Antebellum

Elected Speaker on his first day in the House in 1811, Clay transformed the office into a position of real power, stacking committ...

Webster served New Hampshire and then Massachusetts in both chambers across four decades, from 1827 to 1841 and 1845 to 1850 in th...

Calhoun served as representative, Secretary of War, Vice President under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, Senator from 1832 t...

Defeated for re-election in 1828, Adams shocked observers by winning election to the House in 1830, where he served from 1831 unti...

Benton sat in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, the first senator to complete five terms. A devoted ally of Andrew Jackson, he fought ...

Douglas arrived in the Senate at 34 and served from 1847 until his death in 1861. He steered the Compromise of 1850 to passage by ...

Seward governed New York, then served in the Senate from 1849 to 1861. He opposed the Compromise of 1850 as violating a higher law...

After defending fugitive slaves in court, Chase was elected to the Senate in 1849 as a Free Soil Democrat, broke with his party ov...

Houston led the Texas army at San Jacinto, served as president of the Republic twice, represented Tennessee in the House in the 18...

Randolph represented Virginia in the House and Senate intermittently from 1799 to 1833. An early Jeffersonian ally who broke with ...

Cass was governor of Michigan Territory, Secretary of War under Jackson, minister to France, Senator from 1845 to 1848 and 1849 to...

Davis represented Mississippi in the Senate from 1847 to 1851 and again from 1857 to 1861, with a term as Franklin Pierce's Secret...

In August 1846, as Congress debated money for negotiating an end to the Mexican-American War, first-term representative David Wilm...

Crittenden served several Senate stints across four decades, as well as attorney general under two presidents and governor of Kent...