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45th United States Congress

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Senate President
  
William A. Wheeler (R)

House Speaker
  
Samuel J. Randall (D)

House Majority
  
Democratic

Senate Pres. pro tem
  
Thomas W. Ferry (R)

Senate Majority
  
Republican

45th United States Congress

Members
  
76 Senators 293 Representatives 8 Non-voting members

The Forty-fifth 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, 1877 to March 4, 1879, during the first two years of Rutherford Hayes's presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Ninth Census of the United States in 1870. The Senate had a Republican majority, and the House had a Democratic majority.

Contents

The 45th Congress remained politically divided between a Democratic House and Republican Senate. President Hayes vetoed an Army appropriations bill from the House which would have ended Reconstruction and prohibited the use of federal troops to protect polling stations in the former Confederacy. Striking back, Congress overrode another of Hayes’s vetoes and enacted the Bland-Allison Act that required the purchase and coining of silver. Congress also approved a generous increase in pension eligibility for Northern Civil War veterans.

Major events

  • March 4, 1877: Rutherford B. Hayes became President of the United States

    • Major legislation

  • February 28, 1878: Bland–Allison Act (Coinage Act (Silver Dollar)), Sess. 2, ch. 20, 20 Stat. 25
  • April 29, 1878: National Quarantine Act, Sess. 2, ch. 66, 20 Stat. 37
  • June 3, 1878: Timber and Stone Act, Sess. 2, ch. 151, 20 Stat. 89
  • June 18, 1878: Posse Comitatus Act, Sess. 2, ch. 263, §15, 20 Stat. 152

    • 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.

    During this Congress, two Senate seats and one House seat were added for the new state, Colorado.

    Senate

  • President: William A. Wheeler (R)
  • President pro tempore: Thomas W. Ferry (R)
  • Republican Conference Chairman: Henry B. Anthony
  • Democratic Caucus Chairman: William A. Wallace

    • House of Representatives

  • Speaker: Samuel J. Randall (D)
  • Democratic Caucus Chairman: Hiester Clymer
  • Republican Conference Chair: Eugene Hale
  • Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn

    • 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 1880; Class 2 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1882; and Class 3 meant their term ended in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1878.

    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: 5
  • Democratic: 1 seat net gain
  • Republican: 1 seat net loss
  • deaths: 2
  • resignations: 3
  • interim appointments: 1
  • contested elections: 0
  • Total seats with changes: 5

    • House of Representatives

  • replacements: 10
  • Democratic: 5 seat net gain
  • Republican: 5 seat net loss
  • deaths: 7
  • resignations: 1
  • contested election: 5
  • Total seats with changes: 13

    • Committees

    Lists of committees and their party leaders.

    Senate

  • 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
  • Elections of 1878 (Select)
  • Engrossed Bills
  • Epidemic Diseases (Select)
  • Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service (Select)
  • Finance
  • Foreign Relations
  • Hot Springs (Arkansas) Commission (Special)
  • Indian Affairs
  • Judiciary
  • Late Presidential Election Louisiana
  • Manufactures
  • Mexican Relations (Select)
  • Military Affairs
  • Mines and Mining
  • Mississippi River Levee System (Select)
  • Naval Affairs
  • Ordnance and War Ships (Select)
  • Patents
  • Pensions
  • Post Office and Post Roads
  • Private Land Claims
  • Privileges and Elections
  • Public Lands
  • Railroads
  • Revision of the Laws
  • Revolutionary Claims
  • Rules
  • Tariff Regulation (Select)
  • Tenth Census (Select)
  • Territories
  • Transportation Routes to the Seaboard (Select)
  • Treasury Department Account Discrepancies (Select)
  • Whole

    • House of Representatives

  • Accounts
  • Agriculture
  • Appropriations
  • Banking and Currency
  • Claims
  • Coinage, Weights and Measures
  • Commerce
  • District of Columbia
  • Education and Labor
  • 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
  • Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
  • Manufactures
  • Mileage
  • Military Affairs
  • Militia
  • Mines and Mining
  • Mississippi Levees
  • Naval Affairs
  • Pacific Railroads
  • Patents
  • Post Office and Post Roads
  • Public Buildings and Grounds
  • Public Expenditures
  • Public Lands
  • Railways and Canals
  • Revision of Laws
  • Rules (Select)
  • Standards of Official Conduct
  • Territories
  • War Claims
  • Ways and Means
  • Whole

    • Joint committees

  • Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
  • Reorganization of the Army
  • Transfer of the Indian Bureau

    • Employees

  • Architect of the Capitol: Edward Clark
  • Librarian of Congress: Ainsworth Rand Spofford
  • Public Printer of the United States: John D. Defrees

    • Senate

  • Chaplain: Byron Sunderland (Presbyterian)
  • Secretary: George C. Gorham
  • Sergeant at Arms: John R. French

    • House of Representatives

  • Chaplain: John Poise (Methodist)
  • W. P. Harrison (Methodist), elected December 3, 1877
  • Clerk: George M. Adams
  • Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: William H. Scudder
  • J. Randolph Tucker, Jr.
  • Doorkeeper: John W. Polk
  • Postmaster: James M. Steuart
  • Sergeant at Arms: John G. Thompson

    • References

    45th United States Congress Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA