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1. George Washington’s Birthday: How It Started and Why We Celebrate As the first president of the United States, George Washington’s legacy remains strong in the American consciousness, and his birthday is celebrated in a variety of ways. In this article, readers can learn about the history of Washington’s birthday, how it has been celebrated, and why it continues to be observed today. 2. George Washington’s Mount Vernon Home Now Open For Tours George Washington’s Mount Vernon home is open for tours. This article details the history of the mansion, its restoration, and the various activities that guests can partake in while visiting the home. 3. George Washington: The Greatest American President This article examines the life and legacy of George Washington, highlighting his many accomplishments and contributions to the United States. It also looks at the reasons why he is widely considered to be the greatest American president. 4. George Washington: His Life and Accomplishments This article provides an overview of the life and accomplishments of George Washington. It looks at his service in the Revolutionary War, his presidency, and his role in shaping the United States. 5. George Washington’
“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.
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!
Edition for Educators—John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts remains the only President elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after his service as chief executive. When Adams took his seat in the House in 1831, he had already enjoyed a long career in some of the federal government’s most powerful posts. The son of the second U.S. President, Adams brought a stubbornness and a lifetime of experience to his job as Representative. Adams served for 17 years in the House, representing his Massachusetts district from 1831 until his death in 1848. From both committee rooms and the House Floor, Adams argued ceaselessly against the expansion of slavery and remained steadfast in upholding the right of the American people to petition their government. Thanks in large part to the voluminous diary entries he left behind, historians enjoy ample access to Adams’s various musings and frustrations during one of the most tumultuous periods in House history.Relying on a wealth of material published on the History, Art and Archives website, this month’s Edition for Educators highlights the life and congressional career of Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts.Son, Senator, Secretary, PresidentPEOPLE PROFILE—John Adams of MassachusettsJohn Adams was one of the most famous men in early America. As a Member of the Continental Congress, Adams proposed George Washington to head the Continental Army and helped write the Declaration of Independence. While his new nation grappled with the Articles of Confederation, Adams represented American interests abroad in France, Holland, and England. He returned to the United States in 1788 to serve as the first Vice President under Washington. When Washington declined to run for a third term in 1796, Adams won election as the second President of the United States. Adams, a Boston lawyer of esteem long before joining the Continental Congress, ensured his children received excellent educations. His oldest son John Quincy Adams was schooled in Europe before following his father’s path through Harvard College and into law in Boston and diplomacy abroad.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The House of Representatives Elected John Quincy Adams as President On February 9, 1825, the House of Representatives elected Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as President. Following an inconclusive Electoral College result, in which no candidate won a majority, the House performed its constitutionally prescribed role of deciding the 1824 presidential election. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee had won the popular vote and commanded 99 electoral votes. He was followed in the electoral tally by Adams (84), Treasury Secretary William Crawford (41), and Speaker of the House Henry Clay (37). Despite Jackson’s lead following Election Day, lawmakers in the House elected Adams President on the first ballot.From the White House to the House of RepresentativesHISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The Election of John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts The 1830 midterm election made Adams the first and only former President to be elected to the House of Representatives. Adams sought a second term as President in 1828 but lost to former Representative and Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Two years later, Adams handily won election to the House to represent a district encompassing southeastern Massachusetts in the 22nd Congress (1831–1833). Prior to the election, Adams reflected on his candidacy for the House in his journal, “no person could be degraded by serving the people as a Representative in Congress . . . [nor] would an ex-President of the United States be degraded by serving as a selectman of his town, if elected thereto by the people.”BLOG—“Planting Laws and Institutions”: The Election of Representative John Quincy Adams On November 6, 1830, former United States President John Quincy Adams spent the day at his family’s farm near