa.—George W. Jones, Augustus C. Dodge.
In this list the reader will not fail to remark the names of Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Calhoun, all of whom, commencing their congressional career nearly a generation before, and after several retirings, had met again, and towards the close of their eventful lives, upon this elevated theatre of their long and brilliant labors. The House, consisting of two hundred and thirty members, was thus composed:
Maine.—Thomas J. D. Fuller, Elbridge Gerry, Rufus K. Goodenow, Nathaniel S. Littlefield, John Otis, Cullen Sawtelle, Charles Stetson.
New Hampshire.—Harry Hibbard, Charles H. Peaslee, Amos Tuck, James Wilson.
Vermont.—William Hebard, William Henry, James Meacham, Lucius B. Peck.
Massachusetts.—Charles Allen, George Ashmun, James H. Duncan, Orin Fowler, Joseph Grinnell, Daniel P. King, Horace Mann, Julius Rockwell, Robert C. Winthrop, Daniel Webster.
Rhode Island.—Nathan F. Dixon, George G. King.
Connecticut.—Walter Booth, Thomas B. Butler, Chauncey F. Cleveland, Loren P. Waldo.
New York.—Henry P. Alexander, George R. Andrews, Henry Bennett, David A. Bokee, George Briggs, James Brooks, Lorenzo Burrows, Charles E. Clarke, Harmon S. Conger, William Duer, Daniel Gott, Herman D. Gould, Ransom Halloway, William T. Jackson, John A. King, Preston King, Orsamus B. Matteson, Thomas McKissock, William Nelson, J. Phillips Phœnix, Harvey Putnam, Gideon Reynolds, Elijah Risley, Robert L. Rose, David Rumsey, jr., William A. Sackett, Abraham M. Schermerhorn, John L. Schoolcraft, Peter H. Silvester, Elbridge G. Spaulding, John R. Thurman, Walter Underhill, Hiram Walden, Hugh White.
New Jersey.—Andrew K. Hay, James G. King, William A. Newell, John Van Dyke, Isaac Wildrick.
Pennsylvania.—Chester Butler, Samuel Calvin, Joseph Casey, Joseph R. Chandler, Jesse C. Dickey, Milo M. Dimmick, John Freedley, Alfred Gilmore, Moses Hampton, John W. Howe, Lewis C. Levin, Job Mann, James X. McLanahan, Henry D. Moore, Henry Nes, Andrew J. Ogle, Charles W. Pitman, Robert R. Reed, John Robbins, jr., Thomas Ross, Thaddeus Stevens, William Strong, James Thompson, David Wilmot.
Delaware.—John W. Houston.
Maryland.—Richard I. Bowie, Alexander Evans, William T. Hamilton, Edward Hammond, John B. Kerr, Robert M. McLane.
Virginia.—Thomas H. Averett, Thomas H. Bayly, James M. H. Beale, Thomas S. Bocock, Henry A. Edmundson, Thomas S. Haymond, Alexander R. Holladay, James McDowell, Fayette McMullen, Richard K. Meade, John S. Millson, Jeremiah Morton, Richard Parker, Paulus Powell, James A. Seddon.
North Carolina.—William S. Ashe, Joseph P. Caldwell, Thomas L. Clingman, John R. J. Daniel, Edmund Deberry, David Outlaw, Augustine H. Shepperd, Edward Stanly, Abraham W. Venable.
South Carolina.—Armistead Burt, William F. Colcock, Isaac E. Holmes, John McQueen, James L. Orr, Daniel Wallace, Joseph A. Woodward.
Georgia.—Howell Cobb, Thomas C. Hackett, Hugh A. Haralson, Thomas Butler King, Allen F. Owen, Alexander H. Stephens, Robert Toombs, Marshall J. Wellborn.
Alabama.—Albert J. Alston, Franklin W. Bowdon, Williamson R. W. Cobb, Sampson W. Harris, Henry W. Hilliard, David Hubbard, Samuel W. Inge.
Mississippi.—Albert G. Brown, Winfield S. Featherston, William McWillie, Jacob Thompson.
Louisiana.—Charles M. Conrad, John H. Harmanson, Emile La Sère, Isaac E. Morse.
Ohio.—Joseph Cable, Lewis D. Campbell, David K. Carter, Moses B. Corwin, John Crowell, David T. Disney, Nathan Evans, Joshua R. Giddings, Moses Hoagland, William F. Hunter, John K. Miller, Jonathan D. Morris, Edson B. Olds, Emery D. Potter, Joseph M. Root, Robert C. Schenck, Charles Sweetser, John L. Taylor, Samuel F. Vinton, William A. Whittlesey, Amos E. Wood.
Kentucky.—Linn Boyd, Daniel Breck, Geo A. Caldwell, James L. Johnson, Humphrey Marshall, John C. Mason, Finis E. McLean, Charles S. Morehead, Richard H. Stanton, John B. Thompson.
Tennessee.—Josiah M. Anderson, Andrew Ewing, Meredith P. Gentry, Isham G. Harris, Andrew Johnson, George W. Jones, John H. Savage, Frederick P. Stanton, Jas. H. Thomas, Albert G. Watkins, Christopher H. Williams.
Indiana.—Nathaniel Albertson, William J. Brown, Cyrus L. Dunham, Graham N. Fitch, Willis A. Gorman, Andrew J. Harlan, George W. Julian, Joseph E. McDonald, Edward W. McGaughey, John L. Robinson.
Illinois.—Edward D. Baker, William H. Bissell, Thomas L. Harris, John A. McClernand, William A. Richardson, John Wentworth, Timothy R. Young.
Missouri.—William V. N. Bay, James B. Bowlin, James S. Green, Willard P. Hall, John S. Phelps.
Arkansas.—Robert W. Johnson.
Michigan.—Kinsley S. Bingham, Alexander W. Buel, William Sprague.
Florida.—E. Carrington Cabell.
Texas.—Volney E. Howard, David S. Kaufman.
Iowa.—Shepherd Leffler, William Thompson.
Wisconsin.—Orsamus Cole, James D. Doty, Charles Durkee.
Oregon.—S. R. Thurston.
Minnesota.—Henry S. Sibley.
The election of a Speaker is the first business of a new Congress, and the election which decided the political character of the House while parties divided on political principles. Candidates from opposite parties were still put in nomination at this commencement of the Thirty-first Congress, but it was soon seen that the slavery question mingled with the election, and gave it its controlling character. Mr. Robert Winthrop, of Massachusetts (whig), and Mr. C. Howell Cobb, of Georgia (democratic), were the respective candidates; and in the vain struggle to give either a majority of the House near three weeks of time was wasted, and above sixty ballotings exhausted. Deeming the struggle useless, resort was had to the plurality rule, and Mr. Cobb receiving 102 votes to the 99 for Mr. Winthrop—about twenty votes being thrown away—he was declared elected, and led to the chair most courteously by his competitor, Mr. Winthrop, and Mr. James McDowell, of Virginia. Mr. Thomas I. Campbell was elected clerk, and upon his death during the session, Richard M. Young, Esq., of Illinois, was elected in his place.