# 39th United States Congress

The 39th 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, 1865, to March 4, 1867, during Abraham Lincoln's final month as president, and the first two years of the administration of his successor, Andrew Johnson.
The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the 1860 United States census. Both chambers had a Republican majority.

## Major events

* March 4, 1865: Second inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln.
* April 9, 1865: Surrender of Confederate forces at Appomattox Court House, effectively ending the American Civil War
* April 15, 1865: Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson became President of the United States
* December 11, 1865: Creation of the House Appropriations Committee and the House Banking and Commerce Committee, reducing the tasks of the House Ways and Means Committee
* January, 1866: The second and current United States Capitol dome completed after 11 years of work.
* July 24, 1866: Tennessee became the first U.S. state to be readmitted to the Union following the American Civil War.
* November 5, 1866: United States House of Representatives elections, 1866
* January 8, 1867: African American men are granted the right to vote in the District of Columbia

## Major legislation

* April 9, 1866: Civil Rights Act of 1866, Sess. 1, ch. 31, 14 Stat. 27
* July 16, 1866: Freedmen's Bureau Bill, Sess. 1, ch. 200, 14 Stat. 173
* July 23, 1866: Judicial Circuits Act, Sess. 1, ch. 210, 14 Stat. 209, reduced the number of United States circuit courts to nine and the number of Supreme Court justices to seven
* July 23, 1866: District of Columbia Public Schools Act ("An Act relating to Public Schools in the District of Columbia"), Sess. 1, ch. 217, 14 Stat. 216
* July 25, 1866: An Act to revive the grade of General in the United States Army, Sess. 1, ch. 232, 14 Stat. 223, (now called "4-star general"); Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant became the first to have this rank.
* July 28, 1866: Metric Act of 1866, Sess. 1, ch. 301, 14 Stat. 339, legalized the use of the metric system for weights and measures in the United States.
* July 28, 1866: Washington City Colored Schools Lots Donation Act ("An Act donating certain Lots in the City of Washington for Schools for Colored Children in the District of Columbia"), Sess. 1, ch. 308, 14 Stat. 343
* March 2, 1867: Reconstruction Act, ch. 153, 14 Stat. 428 established five military districts, each headed by a general, in ten states of the former Confederate South (Tennessee excepted), and stipulates conditions for re-admission of these States into the Union.
* March 2, 1867: Tenure of Office Act, ch. 154, 14 Stat. 430 required the president to obtain the Senate's advice and consent to suspend or dismiss certain federal public officials (notably cabinet officers). Violation of this act will lead to the impeachment of Andrew Johnson by the next (40th) Congress in 1868.

## Constitutional amendments

* December 18, 1865: Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution declared ratified
* June 13, 1866: Approved an amendment to the Constitution addressing citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and submitted it to the state legislatures for ratification
** Amendment was later ratified on July 9, 1868, becoming the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

## States admitted

* July 24, 1866: Tennessee readmitted to representation.
* March 1, 1867: Nebraska admitted as the 37th state, sess. 2, ch. 36, 14 Stat. 391 (over president's veto)

## Party summary

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.

### Senate

During this Congress, two seats were added for the new state of Nebraska.
| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Republican (R) | Unionist (U) | Unconditional Unionist (UU) | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 10 | 33 | 3 | 4 | 50 | 22 |
| Begin | 9 | 37 | 1 | 1 | 48 | 24 |
| End | 8 | 41 | 3 | 2 | 54 | 20 |
| Final voting share | 14.8% | 75.9% | 5.6% | 3.7% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 8 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 21 |

### House of Representatives

During this Congress, one seat was added for the new state of Nebraska.
| | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Party (shading shows control) | Total | Vacant |
| | Democratic (D) | Republican (R) | Independent Republican (IR) | Unionist (U) | Unconditional Unionist (UU) | Other | Total | Vacant |
| End of previous congress | 72 | 84 | 2 | 9 | 16 | 0 | 183 | 56 |
| Begin | 40 | 132 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 183 | 59 |
| End | 39 | 135 | 1 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 192 | 51 |
| Final voting share | 20.3% | 70.3% | 0.5% | 2.1% | 6.8% | 0.0% | | |
| Beginning of next congress | 45 | 140 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 188 | 55 |

## Leadership
### Senate

* President: Andrew Johnson (D), until April 15, 1865; vacant thereafter.
* President pro tempore: Lafayette S. Foster (R), until March 2, 1867
** Benjamin F. Wade (R), elected March 2, 1867
* Republican Conference Chairman: Henry B. Anthony

### House of Representatives

* Speaker: Schuyler Colfax (R)
* Republican Conference Chairman: Justin S. Morrill

## 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 1868; Class 2 meant their term began in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1870; and Class 3 meant their term ended in this Congress, requiring reelection in 1866.
    Skip to House of Representatives, below

### House of Representatives

The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.

## Changes in membership

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

### Senate

* Replacements: 8
** Democratic: 2-seat net loss
** Republican: 2-seat net gain
** Unionist: no net change
** Unconditional Union: no net change
* Deaths: 4
* Resignations: 2
* Vacancy: 1
* Seats of newly admitted states: 2
* Seats of re-admitted states: 2
* Total seats with changes: 12

### House of Representatives

* Replacements: 9
** Democratic: 1-seat net gain
** Republican: 2-seat net gain
** Unconditional Unionist: 1 seat net loss
** Unionist: 0 net change
* Deaths: 4
* Resignations: 4
* Contested election: 3
* Seats from newly admitted states: 1
* Seats from re-admitted states: 8
* Total seats with changes: 21

## Committees

Lists of committees and their party leaders for members of the House and Senate committees can be found through the Official Congressional Directory at the bottom of this article. The directory after the pages of terms of service lists committees of the Senate, House (Standing with Subcommittees, Select and Special) and Joint and, after that, House/Senate committee assignments. On the committees section of the House and Senate in the Official Congressional Directory, the committee's members on the first row on the left side shows the chairman of the committee and on the right side shows the ranking member of the committee.

