President William Henry Harrison, by an executive order of March 17, 1841, called an early special session of the Twenty-seventh Congress of the United States. By the time that the session opened in Washington, D.C, Harrison was dead and Vice-President John Tyler had succeeded him. Of the 242 representatives, there were 142 Whigs and 98 were Democrats. Two members were Independents. John White, a Whig member for Kentucky was elected Speaker of the House on this first day. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, "House History." http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/house_history/index.html
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
