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“A Favored Son of America”: the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 House Reception | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
On December 10, 1824, two dozen U.S. Representatives accompanied a 67-year-old French nobleman named Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier through the streets of Washington, DC, on the way to the U.S. Capitol. Other than the size of the entourage, little seemed to distinguish the caravan as it traversed the capital city. The Frenchman’s private secretary, Auguste Levasseur, noted that “the cortege was composed of a dozen carriages, but without escort, without pomp and without decorations. Our trip across the City was slow and silent.” Despite the apparent solemnity of the procession, the House and its visitors eagerly awaited the arrival of the French guest for whom they had prepared an official reception, set to begin promptly at 1:00 p.m.The reception scheduled for that day marked the first time the U.S. House had formally hosted a foreign dignitary—hundreds of others, including many heads of state, would follow over the next two centuries. But in that initial instance the guest was not the leader or a representative of any overseas government. In the United States, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier was better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, a French volunteer and general in the American Revolution who had served under George Washington in the Continental Army and whose leadership was pivotal to securing America’s independence five decades earlier.By the time Lafayette stepped foot on America’s shores in 1824, the heroes of 1776 were fading from the scene and the responsibilities of governing—of upholding and propagating the ideals and promises of the American Revolution—had passed to the next generation. The youngest Member of the House in 1824, Kentucky Representative Thomas Patrick Moore, was around 27 years old, and was himself already a veteran of another more recent conflict with the British—the War of 1812—that helped reaffirm America’s independence.An entire lifetime had come and gone since the Revolution. As America’s 50th anniversary approached in 1826, Lafayette’s visit bridged the eras. But, in a sense, the reception the House held in Lafayette’s honor signified a new beginning entirely. The upstart democracy Lafayette had helped seed in the eighteenth century had, by the third decade of the nineteenth, grown into a force all its own.The Nation’s GuestCongress had done almost everything in its power to facilitate Lafayette’s visit. Ten months earlier, in February 1824, after lawmakers learned that Lafayette hoped to visit America, Congress passed a resolution reserving a U.S. ship for his voyage across the Atlantic and directed President James Monroe to communicate to the French war hero “the assurances of grateful and affectionate attachment still cherished for him by the Government and people of the United States.”When Lafayette arrived in New England to begin his grand tour of America in August 1824, the House was out of session. Over the next few months, Lafayette made his way south down the eastern seaboard and when lawmakers gathered in Washington to begin the second session of the 18th Congress (1823–1825) seven months later in December, Members rushed to organize a committee to determine how best to honor and welcome him. After conferring with the Senate—which decided to hold its own meet-and-greet with Lafayette—the House committee recommended that lawmakers invite Lafayette to visit the chamber at 1:00 p.m. on December 10, where he would be feted by remarks from Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky.Lafayette had last visited America in 1784, and in the intervening 40 years much had changed—both for Lafayette and his American compatriots. After defeating the British and returning to France, Lafayette had helped spark the French Revolution in the 1790s and, with the help of Thomas Jefferson, authored the first draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. But Lafayette had barely survived the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and spent years in prison after he fled the country. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, America’s original 13 colonies had transformed into a country on the make: 24 states united under the Constitution, a population of roughly 10 million, and a foothold on the world’s stage.Lafayette’s visit to America in 1824 captured the country’s attention. Newspapers documented his every move and filled column after column with patriotic well wishes. Along the way, Lafayette visited sites and people important to the American Revolution. He reminisced with the 89-year-old John Adams in Boston and later visited Thomas Jefferson at his Virginia home, Monticello. Throughout it all, Lafayette made time to meet everyday Americans and surviving Revolutionary War veterans. During a private event in New York, a man was turned away as