Home | Online Resources | UB Catalog | Campus Libraries | About UB Libraries | Forms | Search | Help
View
PDF Version
Return
to Index
December 1, 1828
Beginning in the 1820s, the Senate chamber increasingly became the principal arena for heated debates on issues associated with the nation's westward expansion. As sightseers and lobbyists crowded into every available space, hassled senators agreed that the original public gallery, located on the room's east side above the presiding officer's dais, was inadequate. A second and higher gallery had been added between 1815 and 1819, but it was hot and confining, and it obstructed the room's gallery-level windows, depriving the chamber of much-needed daylight. In 1828, workmen removed the upper eastern gallery and replaced it along the western wall with a graceful semi-circular balcony, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch. Crowded conditions would continue to plague the Senate until it moved to its current chamber in 1859.
December 2, 1954
From 1950 to 1954, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI) exploited a national mood of anxiety over Communist advances throughout Europe and Asia by accusing individuals and organizations of Communist party sympathies or activities. A man of restless and compulsive energy, McCarthy grew bolder with each charge. In 1953 and 1954, as chair of a major Senate investigating committee, he turned his attention to alleged security breaches in the army. Wildly maligning all who stood in his way, including many of his Senate colleagues, McCarthy quickly discredited himself. No longer willing to tolerate his gross abuse of the institution and its members, the Senate on December 2, adopted (67 to 22) a resolution of censure, condemning his behavior as "contrary to senatorial traditions."
December 3, 1847
For the first time, gaslight replaced candles as the Senate chamber's principal means of illumination. Senator John Fairfield (ME) reported that this innovation provided "light enough to write by and read the finest print in any part of the chamber."
December 4, 1815
After British troops burned the Capitol in August 1814, the Senate sought temporary quarters. At the beginning of the Fourteenth Congress, on December 4, 1815, senators convened in a brick structure hastily erected on the current site of the Supreme Court. Both the Senate and House remained at that site until restoration of the Capitol was completed in December 1819.
December 5, 1927
Senate Democratic Leader Joseph T. Robinson (AR) began the tradition under which the party floor leader occupies the front-row, center-aisle desk in the Senate chamber. Republican leader Charles McNary (OR) initiated this practice for his party in 1937.
December 6, 1790
The Senate met for the first time in its new quarters on the second floor of Philadelphia's Congress Hall, having moved from its previous chamber in New York City's Federal Hall. The national government remained in Philadelphia until 1800, when it relocated to Washington, DC.
December 7, 1829
The Senate appointed its first page, nine-year-old Grafton Hanson, grandson of Sergeant at Arms Mountjoy Bayly.
December 8, 1823
Senator-elect Richard Mentor Johnson (KY) (who later became vice president) told the Senate that he had failed to bring his election certificate to Washington. In urging that he be allowed to take the senatorial oath of office, Johnson explained that he thought Kentucky officials had mailed his credentials. The Senate accepted his excuse and administered the required oath.
December 9, 1858
The Senate Democratic Caucus took the extraordinary step of removing Senator Stephen Douglas (IL) as chairman of the influential Committee on Territories. This action grew out of Douglas' disagreements with President James Buchanan over the organization of the Kansas territory. After his reelection in 1858, following his much publicized debates with Abraham Lincoln, he was seen as an even greater threat to the Buchanan administration. Consequently, Buchanan's allies in the Senate successfully separated Douglas from his Senate power base, the Committee on Territories. Only one other senator, Charles Sumner (Foreign Relations, 1871), has ever been stripped of a chairmanship against his will.
December 10, 1816
In a move toward greater institutional efficiency, the Senate created its first "standing," or permanent, legislative committees. Previously, the Senate had relied on temporary committees that went out of business after the legislation they were responsible for had been disposed of. Among the first eleven standing committees, those that survive today include Finance, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary.
December 11, 1833
In 1833, the question of whether the Bank of the United States should be rechartered sharply divided the Senate. Pro-bank forces, led by Henry Clay (KY), held a majority over the allies of President Andrew Jackson, who steadfastly opposed recharter. Clay's forces adopted a resolution on December 11 directing the president to turn over a bank document that he had read to his cabinet. Jackson refused, claiming the Senate lacked the constitutional authority "to require of me an account of any communication, either verbally or in writing, made to the heads of departments acting as a cabinet council." In frustration, the Senate responded to this claim of executive privilege by "censuring" the president-the only time in Senate history that the body has taken such an action.
December 12, 1889
In response to issues related to the dramatic increase in the nation's non-native population, the Senate established a standing committee on immigration.
