List of United States senators in the 42nd Congress

This is a complete list of members of the United States Senate during the 42nd United States Congress listed by seniority, from March 4, 1871, to March 3, 1873.

Order of service is based on the commencement of the senator's first term. Behind this is former service as a senator (only giving the senator seniority within his or her new incoming class), service as vice president, a House member, a cabinet secretary, or a governor of a state. The final factor is the population of the senator's state.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Senators who were sworn in during the middle of the Congress (up until the last senator who was not sworn in early after winning the November 1872 election) are listed at the end of the list with no number.

Terms of service

Class	Terms of service of senators that expired in years
Class 3	Terms of service of senators that expired in 1873 (AL, AR, CA, CT, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MD, MO, NC, NH, NV, NY, ND, OH, OR, PA, SC, VT, and WI.)^[5]
Class 1	Terms of service of senators that expired in 1875 (CA, CT, DE, FL, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NE, NJ, NV, NY, OH, PA, RI, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, and WV)^[6]
Class 2	Terms of service of senators that expired in 1877 (AL, AR, DE, GA, IA, IL, KS, KY, LA, MA, ME, MI, MN, MS, NC, NE, NH, NJ, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, and WV.)^[7]

U.S. Senate seniority list

U.S. Senate seniority
Rank	Senator (party-state)	Seniority date	Other factors
1	Charles Sumner (LR-MA)	April 11, 1851
2	Henry Wilson (R-MA)	January 31, 1855
3	Lyman Trumbull (R-IL)	March 4, 1855
4	Zachariah Chandler (R-MI)	March 4, 1857
5	Henry B. Anthony (R-RI)	March 4, 1859	Former governor
6	Timothy O. Howe (R-WI)	March 4, 1861
7	John Sherman (R-OH)	March 21, 1861
8	Samuel C. Pomeroy (R-KS)	April 4, 1861
9	Garrett Davis (D-KY)	December 23, 1861
10	Alexander Ramsey (R-MN)	March 4, 1863
11	William Sprague IV (R-RI)	March 4, 1863
12	William M. Stewart (R-NV)	February 1, 1865
13	James W. Nye (R-NV)	February 1, 1865
14	Aaron H. Cragin (R-NH)	March 4, 1865
15	George F. Edmunds (R-VT)	April 3, 1866
16	Thomas Tipton (R-NE)	March 1, 1867
17	Roscoe Conkling (R-NY)	March 4, 1867
18	Justin Smith Morrill (R-VT)
19	Oliver P. Morton (R-IN)
20	Simon Cameron (R-PA)
21	Orris S. Ferry (R-CT)
22	Thomas Tipton (R-NE)
23	Cornelius Cole (R-CA)
24	James Harlan (R-IA)
25	James W. Patterson (R-NH)
26	Henry W. Corbett (R-OR)
27	George Vickers (D-MD)	March 7, 1868
28	Benjamin F. Rice (R-AR)	June 23, 1868
29	Thomas W. Osborn (R-FL)	June 25, 1868
30	William P. Kellogg (R-LA)	July 9, 1868
31	George E. Spencer (R-AL)	July 13, 1868
32	John Pool (R-NC)	July 14, 1868
33	Thomas J. Robertson (R-SC)	July 15, 1868
34	Frederick A. Sawyer (R-SC)	July 16, 1868
35	Thomas F. Bayard (D-DE)	March 4, 1869
36	Hannibal Hamlin (R-ME)
37	Allen G. Thurman (D-OH)
38	Eugene Casserly (D-CA)
39	William A. Buckingham (R-CT)
40	Abijah Gilbert (R-FL)
41	Daniel D. Pratt (R-IN)
42	William T. Hamilton (D-MD)
43	Carl Schurz (R-MO)
44	John P. Stockton (D-NJ)
45	Reuben Fenton (R-NY)
46	John Scott (R-PA)
47	William G. Brownlow (R-TN)
48	Arthur I. Boreman (R-WV)
49	Matthew H. Carpenter (R-WI)
50	Lot M. Morrill (D-ME)	October 30, 1869
51	John F. Lewis (R-VA)	January 26, 1870
52	Adelbert Ames (R-MS)	February 23, 1870
53	James W. Flanagan (R-TX)	March 30, 1870
54	Morgan C. Hamilton (R-TX)	March 31, 1870
55	Francis Preston Blair, Jr. (D-MO)	January 20, 1871
56	Joshua Hill (R-GA)	February 1, 1871
57	Eli Saulsbury (D-DE)	March 4, 1871
58	Thomas W. Ferry (R-MI)
59	William Windom (R-MN)		Former representative
60	Henry G. Davis (D-WV)
61	George Goldthwaite (D-AL)
62	Powell Clayton (R-AR)
63	John A. Logan (R-IL)
64	George G. Wright (R-IA)
65	John W. Stevenson (D-KY)
66	Joseph R. West (R-LA)
67	Phineas Hitchcock (R-NE)
68	Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
69	James K. Kelly (D-OR)
70	Henry Cooper (D-TN)
71	Alexander Caldwell (R-KS)
	John W. Johnston (D-VA)	March 15, 1871
	Thomas M. Norwood (D-GA)	November 14, 1871
	James L. Alcorn (R-MS)	December 1, 1871
	Matt W. Ransom (D-NC)	January 30, 1872
	Willis Benson Machen (D-KY)	September 27, 1872

Notes

^ A Chronological List of United States Senators 1789-Present, via www.Senate.gov
^ 1871 U.S Census Report Contains 1870 Census results
^ 1881 U.S Census Report Contains 1880 Census results
^ 1891 U.S Census Report Contains 1890 Census results
^ Terms of service of senators that expired in 1873.
^ Terms of service of senators that expired in 1875.
^ Terms of service of senators that expired in 1877.