The Sixty-first United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1909 to March 4, 1911, during the first two years of William H. Taft's Presidency. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Twelfth Census of the United States in 1900. Both chambers had a Republican majority.
March 4, 1909: William Howard Taft became President of the United States
August 5, 1909 – Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, ch. 6, 36 Stat. 11
June 18, 1910: Mann-Elkins Act, ch. 309, 36 Stat. 539
June 25, 1910: Mann Act, ch. 395, 36 Stat. 825
March 3, 1911: Judicial Code of 1911, ch. 231, 36 Stat. 1087
July 12, 1909: Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification.
Republican: 219 (majority)
Democratic: 171
Independent Democratic: 1
TOTAL members: 391
President: James S. Sherman (R)
President pro tempore: William P. Frye (R)
Republican Conference Chairman: Eugene Hale
Democratic Caucus Chair: Hernando Money
Democratic Caucus Secretary: Robert Latham Owen
Speaker: Joseph Gurney Cannon (R)
Majority Leader: Sereno E. Payne
Majority Whip: John W. Dwight
Republican Conference Chair: Frank Dunklee Currier
Minority Leader: Champ Clark
Minority Whip: vacant
Democratic Caucus Chairman: Henry De Lamar Clayton, Jr.
Democratic Campaign Committee Chairman: James Tilghman Lloyd
Skip to House of Representatives, below
At this time, most Senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress. A few senators were elected directly by the residents of the state. Preceding the names in the list below are Senate class numbers, which indicate the cycle of their election.
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
replacements: 13
Democratic: 1 seat net gain
Republican: 1 seat net loss
deaths: 8
resignations: 2
vacancy: 1
Total seats with changes: 14
replacements: 12
Democratic: 3 seat gain
Republican: 3 seat loss
deaths: 12
resignations: 6
contested elections: 0
Total seats with changes: 21
Lists of committees and their party leaders.
Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress (Select)
Agriculture and Forestry
Appropriations
Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate
Canadian Relations
Census
Civil Service and Retrenchment
Claims
Coast and Insular Survey
Coast Defenses
Commerce
Conservation of National Resources
Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia
Cuban Relations
Disposition of Useless Papers in the Executive Departments
Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
District of Columbia
Education and Labor
Engrossed Bills
Enrolled Bills
Establish a University in the United States (Select)
Examination of Disposition of Documents (Select)
Examine the Several Branches in the Civil Service
Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture
Expenditures in the Interior Department
Expenditures in the Department of Justice (Select)
Expenditures in the Navy Department (Select)
Expenditures in the Post Office Department
Expenditures in the Department of State (Select)
Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Select)
Expenditures in the War Department (Select)
Finance
Fisheries
Five Civilized Tribes of Indians (Select)
Foreign Relations
Forest Reservations and the Protection of Game
Geological Survey
Immigration
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Indian Contracts Investigation (Select)
Industrial Expositions
Interoceanic Canals
Interstate Commerce
Irrigation and Reclamation
Judiciary
Library
Manufactures
Military Affairs
Mines and Mining
Mississippi River and its Tributaries (Select)
National Banks
Naval Affairs
Pacific Islands and Puerto Rico
Pacific Railroads
Patents
Pensions
Philippines
Post Office and Post Roads
Potomac River Front (Select)
Printing
Private Land Claims
Privileges and Elections
Public Buildings and Grounds
Public Expenditures
Public Health and National Quarantine
Public Lands
Railroads
Revision of the Laws
Revolutionary Claims
Rules
Standards, Weights and Measures (Select)
Tariff Regulation (Select)
Territories
Third Degree Ordeal
Transportation and Sale of Meat Products (Select)
Transportation Routes to the Seaboard
Trespassers upon Indian Lands (Select)
Wages and Prices of Commodities (Select)
Whole
Woman Suffrage
Accounts
Agriculture
Alcoholic Liquor Traffic
Appropriations
Banking and Currency
Census
Claims
Coinage, Weights and Measures
Disposition of Executive Papers
District of Columbia
Education
Election of the President, Vice President and Representatives in Congress
Elections
Enrolled Bills
Expenditures in the Agriculture Department
Expenditures in the Commerce and Labor Departments
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
Immigration and Naturalization
Indian Affairs
Industrial Arts and Expositions
Insular Affairs
Interstate and Foreign Commerce
Invalid Pensions
Irrigation of Arid Lands
Labor
Levees and Improvements of the Mississippi River
Manufactures
Merchant Marine and Fisheries
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
Reform in the Civil Service
Revision of Laws
Rivers and Harbors
Rules
Standards of Official Conduct
Territories
Ventilation and Acoustics
War Claims
Ways and Means
Whole
Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
Disposition of (Useless) Executive Papers
Investigate the Interior Department and Forestry Service
Architect of the Capitol: Elliott Woods
Librarian of Congress: Herbert Putnam
Public Printer of the United States: Samuel B. Donnelly
Chaplain:
Edward E. Hale (Unitarian) until June 10, 1909
Ulysses G.B. Pierce (Unitarian) elected June 18, 1909
Secretary: Charles G. Bennett
Sergeant at Arms: Daniel M. Ransdell
Chaplain: Henry N. Couden (Universalist)
Clerk: Alexander McDowell
Doorkeeper: Frank B. Lyon
Clerk at the Speaker’s Table: Asher C. Hinds
Postmaster: Samuel Langum
Sergeant at Arms: Henry Casson
