Keep Factually independent
Whether you agree or disagree with our analysis, these conversations matter for democracy. We don't take money from political groups - even a $5 donation helps us keep it that way.
What was the first filibuster in US Senate history?
Executive Summary
The question "What was the first filibuster in US Senate history?" has no single uncontested answer: contemporaneous evidence shows delaying-by-speech occurred as early as the Senate’s first session in 1789, but many historians and institutional timelines identify a more recognizable, organized filibuster tactic emerging in the 1830s, often dated to 1837. Both claims rest on different definitions of “filibuster” — one emphasizing any purposeful talk-to-delay, the other emphasizing sustained minority obstruction after procedural changes removed easy means to cut off debate [1] [2].
1. Early Senate obstruction: a diary that suggests delay from the first session
A primary piece of evidence cited for the earliest use of obstruction is Senator William Maclay’s diary entry from September 22, 1789, in which he reported that Virginia senators intended “to talk away the time” to block passage of a bill. This entry shows that minority tactics of prolonged speaking to delay legislative action were present in the very first Senate sessions, and historians who emphasize practice over later formalization treat this as the origin of filibustering behavior in the chamber [1]. The Maclay note is contemporaneous and specific about the tactic, which explains why some accounts point to 1789 as the operative starting point.
2. The 1830s: the moment many scholars mark as the filibuster’s birth
A competing line of scholarship and timelines identifies 1837 as the first instance of what later generations would recognize as a filibuster, tied to political fights after the Senate’s earlier removal—in 1806—of the “previous question” motion that had allowed a majority to force a vote. After that rule change, minority senators began to exploit unlimited debate more effectively, and an 1837 episode is commonly flagged as the first extended use of obstruction in the modern sense [3] [2]. Those who date the filibuster to the 1830s focus on the tactic’s development into an organized tool of minority power rather than isolated instances of delay.
3. Procedural change explains part of the disagreement: the vanished ‘previous question’
A key procedural pivot is the Senate’s elimination of the previous question motion in 1806, which removed a formal, simple-majority mechanism to cut off debate and allowed minority senators to exploit open debate over ensuing decades. Scholars tying the filibuster’s origin to institutional change argue that meaningful filibustering requires a context in which the majority cannot easily compel a vote; thus, while talk-to-delay existed earlier, the 1806 deletion set the stage for regularized obstruction that crystallized by the 1830s [2] [4]. This distinction between practice and structural enablement is central to why sources disagree on a single "first" filibuster.
4. Variations in historical emphasis and framing produce different firsts
Histories that emphasize prominent, high-profile confrontations sometimes point to later early-19th-century fights—such as contentious struggles over patronage or the national banking bill in the 1840s—as marking the filibuster’s classic age, while other accounts highlight isolated early episodes like Maclay’s diary to argue for an 1789 origin [5] [1]. Advocacy timelines and institutional summaries may also tilt toward episodes that fit their narrative: reform-oriented timelines stress later organized obstruction to argue for rule changes, while constitutional histories may underline early examples to show continuity in Senate culture [3] [5].
5. How to reconcile the evidence: two correct ways of defining ‘first’
Reconciliation requires recognizing two defensible definitions: if the question asks when senators first deliberately used speech to delay, the best-documented instance is 1789 via Maclay’s diary. If it asks when the filibuster became a systematic minority obstruction tactic enabled by institutional rules, a reasonable, widely cited answer is the 1830s—commonly 1837. Both readings are fact-based and appear across the materials: the early diary entry documents practice, while the post-1806 procedural environment explains the emergence of sustained obstruction as a political strategy [1] [2].
6. Bottom line and what question to ask next
Answering “What was the first filibuster?” depends on whether you mean the first use of delay-by-speech [6] or the first sustained, rule-enabled filibuster as a tactic (circa 1837). Both claims are supported by historians and institutional sources, and the disagreement reflects definitional and procedural differences rather than clear factual error. If you want a single label for public discussion, note the dual claim: cite Maclay’s 1789 diary for the earliest instance of deliberate delay, and cite the 1830s as when the filibuster matured into the tactic familiar to later legislators and scholars [1] [3] [2].