he tried to enter. Later, when an opportunity appeared, the man approached Lafayette to ask if the Frenchman remembered him. A reporter covering the event noted that “the General recognized him, called him by name, and extending his hand, said, ‘Yes, you assisted me off the field of battle, when wounded.’”The gravity of Lafayette’s visit was so strong that it even eclipsed the contested presidential election that year between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Newspapers across the country “closed their long columns to the passionate discussions of the parties in order to open them only to the unanimous expression of joy and national gratitude,” Levasseur, Lafayette’s personal secretary, noted.The ReceptionOn December 10, 1824, as Lafayette’s entourage approached the Capitol, Representatives waiting in the chamber extended an invitation to the Senate to join them for the reception. Extra seats were quickly arranged as Senators filed in. With the galleries filled to capacity with guests, additional spectators stood in the spaces and alcoves not already occupied by lawmakers on the floor. Before long, the 24 Members of the House welcoming committee organized to accompany and introduce Lafayette entered the chamber. Everyone in attendance removed their hats and stood. The committee chair, Representative George Mitchell of Maryland, ushered Lafayette in and presented him to Speaker Clay. Speaker Clay, born the same year Lafayette had arrived in America to support the country’s independence, stood and addressed his esteemed guest.“General,” Clay began, “the House of Representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its own feelings, and by those of the whole American People, could not have assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of being its organ to present to you cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress.” Clay acknowledged that while few in attendance that day had fought alongside Lafayette during the Revolution, everyone knew “of the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily encountered, and the signal services in America and in Europe, which you performed, for an infant, a distant, and an alien, people.”The Speaker celebrated Lafayette’s commitment “to regulated liberty, in all the vicissitudes of a long and arduous life” and commended the French general on his role as the “faithful and fearless champion” of freedom on two continents.Clay concluded by turning his attention to America and its future. Lafayette had been given a rare opportunity to witness the fruit of his revolutionary labors, Clay said. “You are in the midst of posterity!” the Speaker exclaimed. “Every where you must have been struck with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us.” Clay spoke of the “the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population.” When Lafayette was last in America, Washington, DC, did not exist. But by 1824, “even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest,” Clay said. But regardless of the physical changes America had undergone and would surely undergo in the future, Clay was confident that the nation’s esteem for Lafayette would “be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to their last posterity.”Standing in the chamber that afternoon, Levasseur, Lafayette’s assistant, observed that “the profound emotion that had swept over the Speaker, and which had visibly shaken him through his speech, passed rapidly into the hearts of all the audience.”Lafayette spoke next. He expressed his gratitude for the invitation to tour America and for the honor of the reception. “I am proud and happy to share those extraordinary favors with my dear Revolutionary companions,” he said. “My obligations to the United States . . . far exceed any merit I might claim. They date from the time when I have had the happiness to be adopted as a young soldier, a favored son of America. They have been continued to me during almost half a century of constant affection and confidence; and now . . . thanks to your most gratifying invitation, I find myself greeted by a series of welcomes, one hour of which would more than compensate for the public exertions and sufferings of a whole life.”After four decades away, Lafayette exalted “the immense improvements” made in America since his last visit—what he called “all the grandeur and prosperity of these happy United States.” Lafayette found it remarkable that the children of his revolutionary compatriots held him in the same regard as those he had fought alongside in the 1770s and 1780s. All these years later, Lafayette said, “I have the honor, and enjoy the delight, to congratulate the Representatives of the Union . . . upon the almost infinite prospects we can with certainty anticipate,” Lafayette concluded.After the speeches, the House adjourned for the day. Clay descended from the rostrum and saluted Lafayette, a gesture which the other Members emulated as Lafayette left the chamber.An Act Concerning General LafayetteLater that month, lawmakers on Capitol Hill