Dean of the United States House of Representatives

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The Dean of the United States House of Representatives is the longest-serving (in consecutive terms) member of the United States House of Representatives. The present Dean is John Dingell, a Democrat of Michigan.

The only duty customarily associated with this position is to swear in a Speaker of the House when s/he is elected; unlike the Father of the House in the United Kingdom House of Commons, s/he does not preside over the election but comes forward on the floor to administer the oath to the Speaker-elect before the new Speaker then administers the oath to the other members.

Seniority having other privileges attached, the Dean is usually allotted some of the most desirable office space, and (though a party caucus occasionally deems otherwise) either the chairmanship of an influential committee (if a member of the majority party), or the position of ranking minority member of one.

It is unclear when the position first achieved concrete recognition, though the seniority system and increasing lengths of service emerged in the early 20th century. The first two six-term members of the United States Senate, Ellison DuRant Smith and Kenneth McKellar, were first elected in 1908 and 1916 respectively. As late as 1924, Frederick H. Gillett was Dean, and also Speaker, before becoming a Senator himself; modern Deans move into their positions so late in their careers that a move to the Senate is highly unlikely.

The Deanship can change hands unexpectedly; in the 1952 election, Adolph J. Sabath became the first Representative elected to a 24th term, breaking the record of 23 terms first set by former Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon, whose service had been discontinuous whereas Sabath's was not. North Carolina's Robert L. Doughton had not contested that election, as he was retiring at the age of 89 years and two months (a House age record broken only in 1998 by Sidney R. Yates, though Claude Pepper, who died early in his final term in 1989, holds the record for oldest winner of a House election). However, Sabath died before the new term began, and Doughton was Dean for the old term's final months, before Speaker Sam Rayburn became Dean in the new Congress.

More recently, Texas Democrat Jack Brooks was defeated for reelection in the year he was expected to succeed Jamie L. Whitten as Dean.

[edit] List of Deans of the House

Years as Dean are followed by name, party, state, and start of service in Congress.

All the members of the First Congress had equal seniority (as defined for the purpose of this article), but Muhlenberg as the Speaker was the first member to be sworn in. Muhlenberg, Hartley and Thatcher were among the thirteen members who attended the initial meeting of the House on March 4, 1789.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries some state delegations to the House were often not elected until after the term had begun. To avoid confusion this fact is ignored in the list below.

Term as Dean	Dean	Party	State/District	Seniority date
March 1789- March 1797	Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg	Federalist	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1789 (also Speaker 1789-91 and 1793-95)
March 1797- December 1800	Thomas Hartley	Federalist	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1789
	George Thatcher	Federalist	Massachusetts
December 1800- March 1801	George Thatcher	Federalist	Massachusetts	March 4, 1789
March 1801- March 1803	Andrew Gregg	Democratic-Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1791
	William B. Grove	Federalist	North Carolina
	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina
March 1803- March 1807	Andrew Gregg	Democratic-Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1791
	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina
March 1807- December 1815	Nathaniel Macon	Democratic-Republican	North Carolina	March 4, 1791 (also Speaker 1801-1807)
December 1815- April 1816	Richard Stanford	Federalist	North Carolina	March 4, 1797
April 1816- March 1817	John Davenport	Federalist	Connecticut	March 4, 1799
March 1817- March 1830	Thomas Newton, Jr.	Democratic-Republican; Adams	Virginia	March 4, 1801
March 1830- March 1833	William McCoy	Jacksonian	Virginia	March 4, 1811
March 1833- February 1842	Lewis Williams	National Republican; Whig; Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1815
February 1842- April 1844	Dixon H. Lewis	Democratic	Alabama	March 4, 1829
April 1844- March 1849	James I. McKay	Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1831
March 1849- March 1855	Linn Boyd	Democratic	Kentucky	March 4, 1839 [1] (also Speaker from 1851)
March 1855- March 1859	Joshua Reed Giddings	Republican	Ohio	December 5, 1842
March 1859- March 1863	John S. Phelps	Democratic	Missouri	March 4, 1845
March 1863- March 1869	Elihu B. Washburne	Republican	Illinois	March 4, 1853
March 1869- March 1875	Henry L. Dawes	Republican	Massachusetts	March 4, 1857
March 1875- January 1890	William D. Kelley	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1861
January 1890- April 1890	Samuel J. Randall	Democratic	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1863
April 1890- March 1891	Joseph G. Cannon	Republican	Illinois	March 4, 1873
	Roger Q. Mills	Democratic	Texas
	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1891- March 1892	Roger Q. Mills	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1873
	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1892- March 1893	James H. Blount	Democratic	Georgia	March 4, 1873
	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri
March 1893- March 1895	Richard P. Bland	Democratic	Missouri	March 4, 1873
March 1895- March 1897	David B. Culberson	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1875
March 1897- September 1899	Thomas B. Reed	Republican	Maine	March 4, 1877
September 1899- March 1912	Henry H. Bingham	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1879
March 1912- December 1914	Sereno E. Payne	Republican	New York	March 4, 1889
December 1914- April 1918	William A. Jones	Democratic	Virginia	March 4, 1891
April 1918- March 1919	Henry Allen Cooper	Republican	Wisconsin	March 4, 1893
	Frederick H. Gillett	Republican	Massachusetts
March 1919- March 1925	Frederick H. Gillett	Republican	Massachusetts	March 4, 1893 (also Speaker for these years)
March 1925- May 1928	Thomas S. Butler	Republican	Pennsylvania	March 4, 1897
May 1928- March 1933	Gilbert N. Haugen	Republican	Iowa	March 4, 1899
March 1933- April 1934	Edward W. Pou	Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1901
April 1934- November 1952	Adolph Joachim Sabath	Democratic	Illinois	March 4, 1907
November 1952- January 1953	Robert L. Doughton	Democratic	North Carolina	March 4, 1911
January 1953- November 1961	Sam Rayburn	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1913 (also Speaker from 1955)
November 1961- January 1965	Carl Vinson	Democratic	Georgia	November 3, 1914
January 1965- January 1973	Emanuel Celler	Democratic	New York	March 4, 1923
January 1973- March 1976	Wright Patman	Democratic	Texas	March 4, 1929
March 1976- January 1979	George H. Mahon	Democratic	Texas	January 3, 1935
January 1979- January 1995	Jamie L. Whitten	Democratic	Mississippi	November 4, 1941
January 1995- present	John Dingell	Democratic	Michigan	December 13, 1955

• Hartley, Stanford, Williams, Kelley, Randall, Bingham, Payne, Jones, Cooper, Butler, Pou, Sabath, Rayburn, and Patman died in office.
• Vinson, Whitten, and Dingell entered the House to fill unexpired terms.

[edit] Comparison with similar offices

As noted above, the Dean of the U.S. House, unlike the Father of the House in the British House of Commons, does not preside over election of the Speaker of the House, but rather only swears him or her in.

The title of Dean is shared with that of the oldest member of the Canadian House of Commons. Like the British Father of the House and unlike the Dean in the United States, the Canadian Dean does preside over the election of the Speaker.

[edit] References

1. ^ Boyd had previously served 1835-37

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