Date: 1981-05-04
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. I have spoken. on various aspects of the history of the Senate. beginning with my first statement on the general subject of the United States Senate. which occurred on March 21. 1980. Today. I will make my 39th speech on the subject of the United States Senate. and I should like to begin a series of statements that will cover the history of the Senate and its deliberations in chronological order. examining the major Issues that have faced our predecessors. and. at times. have shaken the very foundations of the Union. Along the way. I plan to focus attention on some of the remarkable personalities who walked the halls of the SenateRichard Henry Lee. Roger Sherman. Webster. Clay and Calhoun. Randolph of Roanoke and Blaine of Maine. "Bluff Benl" Wade and "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman. Huey Long. Rebecca Felton. the senior and junior Robert La Foliettes. and Henry Cabot Lodges. Joseph McCarthy. and Richard B. Russell. I I will begin by looking closely at the First Congress. where many of our current rules. precedents. and customs were first forged. In examining the First Congress. I have been aided by the work of the First Federal Congress Project located at George Washington University. I commend the Projects fine work to my colleagues. To date. the Project has published three impressive volumes of the Documentary HiStOry of the First Federal Congress. The introduction to Volume I of Documentary History explains the significance of the First Congress. and it Is worth quoting at length. So I shall quote at some length. when the First Federal Congress convened In March 1789. it seemed unlikely that the experiment represented by the new Federal Constitution would succeed. The United States had a population of four milion and Its area was larger than any European state except Russia. There was no example In history and no support in traditional political theory to encourage those who would attempt to govern such a nation by a republican form of government based on the consent of the governed. many Federalist supporters of the constitution. as Well as Antifederalist critics. doubted that the plan of government devised by the Philadelphia Convention would work in practice. unless changes were madeeither formally by amendment or informally by Interpretationto bring the new Constitution closer to their sowetimesconflicting standards of perfection. Yet the American experiment did succeed. For almost two centuries. this has astonished skeptics. God. a familiar epigram observes. looks after fools. drunkards. and the United States of Ametica. Indeed. the success of the American form of government has been remarkable. not only has the U.S. Constitution operated to provide a greater degree of justice. prosperity. and liberty to Its citizens than that realized by any nation in recorded history. but It has also shown such Impressive stability that it is now the oldest written constitution In operation In any modern state. How can we account for this success? Much credit belongs to the genius of the framers of the Constitutiontheir historical and Intuitive knowledge of man and politics. Yet that is not the full explanation. Many nations have come to ruin under constitutions deliberately patterned on the American model. It was the way In which the American people implemented their Colistftution that made a functioning system from the docuMay 4. 1981 COD~ ments abstractions. Nothing was more essential to the enduring success of that system than the First Federal Congress... The First Congress was to meet on March 4. 1789. in the newly refurbished Federal Hall In New York City to count the electoral votes for president and vice president. inaugurate the winners. and get on with their business. At sunset on March 3. thirteen of the big guns on New Yorks battery were fired to signal the end of the floundering Confederation. At Sunrise the next day. church bells rang to welcome the birth of the new constitutional government. The Pennsylvania Gazette reported that "A general joy pervaded the whole city on this great. Important and memorable day." The Jubilation soon died for want of fuel. When the members of the House and Senate assembled. It was embarrassingly clear that only thirteen of the fiftynine representatives and only eight of the twentytwo senators from the eleven* states (Rhode Island and North Carolina had not yet ratified the Contitutlon) were present. The first entry in the Senates Journal reads. "The number not being sufficient to constitute a quorum. they adjourned ...1 I think these first eight men deserve special recognition. From New Hampshire. there was John Langdon. who had sheparded the Constitution through his states convention. and Paine Wingate. the Harvardeducated congregational minister. Massachusetts was represented by Caleb Strong. active In the Constitutional Convention and later governor of his state. Connecticut sent two aggressive Federalists: Oliver Ellsworth. destined to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. and William Johnson.. newly elected president of Columbia College. Pennsylvanias two senators were the wealthy Philadelphia financier Robert Morris. and the Irascible William Maclay. from whose Journal of the First Congress I have often quoted. Finally. there was William Few. who had completed his long Journey from Georgia before the members from New Jersey could bestir themselves to cross the Hudson River. I have mentioned In an earlier statement the efforts of these exasperated eight to spur their absent colleagues Into attendance. At Mount Vernon. George Washington. a man with a strict sense qf_ duty. who felt certain he would be president if only Congress could convene to count the votes. regretted the "stupor and listlessness ... 11 On April 1. Thomas Scott came over the Alleghenies from western Pennsylvania to give the House its first quorum. But it was not until April 6. when Richard Henry Lee arrived fromVirginia that the first quorum of twelve senators was secured. Many of his younger colleagues stood In awe of Richard Henry Lee. A striking. tightlipped gentleman. he was fiftyseven. the same age as George Washington. He. along with Thomas Jefferson and Patrick . Henry. had drafted Virginias first jrotests against Grea~t Britaln. He was most revered for the resolution he introduced at the Continental Congress on June 7. 1778. which bbgan with the thrilling words. "Resolved eThat these United Colonies are. and of right