December 13, 1836
Asbury Dickins began a twenty-five-year career as the fourth secretary of the Senate. He remained in office, despite changes in parry control, through one of the most turbulent periods in American history. When he retired in 1861, two weeks before his eighty-first birthday, the Senate voted him an additional year's salary of $3,000 in recognition of his tenure as "an old and faithful servant of the Senate."
December 14, 1829
The Senate debated, but did not resolve, the issue of continuing to provide free books to members. Senator John C. Calhoun (SC) considered it a serious misuse of government funds and Senator Willie Mangum (NC) noted that it had been a serious problem for many years. Others charged that a few senators had been known to sell their books, thus profiting illegally.
December 15, 1795
The Senate rejected George Washington's nomination of John Rutledge to be chief justice of the United States. Rutledge had previously served for a brief time as an associate justice but resigned in 1791 to take a seat on a court in his native South Carolina. Anticipating that Chief Justice John Jay would soon leave to accept the governorship of New York, Rutledge asked Washington to name him as Jay's successor. Two weeks after Washington signed his nomination papers, and perhaps unaware of that action, Rutledge delivered an intemperate speech attacking the highly controversial Jay Treaty, which the president and the Senate's Federalist majority supported. When the Senate convened in December 1795, it rejected Rutledge by a vote of 10 to 14, the first such refusal of a Supreme Court nominee.
December 16, 1891
Reflecting an increasing concern of settlers in the western states and territories, the Senate established a permanent Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation.
December 17, 1798
The Senate began an impeachment
trial for former Senator William Blount (TN). More than a year earlier, the
Senate had expelled the Tennessee senator and signer of the Constitution for
conspiring to wrest Louisiana and Florida from Spanish control and turn them
over to Great Britain. Not content with his expulsion, the first in Senate history,
Federalist leaders in the House of Representatives secured the adoption of five
impeachment articles.
Conducting the first impeachment trial in its history, the Senate dismissed
the case on grounds that it lacked jurisdiction over Blount. The Senate did
not explain the grounds for its decision, but as a private citizen, Blount could
be considered beyond the reach of the impeachment process, which was intended
for federal officials.
December 18, 1895
Assistant Doorkeeper Isaac Bassett died, ending a Senate staff career that had begun sixty-four years earlier when Senator Daniel Webster (MA) arranged for his appointment as the Senate's second page. From the 1860s onward, senators had regularly looked to Bassett as rich source of information on the Senate's history and traditions.
December 19, 1974
Television cameras were allowed into the Senate chamber for the first time to record the swearing in of Nelson A. Rockefeller, the first vice president appointed under the provisions of the Constitution's twenty-fifth amendment.
December 20, 1860
The Senate established its so-called "Committee of Thirteen" as a last-ditch effort to prevent the breakup of the Union. This action occurred on the same day that South Carolina voted for secession. More manageable than its House counterpart, the "Committee of Thirty-Three," the Senate panel nonetheless faced insurmountable odds. After four meetings, the committee reported to the full Senate that it had been unable to agree on "any general plan of adjustment." Louisiana's Senator Judah Benjamin sounded the effort's death knell when he said, "The day for adjustment has passed. If you would give it now, you are too late. We desire, we beseech you,
December 21, 1995
Senator Robert J. Dole (KS) tied Charles McNary's (OR) record for service as Senate Republican floor leader. When McNary died in February 1944, he had held that post for ten years, eleven months, and seventeen days. Senator Dole broke the record on December 22.
December 22, 1935
An automobile struck and killed fifty-seven-year-old Senator Thomas Schall (R-MN). A ten-year Senate veteran, Schall was blind.
December 25, 1848
Senator Henry Dodge (WI) must have had a very merry Christmas in 1848. He knew that on the following day, his son, Augustus Caesar Dodge, would take his oath as one of Iowa's first two United States senators. Six months earlier, Henry Dodge had become one of Wisconsin's first two senators. Henry and Augustus served together for the next seven years, the only father-son team in Senate history.
December 26, 1941
Less than three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress conducted a dramatic joint meeting in the Senate chamber to hear an address by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Although joint meetings are customarily held in the House chamber, congressional leaders, recognizing that many members were out of town for the Christmas holidays, chose the smaller Senate chamber for its better acoustics.
December 28, 1832
The Senate established the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. It survived until 1920.
December 29, 1806
Henry Clay (KY) became the first senator sworn in before reaching the constitutionally mandated age of thirty. He was twenty-nine years, eight months, and seventeen days old.
December 31, 1823
To ensure that its two principal
officers would be responsive to the wishes of the entire body, the Senate determined
that its secretary and sergeant at arms would he elected by vote of the full
Senate, rather than appointed by the presiding officer. Two years later, Charles
Cutts, secretary since 1814, was defeated for reelection.
To Learn More About the Senate:
View
PDF Version
Return
to Index