- Source: 39th United States Congress
The 39th 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, 1865, to March 4, 1867, during Abraham Lincoln's final month as president, and the first two years of the administration of his successor, Andrew Johnson.
The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the 1860 United States census. Both chambers had a Republican majority.
Major events
March 4, 1865: Second inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln.
April 9, 1865: Surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War
April 15, 1865: Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President of the United States
December 11, 1865: Creation of the House Appropriations Committee and the House Banking and Commerce Committee, reducing the tasks of the House Ways and Means Committee
January, 1866: The second and current United States Capitol dome completed after 11 years of work.
July 24, 1866: Tennessee became the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
November 5, 1866: United States House of Representatives elections, 1866
January 8, 1867: African American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia
Major legislation
April 9, 1866: Civil Rights Act of 1866, Sess. 1, ch. 31, 14 Stat. 27
July 16, 1866: Freedmen's Bureau Bill, Sess. 1, ch. 200, 14 Stat. 173
July 23, 1866: Judicial Circuits Act, Sess. 1, ch. 210, 14 Stat. 209, reduced the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven
July 23, 1866: District of Columbia Public Schools Act ("An Act relating to Public Schools in the District of Columbia"), Sess. 1, ch. 217, 14 Stat. 216
July 25, 1866: An Act to revive the grade of General in the United States Army, Sess. 1, ch. 232, 14 Stat. 223, (now called "4-star general"); Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant became the first to have this rank.
July 28, 1866: Metric Act of 1866, Sess. 1, ch. 301, 14 Stat. 339, legalized the use of the metric system for weights and measures in the United States.
July 28, 1866: Washington City Colored Schools Lots Donation Act ("An Act donating certain Lots in the City of Washington for Schools for Colored Children in the District of Columbia"), Sess. 1, ch. 308, 14 Stat. 343
March 2, 1867: Reconstruction Act, ch. 153, 14 Stat. 428 established five military districts, each headed by a general, in ten states of the former Confederate South (Tennessee excepted), and stipulates conditions for re-admission of these States into the Union.
March 2, 1867: Tenure of Office Act, ch. 154, 14 Stat. 430 required the president to obtain the Senate's advice and consent to suspend or dismiss certain federal public officials (notably cabinet officers). Violation of this act will lead to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson by the next (40th) Congress in 1868.
Constitutional amendments
December 18, 1865: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution declared ratified
June 13, 1866: Approved an amendment to the Constitution addressing citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification
Amendment was later ratified on July 9, 1868, becoming the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
States admitted
July 24, 1866: Tennessee readmitted to representation.
March 1, 1867: Nebraska admitted as the 37th state, sess. 2, ch. 36, 14 Stat. 391 (over president's veto)
Party summary
The count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of the first session of this Congress, and includes members from vacancies and newly admitted states, when they were first seated. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the "Changes in membership" section.
= Senate
=During this Congress, two seats were added for the new state of Nebraska.
= House of Representatives
=During this Congress, one seat was added for the new state of Nebraska.
Leadership
= Senate
=President: Andrew Johnson (D), until April 15, 1865; vacant thereafter.
President pro tempore: Lafayette S. Foster (R), until March 2, 1867
Benjamin F. Wade (R), elected March 2, 1867
Republican Conference Chairman: Henry B. Anthony
= House of Representatives
=Speaker: Schuyler Colfax (R)
Republican Conference Chairman: Justin S. Morrill
Members
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed in order of seniority, and representatives are listed 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 began in the last Congress, requiring reelection in 1868; Class 2 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1870; and Class 3 meant their term ended in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1866.
Skip to House of Representatives, below
= 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: 8
Democratic: 2-seat net loss
Republican: 2-seat net gain
Unionist: no net change
Unconditional Union: no net change
Deaths: 4
Resignations: 2
Vacancy: 1
Seats of newly admitted states: 2
Seats of re-admitted states: 2
Total seats with changes: 12
= House of Representatives
=Replacements: 9
Democratic: 1-seat net gain
Republican: 2-seat net gain
Unconditional Unionist: 1 seat net loss
Unionist: 0 net change
Deaths: 4
Resignations: 4
Contested election: 3
Seats from newly admitted states: 1
Seats from re-admitted states: 8
Total seats with changes: 21
Committees
Lists of committees and their party leaders for members of the House and Senate committees can be found through the Official Congressional Directory at the bottom of this article. The directory after the pages of terms of service lists committees of the Senate, House (Standing with Subcommittees, Select and Special) and Joint and, after that, House/Senate committee assignments. On the committees section of the House and Senate in the Official Congressional Directory, the committee's members on the first row on the left side shows the chairman of the committee and on the right side shows the ranking member of the committee.
