25th United States Congress
1837-1839 U.S. Congress

The 25th 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, 1837, to March 4, 1839, during the first two years of Martin Van Buren's presidency.
The apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1830 United States census. Both houses of congress had a Democratic majority.
Major events
March 4, 1837: Martin Van Buren became President of the United States
May 10, 1837: Panic of 1837
January 6, 1838: First public demonstration of Samuel Morse's telegraph
May 26, 1838: Trail of Tears: The Cherokee removal began
Major legislation
[data missing]
The Treasury Notes Act of 1837
The Militia Volunteer Act of 1839
Territories organized
June 12, 1838: Iowa Territory was formed from the Wisconsin Territory.
Party summary
The count below identifies party affiliations at the beginning of the first session of this congress. Changes resulting from subsequent replacements are shown below in the "Changes in membership" section.
Senate
House of Representatives
Leadership
Senate
President: Richard Mentor Johnson (D)
President pro tempore: William R. King (D)
House of Representatives
Speaker: James K. Polk (D)
Members
This list is arranged by chamber, then by state. Senators are listed by class, and representatives by district.
Skip to House of Representatives, below
Senate
Senators were elected by the state legislatures every two years, with one-third beginning new six-year terms with each Congress.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “25th United States Congress” is 1837-1839 U.S. Congress. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through 25th, United and States, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1837-1839 U.S. Congress” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4632330. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1837, 1839, 1830 and 1838.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “25th United States Congress”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 25th United States Congress primary sources, 25th United States Congress archive and 25th research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “25th United States Congress”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “25th United States Congress” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.