Boldface (with superscript C) numbers indicate the majority Party in each house. Red (with superscript P) numbers (boldface or not) indicate the Party of the President in any event.
| President | Party | Congress | United States Senate | House of Representatives | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democrat | Republican | other | vacancies | Democrat | Republican | other | |||
| Garfield/ Arthur | Republican | 47th 1881-1883 | 36 | 38CP | 2 | ||||
47TH CONGRESS- IN GENERAL President JAMES A. GARFIELD was shot by an assassin on 2 July 1881 and died on the following 19 September, at which moment- as per Article II, Section 1, clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution- "the Powers and Duties of [the Presidency] shall devolve on the Vice President", CHESTER A. ARTHUR. Mr. Arthur formally took the oath of office as President on 20 September 1881. 47TH CONGRESS- SENATE The SENATE of the 47th Congress included 2 Senators from other than the two Major Parties as elected by their respective State Legislatures, as follows:
Angus Cameron, a Republican, was elected on 10 March 1881 by the Legislature of the State of WISCONSIN to the Class 3 seat (term ending 3 March 1885) from that State vacated by the death of Senator Matthew H. Carpenter on 24 February 1881, during the preceding Congress, before the convening of the "long" session of the 47th Congress on 5 December 1881; Senator Cameron, therefore, is counted among the 38 Republicans elected to the Senate of the 47th Congress, notwithstanding the existence of a vacancy at the start of that Congress [4 March 1881]. | |||||||||
Modified .