Fact check: Congress expelled 14 members in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy

Fact check: Congress expelled 14 members in 1861 for supporting the Confederacy

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The claim: In 1861, 11 senators and three U.S. House members were expelled from Congress for refusing to acknowledge Abraham Lincoln's electoral win

Amid reports that some House Republicans are expected to challenge the Electoral College results and vote against President-elect Joe Biden's win, based on unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud, some social media users have shared what they allege to be a similar time in history.

A viral Facebook post claims to tell what happened to a group of congressmen in the 1860s.

"In 1861, 11 senators & 3 representatives were expelled from Congress for supporting the insurrection and refusing to recognize Abraham Lincoln's electoral win," reads a meme, with over 2,000 shares posted Dec. 31 to the Facebook page of the band CAKE. The post was deleted after USA TODAY reached out for comment.

But similar versions of the claim have also been shared by other users on Facebook. USA TODAY reached out to them for comment.

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History of House and Senate expulsions

Per Article I, Section 5 of the United States Constitution: "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member."

There are no specific grounds of expulsion that are expressed in the Constitution. However, expulsions in the House and Senate have concerned cases of disloyalty to the country or conviction of a criminal statutory offense involving abuse of one's official position, according to a Congressional Research Service Report. To date, five members in the House and 15 in the Senate have been expelled.

"In devising this framework, the Constitutional Convention drew upon British legislative tradition as well as nearly 175 years of precedent in the colonial assemblies in North America," reads the site of the U.S. House of Representatives. "Other than the two-thirds requirement, however, the Framers left it up to the House and Senate to determine their own rules and the type of behavior that might warrant expulsion from their respective chambers."

Framers set the two-thirds threshold because expulsion would remove someone who was elected by the popular vote of his or her constituents and, while "the House has wide discretion to act in such cases, it has demonstrated keen deference to the peoples’ choice of their Representatives."

Expulsion is used sparingly, and members who faced expulsion from the House have sometimes chosen to resign instead, and the House has never expelled a member for conduct that took place before their House term.

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Lincoln's victory in the presidential election brought forth the secession of Southern states. The Senate began to explore what to do with the seats that were left vacant by Southern senators, according to the Senate.

In March 1861, Maine Sen. William Pitt Fessenden argued that Southern states did not have the right to withdraw from the Union, and by leaving the Senate, the Southern members had resigned their seats. Others had argued that states did not have the right to secede. The Senate agreed with Fessenden and declared that the seats of six of the departed colleagues as "vacant" and struck their names from the Senate roll.

Debate followed in July regarding Southern members who did not formally notify the Senate of their withdrawal and whose terms had not yet expired. Sen. Daniel Clarke of New Hampshire offered a resolution to expel the 10 Southern senators, and Sen. James Bayard of Delaware objected, arguing that expulsion should be reserved for cases of individual misconduct. The resolution passed with a final 32-10 vote expelling the absent members.

The 10 senators were expelled in July 1861 for being engaged "in a conspiracy against the peace and union of the United States Government" for their support of the Confederacy, according to the Senate.

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The resolution for expulsion cited their failure to appear in the Senate and alleged that members "engaged in said conspiracy for the destruction of the Union and Government, or, with full knowledge of such conspiracy, have failed to advise the Government of its progress or aid in its suppression."

The call for expulsion makes no mention of their purported refusal to acknowledge Lincoln's election.

The senators expelled in July 1861 were: James Mason and Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia; Thomas L. Clingman and Thomas Bragg, of North Carolina; James Chesnut Jr., of South Carolina; A.O.P. Nicholson, of Tennessee; William K. Sebastian and Charles B. Mitchel, of Arkansas; and John Hemphill and Louis T. Wigfall, of Texas.

John Breckinridge, of Kentucky, was expelled later, on Dec. 4, 1861, for disloyalty to the Union who had "joined the enemies of his country, and is now in arms against the Government he had sworn the support," according to the Senate.

Breckinridge began his U.S. Senate term on March 4, 1861, when Lincoln began his presidency. At that point, seven Southern states had already seceded. Breckinridge hoped secession could be stopped, but once secession became a reality, he delivered one of his final speeches and returned to Kentucky.

In October 1861, Breckinridge sent a formal letter of resignation to the Senate. Expulsion was introduced months later by Michigan Sen. Zachariah Chandler, as Breckinridge had accepted a prominent military position in the Confederacy.

Three members of the House were expelled in 1861 for their disloyalty to the Union as well, according to Congressional Research Service. They were John Bullock Clark and John William Reid, of Missouri, and Henry Cornelius Burnett, of Kentucky, according to History, Art and Archives of the U.S. House of Representatives. Their expulsions also do not cite any sort of refusal to recognize Lincoln's election.

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The claim that 11 senators and three U.S. House members were expelled in 1861 for refusing to acknowledge Lincoln's win is PARTLY FALSE, based on our research. It is true that 14 members were expelled. However, the reason for expulsion cites their support for the Confederacy, and it is false to say they were expelled for refusing to acknowledge Lincoln's election.

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