Has "congressman" ALWAYS meant "representative, not senator"?

[Neal Whitman]

For election day, I'm writing a column about the usage of "congressman" to
mean "representative", as opposed to "member of Congress, from either
house". I haven't found the topic in the archives here, although I did find
a 2002-2003 thread in alt.usage.english, and it got pretty heated.
(http://groups.google.com/group/alt.usage.english/browse_thread/thread/cc0d775685b36c58/45c97680c26fcba3?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=congressman#45c97680c26fcba3)

I'll summarize the main viewpoints that emerged in the AUE thread, with the
intention being that if you subscribe to one of these views, you can know
that your view is in the record. The question I'm trying to answer comes
after the summary.

1.  Since "Congress" refers to both the Senate and House of Representatives
together, therefore "Congressman" DOES mean "member of either house of
Congress", although it is usually used to refer just to a representative.

In opposition, we have:
2.  Even though "Congress" refers to both the Senate and House of
Representatives together, you just have to learn the semantic limitation on
"congressman" as one of the idiosyncratic things about the word, the same
way that you learn that a humanitarian is not an anthropophage, even though
vegetarians are herbivores.


2A. Although "congressman" may have at one point included senators, it
doesn't now. (Basically the Q-based narrowing of "congressman" that Larry
mentioned in his paper introducing the term.)

2B. No, "congressman" never did include senators.



My question is whether claim 2B is true. The OED has 1780 for its earliest
attestation (see below), before the Constitutional Convention, but I'd like
to find some attestations between 1789 and the early 1800s to see how
"congressman" is being used in the early years of the US. It doesn't appear
in the Constitution or the Federalist Papers. Google Books and ProQuest have
been of little help, so I was hoping some of the accomplished antedaters
here might be able to help out.



OED:

1780 The American Times iii. 28 Ye coxcomb Congressmen, declaimers keen.
1806 FISHER AMES Wks. (1854) I. 349 And I consider too, how unreasonable it
is to expect a Congressman can fill letter after letter with important
matter. a1834 DOW Serm. III. 137 (Bartl.), Our congressmen, my dear hearers,
what are they? Nothing but bloodsuckers upon the cheek of the United States.
1888 BRYCE Amer. Commw. I. xiv. 197 note, The term 'Congressman' is commonly
used to describe a member of the House of Representatives, though of course
it ought to include senators also.



Thanks!



Neal Whitman
Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com

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