-History of Congress-
The legislative branch of the United States was not always organized the way it is now. Originally, during the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress wrote the Articles of Confederation for the new country. They were effective March 1, 1781, after each of the 13 colonies (which then became the first 13 states) ratified them(1). The point of the Articles of Confederation was to unite the colonies to some extent. The Articles of Confederation were created with the intention of ridding the country of a monarchy. Since the writers kept this in mind, they decentralized power and gave it primarily to the states. But the resulting central government was very weak. It had no executive branch, it had limited judicial function, and the legislature was composed of delegates appointed by each of the state legislatures for annual terms. Each delegate was limited to no more than 3 years in office(2). In the face of domestic problems, the legislature struggled to control the country. There was no power in the central government for it had no president. The states decided to call a convention in May of 1787 to rewrite the articles and to draft an entirely new constitution(3).
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At the Constitutional Convention, the nature of the federal legislature was changed completely. The delegates debated at length how many representatives each state should have. The states with a smaller population wanted it based on state equality, and the larger states wanted it to be based on population. Roger Sherman, from Connecticut, proposed a two house legislature consisting of a Senate and a House(4). This came to be known as the Great Compromise. The Senate would be composed of two representatives from each state. The House would be based on the population of each state (you should be having deja vu right about here if you were paying attention). This means that while Texas (a big state) has an equal amount of Senators as Hawaii, it has many more representatives. The people in the Senate have terms of six years whilst the terms of the members of the House of Representatives are limited to two years. The main powers of the Legislative Branch include the making of laws and the passage of statutes. They have different functions as well. For example, the House originates spending bills. The Senate has the power to impeach federal officials and approve treaties.
The House and Senate, in separate chambers, met for the first time in New York City. In 1790, the legislature began meeting in Philadelphia in Congress Hall until the Capitol Building was completed in Washington DC(5).
Initially, the Legislature was fairly weak and did not have an important role in the early years of the fledgling nation. It's main act was to establish the Judiciary in 1789 with the Judiciary Act of 1789 and the national bank in 1792. It first exercised its power of impeachment in 1798 when it impeached and expelled senator William Blount of Tennessee because he helped Native American tribes help the British seize Louisiana and Florida from the Spanish(6). However, the charges against him were dropped because the Senate acknowledged that it cannot impeach its own members.
Congress made its first truly important and landmark piece of legislation in 1798. Pushed on by the Federalists, the Alien and Sedition Acts were passed. These acts made it illegal to verbally attack the government and to partake in other seditious behavior. It is now generally accepted that this act was unconstitutional and prohibitive of First Amendment rights. Thomas Jefferson, then the vice-president of John Adams, was the main voice in resistance of this act. He, along with James Madiso, ghost wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in order to curtail and declare the defiance of the people against the act. Nevertheless, these acts are some of the very first important decisions of Congress. Considering their unpopularity and unconstitutionality, they did not bode well for the future.
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John Adams.
In 1800, Congress moved to the present Capitol Building in Washington DC(7). The presidential election of 1800 resulted in a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. According to the electoral rules, it was the House's responsibility to cast a tiebreaker vote. Alexander Hamilton threw his weight behind Thomas Jefferson, saying that although they bitterly disagreed in politics, Jefferson was the more worthy candidate. The House broke the tie and elected Jefferson president and Burr as vice president (Burr later killed Hamilton in a duel by mutual consent). This was not the only time in United States history in which the House of Representatives had to decide an entire election (see below).
The years under Jefferson were strange ones for Congress for the simple fact that it did not accomplish much. The Embargo Act of 1807 was its major achievement during this time. The term "achievement" is generous here, for Congress only obeyed the wishes of President Jefferson when it passed the act. It was hated and despised for its negative effects on the U.S. economy. It essentially decreed that all Americans were forbidden from trading with foreign nations. The reasoning behind it lied in the difficulties the United States were having in satisfying the demands of the British and the French, who demanded that the Americans not trade with the other nation. It was repealed in 1808 after having severely damaged the economy.
After the War of 1812, in which the Capitol was set on fire, a time of peace and prosperity began under the Monroe administration. The period is loved and cherished by history students because essentially nothing happened. Just know that the people were happy (after all, the epoch was called the Era of Good Feelings) and that the country had a period of content inactivity. It is sad to realize that Monroe was the first (and one of the only) presidents to have presided over such a satisfied country and yet is not given the credit given among all of his illustrious predecessors.
However, there are two events worth knowing that occurred during the Era of Good Feelings. The first is that in 1816 Congress renewed the charter of the national bank(8). Keep that in mind for now; it will become crucial to understanding later material. In 1820, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise. A major problem that had been hanging over the nation lie in the expansion of slavery. Which of the new states in the West would be allowed to have slavery and which would be free states? Debates were held in the Senate as the leaders of the time attempted to satisfy both the pro-slavery South and the anti-expansionist North. The end result is now known as the Mason-Dixon line. South of that line slavery would be legal, while anything north of that line would be free. The compromise was only temporary but significant because it held off the nation from conflict for quite some time. Henry Clay, the speaker of the House (which is an important position to understand...more later), is considered to be the main architect of this compromise.
Henry Clay was one of three members of the great triumvirate(9). Congress became powerful during the 19th century because it developed a few leaders to guide it through some of the nation's most trying times. Henry Clay represented the West and was famous for his role in the Missouri Compromise. John C. Calhoun was from the South and was for slavery and nullification. Finally, Daniel Webster was from the North and was known as a great orator. Together, these three can be credited with much of the legislation in the antebellum period.
