*Party division totals are based on election day results.
The 45th Congress (1877–1879) remained politically divided between a Democratic House and Republican Senate. President Rutherford B. Hayes vetoed an Army appropriations bill from the House which would have ended Reconstruction and prohibited the use of federal troops to protect polling stations in the former Confederacy. Striking back, Congress overrode another of Hayes’s vetoes and enacted the Bland-Allison Act that required the purchase and coining of silver. Congress also approved a generous increase in pension eligibility for Northern Civil War veterans.
Learn more about the People of the People's House
To view complete lists of individuals who have served in these leadership and official positions since the 1st Congress, visit the People section