# 27th United States Congress

The 27th 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., between March 4, 1841, and March 4, 1843, during the one-month presidency of William Henry Harrison and the first two years of the presidency of his successor, John Tyler. The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1830 United States census. Both chambers had a Whig majority, making the 27th Congress the only Whig-controlled Congress of the Second Party System.

## Major events

* March 4, 1841: William Henry Harrison was inaugurated as President of the United States
* April 4, 1841: President Harrison died and Vice President John Tyler became President
* August 16, 1841: President Tyler's veto of a bill to re-establish the Second Bank of the United States led Whig Party members to riot outside the White House in the most violent demonstration on White House grounds in U.S. history.
* May 19, 1842: Dorr Rebellion
* December 17, 1842: Samuel W. Trotti of South Carolina, became the first Italian American to serve in Congress.

## Major legislation

* April 19, 1841: Bankruptcy Act of 1841, ch. 9, 5 Stat. 440
* September 4, 1841: Preemption Act of 1841, ch. 16, 5 Stat. 453
* August 4, 1842: Armed Occupation Act, 5 Stat. 502
* August 30, 1842: Tariff of 1842 ("Black Tariff"), ch. 270, 5 Stat. 548

## Treaties

* August 9, 1842: Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

## Party summary
### Senate

| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Whig (W) | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 29 | 23 | 52 | 0 |
| Begin | 22 | 29 | 51 | 1 |
| End | 20 | 29 | 49 | 3 |
| Final voting share | 40.8% | 59.2% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 22 | 26 | 48 | 4 |

### House of Representatives

| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Independent Democratic (ID) | Whig (W) | Other | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 124 | 0 | 111 | 2 | 237 | 0 |
| Begin | 98 | 1 | 142 | 0 | 241 | 1 |
| End | 101 | 1 | 139 | 0 | 241 | 1 |
| Final voting share | 41.9% | 0.4% | 57.7% | 0.0% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 147 | 1 | 72 | 3 | 223 | 0 |

## Leadership
### Senate

* President: John Tyler (W), until April 4, 1841, thereafter vacant
* Presidents pro tempore: William R. King (D), elected March 4, 1841
** Samuel L. Southard (W), elected March 11, 1841
** Willie P. Mangum (W), elected May 31, 1842

### House of Representatives

* Speaker: John D. White (W)

## Members

This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed in order of seniority, and representatives are listed by district.
    Skip to House of Representatives, below

### 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 re-election in 1844; Class 2 meant their term began with this Congress, requiring re-election in 1846; and Class 3 meant their term ended with this Congress, requiring re-election in 1842.

### House of Representatives
## Changes in membership

The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.

### Senate

* Replacements: 9
** Democrats: no net change
** Whigs: no net change
* Deaths: 2
* Resignations: 8
* Interim appointments: 0
* Vacancy: 1
* Total seats with changes: 10

### House of Representatives

* Replacements: 17
** Democrats: 3 seat net gain
** Whigs: 3 seat net loss
* Deaths: 8
* Resignations: 12
* Contested election: 1
* Total seats with changes: 20

## Committees

Lists of committees and their party leaders.

### Senate

* Agriculture (Chairman: Lewis F. Linn)
* Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate (Chairman: Albert S. White then Benjamin Tappan)
* Claims (Chairman: William A. Graham)
* Commerce (Chairman: Jabez Huntington)
* Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
* District of Columbia (Chairman: Richard H. Bayard)
* Finance (Chairman: Clement C. Clay)
* Fiscal Corporation of the United States (Select)
* Foreign Relations (Chairman: William C. Rives then William S. Archer)
* Indian Affairs (Chairman: James T. Morehead then Albert White)
* Judiciary (Chairman: John M. Berrien)
* Manufactures (Chairman: George Evans)
* Military Affairs (Chairman: William C. Preston then John J. Crittenden)
* Militia (Chairman: Samuel S. Phelps)
* Naval Affairs (Chairman: Willie P. Mangum)
* Patents and the Patent Office (Chairman: Samuel Prentiss then John Leeds Kerr then Samuel S. Phelps)
* Pensions (Chairman: Isaac C. Bates)
* Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: John Henderson)
* Printing (Chairman: N/A)
* Private Land Claims (Chairman: Richard H. Bayard)
* Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: Alexander Barrow)
* Public Lands (Chairman: Oliver H. Smith)
* Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Nathan F. Dixon)
* Roads and Canals (Chairman: Augustus S. Porter)
* Tariff Regulation (Select)
* Whole

