History of the United States Congress

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George W. Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 28, 2003, in the House chamber.

1 The Continental Congresses
2 Congress before the Constitution
3 Nineteenth century
4 Twentieth and twenty-first centuries
5 See also
6 References

[edit] The Continental Congresses

The Congress of the United States derives from First Continental Congress, a meeting of representatives of twelve of Great Britain's American colonies, in the autumn of 1774. The Continental Congress sent a list of grievances to King George III. When the King failed to respond, and the American Revolutionary War commenced in April 1775. The Second Continental Congress was convened—this time with thirteen colonies in attendance. A year later, on 4 July 1776, the Continental Congress declared the thirteen colonies free and independent states, referring to them as the "united States of America." The Second Continental Congress, which was formed May 10, 1775, was the national government until March 1, 1781, supervised the war and diplomacy, and adopted the Articles of Confederation before the States ratified it in 1781. One common term for patriot was "Congress Man"--a supporter of Congress against the King. The Congress of the Confederation governed the United States for eight years (March 1, 1781 to March 4, 1789). There was no chief executive or president before 1789, so Congress governed the United States.

[edit] Congress before the Constitution

Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was a unicameral body in which each state was equally represented, and in which each state had a veto over most actions. States could, and did, ignore laws that Congress enacted. The ineffectiveness of the federal government under the Articles led Congress to summon the Convention of 1787.

Originally intended to revise the Articles of Confederation, the Convention ended up writing a completely new constitution. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates. One of the most divisive issues facing the Convention was the structure of Congress. James Madison's Virginia Plan called for a bicameral Congress; the lower house would be elected directly by the people, and the upper house would be elected by the lower house. The plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, which called for a unicameral Congress with equal representation for the states. Eventually, a compromise, known as the Connecticut Compromise or the Great Compromise was reached; one house of Congress (the House of Representatives) would provide proportional representation, whereas the other (the Senate) would provide equal representation. To preserve further the authority of the states, the compromise proposed that state legislatures, rather than the people, would elect senators. The Constitution was ratified by the end of 1788, and its full implementation was set for March 4, 1789. Also, the US Constitution was the main issue for Americans until the 1792 elections, and consisted of a battle between the US Federalist Party (Pro-Administration Party), which supported the US Constitution and the US AntiFederalist Party (Anti-Administration Party), which opposed the US Constitution; and between 1792 and 1800 the struggle over Congress came between Alexander Hamiliton's Federalist Party- which was popular through the successful First Bank of the United States, until 1792- and Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Republican Party. Jefferson's party managed to finally gain control over the US House of Representatives after the 1792 elections, thanks in part to one of the top Federalists, James Madison, uniting with Anti-Federalist Thomas Jefferson to form the Democratic Republican Party, as Madison became an opposer to Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, but the Democratic Republican Party. However, the Democratic Republican Party lost in the 1796 US Presidential and Congressional election after it was revealled that the party strongly supported the unpopular French Revolution [1], though the Democratic Republican Party still could obtain second place victories in these elections- which made Jefferson the US Vice President- as well; Washington, however, was supported by almost every American, and even though he ran under the Federalist ticket, he still was not an official Federalist and was easily re-elected US President unanimously in 1792 as well, and John Adams was elected Vice President (President of th Senate) due to Democratic-Republican electors voting, against nominee George Clinton, for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

[edit] Nineteenth century

The early nineteenth century was marked by frequent clashes between the House of Representatives and the Senate. After victory in the 1800 US elections, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party dominated both the US Senate and US House of Representatives, as well as the presidential elections; this was because states rights became a popular issue after the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions outlawed the Federalists Alien and Sedition Acts. [2].Henry Clay of Kentucky was the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and dominant leader over Congress, during the 1810s.

A careful numerical balance between the free North and the slaveholding South existed in the Senate, as the numbers of free and slave states was kept equal by a series of compromises, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820. That broke down in 1850 when California was admitted as a free state, but the Compromise of 1850 postponed a showdown. Meanwhile the North was growing faster and dominated the House of Representatives, despite the rule that counted 3/5 of non-voting slaves in the population base of the South.

