Way back when, when Robert Byrd joined the Senate

Upon the death of Robert C. Byrd late last month, many commentators marked the remarkable length of his tenure in the Senate by pointing out that Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House when he took office.  Byrd served in the Senate for more than 51 years, having eclipsed the record previously held by Strom Thurmond more than four years ago.  Interestingly, last month Daniel Inouye of Hawaii also passed Thurmond’s mark to take second place.  Inouye also supplanted Byrd as the Senate’s President pro tempore, traditionally reserved for the majority party’s longest-serving Senator ... and thus he now stands third in presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

While the Ike metaphor has been widely noted, I’ve seen next to nothing about the makeup of the Senate into which Byrd arrived.  When the 86^th Congress convened on January 3, 1959, it was a very different body than what we see today, but it was also remarkably changed from the legislative body that had closed its second session of the 85^th Congress on August 24, 1958.  Herewith, a few observations about the United States Senate when Robert C. Byrd first joined the world’s greatest deliberative body™:

• The 1958 election was an unmitigated disaster for President Eisenhower’s party.  When its activities for the 85^th Congress were completed, the United States Senate was narrowly Democratic, 49-47, continuing a status quo of razor-thin majorities that had existed since 1950—48D-48R in the 82^nd Congress (Democratic majority only because Vice President/President of the Senate Alben Barkley broke the tie), 48R-47D-1I in the 83^rd (Wayne Morse was the Independent), 47D-47R-1ID-1I in the 84^th (Thurmond called himself “Independent Democrat”, Morse still Independent, Dems in the majority).  In a sharp break from that deadlock, the 86^th Congress’s Senate convened as a body with 64 Democrats and 34 Republicans.
• If you sum the above counts, you’ll see that the Senate had gained two members at the start of the 86^th Congress.  That’s Alaska, which had become a state in 1958.  It elected two Democrats, Territorial Governor Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening (later to gain respect as one of two Senators to vote against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution).  Hawaii, admitted to the Union in 1959, would elect its first Senators in the late summer of 1959, and they (one from each party) would take office immediately thereafter.
• Not only was the 1959 freshman class large—17 members (14 D, 3 R), along with West Virginia Democrat Jennings Randolph, who filled a vacant seat in a special election and was sworn in immediately after the 1958 election—it was also very distinguished.  Among those joining Robert Byrd in taking the Senate’s oath of office for the first time were Philip A. Hart (D-MI), Edmund Muskie (D-ME), Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT), Hugh Scott, (R-PA), and Eugene J. McCarthy (D-MN).
• Except for the two Alaskans, every single Democratic freshman filled a previously-Republican seat, and all but three did so by defeating the incumbent Republican Senator.  The three GOP freshmen all succeeded retiring Republicans.
• In addition to the newly-elected Senators already discussed, the class of 1959 included (alphabetically by state):
  
  • Clair Engle, Democrat, California.  (Male, BTW.)
  • Vance Hartke, Democrat, Indiana.
  • Howard Cannon, Democrat, Nevada.  He beat the incumbent.
  • Harrison (Pete) Williams, Democrat, New Jersey.
  • Kenneth Keating, Republican, New York.
  • Stephen Young, Democrat, Ohio.  Defeated the incumbent.
  • Frank Moss, Democrat, Utah.  Ousted the incumbent.
  • Winston Prouty, Republican, Vermont.
  • Gale McGee, Democrat, Wyoming.  Another one who beat the incumbent.  (Male, BTW.)

Several of the freshman Senators in the 86^th Congress became the first Democrats to hold that particular seat in a long time.  For example, the California seat won by Engle had been Republican since 1899.  He defeated the sitting Governor in that 1958 Senate race, replacing a Senator who had retired to run for Governor(!).  Engle’s Senate predecessor also lost his race, to Pat Brown, Jerry’s father.  The Minnesota seat taken by Gene McCarthy had previously been occupied by Democrats only twice, 1858-1863 (the seat’s first occupant after statehood) and for six weeks while the Senate was in adjournment in 1900-1901.  Ed Muskie’s seat had been Republican since 1917.  For the record, Maine’s senior Senator was Republican Margaret Chase Smith, the only woman in the Senate at that time.

Even more information about the Senate in 1959 follows…

Comments

That picture of Dylan and Baez at the March on Washington was taken by me.  You can Google snapstour or my name and see many more.  I am all for Peace and all for Farms, so I have no problem with you using it.

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