Quincy, Massachusetts, planting trees. On the edge of what would become the orchard, he laid out five rows of chestnuts, oaks, and shagbark hickories. Adams ate lunch at home and went back to the farm “to lay out the ground for the Orchard,” all the while debating what else he would plant there. Toward the end of the day, he read the evening newspapers and nonchalantly noted in his diary that the news had “brought the last returns of the Congressional Election for the District of Plymouth. Twenty-two Towns gave 2565 votes, of which 1817 were for John Quincy Adams, 373 for Arad Thompson (Jacksonite), 279 for William Baylies (federal), and 96 scattering votes.” The final line in Adams’s diary that day: “I am a member elect of the twenty-second Congress.”Antislavery CrusaderHISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The House “Gag Rule” On May 26, 1836, during the 24th Congress (1835–1837), the U.S. House of Representatives instituted the “gag rule,” the first instance of what would become a traditional practice forbidding the House from considering antislavery petitions. Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts raised the first and most impassioned objections to the procedure. Adams shouted during the roll call vote, “I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States.” For the next four Congresses, Adams fervently fought against the gag rule, declaring it a restriction on free speech. Despite his efforts, the House successfully reintroduced the gag rule each Congress until Adams finally mustered enough votes to repeal it on December 3, 1844.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—A Motion to Censure Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts On February 7, 1842, the House voted 106 to 93 to table a motion censuring Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for antislavery agitation. Weeks earlier, Adams had masterfully manipulated the public debate over slavery by baiting proslavery Representatives into a prolonged dialogue. Because the House had instituted the “gag rule” in 1836—preventing floor discussion of abolition petitions—Adams manufactured a debate by submitting a petition, allegedly drafted by a group of Georgians, to have Adams removed as Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman. (Historians doubt the authenticity of the petition—some implying that Adams or one of his allies authored it). Through this sleight of hand, Adams used the defense of his chairmanship to hold the floor for days delivering a far-ranging harangue against “slave mongers,” as one observer recalled, “till slaveholding [and] slave trading . . . absolutely quailed and howled under his dissecting knife,” inspiring the effort to censure Adams.“Old Man Eloquent"HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—Congressman and Poet John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts A man of many talents, Congressman John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts was a poet as well as a statesman. During his first term as Representative, Adams penned the epic poem, “Dermot MacMorrogh, or The Conquest of Ireland.” Adams once confessed, “Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I should have made myself a great poet.” Another poem, “Fragments From an Unfinished Manuscript: An Epistle To the Muse of History,” captured a poignant moment in his House career. While seated at his desk in the old House Chamber (now National Statuary Hall), Adams wrote the poem honoring Clio, the Greek muse of history. He was inspired by a marble clock, located over the north door of the chamber, depicting Clio riding in the “Winged Car of History” and recording the deeds of Congress.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The First Parliamentary Procedure to Limit House Floor Debate On July 7, 1841, the House adopted the first rule intended to limit the time a Representative could speak in debate on the House Floor. Concerns about long speeches impeding House business had dated to at least 1820, when the irascible John Randolph of Virginia held the House Floor for a four-hour speech on the Missouri Compromise bill. This 1841 rule, adopted on the motion of Lott Warren of Georgia, required that “no member shall be allowed to speak more than one hour to any question under debate.” It passed the House by a vote of 111 to 75—with John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts (known as “Old Man Eloquent” by his peers) among those dissenting. Warren’s amendment, however, only temporarily altered the House Rules. According to Hinds’ Precedents the one-hour limit did not become a standing rule of the House until June 1842.BLOG—Father Knows Best Shortly after noon on an unseasonably mild Thursday in late February 1842, a hush fell over the House as the venerable John Quincy Adams creakily arose from his chair. Just weeks earlier, the House had considered censuring the gray-haired Massachusetts Congressman whom many knew as “Old Man Eloquent” to punish him for manufacturing a crippling debate about the evils of slavery. But on this day Adams eulogized North Carolina’s Lewis Williams, whom colleagues revered as the “Father of the House”—the Member with the longest continuous service. The prior afternoon Williams had succumbed to pneumonia. His abrupt passing shocked colleagues and ended an unbroken run of House service reaching back to 1815—far longer than any of his