The victory of John Quincy Adams in 1824 was challenged by Andrew Jackson, who argued a corrupt bargain between Clay and Adams had cheated Jackson; Jackson lead both electoral votes and popular votes, but had no majority in the electoral college, and Clay, who strongly opposed Jackson for his "total war" policy- which happened at the Battle of New Orleans-, he used while he (Jackson) served as a US General, and gave his votes in the House of Representatives to the candidate who was closest to Jackson, in both electoral votes and popular votes, John Quincy Adams. Jackson and his (as yet unnamed) followers easily dominated the 1826 Congressional Election and took complete control of the 20th United States Congress. As the Second Party System emerged, the Whigs and Jacksonians (called "Democrats" by 1834) battled for control of Congress. In the 1832 Senate elections, the National Republican gained control of the US Senate after President Jackson broke with his Vice-President John Calhoun, and gained Senate seats in parts of the Southern US, and maintained control over Senate until 1835, when Jackson's popular bank policies could help the Democrats regain control of Congress again; this break between Jackson and Calhoun was over whether or not South Carolina could avoid the Tariff of 1828, which Calhoun strongly opposed, and resulted in Calhoun's new Nullifier Party uniting with Henry Clay's National Republican Party to form the US Whig Party in 1834. The Whigs swept into power in 1840 but with the death of president Harrison, John Tyler became president and broke bitterly with Clay, and the Whigs in Congress, after he continuously vetoed Clay and the Whig Party's bills for a national banking act in 1841; this 1840 victory for the Whig Party was thanks in part to the fact that President Martin Van Buren became unpopular after he continued to fail at bringing the US out of the depression started by the Panic of 1837, and even lost in his home state of New York [3]. The Whigs were even still able to maintain dominance over Congress in the 1842 by ending the five year depression by stablizing ties with Britain through the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, which was a resolution to the dispute of the Maine-New Brunswick border between the US and the then-British colony Canada.

Democrats regained control of Congress in the 1844 elections, as well, thank to the huge support of the annexation of Texas [4], as the 29th United States Congress, but the Whigs were back in 1846, thanks in part to the opposition of the Mexican-American War. The Democrats were able to regain control of Congress in 1848, thanks in part to the US successfully winning the Mexican-American War; the Democrats now had complete control over the 31st United States Congress, dispite the break between the anti-slavery (Free Soil Party) and pro slavery Democrats. In the 1854 elections, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, sponsored by Senatoir Stephen Douglas against vehement opposition, led to the formation of the new Republican party. In 1856, the Know Nothing Party assembled nativists and former Whigs but the Democrats regained control over Congress, through the 35th United States Congress, thanks in part to the division of the Know-Nothing Party and the Republican Party in this election, but the Know Nothing Party and Republican Party were able to reunite after this election and elect a Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Know Nothings soon collapsed, and in the North were absorbed by the Republicans, who dominated most states and took control of the US House of Representatives in the 1858 elections, as abolitionist Know Nothings joined the Republican Party after the controversial Dred Scott ruling occurred in 1857. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln led the Republicans to a victory based entirely in the anti-slavery North, and the Republican Party now took full control of Congress.

Congress played a major role in the American Civil War, as the Republicans were in control of both chambers; after the war ended in 1865, Reconstruction was controlled by President Andrew Johnson, who broke with the Radical Republicans (led by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner.) After the elections of 1866 the Radicals came to power, impeached (but did not convict) President Johnson, and controlled Reconstruction policy. The Radical hold was broken by the Democratic landslide in the election of 1874, and Democrats regained control of the US House of Representatives, this was thanks in part to the Long Depression started by the Panic of 1873. The Democrats would continue to dominate the US House of Representatives, and even gained control of the US Senate in the 1878 US Senate election as the depression worsened.

