Choosing Committees in the Early Senate: Partisanship, Proficiency, and Popularity

with Elias H. Wolman

From 1798 to 1816, the Senate used a select-committee system instead of standing committees chosen at the beginning of each session. Thus, there could be over 100 committees in any congressional session. Whereas today party conferences choose committee members, before the 1840s (with a few exceptions) senators chose committee members themselves. Every time they decided to create a committee, they had to vote for its members. When doing research for my dissertation, I came across tally sheets for over 70% of the committees. In this project, we analyze the tally sheets to uncover relationships among senators, the salience of partisanship, and the influence of sectionalism and expertise.

To explore the data click here.