peers in that 27th Congress (1841-1843), Adams included.Mr. ChairmanBLOG—A Mob in Search of a Speaker During the chaotic first two weeks of the 26th Congress (1839–1841) in December 1839, three separate men presided over the House of Representatives: Clerk Hugh Garland of the previous Congress, Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts in an entirely invented position, and finally Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia, the youngest Speaker of the House ever to hold the office.BLOG—The Apportionment Act of 1842: Legal, When Convenient Throughout his 17-year career in the House, Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts existed in a state of almost perpetual irritation. Whether it was debate over tariff rates or his fight against slavery, the House’s daily business routinely left Adams exasperated but nevertheless resolute that he was right and everyone else was wrong. Adams was in no mood then, when on June 25, 1842, a curious decision by President John Tyler stretched Adams’s already short patience to its breaking point. After failing to convince the House to take up his bill providing back payments to the American victims of French privateers, Adams sat in disbelief as John Tyler Jr., the President’s son and aide, delivered a message to the House from his father explaining his decision to begrudgingly sign the Apportionment Act of 1842.RECORD—Smithsonian Fund Stocks After his death in 1829, British scientist James Smithson left $500,000 to the United States to found an institution dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. The House Select Committee on the Bequest of James Smithson, chaired by Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, determined what should be done with the windfall. This House record shows how the United States Treasury used these funds while the select committee worked. The Secretary of the Treasury primarily invested the bequest in the states of Arkansas, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio, with a rate of interest around six percent. As this record shows, Smithson’s capital temporarily supported the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company and canals in Ohio, among other economic and infrastructural projects. In 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was officially created by law.Death and LegacyBLOG—The Last Hours of John Quincy Adams The morning of February 21, 1848, was bright and clear. Representative John Quincy Adams left his house on F Street for the Capitol for the last time. Age had made him frail and a little hunched over in the winter air, but still with a piercing gaze. Adams knew he was nearing the end of his career. But he likely did not suspect that his last hours in the Capitol would become a national media event, driven by brand-new technologies and nostalgia that Adams represented.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The Death of Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts On February 21, 1848, Representative and former President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts suffered a fatal stroke on the House Floor. Members moved the 80-year-old former President to the Rotunda for fresher air and then relocated him to the Speaker's Room (the present-day Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room). Adams mustered the strength to thank the Officers of the House for their service. He then lapsed into a coma and died two days later. A funeral to celebrate the life of the great sage took place on February 26, 1848, in the House Chamber which was attended by political friends and foes alike. Until arrangements could be made to move his remains to the family burial grounds in Quincy, Massachusetts, his body was laid to rest in Congressional Cemetery. A cenotaph marker remains in the cemetery to honor the former President.Extra ResourcesLearn more about the career of John Quincy Adams as a Senator from Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of State, and the sixth President of the United States—the opening acts to his tenure as Congressman from Massachusetts.John Quincy Adams kept a diary for much of his life, which is publicly available online through a number of databases, including the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Library of Congress.This is part of a series of blog posts for educators highlighting the resources available on History, Art & Archives of the U.S. House of Representatives. For lesson plans, fact sheets, glossaries, and other materials for the classroom, see the website's Education section.
From Bunker Hill to Capitol Hill: Representative Henry Dearborn and the New Nation | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
