48th United States Congress
48th United States Congress | |
---|---|
47th ← → 49th | |
March 4, 1883 – March 4, 1885 | |
Members | 76 senators 325 representatives 8 non-voting delegates |
Senate majority | Republican |
Senate President | Vacant |
House majority | Democratic |
House Speaker | John G. Carlisle (D) |
Sessions | |
1st: December 3, 1883 – July 7, 1884 2nd: December 1, 1884 – March 3, 1885 |
The Forty-eighth 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, 1883 to March 4, 1885, during the last two years of the administration of U.S. President Chester A. Arthur. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Tenth Census of the United States in 1880. The Senate had a Republican majority, and the House had a Democratic majority.
Major events
- September 5, 1883: Mary F. Hoyt became the first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service (and the second person appointed by examination (in which she came top) instituted under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act) when she became a clerk in the Bank Redemption Agency of the Department of the Treasury.
- October 15, 1883: The Supreme Court of the United States declared part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, as the Court allowed private individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
- November 18, 1883: U.S. and Canadian railroads instituted 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
- August 10, 1884: An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa (based on the felt area) affected a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys were toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage was severe in Jamaica and Amityville in New York.
- October 6, 1884: The United States Naval War College was established in Newport, Rhode Island.
- October 22, 1884: International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixed the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
- November 4, 1884: United States presidential election, 1884: Democratic Governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeated Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
- December 6: 1884: The Washington Monument was completed.
Major legislation
Territories organized
- May 17, 1884: District of Alaska was organized.
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
Party (shading shows control) |
Total | Vacant | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic (D) |
Independent (I) | Readjuster (RA) | Republican (R) |
|||
End of previous congress | 37 | 1 | 1 | 37 | 76 | 0 |
Begin | 36 | 0 | 2 | 37 | 75 | 1 |
End | 38 | 76 | 0 | |||
Final voting share | 47.4% | 0.0% | 2.6% | 50.0% | ||
Beginning of next congress | 34 | 0 | 2 | 37 | 73 | 3 |
House of Representatives
House seats by party holding plurality in state | |
---|---|
80.1-100% Democratic | 80.1-100% Republican |
60.1-80% Democratic | 60.1-80% Republican |
Up to 60% Democratic | Up to 60% Republican |
- Democratic: 196 (majority)
- Republican: 117
- Readjuster: 4
- National Greenback: 2
- Independent: 2
- Independent Democratic: 3
- Independent Republican: 1
TOTAL members: 325
Leadership
Senate
- President: Vacant. Chester Arthur (R), the most recent Senate President, had become U.S. President on the death of his predecessor September 19, 1881, leaving the office vacant through the end of this Congress.
- President pro tempore: George F. Edmunds (R)
House of Representatives
- Speaker: John G. Carlisle (D)
Members
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state.
Senate
Senators are listed by their states and Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election.
House of Representatives
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: 1
- Democratic: no net change
- Republican: 1 seat net gain
- Liberal Republican: 1 seat net loss
- Deaths: 1
- Resignations: 0
- Interim appointment: 1
- Late election: 1
- Total seats with changes: 3
Template:Ordinal US Congress Senate
|-
| New Hampshire (2)
| nowrap | Vacant
| Legislature had failed to elect.
Senator elected August 2, 1883.
| nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Austin F. Pike (R)
| August 2, 1883
|-
| Rhode Island (2)
| nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Henry B. Anthony (R)
| Incumbent died September 2, 1884.
Successor appointed November 19, 1884.
| nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | William P. Sheffield (R)
| November 19, 1884
|- | Rhode Island (2) | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | William P. Sheffield (R) | Interim appointee replaced by successor elected January 20, 1885. | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Jonathan Chace (R) | January 20, 1885
|}
House of Representatives
- replacements: 15
- Democratic: 1 seat net gain
- Republican: 1 seat net loss
- National Greenback: 1 seat net gain
- deaths: 9
- resignations: 9
- contested election: 8
- Total seats with changes: 25
Template:Ordinal US Congress Rep |- | Mississippi 2nd | Vacant | Chalmers took seat after an election contest with Van H. Manning who challenged his election | nowrap style="background-color:#DCDCDC" | James R. Chalmers (I) | June 25, 1884 |- | West Virginia 3rd | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John E. Kenna (D) | Resigned March 4, 1883 after being elected to the US Senate | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Charles P. Snyder (D) | May 15, 1883 |- | Alabama 1st | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Thomas H. Herndon (D) | Died March 28, 1883 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | James T. Jones (D) | December 3, 1883 |- | Virginia 7th | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John Paul (D) | Resigned September 5, 1883 after being appointed judge of the US District Court of the Western District of Virginia. The House election was subsequently contested. | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Charles T. O'Ferrall (D) | May 5, 1884 |- | Kansas 2nd | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Dudley C. Haskell (R) | Died December 16, 1883 | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Edward H. Funston (R) | March 21, 1884 |- | North Carolina 1st | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Walter F. Pool (R) | Died August 25, 1883 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Thomas G. Skinner (D) | November 20, 1883 |- | Massachusetts 12th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | George D. Robinson (R) | Resigned January 7, 1884 after being elected Governor of Massachusetts | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Francis W. Rockwell (R) | January 17, 1884 |- | South Carolina 7th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Edmund W. M. Mackey (R) | Died January 27, 1884 | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Robert Smalls (R) | March 18, 1884 |- | New Mexico Territory At-large | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Tranquilino Luna (R) | Lost contested election March 5, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Francisco A. Manzanares (D) | March 5, 1884 |- | Virginia 1st | nowrap style="background:Black" | Robert M. Mayo (Readjuster) | Lost contested election March 20, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | George T. Garrison (D) | March 20, 1884 |- | Indiana 7th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Stanton J. Peelle (R) | Lost contested election May 22, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | William E. English (D) | May 22, 1884 |- | Ohio 18th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | William McKinley (R) | Lost contested election May 27, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Jonathan H. Wallace (D) | May 27, 1884 |- | Ohio 7th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Henry L. Morey (R) | Lost contested election June 20, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | James E. Campbell (D) | June 20, 1884 |- | Iowa 7th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | John A. Kasson (R) | Resigned July 13, 1884 after being appointed Minister to Germany | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Hiram Y. Smith (R) | December 2, 1884 |- | Indiana 13th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | William H. Calkins (R) | Resigned October 20, 1884 | Benjamin F. Shively (Anti-Monopoly) | December 1, 1884 |- | South Carolina 4th | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John H. Evins (D) | Died October 20, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John Bratton (D) | December 8, 1884 |- | Pennsylvania 19th | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | William A. Duncan (D) | Died November 14, 1884 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John A. Swope (D) | December 23, 1884 |- | North Carolina 5th | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Alfred M. Scales (D) | Resigned December 30, 1884 after being elected Governor of North Carolina | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | James W. Reid (D) | January 28, 1885 |- | Alabama 4th | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Charles M. Shelley (D) | Lost contested election January 9, 1885 | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | George H. Craig (R) | January 9, 1885 |- | Ohio 9th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | James S. Robinson (R) | Resigned January 12, 1885 after becoming Ohio Secretary of State | Vacant | Not filled this term |- | Rhode Island 2nd | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Jonathan Chace (R) | Resigned January 26, 1885 after being elected to the US Senate | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Nathan F. Dixon III (R) | February 12, 1885 |- | Arkansas 2nd | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | James K. Jones (D) | Resigned February 19, 1885 after being elected to the US Senate | Vacant | Not filled this term |- | Iowa 5th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | James Wilson (R) | Lost contested election March 3, 1885 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | Benjamin T. Frederick (D) | March 3, 1885 |- | Iowa 6th | nowrap style="background-color:#FFB6B6" | Marsena E. Cutts (R) | Lost contested election March 3, 1885 | nowrap style="color:black;background-color:#B0CEFF" | John C. Cook (D) | March 3, 1885 |}
Committees
Lists of committees and their party leaders.
Senate
- Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress (Select)
- Agriculture
- Appropriations
- Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
- Civil Service and Retrenchment
- Claims
- Commerce
- Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
- District of Columbia
- Education and Labor
- Engrossed Bills
- Enrolled Bills
- Epidemic Diseases (Select)
- Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service (Select)
- Expenditures of Public Money
- Finance
- Fisheries
- Foreign Relations
- Indian Affairs
- Judiciary
- Library
- Manufactures
- Military Affairs
- Mines and Mining
- Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Select)
- Naval Affairs
- Nicaraguan Claims (Select)
- Ordnance and War Ships (Select)
- Patents
- Pensions
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Potomac River Front (Select)
- Printing
- Private Land Claims
- Privileges and Elections
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Lands
- Railroads
- Revision of the Laws
- Revolutionary Claims
- Rules
- Sioux and Crow Indians (Select)
- Steel Producing Capacity of the United States (Select)
- Tariff Regulation (Select)
- Tenth Census (Select)
- Territories
- Transportation Routes to the Seaboard
- Whole
- Woman Suffrage (Select)
House of Representatives
- Accounts
- Agriculture
- Alcoholic Liquor Traffic (Select)
- American Ship building (Select)
- Appropriations
- Banking and Currency
- Boynton Investigation (Select)
- Claims
- Coinage, Weights and Measures
- Commerce
- District of Columbia
- Education
- Elections
- Enrolled Bills
- Expenditures in the Interior Department
- Expenditures in the Justice Department
- Expenditures in the Navy Department
- Expenditures in the Post Office Department
- Expenditures in the State Department
- Expenditures in the Treasury Department
- Expenditures in the War Department
- Expenditures on Public Buildings
- Foreign Affairs
- Indian Affairs
- Invalid Pensions
- Labor
- Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
- Manufactures
- Mileage
- Military Affairs
- Militia
- Mines and Mining
- Naval Affairs
- Pacific Railroads
- Patents
- Pensions
- Post Office and Post Roads
- Public Buildings and Grounds
- Public Lands
- Railways and Canals
- Revision of Laws
- Rivers and Harbors
- Rules
- Standards of Official Conduct
- Territories
- War Claims
- Ways and Means
- Whole
Joint committees
Employees
- Architect of the Capitol: Edward Clark
- Librarian of Congress: Ainsworth Rand Spofford
- Public Printer of the United States: Sterling P. Rounds
Senate
- Chaplain: Elias D. Huntley (Methodist)
- Secretary: Francis E. Shober (Acting), to December 18, 1883
- Anson G. McCook, from December 18, 1883
- Sergeant at Arms: Richard J. Bright, to December 18, 1883
- William P. Canady, from December 18, 1883
House of Representatives
- Chaplain: John S. Lindsay (Episcopalian)
- Clerk: John B. Clark, Jr.
- Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: Nathaniel T. Crutchfield
- Doorkeeper: James G. Wintersmith
- Postmaster: Lycurgus Dalton
- Sergeant at Arms: John P. Leedom
See also
- United States elections, 1882 (elections leading to this Congress)
- United States elections, 1884 (elections during this Congress, leading to the next Congress)
References
- Martis, Kenneth C. (1989). The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
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(help) - Martis, Kenneth C. (1982). The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
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