At first a
Senate leader was an informal position usually an influential committee chairman, or a person of great eloquence, seniority, or wealth, such as
Daniel Webster and Nelson Aldrich. By at least 1850, parties in each chamber of Congress began naming chairs, and while conference and caucus chairs carried very little authority, the Senate party floor leader positions arose from the position of conference chair. Senate Democrats began electing their floor leaders in 1920 while they were in the minority.
John W. Kern was a Democratic senator from Indiana. While the title was not official, the Senate website identifies Kern as the first Senate party leader, serving in that capacity from 1913 through 1917 (and in turn, the first Senate Democratic leader), while serving concurrently as chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus. In 1925, the Republicans (who were in the majority at the time) also adopted this language when
Charles Curtis became the first (official) majority leader, although his immediate predecessor
Henry Cabot Lodge is considered the first (unofficial) Senate majority leader. However, despite this new, formal leadership structure, the Senate leader initially had virtually no power. Since the Democrats were fatally divided into northern liberal and
southern conservative blocs, the Democratic leader had even less power than his title suggested.
Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic leader from 1923 to 1937, saw it as his responsibility not to lead the Democrats, but to work the Senate for the president's benefit, no matter who the president was. When Coolidge and Hoover were president, he assisted them in passing Republican legislation. Robinson helped end government operation of
Muscle Shoals, helped pass the
Hoover Tariff, and stymied a Senate investigation of the Power Trust. Robinson switched his own position on a drought relief program for farmers when Hoover made a proposal for a more modest measure.
Alben Barkley called Robinson's cave-in "the most humiliating spectacle that could be brought about in an intelligent legislative body." When
Franklin Roosevelt became president, Robinson followed the new president as loyally as he had followed Coolidge and Hoover. Robinson passed bills in the Hundred Days so quickly that
Will Rogers joked "Congress doesn't pass legislation any more, they just wave at the bills as they go by. Robinson, who had spent long hours studying Senate procedures and legislative issues, would in fact yield more influence than any of his party leader predecessors would, and would even expand and better define the power of a party leader's
Senate Majority Leader post. In 1937, the rule giving majority leader right of first recognition was created. With the addition of this rule, the Senate majority leader enjoyed far greater control over the agenda of which bills to be considered on the floor. During
Lyndon B. Johnson's tenure as Senate leader, the leader gained new powers over committee assignments. ==Senatorial role of the vice president==