{"id":18355,"date":"2025-12-13T12:30:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T12:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=18355"},"modified":"2025-12-30T13:52:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:52:31","slug":"the-exhibition-hall-in-the-capitol-washington-dc-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2025\/12\/13\/the-exhibition-hall-in-the-capitol-washington-dc-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Exhibition Hall in the Capitol, Washington DC – Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

continued<\/a>… The next exhibit was about more general early US government history. It started by explaining that the fledgling nation’s founding framework was the Articles of Confederation, enacted in 1781. And it explained why they were replaced<\/a> in 1789 with a revolutionary new idea that had never been tried before — the Constitution. It explained how the Great Compromise led to a balance of power between three branches of government <\/a>so the federal government couldn’t become tyrannical, and also ensured no state could have too much power over the others. An addendum called the Bill of Rights was added with a list of amendments to the Constitution which protected individual liberties. Interestingly, the author of the Bill of Rights, James Madison, didn’t think it was necessary, but realized that the anti-Federalists wouldn’t support the Constitution without individual rights explicitly laid out. The Constitution states that federal laws and treaties take precedence over state laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The House of Representative proceedings were open to the press and general public from the inception of Congress in 1789, but the Senate met in private. After the states complained, the Senate was prompted to open its doors — for the most part — in 1795. They still met in private about matters considered too sensitive for the public, including presidential nominations and foreign treaties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Portrait of James Madison. The book was the results of the first census in 1790. There were 3.9 million people, including almost 700,000 slaves. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The next few signs listed the clauses in the Constitution that gave specific powers to Congress<\/a>. The Constitution had ordered Congress to set up a court system, so in 1789, they passed the Judiciary Act, which created the Supreme Court, federal district, and federal circuit courts, and defined the jurisdictions of each. They also created the position of Attorney General. We found out that circuit courts got its name because the judges used to travel to various cities to hear cases — the cities assigned to each judge were his circuit. We also found out that the Supreme Court held court here in this Congress building from 1810 until 1935. The sign said the Old Supreme Court Chamber was open to the public, and Christi was disappointed it hadn’t been part of the tour<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the Congressional powers that we’d neglected to mention earlier was the power to amend the Constitution. The legislative branch can approve an amendment, then send it to the states for final approval. If 2\/3 of the states agree, the amendment is passed. It also works conversely; if 2\/3 of the states request an amendment, then it goes to the legislature for final approval. Should the legislature reject the amendment, the states can put it to a vote: if 3\/4 of the states approve, the states override the legislature’s veto. The only time the states have overridden the legislature’s veto was with the 21st amendment to repeal Prohibition. A couple of signs summarized the contents of each of the 27 Amendments (including the original 10 in the Bill of Rights).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The next sign said that the founding fathers had intended for the Speaker of the House to preside over debates; but very early on, the position was transformed into a political powerhouse. Likewise, the founding fathers had not wanted the government to have factions, but Congress’s push to create competing coalitions led to the modern day two-party system. It officially started in when Senator Martin Van Buren united regional interests to support Andrew Jackson’s<\/a> 1828 presidential campaign. This led to the development of the Democratic Party, which won a series of national elections. In the 1830s, the Whig Party developed to oppose Jackson and his followers. As the Whig Party dissolved in 1854, an antislavery coalition created the Republican Party. This is the same two party system that exists today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next exhibit was about westward expansion. During these years, there were heated and explosive fights in Congress over the new territories. Issues included Native American removal from tribal lands, whether slavery was to be allowed, and tariffs that southern farmers claimed unfairly targeted them. In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, which drew a line through the new territories at the (roughly) 36\u00b030′ north latitude, and banned slavery north of the line, but allowed it south of the line (it was repealed in 1854, again opening up the possibility for slavery in the northwestern states). In 1830, the Indian Removal Act forced the relocation of more than 100,000 Native Americans to lands west of the Mississippi. In 1848, the Mexican-American War ended with the acquisition of a large territory in the Southwest, leading to another fight over whether slavery was to be allowed in the newest territories. In 1854, Congress resolved the matter with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, where they let the new territories choose for themselves. The Homestead Act of 1862<\/a> gave away “public lands” to people willing to live on it. Congress supported railroads to facilitate this growth (no mention was made about subsidizing the postal service<\/a> for the same purpose). The Dawes Act of 1887 was supposed to take tribal lands and divide it up into individual plots for each tribe person, but much of the land went to non-Native Americans. In this era, the US also took control of Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was quite a bit of old furniture on display. During the era when the House was rapidly growing and they were trying to cram as many people as possible into that room<\/a>, the saved space by using these two person desks. No wonder why so many fights broke out! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another hot button topic in that era was ending slavery <\/a>in the south. The Constitution guarantees that Americans have the right to petition the government. In the 1830s, there was a petition drive that flooded Congress with antislavery appeals. Congress adopted rules to ignore them. House Representative John Quincy Adams spent eight-years trying to get the rules repealed, and he succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We moved on to an exhibit about the Civil War. In the late 1850s, Congress was deadlocked by regional and partisan disputes. After the war started in 1861, more than 85 legislators from southern states left to join the Confederacy<\/a> (which was almost all of the southerners). The northerners took advantage of this to push through bills that had been stalled for years, including bills about education and transportation. They also paid for the war by passing the country’s first income tax (which was repealed in 1872. Before and after the war, the government funded itself via tariffs and excise taxes as income taxes were not legal except during war. In 1913, the legislature passed the 16th amendment allowing income taxes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The memorabilia on display was eclectic. The clock hung in senate for 50-years, the briefcase belonged to a senator at the turn of the 20th century, and the books are the Report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of War, which was written shortly after the Civil War ended. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the Civil War ended in 1865, and through the end of the century, Congress pushed to extend political and civil rights for blacks, reform the southern states, and expand the economy. Amendments were passed to abolish slavery, define citizenship, and extend the right to vote to all male citizens (but not women). In 1870, a black person was voted into office in both the House and Senate. In 1875, a civil rights bill to end racial discrimination in public places was passed, though it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1883. By the end of the century, 22 black legislators had served in Congress, before discriminatory state policies essentially barred blacks from office for nearly three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first president to ever be impeached<\/a> by the House of Representatives was Andrew Johnson in 1868. It’s a complicated story, but one that proves that history runs in concentric circles as the US is currently dealing with similar issues. Basically, Congress passed a bill giving itself the authority to fire federal officials and Johnson vetoed it, wanting that power to rest with the president. Then Johnson asserted his authority by firing the Secretary of War without consulting Congress. The House impeached him, but the Senate acquitted him by one vote. Even though he wasn’t removed from office, the impeachment killed Johnson’s political career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1872, Yellowstone<\/a> became America’s first national park. Congress went on to establish more national parks, including Yosemite<\/a> in 1890. In 1916, Congress created the National Park Service to administer the park system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first woman to be worn into Congress was Jeanette Rankin in 1917 — remember, women didn’t get the right to vote until the 19th amendment was passed in 1920. Unsurprisingly, she helped create the House Committee on Women’s Suffrage and served as its ranking member. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be continued…<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

continued… The next exhibit was about more general early US government history. It started by explaining that the fledgling nation’s founding framework was the Articles of Confederation, enacted in 1781. And it explained why they were replaced in 1789 with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,425,1,44,398,397],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-washington-dc","category-general","category-history","category-tourist-activities","category-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18355"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18884,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18355\/revisions\/18884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}