Talk:Dean of the United States House of Representatives

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Dean of the United States House of Representatives is part of WikiProject U.S. Congress, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to the United States Congress. You can help by editing this article. This template adds articles to Category:WikiProject U.S. Congress articles.

[edit] First sworn in

As I understand it, being sworn in is purely ceremonial and does not bestow any official status. One becomes a Member of the House of Representatives when the member's term begins. For example, at midnight on March 4 (pre XXth Amendment) or noon on January 3 (post-XXth Amendment).—Markles 13:53, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree that being sworn in does not in itself confer seniority in the US House, unlike in the UK House of Commons, where which of the Members with equal length of service is the Father of the House is determined by the order in which they were first sworn in. I used this criteria to come up with just one name for the first period of the existence of the US House, to produce a manageable entry for the list. The alternative is to include every member elected to the 1st Congress (except for those from NC and RI which did not ratify the constitution until after the term began, so I would say they could not be deemed to have seniority from March 4, 1789) and then reduce the numbers as the 1st Congress members dropped out or had their service broken.

The alternative, all inclusive, list of Deans with seniority from March 4, 1789 is as follows (only naming individual Deans when we get down to four in the 5th Congress).

• March 1789-June 1790 58 members (11 states) (March 4, 1789)
• June 1790-March 1791 57 members (11 states) (March 4, 1789)
• March 1791-June 1791 34 members (11 states) (March 4, 1789)
• June 1791-May 1792 33 members (11 states) (March 4, 1789)
• May 1792-June 1792 32 members (10 states) (March 4, 1789)
• June 1792-March 1793 31 members (10 states) (March 4, 1789)
• March 1793-March 1795 21 members (8 states) (March 4, 1789)
• March 1795-June 1796 13 members (5 states) (March 4, 1789)
• June 1796-July 1796 11 members (5 states) (March 4, 1789)
• July 1796-March 1797 10 members (5 states) (March 4, 1789)
• March 1797-July 1797 Thomas Hartley (F-PA); Josiah Parker (F-VA); William L. Smith (F-SC) and George Thatcher (F-MA) (March 4, 1789)
• July 1797-December 1800 Thomas Hartley (F-PA); Josiah Parker (F-VA) and George Thatcher (F-MA) (March 4, 1789)
• December 1800-March 1801 Josiah Parker (F-VA) and George Thatcher (F-MA) (March 4, 1789)
• 4 March-5 March 1801 George Thatcher (F-MA) (March 4, 1789)
• Thereafter as in the table in the article. --Gary J 23:55, 7 November 2006 (UTC)