sought to extend Lafayette’s honor by offering the French general a substantial gift. The original bill, drafted by the Select Committee on Services and Sacrifices of General Lafayette, gifted $200,000 to Lafayette for his contributions to America during the Revolution—this at a time when lawmakers earned $8 per day while the House was in session and a pound of coffee cost about 18 cents in New York. The Senate, after considering the bill, decided that Lafayette deserved even more, and added a 24,000-acre plot of land from the government’s public land holdings.When the House received the amended bill, several Members expressed concern over its cost. The House debated the bill for two days. At certain points, lawmakers sought to reduce the size of the compensation to $100,000 then $150,000. But, as debate wore on, fears of seeming ungrateful outweighed the expense, and the House approved the original $200,000 and 24,000 acres of land. The House voted 166 to 26. The bill became law on December 23, 1824.Lafayette was deeply in debt, and when he learned of the gift, he sent a letter to Congress expressing his immense appreciation for the money and land, later confessing his belief “that the American Nation has done far too much for me.”Lafayette’s Legacy in the HouseOne legacy of Lafayette’s visit to the House exists to this day. On the same day the House approved Lafayette’s gift, Clay read a letter from a French artist, Ary Scheffer, dated October 1824. In the letter, Scheffer explained that he had sent a full-length portrait of Lafayette as a gift of gratitude “for the national honors which the free people of the United States are, at this moment, bestowing on the friend and companion in arms of your illustrious Washington, on the man who has been so gloriously received as ‘the Nation’s Guest.’” Scheffer’s portrait arrived at the Capitol in December, having been delayed by headwinds as it left France, and was displayed in the Capitol Rotunda during the remainder of Lafayette’s trip. It was later moved into the House Chamber, where it still hangs.Much like the invitation extended to Lafayette, Congress has often asked foreign leaders to speak to affirm the friendly relations between the United States and the individual or, in more recent decades, the country that person represents. Since 1824, the House has invited 55 foreign dignitaries to address its members; many more international guests have addressed both the House and Senate in Joint Meetings—most of which have been held in the House Chamber. Since the first official address before a Joint Meeting in 1874 by King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, there have been more than 130 addresses by foreign dignitaries and heads of state.It is perhaps fitting that the ally who helped an upstart nation throw off the yoke of British colonialism set the precedent. As much as Lafayette’s reception on December 10, 1824, linked the new republic to its roots in the Revolution and advertised its youthful achievements, it also presaged America’s place as a rising world power and made Congress the place where the world has since come to speak to the American people.Sources: Annals of Congress, House, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (12 January 1824): 988; Annals of Congress, House, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (20 January 1824): 1101–1104; Register of Debates, Appendix, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (4 February 1824): 3279; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 December 1824): 1–4; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (10 December 1824): 3–5; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (21 December 1824): 34–35, 45–56; Register of Debates, Senate, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (3 January 1825): 111; House Journal, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (23 December 1824): 75–76; An Act concerning General Lafayette, 6 Stat. 320 (1824); Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States, trans. Alan R. Hoffman (Manchester, NH: Lafayette Press, Inc., 2006); American Watchman (Wilmington, DE), 13 August 1824; Washington Intelligencer, 11 December 1824; “Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics,” Michigan bureau of labor and industrial statistics (1 February 1885): 248; Ida A. Brunick, “Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables,” Report 97-1011, 26 September 2024, Congressional Research Service; Lafayette: A Guide to the Letters, Documents, and Manuscripts in the United States, ed. Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk, Phyllis S. Pestieau, and Linda J. Pike (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1975); David T. Canon et al., Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789–1946, vol. 4 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2002); Lina Mann, “The Nation’s Guest: General Lafayette’s 1824-1825 Tour of the United States,” 30 March 2018, The White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-nations-guest.