On April 19, 1775, future U.S. Representative Henry Dearborn, then a 24-year-old country doctor from Nottingham, New Hampshire, heeded an urgent call to arms and marched roughly 60 miles through the night to northeastern Massachusetts to confront British forces at the battles of Lexington and Concord. When Dearborn, one of nearly five dozen New Hampshire recruits who made the long march, arrived at the battle site on April 20, the fighting was over. The British regiments had hastily retreated to Boston after being turned back by colonial militiamen.Two months later, Dearborn, who was in just his third year practicing medicine, had been promoted to captain in the First New Hampshire regiment as American revolutionaries fortified and defended Bunker Hill, the largest of three hills surrounding the city of Boston.The British Army had largely been confined to a peninsula jutting into Boston Harbor, but on June 17 British red coats moved to capture surrounding land—including the hills guarded by Dearborn and his troops. Few had anticipated that this confrontation would lead to the first significant conflict between the rebel army and British troops in the American Revolution.On June 17, Dearborn’s New Hampshire regiment defended Bunker Hill in intense fighting. The Americans inflicted heavy casualties on the British, killing officers and infantrymen with ease from the high ground of Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill in Charlestown, just across the Charles River from Boston. With a larger fighting force, the British ultimately captured control of Bunker Hill but the Americans had won a symbolic victory, showed their mettle on the battlefield, and set the tone for a lengthy war of rebellion that ended with independence in 1783.Henry Dearborn remained in the Continental Army for the duration of the war, attaining the rank of colonel by the end of the conflict in 1783. Nearly 20 years after Bunker Hill, he was elected from the state of Massachusetts to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 3rd and 4th Congresses (1793–1797). He went on to serve as the longest tenured U.S. Secretary of War in the nation’s history and returned to military service to lead the American invasion of Canada during the War of 1812.Of the many colonists who fought for America’s freedom, Dearborn was one of the few who had been there from the start. He was one of even fewer still who went on to shape the future of his young nation in the halls of Congress. As America commemorates the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill, Dearborn’s unique life helps us understand how veterans of the American Revolution influenced the creation of the federal government in the decades after the war.Eight Years of RevolutionBorn on February 23, 1751, in North Hampton, New Hampshire, Dearborn trained as a physician in the coastal city of Portsmouth. By 1772, he was living in Nottingham, New Hampshire, with his family. Three years later, the Battle of Bunker Hill became the starting point for Dearborn’s long, improbable journey from doctor to soldier to Congressman.Dearborn’s experience in the Continental Army sent him to points along the eastern seaboard where he participated in a series of significant battles during the ensuing eight years of war. A few months after Bunker Hill, in the fall of 1775, he accompanied American General Benedict Arnold in a failed campaign to capture Quebec. Taken prisoner in May 1776, Dearborn was paroled and returned to service the following year, just in time to play a key role in the American victory in Saratoga, New York. In his wartime journal, Dearborn recorded his satisfaction at defeating the “British Butchers,” many of whom he described as mercenaries fighting for wages rather than freedoms. The challenging conditions on the battlefield, Dearborn wrote, did not phase the American soldier, as “we who had Something more at Stake than fighting for six Pence Pr [sic] Day kept our ground til Night.”At the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey in 1778, Dearborn led a pivotal maneuver to ward off a British attack, and in western New York in 1779, he joined an expedition to attack British loyalists and Native American tribes. Dearborn was also part of George Washington’s forces when they initiated the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.Dearborn mustered out of service with the conclusion of the war in 1783, and moved to Maine, which was then a district of Massachusetts and would not become an independent state until 1820. He settled in the town of Gardiner in 1785, invested in land, owned a ferry, and pursued business ventures in timber and construction. He also became enmeshed in local politics, serving as a local selectman. Dearborn was named brigadier general of the district of Maine’s division within the Massachusetts state militia. He rose to major general of the state militia and was named U.S. Marshal for the district of Maine by President George Washington in 1789.A “Full Blooded Yankee” in the HouseIn 1792, Dearborn ran for and won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the Maine district, what was then the Massachusetts Fourth Congressional District. Dearborn was one of three At-Large Members who represented the district; George Thacher and Peleg Wadsworth, the grandfather of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, joined him in the House.Although Congress had approved the construction of a permanent national capital along the banks of the Potomac River, the new seat of government would not be ready until 1800. When the 3rd Congress (1793-1795) began in December 1793, Dearborn instead made his way to the temporary capital at Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.During the early Congresses, partisan affiliations were loosely defined—more blocs than organized parties—and very different than they are today. President George Washington had pledged to remain nonpartisan, but conflicting ambitions in the new federal government had given rise to competing factions. On one side stood the Federalists who, like