United States Senate History 1789-2021

United States Senate History 1789-2021

This collection has 22,257 pages in 112 titles

The United States Senate was established by Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution, approved September 17, 1787. The body first met on March 4, 1789. The functions assigned to the Senate includes exercising federal legislative authority jointly with the United States House of Representatives. The Senate tries impeachments, approves, or disapproves Presidential appointments, and provides advice and consent in negotiations of treaties.

The files contain a text transcript of all text embedded into the graphic image of each page of each document, creating a searchable finding aid. Text searches can be done across all files in the collection.

Includes:

THE SENATE 1789-1989

Senator Robert C. Byrd published a 4 volume, 3,071-page history of the United States Senate. The volumes were published from 1989 to 1994.

They primarily consist of a series of lectures Byrd decided to give on the Senate floor beginning in 1980 and ending in 1987. Byrd was well known for interest in Senate history. 

At his funeral, President Barack Obama said during his eulogy for Byrd, "But as I soon discovered, his passion for the Senate’s past, his mastery of even its most arcane procedures, it wasn’t an obsession with the trivial or the obscure.  It reflected a profoundly noble impulse, a recognition of a basic truth about this country that we are not a nation of men, we are a nation of laws.  Our way of life rests on our democratic institutions.  Precisely because we are fallible, it falls to each of us to safeguard these institutions, even when it’s inconvenient, and pass on our republic more perfect than before."

The speeches were given on subjects ranging from Women Senators, Black Senators, the Senate in Literature and Film, the Library of Congress to the Capitol Police, from the Senate Press Gallery to the Botanic Garden and Capitol landscape. Later these speeches were compiled, revised, and edited to present the United States Senate's history and traditions of its first 200 years.

From the works’ forward, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill history professor William E. Leuchtenbur writes: "Robert Byrd's history of the Senate, more than seven years in the making, is without parallel. On occasions in the past, senators have written memoirs of a generation of service... scholars have turned out studies of the Senate, though there has been no large-scale attempt since George H. Haynes' The Senate of the United States: Its History and Practice in 1938. But never before has a distinguished member of the United States Senate carried to completion a comprehensive history of the Senate, drawing both upon his own insights and recollections and the most recent work of scholars. This prodigious narrative, a work of some two thousand double-column pages approaching two million words, makes a generous and significant contribution to celebrating the bicentennial of what has been called the greatest deliberative body in the world."

Volume 1 - THE SENATE 1789-1989 - Addresses on the History of the United States Senate

This work consists of addresses to the Senate on its history delivered between 1981 and 1987. The lectures discuss leadership, power, organization, setting, and the 1989 Senate.

This volume presents Byrd’s remarks as they appeared in the Congressional Record, with the inclusion of a notation at the start of each chapter as to the date on which the address was originally delivered and the occasionally substantive commentary by other members in the Senate chamber at the time of the remarks.

 
Volume 2 - THE SENATE 1789-1989 - Addresses on the History of the United States Senate

This volume brings together, in a topical format, additional speeches delivered between 1980 and 1988.

 
Volume 3 - THE SENATE 1789-1989 - Classic Speeches, 1830-1993

This volume, Senate Document 100-20, compiled by Robert C. Byrd and edited by Wendy Wolff, contains the texts of 46 speeches by: Robert Y. Hayne, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Corwin, Thomas Hart Benton, William H. Seward, Jeremiah Clemens, William P. Fessenden, Stephen A. Douglas, Jefferson Davis, Andrew Johnson, Henry Cabot Lodge, William E. Borah, Rebecca L. Fenton, Huey P. Long, Joseph R. McCarthy, Hubert H. Humphrey, Richard M. Nixon, Frank Church, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Michael J. Mansfield, Everett M. Dirksen, Gale W. McGee, Robert C. Byrd, and other Senators. 