The Gilded Age (1877-1901) was marked by Republican dominance of Congress—and the Presidency— except in the early years, and some of the mid-years of the Gilded Age-, despite the Democratic lock on the Solid South; the Republican Party regained control over the US House of Representatives, as well as the Senate in 1880, as support for tariffs of the Republican Party spread [5]; the Panic of 1873 had also ended for the US in 1879, with the start of the vast immigration into the US that lasted until 1930. State legislatures continued to elect senators, which meant that the most powerful politicians in the state vied for control of the legislature in order to win election to the Senate. While the Republicans could dominate the Senate elections of 1882, the Republicans lost control the US House of Representatives after President Arthur became unpopular after turning on Roscoe Conkling and the Stalwarts and supported civil reform. In some cases, Senate elections were tainted by corruption and bribery; in other instances, gridlock between the two houses of state legislatures prevented the election of a senator. (In one acute case, deadlock prevented the Delaware legislature from sending a senator to Washington for four years.) These issues were resolved by the Seventeenth Amendment (ratified in 1913), which provided for the direct popular election of senators.

In 1888, New York's support for the Republican Party's tariff policies helped Republicans retake control over the US House of Representatives once again, through the state of New York. The Democrats were able to regain control over the US House of Representatives after the Republican Party lost support after President Benjamin Harrison continued to spend money from the US Treasury to try and help American businesses that were suffering from the high US tariffs. The Republicans however would regain control over Congress in the 1894 Congressional electional election; after President Cleveland and the Democrats continued to fail at bringing the US out of the depression started by the Panic of 1893; William McKinley also being elected US President in 1896 brought the US out of the depression started by the Panic of 1893, through his support of both big businesses [6] and high tariffs, and officially began the Progressive Era.

[edit] Twentieth and twenty-first centuries

The Progressive Era (1896-1932) witnessed the rise of strong party leadership in both houses of Congress. In the House of Representatives, the office of Speaker became extremely powerful under Thomas Reed in 1890, reaching its zenith under the Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon. The Senate was controlled by a half dozen men, including Republicans Nelson Aldrich and Mark Hanna. A revolt against Speaker Cannon in 1910, led by George Norris strengthened the seniority system and made long-serving Congressmen more independent of party. Committee chairmen remained particularly strong in both houses until the reforms of the 1970s. After the 1894 US Congressional elections, the Republican Party was able to maintain dominance over Congress until the 1910 gave the Democrats control over the US House of Representatives once again, after people began to turn against President Taft and the conservative (traditional) Republicans for there support for the monopoly US oil company Standard Oil. The break between the conservative and progressive Republicans in the 1912 US Presidential Election also helped the Democrats regain the Presidency and complete control over Congress [7]; even after the Republican Party reunited in the 1914 Congressional elections, the Republican Party could not regain control of Congress, thanks in part the New Freedom policies of President Wilson. However, President Wilson's failure to protect the neutral rights of the American people helped the Republicans regain control over the US House of Representatives [8]; while Wilson's rights violations, which became very recognized after he supported the controversial film The Birth of a Nation, cost the Democrats the House of Representatives in 1916, Wilson still was able to maintain his Presidency after he won in the state of California for his opposition to the US entering the Great War. By the 1918 Congressional elections, many American men were overseas fighting in the Great War (later known as World War I), and with the American voting public wanting the war- which was started by Democrat US President Woodrow Wilson- to end, the Republicans easily managed to regain control of the US Senate in this election, as well as control of US Congress, as the Democrat Party's popularity decreased because of President Wilson's war efforts. The Republicans also went on to dominate the 1920 US Presidential and Congressional elections, as the party strongly opposed membership the unpopular League of Nations, which President Wilson supported [9], and retained control of Congress until 1931, after 19 Republicans in the US House of Representatives died and Democrats took their places in the special elections- after the Republican Party continued at failing to get the US out of the Great Depression and narrowly maintain control over Congress after the 1930 elections- as well. In the 1932 US Senate elections, the Democrats easily regained control over the US Senate once again; this 1932 election also saw Franklin Roosevelt get elected US President as well, and Roosevelt could now begin his historic New Deal policies through the Democrat-dominated US Congress, and could bring the US out of the Great Depression for four years.