Recent Artifacts Online, Winter 2024 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
Everything old is new again—this season, treasures from 150 years ago take center stage in newly digitized additions to our online collection. Find the furniture in an 1858 print and compare the picture to examples that survive today.The Hall of Representatives in the New Extension of the Capitol at WashingtonThis print showing the details of the newly completed House Chamber, which had opened just months before, is also the earliest image of Pages in the House Collection. Small boys can be seen sitting alongside the lowest level of the three-tiered Speaker’s rostrum. By the late 1850s, Pages had been working in the Capitol for nearly half a century. Note the chairs and desks furnishing the new chamber. Surviving examples of these are also part of the House Collection, included below.Walter DeskIn 1857, the House met in its new chamber, with Representatives sitting at highly decorated desks designed for the room. Carved symbols on the desk’s front illustrate power: a shield with the nation’s stars and stripes anchors the top rail above a globe with “America” emblazoned across it.Walter ChairAs the House of Representatives prepared to occupy its new chamber in 1857, deadlines loomed. More than one company scrambled to build the many formidable oak armchairs needed for the chamber. The Hammitt Desk Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia provided 131 chairs, and Bembe & Kimbel, a New York City firm, supplied another 131. The two versions have slight variations. Look closely: this one, made by the Hammitt Desk Manufacturing Company, has circular decorations around the chair’s seat, with small wooden hemispheres in the center of each circle. The Bembe & Kimbel chairs use a variation on the circular design that marks them as works from that manufacturer.Formal Notice of the Impeachment of Andrew JohnsonThe full-page image on one side of this sheet from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper showed Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and John Bingham of Ohio delivering the formal notice of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson to the Senate. The reverse included five more images, building a narrative of the proceedings. Scenes include a crowd rushing to enter the Chamber to hear the message delivered, people at the Willard Hotel discussing the transpiring events, and a crowd in Baltimore reacting to the “impeachment telegram” being posted on the bulletin. As evidenced by this example, the story was followed in detail by the contemporary press.Our New President—General View of the Inauguration CeremoniesAfter a disputed election, Rutherford Hayes was sworn in as President in March 1877. This Harper’s Weekly print shows a sea of spectators—and two playful dogs—gathered near the East Front of the Capitol for the inauguration. Although the public ceremony took place on March 5, Hayes was sworn in privately at the White House two days earlier.Are you more of a modernist? Check out these 20th-century artifacts, new on the website:For additional new paintings, photographs, and objects on Collections Search, check out other Recent Artifacts Online blogs.
Best of the Blog in 2024 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
In 2024, the Office of the Historian and the Office of Art and Archives published 34 blog posts exploring the rich history of the House of Representatives. This year’s submissions covered a range of topics, including deep dives on the portrait of pathbreaking California Representative Dalip Singh Saund, the curious career of Pennsylvania Representative Thomas Forrest, and the history and development of the House Chamber’s electronic voting system.Additionally, the oral history program at the Office of the Historian celebrated its twentieth year of operation with posts looking back at two decades of interviews with remarkable Members of Congress, staff, and family members.House curators and archivists continued to update readers about new additions to the House Collection and Records Search. House historians maintained the long-running Edition for Educators series for teachers and students and provided an annual update for students competing in National History Day. The office also expanded its educational series by offering closer looks at two major events in modern House history: the 1954 shooting in the House Chamber and the first lying-in-honor ceremony in the Capitol. Finally, readers more inclined to statistics over narrative were treated to an updated snapshot of the House by its numbers.As the 118th Congress prepares to adjourn sine die, we’re featuring six of our favorite blog posts from the past year.An Empire or a Gavel: Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed’s Opposition to the Spanish-American WarIn late March 1898, Republican Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine found himself in an unfamiliar position. Known as “Czar Reed” for his iron-fisted control over the legislative process, Reed now struggled to maintain the direction of the House’s agenda as war loomed on the horizon. For months, lawmakers on Capitol Hill had worried as Spain suppressed a war for independence in Cuba, which Madrid controlled as a territory. By the spring, many in Congress sought to confront the European monarchy over its actions in the Caribbean. But Reed fiercely opposed conflict with Spain, and generally resisted America’s larger imperial ambitions overseas. A loyal Republican and the leader of his party in Congress, Reed felt he had certain obligations to adhere to party orthodoxy, even in the rare event that he disagreed with it. As the drumbeat for war grew louder in the GOP, Reed confronted an issue that pitted his party loyalty against his personal convictions and his duties as Speaker of the House.The Records of a Growing Nation: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)As the United States grew in size and population, it grappled with the challenges of its expansion. Congress began the complicated process of dividing and parceling out land, much of it already inhabited, contended with pro- and antislavery activism, and started to determine what kinds of support and relief the government should provide its citizens. This second entry in an ongoing series about House documents focuses on a few of the most prominent issues facing Congress during the antebellum era. This overview invites readers to learn more about this turbulent period with these records from the House of Representatives.