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August 1, 1876
Sitting as a court of impeachment, the Senate narrowly acquitted Secretary of War William Belknap, the only cabinet officer ever impeached by the House of Representatives. Belknap had served in President Ulysses Grant's cabinet for nine years when charges surfaced that he had accepted bribes tied to the appointment of a military trader in Oklahoma. As the House of Representatives considered these charges, Belknap, in tears, went to the president in March and resigned. Despite his resignation, the House acted unanimously and sent the impeachment to the Senate. The Senate initially agreed that it had jurisdiction over a former government officer, but many who ultimately voted against impeachment believed that Belknap's resignation moved him beyond the Senate's reach.
August 2, 1854
In a move to revise an out-of-date procedure, the Senate relieved its committees of the need to ask to be discharged from consideration of any unfinished business at the end of each session within a two-year congressional term. This practice consumed valuable time both at the end of a session and at the start of the following session when the "discharged" pending measures had to be "recommitted" to the committees that had previously held them. When Senator Charles Sumner (MA) suggested that this reform was unnecessary, Senator Albert Brown (MS) urged him not to block it. "It can do no harm, and we can pass it in less time than it will take to talk about it."
August 4, 1908
Iowa Republican William B. Allison died at age 79, ending a 35-year-and-5-month Senate career- the longest to that time. One of the most influential senators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Allison chaired the Republican Conference from 1897 to 1908. He was the longest-serving committee chairman in Senate history, chairing the Appropriations Committee for all but two years between 1881 and 1908; he was also a member of the Finance Committee for 30 years. The major legislative issues of Allison's day-tariff reform, currency stabilization, and railroad regulation-all bore his sharp imprint.
August 5, 1789
For the first time, the Senate refused to confirm a presidential appointee. Ignoring the budding concept of "senatorial courtesy," President George Washington had nominated Benjamin Fishbourn to the post of Naval Officer for the Port of Savannah without clearing his choice with Georgia's two senators. Favoring another candidate who was a member of their political circle, the senators promptly engineered Fishbourn's rejection. Two days later, the president conveyed his irritation to the Senate. "Permit me to submit to your consideration whether on occasions where the propriety of Nominations appear questionable to you, it would not be expedient to communicate that circumstance to me, and thereby avail yourselves of the information which led me to make them, and which I would with pleasure lay before you."
August 6, 1971
The Senate and House of Representatives took their first mandatory 30-day summer recess as required by the 1970 Legislative Reorganization Act. Existing law had provided that Congress "shall adjourn sine die not later than July 31 of each year," unless the two houses provided otherwise. But the last time Congress had managed to complete its work at the end of July had been in 1956. On even-numbered years, Congress usually managed to adjourn by early October to accommodate members running for reelection, but in odd-numbered years it had become standard to work until December, with little time for members to plan for and enjoy family summer vacations. Although August recesses since 1971 have been abbreviated during election years, the 1970 act's recess provision has been carried out faithfully during odd-numbered years.
August 8, 1946
President Harry Truman signed a supplemental appropriations act providing for the creation of the Senate's Republican and Democratic policy committees. Each was authorized a seven-member staff to "assist in study, analysis, and research on problems involved in policy determinations." Similar provisions contained in the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 had been removed at the insistence of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, who feared that such committees in the House might diminish his authority. The Senate then amended the pending appropriations bill to create them for the Senate alone.
August 10, 1902
Senate District of Columbia Committee Chairman James McMillan (R-MI) died at the age of 77. He is best remembered as sponsor of the "McMillan Plan," which restored Pierre L'Enfant's 1792 master plan as the basis for developing Washington's monumental parks and federal buildings. The McMillan plan resulted in the transfer of unsightly railroad terminals from the Mall to a new Union Station adjacent to Capitol Hill. It also justified construction of what is today known as the Russell Senate Office Building, which opened in 1909.
August 12, 1790
With the adjournment of the First Congress' second session, the Senate met for the last time in New York City. As provided in the Residence Act, which the president had signed just four weeks earlier, the national government would move to Philadelphia until 1800, when it would relocate to its permanent capital along the Potomac River. As its final item of business, the Senate adopted a resolution of thanks to "the City of New-York for the elegant and convenient accommodations" on the second floor of Federal Hall, which it had occupied since March of the previous year.
August 16, 1894
Responding to published charges that senators had taken bribes to support tariff schedules favorable to the sugar industry, the Senate created a special investigating committee in May 1894. Uncertain as to the scope of its investigative powers, the Senate in August ordered a comprehensive survey of all previous congressional investigations. The resulting thousand-page compilation Decisions and Precedents of the Senate and House of Representatives Relating to their Powers and Privileges Respecting their Members and Officers usefully documents Congress' institutional development through its first century.
August 18, 1856
For the first time, legislation provided that members of Congress would receive an annual salary ($3,000) rather than a payment ($8) for each day of actual attendance. The annual salary was calculated to equal the sum a member would have received under the previous daily rate for attending most sessions. To prevent members from simply collecting their salaries without bothering to show up for sessions, the law authorized the secretary of the Senate to dock the pay of senators for unexcused absences. Recognizing that members' services were not confined to its chamber, the Senate has not chosen to exercise this provision.
August 22, 1789
President George Washington visited the Senate to receive its advice and consent for an Indian treaty. Washington occupied the presiding officer's chair while the presiding officer-the vice president-sat in the chair assigned to the Senate's secretary. Intimidated by Washington's presence, senators found it difficult to concentrate on the treaty's provisions as Vice President John Adams read them aloud. After hearing the contents of several supporting documents, members decided they needed more time. An angry president spoke for the first time during the proceedings: "This defeats every purpose of my being here!" Although he returned two days later to observe additional debate and the treaty's approval, he conducted all further treaty business with the Senate in writing.
August 24, 1814
Word reached the Capitol on a sweltering summer's afternoon that invading forces had swept aside the defending American army at Bladensburg, Maryland, and would arrive by dusk. While President James Madison and his cabinet consulted demoralized commanders at a military outpost, the first lady packed a portrait of George Washington into her carriage and left town. Despite the wartime emergency, Congress had been in recess for the past four months. Since 1789, Secretary of the Senate Samuel Otis had safeguarded the Senate's ever-expanding collection of records, including its handwritten journals, Washington's inaugural address, and the Senate mark-up of the Bill of Rights. But Otis had died several months earlier. With the secretary's position vacant, a quick-thinking Senate clerk commandeered a wagon. From a Capitol basement storeroom, he hastily loaded boxes of priceless records and headed for the safety of his family's farm in Centreville, Virginia. Within hours, British troops set fire to the remaining documents and furnishings; only a rainstorm saved the Capitol from total ruin. For the following five years, the Senate met elsewhere in Washington until the opening of its newly restored chamber in December 1819.
August 28/29, 1957
Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) set the all-time filibuster record, speaking on the 1957 Civil Rights Act for 24 hours and 18 minutes.
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