34TH CONGRESS- IN GENERAL

The Slavery issue marked the death knell of the Whigs as a Major Party: the Compromise of 1850 (which first adapted the concept of "squatter sovereignty" to the problem of the extension of Slavery to the territories) was lost in the battle over the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (which first extended this principle north of the northernmost limit of Slavery under the Missouri Compromise of 1820). In the wake of the resultant political fallout, Free Soilers and so-called "Conscience" Whigs joined forces with so-called "Free" Democrats and even denizens of the nativist American (known colloquially as the "Know-Nothing") Party to sow the seeds of a new Major Party: one soon enough to become more generally known as the Republicans. Meanwhile, other Whigs (primarily in the South) joined the Democrats, while a core of so-called "old" Whigs (principally in the Border South) vainly attempted to hold what was, by now, an "anti-Free Soil yet pro-Union" faction together while the winds of Secession and Civil War began to intensify as the end of the 1850s drew nigh (this last remnant of the Whigs would become the core of a short-lived Constitutional Union Party by the 1860 Presidential Election). The 34th Congress, thus, can be seen as a more or less transitional period in which the final decay and decline of the Whigs was becoming offset by the shifting sands of the contemporary antebellum political landscape swiftly producing a new Democrats versus Republicans Major Party lineup: one that, at least insofar as the Parties' names are concerned, continues to this very day.
[NOTE: Important Party switchers- though not, by all means, all- during the transition from the Whigs to the Republicans as the "second party" in opposition to the Democrats in the course of the 34th Congress are noted in the notes re: each respective house of Congress below.]

34TH CONGRESS- SENATE

The SENATE of the 34th Congress included the following IMPORTANT PARTY-SWITCHERS, as follows:

• Whigs become Democrats-
  • Senator James A. Bayard of DELAWARE (Class 1)
  • Senator Judah P. Benjamin of LOUISIANA (Class 2)
  • Senator James A. Pearce of MARYLAND (Class 3)
• Democrats become Republicans-
  • Senator John Hale of NEW HAMPSHIRE (Class 2)
  • Senator Hannibal Hamlin of MAINE (Class 1)
• Free Soilers become Republicans-
  • Senator Charles Sumner of MASSACHUSETTS (Class 1)
  • in addition, outgoing Senator Salmon P. Chase of OHIO- a Free Soiler in the Senate- was elected Governor of his State as a Republican in 1855
• Whigs become Republicans-
  • Senator Hamilton Fish of NEW YORK (Class 1)
  • Senator Solomon Foot of VERMONT (Class 1)
  • Senator William H. Seward of NEW YORK (Class 3)
  • Senator Benjamin Wade of OHIO (Class 1)

The SENATE of the 34th Congress also included 6 Senators from other than the Democrats and Republicans as elected by their respective State legislatures, as follows:

• 6 so-called "old" Whigs-
  • Senator John Bell of TENNESSEE (Class 2)
  • Senator John M. Clayton of DELAWARE (Class 2)
  • Senator John J. Crittenden of KENTUCKY (Class 3)
  • Senator James C. Jones of TENNESSEE (Class 1)
  • Senator Thomas G. Pratt of MARYLAND (Class 1)
  • Senator John B. Thompson of KENTUCKY (Class 2)

The SENATE of the 34th Congress also included 4 vacancies, as follows:

• 1 vacancy from the State of CALIFORNIA, the Legislature of the State having failed to elect someone to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 3 December 1855.
• 1 vacancy from the State of INDIANA, the General Assembly of the State having failed to elect someone to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 3 December 1855.
• 1 vacancy from the State of MISSOURI, the General Assembly of the State having failed to elect someone to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 3 December 1855.
• 1 vacancy from the Commonwealth of PENNSYLVANIA, the General Assembly of the State having failed to elect someone to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 4 December 1855.

Benjamin Fitzpatrick, a Democrat, was elected by the General Assembly of the State of ALABAMA to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 3 December 1855; Senator Fitzpatrick, therefore, is counted among the 37 Democrats elected to the Senate of the 34th Congress, notwithstanding the existence of a vacancy at the start of that Congress [4 March 1855] due to a failure of the legislature to elect.

James Bell, a Republican, was elected by the General Court of the State of NEW HAMPSHIRE to the Class 3 seat (term: 4 March 1855 to 3 March 1861) from that State on 30 July 1855, before the convening of the "long" session of the 34th Congress on 3 December 1855; in addition, John Hale- also a Republican, was elected on that same date [30 July 1855] by the General Court of the State to NEW HAMPSHIRE's Class 2 seat (term ending 3 March 1859) to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Senator Charles G. Atherton on 15 November 1853, during the preceding Congress. Senators Bell and Hale, therefore, are both counted among the 15 Republicans elected to the Senate of the 34th Congress, notwithstanding the existence of vacancies at the start of that Congress [4 March 1855] due to a failure of the legislature to elect.