= Senate
=Agriculture (Chairman: John Sherman)
Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate (Chairman: George H. Williams)
Claims (Chairman: Timothy O. Howe)
Coins, Weights and Measures (Select)
Commerce (Chairman: Zachariah Chandler)
Compensation (Select)
Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
District of Columbia (Chairman: Lot M. Morrill)
Engrossed Bills (Chairman: Aaron H. Cragin)
Finance (Chairman: William P. Fessenden)
Foreign Relations (Chairman: Charles Sumner)
Indian Affairs (Chairman: John B. Henderson)
Interior Department Clerical Force (Select)
Judiciary (Chairman: Lyman Trumbull)
Manufactures (Chairman: William Sprague IV)
Military Affairs and the Militia (Chairman: Henry Wilson)
Mines and Mining (Chairman: John Conness)
Mississippi River Levees Reconstruction (Select)
National Banks (Select)
National Telegraph Company (Select)
Naval Affairs (Chairman: James W. Grimes)
Ordnance and War Ships (Select)
Pacific Railroad (Chairman: Jacob M. Howard)
Patents and the Patent Office (Chairman: Waitman T. Willey)
Pensions (Chairman: Henry S. Lane)
Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: Alexander Ramsey)
Private Land Claims (Chairman: Ira Harris)
Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: B. Gratz Brown)
Public Lands (Chairman: Samuel C. Pomeroy)
Retrenchment
Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Richard Yates)
Tariff Regulation (Select)
Territories (Chairman: Benjamin F. Wade)
Whole
= House of Representatives
=Accounts (Chairman: Edward H. Rollins)
Agriculture (Chairman: John Bidwell)
Appropriations (Chairman: Thaddeus Stevens)
Banking and Currency (Chairman: Theodore M. Pomeroy)
Claims (Chairman: Columbus Delano)
Coinage, Weights and Measures (Chairman: John A. Kasson)
Commerce (Chairman: Elihu B. Washburne)
District of Columbia (Chairman: Ebon C. Ingersoll)
Elections (Chairman: Henry L. Dawes)
Expenditures in the Interior Department (Chairman: Ebenezer Dumont)
Expenditures in the Navy Department (Chairman: George W. Julian)
Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Chairman: Jehu Baker)
Expenditures in the State Department (Chairman: Frederick A. Pike)
Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Chairman: James M. Marvin)
Expenditures in the War Department (Chairman: Henry C. Deming)
Expenditures on Public Buildings (Chairman: John W. Longyear)
Foreign Affairs (Chairman: Nathaniel P. Banks)
Freedmen's Affairs (Chairman: Thomas D. Eliot)
Indian Affairs (Chairman: William Windom)
Invalid Pensions (Chairman: Sidney Perham)
Judiciary (Chairman: James F. Wilson)
Manufactures (Chairman: James K. Moorhead)
Mileage (Chairman: George W. Anderson)
Military Affairs (Chairman: Robert C. Schenck)
Militia (Chairman: Abner C. Harding)
Mines and Mining (Chairman: William Higby)
Naval Affairs (Chairman: Alexander H. Rice)
Pacific Railroads (Chairman: Hiram Price)
Patents (Chairman: Thomas A. Jenckes)
Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: John B. Alley)
Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: John H. Rice)
Public Expenditures (Chairman: Calvin T. Hulburd)
Public Lands (Chairman: George W. Julian)
Revisal and Unfinished Business (Chairman: Glenni W. Scofield)
Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Kellian V. Whaley)
Revolutionary Pensions (Chairman: Walter D. McIndoe)
Roads and Canals (Chairman: Fernando C. Beaman)
Rules (Select)
Standards of Official Conduct
Territories (Chairman: James M. Ashley)
Ways and Means (Chairman: Justin S. Morrill)
Whole
= Joint committees
=Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Conduct of the War
Enrolled Bills (Chairman: Sen. James Nye)
The Library (Chairman: N/A)
Printing (Chairman: N/A)
Retrenchment
To Inquire into the Condition of the States which Formed the So-Called Confederate States
Caucuses
Democratic (House)
Democratic (Senate)
Employees
= Legislative branch agency directors
=Architect of the Capitol: Thomas U. Walter, resigned May 26, 1865
Edward Clark, appointed August 30, 1865
Librarian of Congress: Ainsworth Rand Spofford
= Senate
=Chaplain: Thomas Bowman (Methodist), until March 9, 1865
Edgar H. Gray (Baptist), from March 9, 1865
Secretary: John W. Forney
Sergeant at Arms: George T. Brown
= House of Representatives
=Chaplain: William Henry Channing (Unitarian), until December 4, 1865
Charles B. Boynton (Congregationalist), from December 4, 1865
Clerk: Edward McPherson
Doorkeeper: Ira Goodnow
Messenger to the Speaker: William D. Todd
Postmaster: Josiah Given
Reading Clerks: Edward W. Barber
Sergeant at Arms: Nehemiah G. Ordway
See also
1864 United States elections (elections leading to this Congress)
1864 United States presidential election
1864–65 United States Senate elections
1864–65 United States House of Representatives elections
1866 United States elections (elections during this Congress, leading to the next Congress)
1866–67 United States Senate elections
1866–67 United States House of Representatives elections
Notes
References
Further reading
Aynes, Richard L. "The 39th Congress (1865–1867) and the 14th Amendment: Some Preliminary Perspectives," Akron Law Review, 42 (no. 4, 2009), 1019–49.
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.
Byrd, Robert C.; Wolff, Wendy (October 1, 1993). The Senate, 1789-1989: Historical Statistics, 1789-1992 (volume 4 Bicentennial ed.). U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 9780160632563.
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 39th Congress, 1st Session. 1866.
Congress, United States (1867). Congressional Directory for the 39th Congress, 2nd Session.
= Transcripts of debates and proceedings
=The Congressional Globe contains the official transcripts and proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, although newspapers often provided their own transcripts that sometimes differed from the official ones. Following are external links to the pertinent volumes of the Globe, which are downloadable and/or searchable via Google Books and HathiTrust:
The congressional debates pertaining to the Fourteenth Amendment can be found at “Congressional Debates of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”.
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- 39th United States Congress
- 1864–65 United States House of Representatives elections
- United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction
- List of United States Congresses
- List of United States senators in the 39th Congress
- List of United States federal legislation
- List of new members of the 119th United States Congress
- United States congressional delegations from Oregon
- Reconstruction Acts
- Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