U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, aimed to centralize economic and political power in the federal government. On the other side, stood Dearborn and the Democratic Republicans who, led by Representative James Madison of Virginia, remained wary of concentrated power, opposed Hamilton’s agenda, and backed Thomas Jefferson for President in 1800. Dearborn, described by one observer as “a full blooded Yankee,” believed in a different set of politics than most in the Massachusetts delegation where 12 of the state’s 16 Representatives in the 4th Congress (1795–1797) won election as Federalists.In his two terms in the House, Dearborn’s legislative agenda focused largely on military affairs and international relations. Representative William Barry Grove of North Carolina described him as having a “strong natural sense, and in all a pretty clever man—better fitted for the Military than a Legislator.” But Dearborn competently navigated the amendment process on the House Floor and spoke clearly in defense of his legislative priorities.Appointed to several select committees on military affairs, Dearborn took the lead in assessing the nation’s frontier defense and evaluating the needs of the military. On several occasions he sought to limit military appropriations and proposed reducing the number of soldiers in America’s standing Army. In 1797, he opposed a series of bills designed to bolster the Navy, including measures to fund the construction of three ships, build a Navy yard, and secure access to adequate timber for shipbuilding. Dearborn twice introduced amendments to specify that only the hulls of the ships should be completed to prevent cost overruns. The amendments were rejected and the bills passed despite Dearborn’s vote against them.On international affairs, Dearborn backed several resolutions designed to stop trade with Great Britain and force the British government to comply with the terms of the 1783 treaty ending the Revolutionary War. In 1794, President Washington’s emissary, John Jay, secured a new treaty to improve maritime relations between the nations, remove British troops from frontier lands, and ultimately prevent war. In April 1796, Dearborn and Democratic Republicans tried in vain to kill a bill to fund the implementation of Jay’s Treaty. Dearborn suggested amending the funding measure to add a preamble stating that the House found the treaty “highly objectionable.” The House, however, defeated his amendment. Dearborn voted against the treaty, but the House approved it by a 51 to 48 vote.In 1796, Dearborn lost re-election to Federalist Isaac Parker in his bid for a third term in the House. He returned to the district of Maine, where he was elected to the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1798.U.S. Secretary of WarWhen Thomas Jefferson was elected President in 1800, he appointed Dearborn U.S. Secretary of War. This time, Dearborn’s role in the federal government necessitated a move to the District of Columbia, the nation’s new capital. Dearborn resided on Capitol Hill for several years and retained this appointment throughout Jefferson’s two terms in office.As the civilian head of the military, Dearborn set out to transform America’s defense forces. In collaboration with President Jefferson, Dearborn framed his changes as a way to cut spending and reduce the size of the standing military during peacetime. Democratic Republicans had also grown concerned that Federalists had appointed a class of officers who would perpetuate their control of the military. Dearborn helped devise a plan to enable a new generation of military leaders to gain access to officer commissions—and to appoint those who were sympathetic to Jefferson’s party.As Secretary of War, Dearborn lobbied Congress to implement these changes. He played an integral role in developing the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802, a complete overhaul of the American military that enabled the Secretary to remove officers, make new officer appointments, and reorganize domestic garrisons and fortifications. The law also created a military academy at West Point, New York, to train officers and develop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Jefferson and Dearborn hoped these reforms would create a new class of officers more representative of the American people—and more sympathetic to Democratic Republican principles.When Jefferson’s second term ended in 1809, Dearborn was appointed collector of customs at the port of Boston. As the nation engaged in another conflict with Great Britain during the War of 1812, President James Madison asked Dearborn to take control of the military in the northeast, leading troops from the Niagara River east into New England. He led the Army into Canada, seizing the city of York—now known as Toronto—as well as Fort George in Canada just north of Niagara Falls. After struggling to hold these positions, Dearborn was removed from his post in July 1813. During the final year and a half of the War of 1812, Dearborn led American forces in New York City and Boston.After he retired from the military, Dearborn lived in Boston. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1817. In 1822, he entered the final chapter in his long record of service to the U.S. government. Appointed minister to Portugal, he spent almost two years in Lisbon before retiring to Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he died on June 6, 1829, at the age of 78.Bunker Hill Veterans in the HouseHenry Dearborn was not the only future U.S. Representative to participate in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Colonel John Paterson, who had been born in New Britain, Connecticut, but later represented New York in the House in the 8th Congress (1803–1805), was there. As was Artemas Ward, one of the first Major Generals of the U.S. Army, who issued the orders to defend Bunker Hill. Ward represented a Massachusetts district in the House for two terms between 1791 to 1795. Finally, William Eustis of Massachusetts had served as a physician at the battle and later held a seat in the House for parts of four nonconsecutive terms. Eustis died in February 1825, only four months before the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill.At least one additional future House Member had been present near the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. About 10 miles away from the fighting, from a hill at his home in Braintree, Massachusetts, a seven-year-old John Quincy Adams saw smoke and fire in the distance, heard the cannon volleys, and feared his family—especially his father John Adams, a leading revolutionary—was in danger of reprisals from British soldiers. After serving as President from 1825 to 1829, Adams held a seat in the House for 17 years, from 1831 until his death in 1848, capping a distinguished career in public service.50 Years after Bunker HillOn June 17, 1825, 74-year-old Henry Dearborn traveled to Charlestown to attend the ceremony commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill. That day, a large crowd watched as assembled dignitaries symbolically initiated construction of a planned 221-foot-tall granite obelisk to memorialize the battle. The French hero of the American revolution, the Marquis de Lafayette, who was in the final months of his yearlong tour of the United States, helped lay the cornerstone of the monument, which was later completed in 1843.Representative Daniel Webster of Massachusetts addressed the crowd. A rising star in the House, Webster was chair of the House Judiciary Committee and would later serve in the U.S. Senate and twice as U.S. Secretary of State. His speech praised the heroism, initiative, and achievements of the defenders of Bunker Hill and underscored the legacy of the battle, which he said set the stage for the founding of the nation and its great democratic experiment in self-government. Several lines from Webster’s 1825 address are enshrined in the House Chamber today:Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered.In 1775, Dearborn and others had helped plant the seeds of American democracy on the battlefield at Bunker Hill overlooking the Charles River in Massachusetts. Two hundred and fifty years later, in Washington, DC, the U.S. Capitol sits perched on a different hill within sight of a different river, the Potomac. But inside the grand domed building, the House of Representatives remains a place for Americans to strive to “perform something worthy to be remembered,” as Webster said, while enjoying the civil and political rights that Henry Dearborn had fought to guarantee.Sources: Annals of Congress, House, 3rd Cong., 1st sess. (21 January 1794): 1122–25; Annals of Congress, House, 3rd Cong., 1st sess. (13 February 1794): 1222; Annals of Congress, House, 4th Cong., 1st sess. (11 April 1796): 905–907; Annals of Congress, House, 4th Cong., 1st sess. (30 April 1796): 1282, 1291–1292; Annals of Congress, House, 4th Cong., 2nd sess. (23 January 1797): 1945–1971, 2332; Annals of Congress, House, 4th Cong., 2nd sess. (10 February 1797): 2113–2122; Annals of Congress, House, 4th Cong., 2nd sess. (2 March 1797): 2349–2352; Military Peace Establishment Act, 2 Stat. 132 (1802); Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives, The People’s House: A Guide to Its History, Spaces, and Traditions (Washington, DC: Government Publishing Office, 2025); Boston Patriot and Daily Chronicle, 8 June 1829; Connecticut Courant (Hartford), 28 June 1825; Henry Dearborn, An Account of the Battle of Bunker Hill (Philadelphia: Harrison Hall, 1818); Lloyd A. Brown and Howard H. Peckham, eds., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775–1783 (New York, Da Capo Press: 1971); Theodore J. Crackel, Mr. Jefferson’s Army: Political and Social Reform of the Military Establishment, 1801–1809 (New York: New York University Press, 1987); Harry L. Coles, “Dearborn, Henry,” American National Biography, vol. 6 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999): 299–301; Thomas Egleston, The Life of John Paterson, Major-General in the Revolutionary Army (New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons: 1894); Richard Alton Erney, The Public Life of Henry Dearborn (New York: Arno Press, 1979); Daniel Goodwin Jr., The Dearborns; A Discourse Commemorative of the Eightieth Anniversary of the Occupation of Fort Dearborn, and the First Settlement at Chicago (Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1884); Nathaniel Philbrick, Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution (New York: Penguin Press, 2013); Alexander S. Twombly, ed., Daniel Webster’s First Oration at Bunker Hill (New York: Silver Burdett and Company, 1897); Henry Wagstaff, ed., The Papers of John Steele, vol. 1 (Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company,1924).