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.
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.
During this Congress, two seats were added for the new state of Nebraska.
During this Congress, one seat was added for the new state of Nebraska.
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 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.
The names of members of the House of Representatives are preceded by their district numbers.
(3 Republicans)
(4 Republicans)
(1 Democrat)
(11–3 Republican)
(8–3 Republican)
(6 Republicans)
(1 Republican)
(4–5 Democratic)
(5 Republicans)
(3–2 Unconditional Unionist)
(10 Republicans)
(2 Republicans)
(8–1 Republican)
(3–2 Democratic)
(20–11 Republican)
(17–2 Republican)
(15–9 Republican)
(4 Unconditional Unionists; 4 Unionists)
(3 Unconditional Unionists)
(5–1 Republican)
(6–3 Republican)
The count below reflects changes from the beginning of the first session of this Congress.
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.
The Congressional Globe contains the official transcripts and proceedings of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, although newspapers often provided their own transcripts that sometimes differed from the official ones. Following are external links to the pertinent volumes of the Globe, which are downloadable and/or searchable via Google Books and HathiTrust:
The congressional debates pertaining to the Fourteenth Amendment can be found at “Congressional Debates of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution”.