the one given. The date of the special election is mentioned in a note to the list below, when that date is not used as the seniority date by the Biographical Directory. Representatives who return to the House, after having previously served, are credited with service equal to one less than the total number of terms they served. When a representative has served a prior term of less than two terms (i.e., prior term minus one equals less than one), he is ranked above all others whose service begins on the same day. Leadership In this Congress the only formal leader was the Speaker of the House. A Speakership ballot was held on October 24, 1791, and Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (P-CT) was elected. Standing committees The House created its first standing committee, on April 13, 1789. There was one standing committees in the 2nd Congress. Committees, in this period, were appointed for a session at a time and not necessarily for every one in a Congress. The Speaker appointed the members. This list refers to the standing committee of the House in the 2nd Congress, the year of establishment as a standing committee, the number of members assigned to the committee and the dates of appointment in each session, the end of the session and its chairman. List of representatives by seniority A numerical rank is assigned to each of the 65 members initially elected to the 2nd Congress. Other members, who were not the first person elected to a seat but who joined the House during the Congress, are not assigned a number (apart from the Representatives from the two states, admitted during the Congress, who are numbered 66–70). Three Representatives-elect was not sworn in, as one died and two declined to serve. The list below includes the Representative-elect (with names in italics), with the seniority they would have held if they had been sworn in. Party designations used in this article are A for Anti-Administration members and P for Pro-Administration representatives. {|class="wikitable" |+U.S. House seniority'|- valign=bottom !Rank!!Representative!!Party!!District!!Seniority date!!Notes |- |colspan="6"| Two consecutive terms|- |1||Fisher Ames|||P||||rowspan=35||| rowspan=2| |- |2||Abraham Baldwin|||A|| |- |3||Egbert Benson|||P|||| Last term until 13th Congress. |- |4||Elias Boudinot|||P||NJ-al|| |- |5||John Brown|||A|||| Term ended on district being admitted as the new state of KY: June 1, 1792 |- |6||Thomas Fitzsimons|||P|||| Elected to this Congress: October 11, 1791 |- |7||Elbridge Gerry|||A|||| Last term. |- |8||Nicholas Gilman|||P||NH-al|| rowspan=2| |-