51st United States Congress

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.

Leadership

Major events

States admitted and territories organized

Major legislation

The Congress was dominated by the Republican Party. It was responsible for a number of pieces of landmark legislation, many of which asserted the authority of the federal government.

Emboldened by their success in the elections of 1888, the Republicans enacted virtually their entire platform during their first 303-day session, including a measure that provided American Civil War veterans with generous pensions and expanded the list of eligible recipients to include noncombatants and the children of veterans. Grover Cleveland had vetoed a similar bill in 1887. It was criticized as the "Billion Dollar Congress'" for its lavish spending and, for this reason it incited drastic reversals in public support that led to Cleveland's reelection in 1892.

Other important legislation passed into law by the Congress included the McKinley tariff, authored by Representative, and future President, William McKinley; the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited business combinations that restricted trade; and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to mint silver. The last two were concessions to Western farmer interests in exchange for support of the tariff and would become central tenets of the Populist Party later in the decade. They were authored by Senator John Sherman.

Other bills were discussed but failed to pass, including two significant pieces of legislation focused on ensuring African Americans the right to vote. Henry Cabot Lodge sponsored a so-called Force Bill that would have established federal supervision of Congressional elections so as to prevent the disfranchisement of southern blacks. Henry W. Blair sponsored the Blair Education Bill, which advocated the use of federal aid for education in order to frustrate southern whites employing literacy tests to prevent blacks from registering to vote.

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 1892; Class 2 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1894; and Class 3 meant their term ended in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1890.

Alabama

2: John T. Morgan (D)
3: James L. Pugh (D)

Arkansas

3: James K. Jones (D)
2: James H. Berry (D)

California

3: Leland Stanford (R)
1: George Hearst (D)

Colorado

3: Henry M. Teller (R)
2: Edward O. Wolcott (R)

Connecticut

3: Orville H. Platt (R)
1: Joseph R. Hawley (R)

Delaware

1: George Gray (D)
2: Anthony Higgins (R)

Florida

3: Wilkinson Call (D)
1: Samuel Pasco (D)

Georgia

3: Joseph E. Brown (D)
2: Alfred H. Colquitt (D)

Idaho

2: George L. Shoup (R)
3: William J. McConnell (R)

Illinois

2: Shelby M. Cullom (R)
3: Charles B. Farwell (R)

Indiana

3: Daniel W. Voorhees (D)
1: David Turpie (D)

Iowa

3: William B. Allison (R)
2: James F. Wilson (R)

Kansas

3: John J. Ingalls (R)
2: Preston B. Plumb (R)

Kentucky

Louisiana

2: Randall L. Gibson (D)
3: James B. Eustis (D)

Maine

1: Eugene Hale (R)
2: William P. Frye (R)

Maryland

1: Arthur Pue Gorman (D)
3: Ephraim K. Wilson (D)

Massachusetts

1: Henry L. Dawes (R)
2: George F. Hoar (R)

Michigan

1: Francis B. Stockbridge (R)
2: James McMillan (R)

Minnesota

1: Cushman K. Davis (R)
2: William D. Washburn (R)

Mississippi

1: James Z. George (D)
2: Edward C. Walthall (D)

Missouri

1: Francis M. Cockrell (D)
3: George G. Vest (D)

Montana

2: Thomas C. Power (R)
1: Wilbur F. Sanders (R)

Nebraska

2: Charles F. Manderson (R)
1: Algernon S. Paddock (R)

Nevada

3: John P. Jones (R)
1: William M. Stewart (R)

New Hampshire

New Jersey

2: John R. McPherson (D)
1: Rufus Blodgett (D)

New York

3: William M. Evarts (R)
1: Frank Hiscock (R)

North Carolina

2: Matt W. Ransom (D)
3: Zebulon B. Vance (D)

North Dakota

1: Lyman R. Casey (R)
3: Gilbert A. Pierce (R)

Ohio

1: John Sherman (R)
3: Henry B. Payne (D)

Oregon

2: Joseph N. Dolph (R)
3: John H. Mitchell (R)

Pennsylvania

3: J. Donald Cameron (R)
1: Matthew S. Quay (R)

Rhode Island

South Carolina

2: Matthew C. Butler (D)
3: Wade Hampton, III (D)

South Dakota

2: Richard F. Pettigrew (R)
3: Gideon C. Moody (R)

Tennessee

2: Isham G. Harris (D)
1: William B. Bate (D)

Texas

2: Richard Coke (D)
1: John H. Reagan (D)

Vermont

1: George F. Edmunds (R)
3: Justin S. Morrill (R)

Virginia

1: John W. Daniel (D)
2: John S. Barbour, Jr. (D)

Washington

1: John B. Allen (R)
3: Watson C. Squire (R)

West Virginia

2: John E. Kenna (D)
1: Charles J. Faulkner (D)

Wisconsin

1: Philetus Sawyer (R)
3: John C. Spooner (R)

Wyoming

2: Joseph M. Carey (R)
1: Francis E. Warren (R)

President pro tempore
John J. Ingalls

President pro tempore
Charles F. Manderson

House of Representatives

The names of members of the House of Representatives elected statewide on the general ticket or otherwise at-large, are preceded by an "A/L," and the names of those elected from districts, whether plural or single member, are preceded by their district numbers.

Many of the congressional district numbers are linked to articles describing the district itself. Since the boundaries of the districts have changed often and substantially, the linked article may only describe the district as it exists today, and not as it was at the time of this Congress.

Alabama