The presidency of Andrew Jackson was one of most dynamic presidencies in all of American history. Jackson was a strong, power-hungry president who forced Congress into taking stances and action. Jackson had been thwarted during the election of 1824, won by John Quincy Adams (son of John Adams) because of Henry Clay and his participation in the Corrupt Bargain (10). To make it brief, Clay, Jackson, and Adams were all running in the election which went to a tiebreak in the House of Representatives (remember 1800?). Clay threw his support behind Adams, effectively gifting him the election, and afterwards Adams made him Secretary of State.This was denounced as the Corrupt Bargain by Jackson's supporters and Adams spent four depressing years in office until Jackson was elected in 1828.
One of Jackson's many goals during his presidency was to destroy the national bank. Recall that the bank's charter had been renewed during the Monroe presidency. Henry Clay thought it would be clever to have the bank charter be renewed before the elections- that way Jackson would veto the recharter (which he had promised to do) and would lose the election to Clay because a veto of the bank was believed to be political suicide. Congress approved the charter in 1832 (the year of the election) and Jackson had no qualms about vetoing it straight away. Clay's plan was brilliant, but it failed at a crucial point: the American people were perfectly fine with not renewing the charter. Jackson easily defeated Clay in the 1832 presidential election.
One of the biggest clashes between the state governments and Congress occurred during the Nullification Crisis. Upon entering office, the South were bitter about having to pay protective tariffs. Calhoun, then vice-president, anonymously wrote a doctrine about nullification, the supposed right of a state to refuse to do enforce a federal law. When Congress in 1832 raised the protective tariff (an integral part of Clay's American System), South Carolina threatened secession. Jackson, despite abhorring the tariff himself, was so furious at this that he had Congress pass a bill giving him the right to collect the tariff by any means thus forcing the states into compliance with federal law.
During the antebellum period, slavery was the all-encompassing issue of the times. The Missouri Compromise did not work out as well as intended, and a new compromise was necessary. Therefore, the Compromise of 1850, also known as the Great Compromise, was created. The three usual people were key to its passage (Clay, Calhoun, and Webster) but a fourth person was its main architect. That man was Stephen Douglas. The Compromise of 1850 introduced the idea of popular sovereignty, which was the notion of letting each undecided state have an election to decide their own status in the slavery debacle. The idea turned rapidly into bloodshed, as many advocates of one side or the other marched to Kansas and Nebraska (where elections where being held for each state) in order to influence the outcome. Despite it being heralded as a savior to the nation, the Compromise sparked violence in the South. Not exactly one of the better moments of Congress.
Of course, the Civil War ensued in the early 1860's. There is no need to go into the specifics of the war. An interesting detail though is that during that time Congress consisted only of states still in the Union, meaning that the Senate and the House were missing many, many members. An important fact, however,is that during this period Abraham Lincoln gave himself many rights and Congress had no objection to this because they were not in session when he made the move.
You may be thinking that all Congress has done through history is make mistakes. On face value, that statement may very well be true. However, keep in mind that the legislature is famous possibly because it led to a terrible occurrence. The Kansas and Nebraska led to bloody warfare, for example. If it had resulted in peace, than it probably would not have been as famous. In other words, oftentimes an act becomes famous because its outcome was horrendous and changed the path of American history. Therefore, the positive actions Congress took are commonly overlooked. However, the following few decisions by Congress are decisions that helped change our world for the better.
After the extremely bloody Civil War, there needed to be a wholesale revamping of the country's infrastructure and social system, especially in the South. Newly freed slaves had to be accounted for both legally and practically. In other words, not only did Congress have to officially give slaves their freedom, it also had to make it happen in real life. Congress made slaves free by amending the Constitution, which is the best course of action they could have taken in this regard (as opposed to simply making an act). Amendment 13 was passed in 1865 and bluntly outlawed slavery in the United States. Amendment 14 (1866-8) gave all people born in America citizenship (amongst other things)(11). Finally, Amendment 15 prohibited the denial of suffrage to everybody except women. These amendments are known collectively as the Reconstruction Amendments.
In fact, Congress was so for Reconstruction that it impeached Andrew Johnson, a president who was working against their efforts. Since they did not have any concrete, important reasons to impeach him, they did not convict him (they impeach him on the charges of illegally firing his Secretary of War. In reality, they were furious with his stance against their Reconstruction plans.
The Progressive Era is adored by many history students because it is the opposite of the Era of Good Feelings in terms of occurrences. While very little happened during Monroe's presidency, everything happened in the Progressive Era. Therefore, make it your default answer when daydreaming in class. Congress passed many acts to improve society during this period and even made a new amendment: the banning of alcohol in 1919. Again, Congress does not always make the wisest decisions.
Moving into the World Wars, Congress left much of the power government inherently has to the executive branch. During times of war, the presidency draws from the fact that people need to rally around a figurehead leader. Therefore, it took a more subdued role during these times. It also allowed Wodrow Wilson to pass his version of the Alien and Sedition Acts (named the Espionage Acts), allowing for the jailing of Americans who spoke out against the government(12).
Congress passed the Civil Rights of 1964 to end discrimination (see, it does some stuff right)(13).
And to read about the modern Congress, head on over to the Ideal versus Actual page.
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Comments (1)
mberry said
at 9:55 am on Dec 15, 2009
It seems to me that this is pre 1900 heavy. If we can amp up the post 1900 stuff, that would be terrific...even though the Executive assumes more power, Congress is often giving it to him (think Tonkin Gulf Resolution).
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