During the long administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 to 1945), the Democratic Party controlled both houses of Congress, in some elections winning over two-thirds of the seats in each house. Both the Republicans and the Democrats were in control at various points during the next decade; this success of the Democrats continued dispite the popular formation of the pro-Republican Party Conservative Coalition forming in 1937-which was a coalition of Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats, both of which were consisted of conservatives- as a result of the US re-entering the Great Depression after huge unemployment rates- caused by the end of the Government-funded New Deal- caused US production rates to fail in the US until 1938, when Roosevelt was able to limit US spendings to only a maximum of $5,000,000,000.00. In the 1946 US Congressional election, the Republicans regained control of both the US Senate and US House of Representatives, as a result of President Truman failing to handle the vast post-war labour strikes. The Democrats were able to retake control of Congress in 1948, thanks in part to the huge popularity Democrat US President Harry Truman had for his support of a Civil Rights legislation [10]. In 1952, the Republicans were able to retake control of the US Congress and the US Presidency, thanks in part to the support Republican Presidential Candidate Dwight Eisenhower had over being willing to the stalemated Korean War. In 1954, the Democrats were regain control of Congress, as a result of top Republican US Senator Joseph McCarthy becoming very unpopular through Army-McCarthy Hearings, were it was shown that McCarthy's accusations against the US Army were nothing more than a move for maintaining political power; even President Eisenhowers huge 1956 victory could not give the Republican Party control of the Senate again, as Eisenhower won a lot of support from many pro-Civil Rights Democrats as well. After the 1954 Congressional elections occurred, the Democrat Party now dominated both houses of Congress until 1994, except when Republicans held a majority of seats in the Senate, after the party dominated the 1980 US Presidential and US Senate elections, due to the fact that the Democrat US President Jimmy Carter became more and more unpopular as he failed to rescue the Iranian US hostages- being held during the Iranian Hostage Crisis-, and failed to end the high US unemployment and inflation rates [11]; this Republican hold over the Senate ended in 1986, as a result of the Iran-Contra Affair scandal occurring against President Reagan; the Democrat Party was able to break the Conservative Coalition, after President Johnson was able to gain a great amount of support through his Great Society policies, but the coalition rebounded in 1966, as the Democrat Party began to lose support after President Johnson began to escalate the number of troops involved in the Vietnam War, and could continue to help the Republican Party gain more Congressional seats between 1966 and 1970- when the Republican Party and Richard Nixon started an anti-war platform, until the 1970 US invasion of Cambodia occurred, and the Republican Party became more unpopular after the Kent State Shootings occurred during a protest to this invasion- and 1972 and 1974- when the once-again anti-war Republican Party regained popularity after Republican President Nixon passed the SALT I agreement and re-opened US-China relations-, until the Watergate Scandal helped bring President Nixon and the Republican Party down further between 1974 and 1980. The Republicans finally returned to a majority position, in both houses of Congress, in the election of 1994, thanks in part to Newt Gingrich's Contract with America. The Republicans have controlled both houses since, until they lost both chambers in the past 2006 Congressional elections, as a result of huge opposition to the Iraq War, which was enforced by Republican President George W. Bush

[edit] See also

[edit] References

American National Biography (1999) 20 volumes; contains scholarly biographies of all politicians no longer alive.
Lewis L. Gould. The Most Exclusive Club: A History of the Modern United States Senate (2006)
Hunt, Richard. (1998). "Using the Records of Congress in the Classroom," OAH Magazine of History, 12 (Summer): 34–37.
MacNeil, Neil. Forge of Democracy: The House of Representatives (1963)
Robert V. Remini. The House: The History of the House of Representatives (2006)
Ritchie, Donald A. (1997). "What Makes a Successful Congressional Investigation." OAH Magazine of History, 11 (Spring): 6–8.
Raymond W Smock and Susan W Hammond, eds. Masters of the House: Congressional Leadership Over Two Centuries (1998) short biographies of key leaders
Julian E. Zelizer. ed. The American Congress: The Building of Democracy (2004) comprehensive history by 40 scholars

[edit] Federalist and Jeffersonian Eras: 1789-1824

Encyclopedia of the New American Nation, 1754–1829 ed. by Paul Finkelman (2005), 1600 pp.
Banning, Lance. The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (1978)
Ben-Atar, Doron and Barbara B. Oberg, eds. Federalists Reconsidered (1999)
Brown; Stuart Gerry. The First Republicans: Political Philosophy and Public Policy in the Party of Jefferson and Madison Syracuse University Press. (1954).
Chambers, William N. ed., The First Party System (1972)
Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. Jeffersonian Republicans: The formation of Party Organization: 1789–1801 (1957)
Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism (1995)
Risjord, Norman K. The Old Republicans: Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson (1965)
Sharp, James Roger. American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (1993)
Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. (2005).

