| 27th United States Congress | |||
United States Capitol (1846) |
|||
|
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: March 4, 1841 – March 3, 1843 | |||
|
|
|||
| Senate President: | John Tyler (until April 1841) Vacant (April 1841-End) |
||
| Senate Pres. pro tem: | William R. King Samuel L. Southard Willie P. Mangum |
||
| House Speaker: | John White | ||
| Members: | 52 Senators 242 Representatives 3 Non-voting members |
||
| Senate Majority: | Whig | ||
| House Majority: | Whig | ||
|
|
|||
| Sessions | |||
| Special: March 4, 1841 – March 15, 1841 1st: May 31, 1841 – September 13, 1841 2nd: December 6, 1841 – August 31, 1842 3rd: December 5, 1842 – March 3, 1843 (lame duck) |
|||
|
|||
The Twenty-seventh 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, 1841 to March 3, 1843, during the one-month administration of U.S. President William Henry Harrison and the first two years of the administration of his successor, John Tyler. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the Fifth Census of the United States in 1830. Both chambers had a Whig majority.
| Party (Shading shows control) |
Total | Vacant | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic (D) |
Whig (W) |
|||
| End of the previous congress | 29 | 23 | 52 | 0 |
| Begin | 22 | 29 | 51 | 1 |
| End | 20 | 49 | 3 | |
| Final voting share | 40.8% | 59.2% | ||
| Beginning of the next congress | 22 | 26 | 48 | 4 |
| Affiliation | Party
(Shading indicates majority caucus)
|
Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Independent Democratic |
States Rights Whig |
Whig | Other | Vacant | ||
| End of previous Congress | 124 | 0 | 0 | 111 | 2 | 242 | 0 |
| Begin | 97 | 1 | 1 | 142 | 0 | 241 | 1 |
| End | 100 | 139 | |||||
| Final voting share | 41.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 57.7% | 0.0% | ||
| Beginning of next Congress | 147 | 1 | 0 | 72 | 3 | 223 | 0 |
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 1844; Class 2 meant their term began with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1846; and Class 3 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring reelection in 1842.
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 (3) |
Clement C. Clay (D) | Resigned November 15, 1841 | Arthur P. Bagby (D) | Elected November 24, 1841 |
| Rhode Island (1) |
Nathan F. Dixon (W) | Died January 29, 1842 | William Sprague (W) | Elected February 18, 1842 |
| Tennessee (1) |
Alfred O. P. Nicholson (D) | Resigned February 7, 1842 | Vacant | Not filled this term |
| New Hampshire (3) |
Franklin Pierce (D) | Resigned February 28, 1842 | Leonard Wilcox (D) | Elected March 1, 1842 |
| Louisiana (3) |
Alexandre Mouton (D) | Resigned March 1, 1842 after being elected Governor of Louisiana | Charles M. Conrad (W) | Elected April 14, 1842 |
| Kentucky (3) |
Henry Clay (W) | Resigned March 31, 1842 | John J. Crittenden (W) | Appointed March 31, 1842 and subsequently elected |
| Vermont (3) |
Samuel Prentiss (W) | Resigned April 11, 1842 to become judge of the U.S. District Court of Vermont | Samuel C. Crafts (W) | Appointed April 23, 1842 and subsequently elected |
| New Jersey (1) |
Samuel L. Southard (W) | Died June 26, 1842 | William L. Dayton (W) | Elected July 2, 1842 |
| South Carolina (3) |
William C. Preston (W) | Resigned November 29, 1842 | George McDuffie (D) | Elected December 23, 1842 |
| Maine (1) |
Reuel Williams (D) | Resigned February 15, 1843 | Vacant | Not filled this term |
| District | Vacator | Reason for change | Successor | Date of successor's installation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine 4th | Vacant | Rep. George Evans resigned in previous congress | David Bronson (W) | Seated May 31, 1841 |
| New York 26th | Francis Granger (W) | Resigned March 5, 1841 after being appointed United States Postmaster General | John Greig (W) | Seated May 21, 1841 |
| Massachusetts 5th | Levi Lincoln, Jr. (W) | Resigned March 16, 1841 after being appointed Collector of the port of Boston | Charles Hudson (W) | Seated May 3, 1841 |
| Pennsylvania 20th | Enos Hook (D) | Resigned April 18, 1841 | Henry W. Beeson (D) | Seated May 31, 1841 |
| Pennsylvania 18th | Charles Ogle (W) | Died May 10, 1841 | Henry Black (W) | Seated June 28, 1841 |
| Pennsylvania 2nd | John Sergeant (W) | Resigned September 15, 1841 | Joseph R. Ingersoll (W) | Seated October 12, 1841 |
| New York 26th | John Greig (W) | Resigned September 25, 1841 | Francis Granger (W) | Seated November 27, 1841 |
| Georgia At-large | Julius C. Alford (W) | Resigned October 1, 1841 | Edward J. Black (D) | Seated January 3, 1842 |
| Georgia At-large | Eugenius A. Nisbet (W) | Resigned October 12, 1841 | Mark A. Cooper (D) | Seated January 3, 1842 |
| Georgia At-large | William C. Dawson (W) | Resigned November 13, 1841 | Walter T. Colquitt (D) | Seated January 3, 1842 |
| Pennsylvania 18th | Henry Black (W) | Died November 28, 1841 | James M. Russell (W) | Seated December 21, 1841 |
| Virginia 13th | Linn Banks (D) | Lost contested election December 6, 1841 | William Smith (D) | Seated December 6, 1841 |
| Pennsylvania 17th | Davis Dimock, Jr. (D) | Died January 13, 1842 | Almon H. Read (D) | Seated March 18, 1842 |
| North Carolina 13th | Lewis Williams (W) | Died February 23, 1842 | Anderson Mitchell (W) | Seated April 27, 1842 |
| Ohio 16th | Joshua R. Giddings (W) | Resigned March 22, 1842 after vote of his censure and re-elected to same seat | Joshua R. Giddings (W) | Seated December 5, 1842 |
| Pennsylvania 21st | Joseph Lawrence (W) | Died April 17, 1842 | Thomas M. T. McKennan (W) | Seated May 30, 1842 |
| Massachusetts 1st | Robert C. Winthrop (W) | Resigned May 25, 1842 | Nathan Appleton (W) | Seated June 9, 1842 |
| Massachusetts 9th | William S. Hastings (W) | Died June 17, 1842 | Vacant | Not filled this Congress |
| South Carolina 4th | Sampson H. Butler (D) | Resigned September 27, 1842 | Samuel W. Trotti (D) | Seated December 17, 1842 |
| Massachusetts 1st | Nathan Appleton (W) | Resigned September 28, 1842 | Robert C. Winthrop (W) | Seated November 29, 1842 |
| Georgia At-large | Richard W. Habersham (W) | Died December 2, 1842 | George W. Crawford (W) | Seated January 7, 1843 |
| Maryland 3rd | James W. Williams (D) | Died December 2, 1842 | Charles S. Sewall (D) | Seated January 2, 1843 |
|
||||||||||||||||||