“A Favored Son of America”: the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 House ReceptionOn December 10, 1824, two dozen U.S. Representatives accompanied a 67-year-old French nobleman named Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier through the streets of Washington, DC, on the way to the U.S. Capitol. The reception scheduled for that day marked the first time the U.S. House had formally hosted a foreign dignitary—hundreds of others, including many heads of state, would follow over the next two centuries. But in that initial instance the guest was not the leader or a representative of any overseas government. In the United States, du Motier was better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, a French volunteer and general in the American Revolution who had served under George Washington in the Continental Army and whose leadership was pivotal to securing America’s independence five decades earlier. An entire lifetime had come and gone since the Revolution. The upstart democracy Lafayette had helped seed in the eighteenth century had, by the third decade of the nineteenth, grown into a force all its own.The House's Plot to Steal a LibraryIn June 1974, as the U.S. House of Representatives opened an impeachment investigation into President Richard M. Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, a construction crew was hard at work on a massive new building for the Library of Congress in the 100 block of Independence Avenue in Southeast, Washington, DC—near the heart of Capitol Hill. Congress had authorized the building in 1965 to help alleviate overcrowding across the library complex. Only steps away, a group of Representatives took stock of the House’s own office space and decided that it was overcrowded as well, packed with thousands of Member, committee, and support staff. Perhaps what the House required was a new office building. And perhaps the new library facility was just the space the House needed.The History of Member Pins“The first day I was here, I was just walking around,” newly minted Representative Roger Marshall reported. “Nobody even noticed me. Then I put this on and all of a sudden, the eyes started trailing me.” Marshall came to Congress in 2017 and quickly learned what gets you noticed on the Hill: the official, Members-only lapel pin. Like a hall pass, the little metal disc has identified Representatives to police, Members, and others in the know for 50 years. But for the previous 180 years, the House saw no need for them. What happened to make Member pins a must-have in Congress?Not Horsing Around: Speaker Sedgwick Attempts to Rein in the PressOn December 22, 1800, the U.S. House of Representatives held a somewhat routine debate on whether to examine the conduct of Mississippi’s territorial governor. As debate dragged on, Democratic Republican William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee declared that he had heard enough, and recommended the House move swiftly to punish the governor, surmising that “a delay of justice is often equal to a denial of it.” Claiborne’s remarks struck a chord with a man named James Lane who watched the proceedings from the gallery. In a show of support, Lane began clapping. Lane’s disruption sparked an immediate rebuke from Speaker Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts, who ordered the House Sergeant at Arms to remove Lane from the chamber. The clapping may have lasted a split second, but it set in motion a lengthy series of events that underscored the power of the Speaker and House leadership’s contentious relationship with the press. It also, apparently, caused James Lane to lose his horse.Be sure to follow the blog in 2025 for more House history, art, and records!
Development of the Industrial United States and the Emergence of Modern America (1870–1931), Part II: The Records of Progress | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
As the United States expanded, developed, and went to war overseas, Americans and their government responded to the rapid changes happening in the country and abroad. Citizens petitioned Congress for consumer protections, better working conditions, assistance for vulnerable people, voting rights, and conservation of the country’s natural landscapes. The government responded with reforms—both welcome and unwelcome, depending on one’s perspective. Learn more about how the country navigated the shift from the unregulated excess of the Gilded Age to social and political reforms of the Progressive Era with these records from the House of Representatives.Transcriptions and downloadable PDFs of these records are available at the links below.Discussion Questions:How did the country’s workforce change during this period?Identify at least three areas that Americans worked to reform during this period. Are Americans still working to bring about change in these areas today?How did changes in communication, transportation, and industry during this period bring about government reform?What methods did Americans use to advocate for changes for themselves and for others?What connections can you make between this period and today?Is what is considered progress by some always positive for everyone? Why or why not?1890, Give Us Pure Lager Beer PetitionThis