The LuLac Edition #5, 746, August 22nd, 2026

 

 

PENNSYLVANIA’S FIRST U.S. SENATORS

Pennsylvania’s first U.S. senators were William Maclay and Robert Morris, both elected by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on September 30, 1788

They took their seats in the U.S. Senate on March 4, 1789, the day the First Congress convened at Federal Hall in New York City

 

WILLIAM MACLAY

From: Sunbury, Pennsylvania

Party: Anti-Administration (Federalist)

Term: March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1791

Notable: The only senator in the First Congress to keep a diary, providing rare firsthand accounts of behind-closed-doors Senate sessions

He assisted John Harris Jr. with the planning the layout of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1785, where Maclay Street is named for him.[2] Following his tenure in the Senate, he served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on two occasions, as a county judge, and as a presidential elector. He is known for his journal providing historical information on the 1st United States Congress.

He constantly feuded with Vice President John Adams in the Senate after Adams rejected Maclay's political deal to support his vice-presidential candidacy during the 1789 presidential election. In July 1789 he issued a resolution requiring the president to request the Senate's permission to dismiss Cabinet members, but it was defeated by Vice President Adams's tiebreaking vote when Adams convinced Tristram Dalton and Richard Bassett to withdraw their support. During Senate debates over the Residence Act establishing the site of the U.S. permanent national capital and seat of government Vice President Adams worked with Morris, who preferred Philadelphia as the capital, to defeat Maclay's motion placing it near his landholdings on the Susquehanna River.

In his journal, which is the only diary and one of the most important records of the First United States Congress, he criticizes Vice President Adams and President George Washington. He also criticized many of their supporters who ran the Senate and included particular senators, believing that their ways of running the Senate were inefficient. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to be re-elected by the state legislature of Pennsylvania. His diary expresses his dry wit and commitment to democratic principles.

Following his retirement from national politics, he was also a member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1795, 1796, and 1797. In addition, he was a presidential elector in the 1796 presidential election (voting for Jefferson), a county judge from 1801 to 1803, and a member again of the state House of Representatives in 1803. He died in 1804.

 

ROBERT MORRIS

From: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Party: Pro-Administration (Federalist)

Term: March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1795

Background: A prominent financier and one of the Founding Fathers, Morris was a key figure in the oConstitutional Convention and the early U.S. government.

Pennsylvania ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 12, 1787, becoming the second state to do so

The 1788 election was the nation’s first senatorial election, with Maclay and Morris chosen by the state legislature before direct popular election was allowed under the 17th Amendment in 1913

Their terms were staggered: Maclay served Class 1 (two-year term) and Morris served Class 3 (six-year term)

Morris was a British-born American merchant, investor,  and politician, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Morris served in the Pennsylvania legislature, the Second Continental Congress, and the United States Senate. He was one of only two individuals (along with Roger Sherman) to sign the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the U.S. Constitution. 

 

From 1781 to 1784, he held the post of Superintendent of Finance of the United States, a role that earned him the title "Financier of the Revolution". Alongside Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, Morris is often regarded as a founder of the financial system of the United States.

Morris was selected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention, which wrote and proposed a new constitution for the United States. Morris rarely spoke during the convention, but the constitution produced by the convention reflected many of his ideas. Morris and his allies helped ensure that Pennsylvania ratified the new constitution, and the document was ratified by the requisite number of states by the end of 1788. The Pennsylvania legislature subsequently elected Morris as one of its two inaugural representatives in the United States Senate. Morris declined Washington's offer to serve as the nation's first Treasury Secretary, instead suggesting Alexander Hamilton for the position. In the Senate, Morris supported Hamilton's economic program and aligned with the Federalist Party. During and after his service in the Senate, Morris went deeply into debt through speculating on land, leading into the Panic of 1796–1797. Unable to pay his creditors, he was confined in the Prune Street debtors' apartment adjacent to Walnut Street Prison from 1798 to 1801. After being released from prison, he lived a quiet, private life in a modest home in Philadelphia until his death in 1806.

These two senators set the precedent for Pennsylvania’s role in the early Senate, representing the state’s Federalist leanings and marking the beginning of its long history in U.S. federal politics.  (wikipedia)