### House of Representatives

* Accounts (Chairman: Osmyn Baker)
* Agriculture (Chairman: Edmund Deberry)
* Apportionment of Representatives (Select)
* Claims (Chairman: Joshua Giddings)
* Commerce (Chairman: John P. Kennedy)
* District of Columbia (Chairman: Joseph R. Underwood)
* Elections (Chairman: William Halstead)
* Expenditures in the Navy Department (Chairman: Thomas Jones Yorke)
* Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Chairman: Joshua A. Lowell)
* Expenditures in the State Department (Chairman: John Van Buren)
* Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Chairman: A. Lawrence Foster)
* Expenditures in the War Department (Chairman: James Iver McKay)
* Expenditures on Public Buildings (Chairman: Cave Johnson)
* Foreign Affairs (Chairman: Caleb Cushing then John Quincy Adams)
* Indian Affairs (Chairman: John Quincy Adams)
* Invalid Pensions (Chairman: Calvary Morris)
* Judiciary (Chairman: Daniel D. Barnard)
* Manufactures (Chairman: Leverett Saltonstall I)
* Memorial of the Agricultural Bank of Mississippi (Select)
* Mileage (Chairman: Thomas W. Williams)
* Military Affairs (Chairman: William C. Dawson)
* Militia (Chairman: George May Keim)
* Naval Affairs (Chairman: Henry A. Wise)
* Patents (Chairman: Thomas B. Osborne)
* Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: George N. Briggs)
* Private Land Claims (Chairman: John Moore)
* Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: William W. Boardman)
* Public Expenditures (Chairman: James Graham)
* Public Lands (Chairman: William C. Johnson then Jeremiah Morrow then Reuben Chapman then Jeremiah Morrow)
* Revisal and Unfinished Business (Chairman: Francis James)
* Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Hiland Hall)
* Revolutionary Pensions (Chairman: John Taliaferro)
* Roads and Canals (Chairman: Joseph Lawrence)
* Rules (Select)
* Standards of Official Conduct
* Territories (Chairman: Garrett Davis)
* Ways and Means (Chairman: Millard Fillmore)
* Whole

### Joint committees

* Enrolled Bills (Chairman: Sen. Augustus Porter then Sen. William Sprague)
* The Library (Chairman: N/A)

## Employees

* Librarian of Congress: John Silva Meehan

### Senate

* Secretary: Asbury Dickins
* Sergeant at Arms: Stephen Haight, until March 8, 1841
** Edward Dyer, elected March 8, 1841
* Chaplain: George G. Cookman, Methodist, until June 12, 1841
** Septimus Tustin, Presbyterian, elected June 12, 1841

### House of Representatives

* Clerk: Hugh A. Garland, until May 31, 1841
** Matthew St. Clair Clarke, elected May 31, 1841
* Sergeant at Arms: Roderick Dorsey, until June 8, 1841
** Eleazor M. Townsend, elected June 8, 1841
* Doorkeeper: Joseph Follansbee
* Postmaster: William J. McCormick
* Chaplain: John W. French, Episcopalian, elected May 31, 1841
** John N. Maffit, Methodist, elected December 6, 1841
** Frederick T. Tiffany, Episcopalian, elected December 5, 1842
* Reading Clerks: [data missing]