petition was sent to the House from citizens of Avon, New York, who supported H.R. 8522, a bill that defined the required ingredients of lager beer. The petitioners warned that “adulterants such as corn, rice, starch, glucose and other substitutes,” when used instead of malt and hops, may affect the purity of beer, as well as the drinker’s health. The petition is an example of the demand for more government regulation of consumer goods that culminated in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.1893, John Muir Yosemite LetterA founding member of the Sierra Club, John Muir served as president from its inception in 1892 until his death in 1914. Muir and his fellow club members petitioned Congress to preserve Yosemite National Park’s boundaries when California Representative Anthony Caminetti proposed opening it up to farming and mining in 1893. The petition includes a four-point list detailing the damage to the park if it were developed, along with a map illustrating the reduced size advocated by the legislation. Congress eventually sided with the conservationists and decided to maintain the original boundaries for the time being.1900, Anti-Lynching PetitionPetitioners from New Jersey protested the lynching of African Americans in the South. The petition was submitted on the House Floor on February 21, 1900, by Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only African American in Congress at the time, in support of H.R. 6963, anti-lynching legislation he introduced on January 20, 1900. White left at the end of that Congress, and it was nearly three decades before another African American served in Congress.1902, Letter Supporting Anti-Injunction and Anti-Conspiracy LegislationThe Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Bradford Lodge No. 288, in McKean County, sent this petition to Congressman Joseph C. Sibley of Pennsylvania in 1902. The union encouraged the consideration of H.R. 11060, which would limit the meaning of the word “conspiracy” and the use of “restraining orders and injunctions.” As a labor union for railroad employees, the group had a vested interest in legislation that protected its right to organize and protest, which had been curtailed by allegations of civil conspiracy and court ordered injunctions against strikes and boycotts.1912, Child Labor PhotographIn 1908, Lewis Wickes Hine began documenting the conditions of young workers in Washington, DC. The notation Hine typed on the back of the photograph observed that the three boys were about 9 years old. One newsboy was a “chronic truent [sic],” and another had already been working as a newsboy since the age of 6. Their work required them to rise early and work long days, until all their papers were sold. Hine’s documentary photographs, often depicting gritty, true-to-life scenes, made their way into the investigative files of the Committee on the District of Columbia to bolster proposed legislation that would ban child labor in the District.1917, Student Resolution for ProhibitionIn 1917, a group of high school students from Flemington, New Jersey, submitted a resolution supporting a bill introduced by Congressman Asbury Lever in support of the prohibition of alcohol to conserve resources for the impending war. H.R. 4961 included the “limitation, regulation, or prohibition of the use of foods, food materials, or feeds in the production of alcohol.” Although the bill became the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act and was signed into law on August 10, 1917, nationwide Prohibition would not take effect until 1920.1919, House Joint Resolution 1 for Women’s SuffrageH.J. Res. 1 proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending voting rights to women was introduced in the House on May 19, 1919, and referred to the House Committee on Woman Suffrage. H.J. Res. 1 passed the House on May 21, 1919, followed by the Senate on June 4. The amendment achieved ratification in three-fourths of the states, and the U.S. Secretary of State certified it as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 26, 1920, allowing women nationwide to head to the polls that November.1927, Funds for a Veterans’ HospitalThis petition, a concurrent resolution from the state legislature of Indiana, urges the U.S. Congress to establish a hospital for veterans within the state. The resolution argues that, “As Indiana is the center of population of the United States, a nucleus of the agricultural and industrial elements, the greatest railroad center of the world, and easily accessible by highways,” a veterans’ hospital would serve the area well. After the creation of the Veterans Administration, a health facility serving veterans opened in Indiana in 1932.Interested in more records from this era?1886, Postcards to Label Oleomargarine1886, Resolution to Create a Bureau of Labor for Women1875, Railway Joint Tariff1879, Letter against the Comstock Actca. 1890, Petition against Obscene Literature1894, Normal and Industrial Schools Billca. 1902, Petition for National Appalachian Forest Reserve1902, Resolution on Enforcement of the 14th Amendment1902, Higher Education for People Who Are Blind1905, Letter to Amend the Interstate Commerce Act1906, Report on Chicago Stock Yards1908, Supporting a Child Labor Bill for DC1910, Letter to Julius Kahn on Establishing a Children’s Bureau1910, Letter in Favor of a Children’s Bureau1911, Support for a National Archives Building1915, Letter Regarding Mount Baker1916, Letter for National Park Service1917, Urging Prohibition During Wartime1917, Letter against Prohibition1918, Maternity and Infancy Hygiene Bill1922, Red Record of Lynching Map1924, Letter against Child Labor AmendmentRead the first part of this blog, “Development of the Industrial United States and the Emergence of Modern America (1870–1931), Part I: The Records of Power,” here.This is part of a blog series about records from different eras of U.S. history.