| 33rd United States Congress | |||
United States Capitol (1846) |
|||
|
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1855 | |||
|
|
|||
| Senate President: | William R. King (Mar 1853 – Apr 1853) Vacant (1853–1855) |
||
| Senate Pres. pro tem: | David R. Atchison Lewis Cass Jesse D. Bright |
||
| House Speaker: | Linn Boyd | ||
| Members: | 62 Senators 234 Representatives 7 Non-voting members |
||
| Senate Majority: | Democratic | ||
| House Majority: | Democratic | ||
|
|
|||
| Sessions | |||
| Special: March 4, 1853 – April 11, 1853 1st: December 5, 1853 – August 7, 1854 2nd: December 4, 1854 – March 4, 1855 |
|||
|
|||
The Thirty-third 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, 1853 to March 3, 1855, during the first two years of the administration of U.S. President Franklin Pierce. During this session, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, an act that soon led to the creation of the Republican Party. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Seventh Census of the United States in 1850. Both chambers had a Democratic majority.
| Affiliation | Party
(Shading indicates majority caucus)
|
Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (D) |
Free Soil (FS) |
Whig (W) |
Other | Vacant | ||
| End of previous Congress | 34 | 4 | 23 | 0 | 61 | 1 |
| Begin | 36 | 2 | 22 | 0 | 60 | 2 |
| End | 38 | 4 | 19 | 61 | 1 | |
| Final voting share | 62.3% | 6.6% | 31.1% | 0.0% | ||
| Beginning of next Congress | 35 | (Opposition coalition) 20 |
0 | 56 | 6 | |
For the beginning of this congress, the size of the House was increased from 233 seats to 234 seats, following the 1840 United States Census (See 9 Stat. 433).
| Affiliation | Party
(Shading indicates majority caucus)
|
Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (D) |
Independent Democratic (ID) |
Free Soil (FS) |
Whig (W) |
Independent (I) |
Other | Vacant | ||
| End of previous Congress | 126 | 3 | 3 | 86 | 0 | 14 | 232 | 1 |
| Begin | 158 | 1 | 3 | 71 | 1 | 0 | 234 | 0 |
| End | 156 | 2 | 74 | |||||
| Final voting share | 66.7% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 31.6% | 0.4% | 0.0% | ||
| Beginning of next Congress | 79 | (Opposition coalition) 154 |
233 | 1 | ||||
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed in order of seniority, and Representatives are listed by district.
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 1856; Class 2 meant their term began with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1858; and Class 3 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1854.
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
|
Mississippi
Missouri
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Wisconsin
|
The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
| State (class) |
Former senator | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's installation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama (2) |
Vacant | Failure to elect | Clement C. Clay (D) | November 29, 1853 |
| Mississippi (2) |
Vacant | Vacancy in term | Albert G. Brown (D) | January 7, 1854 |
| Arkansas (3) |
Solon Borland (D) | Resigned April 11, 1853 after being appointed Minister to Nicaragua and other Central American Republics | Robert W. Johnson (D) | July 6, 1853 |
| Louisiana (3) |
Pierre Soulé (D) | Resigned April 11, 1853 after being appointed Minister to Spain | John Slidell (D) | December 5, 1853 |
| New Hampshire (2) |
Charles G. Atherton (D) | Died November 15, 1853 | Jared W. Williams (D) | November 29, 1853 |
| Vermont (3) |
Samuel S. Phelps (W) | Senate declared not entitled to seat March 16, 1854 | Lawrence Brainerd (FS) | October 14, 1854 |
| Connecticut (3) |
Truman Smith (W) | Resigned May 24, 1854 | Francis Gillette (FS) | May 24, 1854 |
| Massachusetts (2) |
Edward Everett (W) | Resigned June 1, 1854 | Julius Rockwell (W) | June 3, 1854 |
| New Hampshire (2) |
Jared W. Williams (D) | Resigned August 4, 1854 | Vacant | Not filled this term |
| New Hampshire (3) |
Moses Norris, Jr. (D) | Died January 11, 1855 | John S. Wells (D) | January 16, 1855 |
| Massachusetts (2) |
Julius Rockwell (W) | Successor elected January 31, 1855 | Henry Wilson (FS) | January 31, 1855 |
| Iowa (3) |
Augustus C. Dodge (D) | Resigned February 22, 1855 after being appointed Minister to Spain | Vacant | Not filled this term |
| District | Vacator | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's installation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Territory at-large | Vacant | New seat established after Washington became a territory near the end of previous Congress. Seat was vacant until April 12, 1854. | Columbia Lancaster (D) | Seated April 12, 1854 |
| New York 29th | Azariah Boody (W) | Resigned some time in October, 1853 | Davis Carpenter (W) | Seated November 8, 1853 |
| Tennessee 1st | Brookins Campbell (D) | Died December 25, 1853 | Nathaniel G. Taylor (W) | Seated March 30, 1854 |
| Pennsylvania 8th | Henry A. Muhlenberg (D) | Died January 9, 1854 | J. Glancy Jones (D) | Seated February 4, 1854 |
| Massachusetts 1st | Zeno Scudder (W) | Resigned March 4, 1854 | Thomas D. Eliot (W) | Seated April 17, 1854 |
| Kansas Territory at-large | New seat | New seat established after Kansas became a territory May 30, 1854. Seat was vacant until December 20, 1854. | John W. Whitfield (D) | Seated December 20, 1854 |
| Nebraska Territory at-large | New seat | New seat established after Nebraska became a territory May 30, 1854. Seat was vacant until January 5, 1855. | Napoleon B. Giddings (D) | Seated December 5, 1855 |
| Virginia 11th | John F. Snodgrass (D) | Died June 5, 1854 | Charles S. Lewis (D) | Seated December 4, 1854 |
| New York 12th | Gilbert Dean (D) | Resigned July 3, 1854 after being appointed justice of the Supreme Court of New York | Isaac Teller (W) | Seated November 7, 1854 |
| New York 22nd | Gerrit Smith (FS) | Resigned August 7, 1854 | Henry C. Goodwin (W) | Seated November 7, 1854 |
| Kentucky 3rd | Presley Ewing (W) | Died September 27, 1854 | Francis Bristow (W) | Seated December 4, 1854 |
|
||||||||||||||||||