[edit] Jacksonian Democracy:1828-1854

Baker, Jean (1983). Affairs of Party: The Political Culture of Northern Democrats in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.
Brown, Thomas (1985). Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party.
Brown, David. "Jeffersonian Ideology And The Second Party System" Historian, Fall, 1999 v62#1 pp 17-44
Foner, Eric (1970). Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War.
Holt, Michael F. (1992). Political Parties and American Political Development: From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln.
Holt, Michael F. (1999). The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505544-6.
Kruman, Marc W. (Winter 1992). "The Second Party System and the Transformation of Revolutionary Republicanism". Journal of the Early Republic 12: 509–37.
McCormick, Richard L. (1986). The Party Period and Public Policy: American Politics from the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era.
McCormick, Richard P. (1966). The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era.
Remini, Robert V. (1991). Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31088-4.
Remini, Robert V. (1997). Daniel Webster.
Riddle, Donald W. (1948). Lincoln Runs for Congress.
Silbey, Joel H. (1991). The American Political Nation, 1838–1893.
Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America (1990) (ISBN 0-374-52196-4)
Wilentz, Sean (2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln.

Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age 1854-1896===

David Brady and Joseph Stewart, Jr. "Congressional Party Realignment and Transformations of Public Policy in Three Realignment Eras," American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May, 1982), pp. 333-360 online at JSTOR Looks at links among cross-cutting issues, electoral realignments, the U.S. House and public policy changes during the Civil War, 1890's and New Deal realignments. In each case the policy changes are voted through by a partisan "new" majority party. The Civil War and 1890's realignments were more polarized than was the New Deal realignment, and the extent of party structuring of issue dimensions was greater.
Benedict, Michael Les. The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1999)
Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth 2 vol 1888
Donald, David Herbert. Charles Sumner and the Rights of Man (1970), leader os Radicals in Senate; Pulitzer Prize
Josephson, Matthew. The Politicos: 1865-1896 1938.
Keller, Morton. Affairs of State: Public Life in Late Nineteenth Century America1977.
Morgan, H. Wayne. From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics, 1877-1896 (1969)
Muzzey David S. James G. Blaine: A Political Idol Of Other Days (1934) (ISBN 0404201881) Leaderin House & Senate
Potter, David. The Impending Crisis 1848–1861. (1976)
Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the Roosevelt-Taft Administration (1920), 8 vol.
Trefousse, Hans L. Thaddeus Stevens: Nineteenth-Century Egalitarian (1997), leader of Radicals in House
Wilson, Woodrow. (1885). Congressional Government. Houghton Mifflin.

[edit] Progressive Era and New Deal: 1900-1968

Caro, Robert A. The Years of Lyndon Johnson: vol 3: Master of the Senate (2002), on late 1950s
Fite, Gilbert. Richard B. Russell, Jr, Senator from Georgia (2002)
Moore, John Robert. "The Conservative Coalition in the United States Senate, 1942-45." Journal of Southern History 1967 33(3): 369-376. ISSN 0022-4642 Fulltext: Jstor, uses roll calls
James T. Patterson. "A Conservative Coalition Forms in Congress, 1933-1939," The Journal of American History, Vol. 52, No. 4. (Mar., 1966), pp. 757-772. in JSTOR
Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)

[edit] Recent History: since 1968

Barone, Michael, and Grant Ujifusa, The Almanac of American Politics 1976: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts (1975); new edition every 2 years
Davidson, Roger H., and Walter J. Oleszek, eds. (1998). Congress and Its Members, 6th ed. Washington DC: Congressional Quarterly. (Legislative procedure, informal practices, and member information)
Schickler, Eric. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001)
Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
Rohde, David W. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House (1991)
Julian E. Zelizer. On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948-2000 (2004)