### Senate

* Agriculture (Chairman: John Sherman)
* Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate (Chairman: George H. Williams)
* Claims (Chairman: Timothy O. Howe)
* Coins, Weights and Measures (Select)
* Commerce (Chairman: Zachariah Chandler)
* Compensation (Select)
* Distributing Public Revenue Among the States (Select)
* District of Columbia (Chairman: Lot M. Morrill)
* Engrossed Bills (Chairman: Aaron H. Cragin)
* Finance (Chairman: William P. Fessenden)
* Foreign Relations (Chairman: Charles Sumner)
* Indian Affairs (Chairman: John B. Henderson)
* Interior Department Clerical Force (Select)
* Judiciary (Chairman: Lyman Trumbull)
* Manufactures (Chairman: William Sprague IV)
* Military Affairs and the Militia (Chairman: Henry Wilson)
* Mines and Mining (Chairman: John Conness)
* Mississippi River Levees Reconstruction (Select)
* National Banks (Select)
* National Telegraph Company (Select)
* Naval Affairs (Chairman: James W. Grimes)
* Ordnance and War Ships (Select)
* Pacific Railroad (Chairman: Jacob M. Howard)
* Patents and the Patent Office (Chairman: Waitman T. Willey)
* Pensions (Chairman: Henry S. Lane)
* Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: Alexander Ramsey)
* Private Land Claims (Chairman: Ira Harris)
* Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: B. Gratz Brown)
* Public Lands (Chairman: Samuel C. Pomeroy)
* Retrenchment
* Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Richard Yates)
* Tariff Regulation (Select)
* Territories (Chairman: Benjamin F. Wade)
* Whole

### House of Representatives

* Accounts (Chairman: Edward H. Rollins)
* Agriculture (Chairman: John Bidwell)
* Appropriations (Chairman: Thaddeus Stevens)
* Banking and Currency (Chairman: Theodore M. Pomeroy)
* Claims (Chairman: Columbus Delano)
* Coinage, Weights and Measures (Chairman: John A. Kasson)
* Commerce (Chairman: Elihu B. Washburne)
* District of Columbia (Chairman: Ebon C. Ingersoll)
* Elections (Chairman: Henry L. Dawes)
* Expenditures in the Interior Department (Chairman: Ebenezer Dumont)
* Expenditures in the Navy Department (Chairman: George W. Julian)
* Expenditures in the Post Office Department (Chairman: Jehu Baker)
* Expenditures in the State Department (Chairman: Frederick A. Pike)
* Expenditures in the Treasury Department (Chairman: James M. Marvin)
* Expenditures in the War Department (Chairman: Henry C. Deming)
* Expenditures on Public Buildings (Chairman: John W. Longyear)
* Foreign Affairs (Chairman: Nathaniel P. Banks)
* Freedmen's Affairs (Chairman: Thomas D. Eliot)
* Indian Affairs (Chairman: William Windom)
* Invalid Pensions (Chairman: Sidney Perham)
* Judiciary (Chairman: James F. Wilson)
* Manufactures (Chairman: James K. Moorhead)
* Mileage (Chairman: George W. Anderson)
* Military Affairs (Chairman: Robert C. Schenck)
* Militia (Chairman: Abner C. Harding)
* Mines and Mining (Chairman: William Higby)
* Naval Affairs (Chairman: Alexander H. Rice)
* Pacific Railroads (Chairman: Hiram Price)
* Patents (Chairman: Thomas A. Jenckes)
* Post Office and Post Roads (Chairman: John B. Alley)
* Public Buildings and Grounds (Chairman: John H. Rice)
* Public Expenditures (Chairman: Calvin T. Hulburd)
* Public Lands (Chairman: George W. Julian)
* Revisal and Unfinished Business (Chairman: Glenni W. Scofield)
* Revolutionary Claims (Chairman: Kellian V. Whaley)
* Revolutionary Pensions (Chairman: Walter D. McIndoe)
* Roads and Canals (Chairman: Fernando C. Beaman)
* Rules (Select)
* Standards of Official Conduct
* Territories (Chairman: James M. Ashley)
* Ways and Means (Chairman: Justin S. Morrill)
* Whole

### Joint committees

* Conditions of Indian Tribes (Special)
* Conduct of the War
* Enrolled Bills (Chairman: Sen. James Nye)
* The Library (Chairman: N/A)
* Printing (Chairman: N/A)
* Retrenchment
* To Inquire into the Condition of the States which Formed the So-Called Confederate States

## Caucuses

* Democratic (House)
* Democratic (Senate)

## Employees
### Legislative branch agency directors

* Architect of the Capitol: Thomas U. Walter, resigned May 26, 1865
** Edward Clark, appointed August 30, 1865
* Librarian of Congress: Ainsworth Rand Spofford

### Senate

* Chaplain: Thomas Bowman (Methodist), until March 9, 1865
** Edgar H. Gray (Baptist), from March 9, 1865
* Secretary: John W. Forney
* Sergeant at Arms: George T. Brown

### House of Representatives

* Chaplain: William Henry Channing (Unitarian), until December 4, 1865
** Charles B. Boynton (Congregationalist), from December 4, 1865
* Clerk: Edward McPherson
* Doorkeeper: Ira Goodnow
* Messenger to the Speaker: William D. Todd
* Postmaster: Josiah Given
* Reading Clerks: Edward W. Barber
* Sergeant at Arms: Nehemiah G. Ordway