← a year earlier · day before · day after · a year later →

The United States on March 4, 1861

Who held every office, how Congress and the Court were made up, and what happened within a week. Diff this day against today →

President
Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln R · since Mar 4, 1861
Senate
22 D · 19 R
42 senators · 37th Congress
House
1 U
1 representatives
Supreme Court
7 D · 1 W
8 justices by appointing party
Union
34 states
12 amendments in force
Public debt
$65M
as of Jul 1, 1860
1861-03-04/executiveThe administration
President Abraham Lincoln R
since Mar 4, 1861
Vice President Hannibal Hamlin R
Secretary of State Jeremiah S. Black D
since Dec 17, 1860
Secretary of the Treasury John Adams Dix R
since Jan 15, 1861
1861-03-04/congress37th Congress
Senate · 22 D · 19 R · 1 U
Clement Claiborne Clay Jr. (Democrat, AL)William King Sebastian (Democrat, AR)Milton Slocum Latham (Democrat, CA)James Asheton Bayard Jr. (Democrat, DE)Willard Saulsbury Sr. (Democrat, DE)Robert Augustus Toombs (Democrat, GA)Stephen Arnold Douglas (Democrat, IL)Jesse David Bright (Democrat, IN)Lazarus Whitehead Powell (Democrat, KY)Judah Philip Benjamin (Democrat, LA)Henry Mower Rice (Democrat, MN)Trusten Polk (Democrat, MO)Jefferson Davis (Democrat, MS)Albert Gallatin Brown (Democrat, MS)Thomas Bragg (Democrat, NC)John Renshaw Thomson (Democrat, NJ)Andrew Johnson (Democrat, TN)Alfred Osborn Pope Nicholson (Democrat, TN)John Hemphill (Democrat, TX)Louis Trezevant Wigfall (Democrat, TX)James Murray Mason (Democrat, VA)Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter (Democrat, VA)Anthony Kennedy (Unionist, MD)James Dixon (Republican, CT)James Wilson Grimes (Republican, IA)Charles Sumner (Republican, MA)Henry Wilson (Republican, MA)Hannibal Hamlin (Republican, ME)William Pitt Fessenden (Republican, ME)Zachariah Chandler (Republican, MI)Kinsley Scott Bingham (Republican, MI)Morton Smith Wilkinson (Republican, MN)John Parker Hale (Republican, NH)John Conover Ten Eyck (Republican, NJ)Preston King (Republican, NY)Benjamin Franklin Wade (Republican, OH)Edward Dickinson Baker (Republican, OR)Simon Cameron (Republican, PA)James Fowler Simmons (Republican, RI)Henry Bowen Anthony (Republican, RI)Solomon Foot (Republican, VT)James Rood Doolittle (Republican, WI)
House · 1 U
John Snyder Carlile (Unionist, VA-11)
1861-03-04/supreme-courtThe bench
John McLean D
Associate Justice · appointed by Andrew Jackson · since Mar 7, 1829
James Moore Wayne D
Associate Justice · appointed by Andrew Jackson · since Jan 9, 1835
Roger Brooke Taney D
Chief Justice · appointed by Andrew Jackson · since Mar 15, 1836
John Catron D
Associate Justice · appointed by Andrew Jackson · since Mar 8, 1837
Samuel Nelson W
Associate Justice · appointed by John Tyler · since Feb 13, 1845
Robert Cooper Grier D
Associate Justice · appointed by James K. Polk · since Aug 4, 1846
John Archibald Campbell D
Associate Justice · appointed by Franklin Pierce · since Mar 22, 1853
Nathan Clifford D
Associate Justice · appointed by James Buchanan · since Jan 12, 1858
1861-03-04/weekWithin a week · Feb 25, 1861 – Mar 11, 1861
Abraham Lincoln takes office · Mar 4, 1861
Ruling The Union Steamship Company of Philadelphia and Owners of the Steamship Pennsylvania v. The New York and Virginia Steamship Company
Feb 25, 1861 · 65 U.S. 307
Ruling Perin v. Freeman G. Carey
Feb 25, 1861 · 65 U.S. 465
Law Morrill Tariff
Mar 2, 1861 · Ch. 68, Sess. 2, 36th Cong.
Ruling Day v. Washburn
Mar 5, 1861 · 65 U.S. 352
Ruling Lessee of Robert W. Smith and Carey W. Butt v. McCann
Mar 5, 1861 · 65 U.S. 398
Ruling Phelps v. Edgerton
Mar 5, 1861 · 131 U.S. lxxi

Each office is shown as it stood at the end of the day. Cabinet records come from Wikidata and have gaps for some historical offices.