Volume 4 - THE SENATE 1789-1989 - Historical Statistics, 1789-1992

This volume, Senate Document 100-20, compiled by Robert Byrd, United States Senator and edited by Wendy Wolff, includes lists, tables, and statistics on: Senators; Senatorial elections; Sessions; Party leadership and organization; Committees; Senate organization; and Senate powers. 

 

About Robert C. Byrd

Byrd was born on November 20, 1917. In the late the 1930's and early 1940's he worked as a gas station attendant, store clerk, a welder, and a butcher. In the early 1940's he joined the Ku Klux Klan. His skill at recruiting new KKK members impressed the Grand Dragon of West Virginia and lead to him being named an Exalted Cyclops for his region.

In 1944, Byrd wrote a letter to Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo stating, "I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side... Rather I should die a thousand times and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds." 

In 1946, Byrd wrote a letter to Samuel Green, the Ku Klux Klan's Grand Wizard, stating, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."

Byrd later renounced his Klan membership. His early record in Congress on race and civil rights was mixed. For example, Byrd took part in the lengthy filibuster against the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In an autobiography published in 2005, written by Byrd, he referred to his membership in the KKK writing, “It has emerged throughout my life to haunt and embarrass me and has taught me in a very graphic way what one major mistake can do to one's life, career, and reputation. Paradoxically, it was that same extraordinarily foolish mistake which led me into politics in the first place."

Byrd served in the Senate for 51 years and died in 2010 at age 92.

After his death NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous released a statement commenting on Byrd's life. “Senator Byrd reflects the transformative power of this nation. Senator Byrd went from being an active member of the KKK to a being a stalwart supporter of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and many other pieces of seminal legislation that advanced the civil rights and liberties of our country."


 
Additional Material in this Collection

Historical Almanac of the United States Senate by Senator Bob Dole (1989)

The 322-page, "Historical Almanac of the United States Senate: A Series of 'Bicentennial Minutes,' Presented to the Senate During the 100th Congress," by Senator Bob Dole is a series of short speeches delivered by Senator Dole to commemorate the Senate’s bicentennial. The speeches cover the origins of certain Senate practices and dramatic occurrences in the Senate’s past and are arranged in chronological order. The book is very useful for a brief overview of an important historical event or individual connected to the Senate. 

 
The New Members’ Guide to Traditions of the United States Senate (2006)

The New Members’ Guide to Traditions of the United States Senate by Richard A. Baker Senate Historian.

 
Congressional Research Service Reports 

25 reports, 528 pages of Congressional Research Service Reports covering Senate history, rules, and practices, dating from 2011 to 2021.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the United States Congress. As a legislative branch agency, the CRS works exclusively and directly for Members of Congress, their committees and staff on a confidential, nonpartisan basis. The CRS staff comprises nationally recognized experts in a range of issues and disciplines, including law, economics, foreign affairs, public administration, social, political sciences, and natural sciences. The breadth and depth of this expertise enables CRS staff to come together quickly to provide integrated analyses of complex issues that span multiple legislative and program areas.

 
Reports in the collection includes:

The Budget Resolution and the Senate’s Automatic Discharge Process (June 23, 2021)

Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020 Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President (February 23, 2021)

The Impeachment Process in the Senate (January 27, 2021)

Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper A Primer (May 20, 2021)

Filibusters and Cloture in the Senate (April 7, 2017)

The First Day of a New Congress A Guide to Proceedings on the Senate Floor (December 22, 2020)

The President Pro Tempore of the Senate History and Authority of the Office (September 16, 2015)

 
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005 (2005)

This 2,225-page directory, published by the U.S. House of Representatives' Office of History and Preservation and the U.S. Senate Historical Office, is the 16th edition of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. It contains authoritative biographies of the approximately 12,000 Members, Delegates, Resident Commissioners, and Vice Presidents who have served in the Continental Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate from 1774-2004.


Capitol Builder: The Journals of Montgomery C. Meigs, 1853–1859, 1861.

A 913-page publishing of the translated from shorthand journals of Montgomery C. Meigs. Meigs was hired by United States Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, in 1853 to expand the Capitol building, adding new wings and a dome. As Meigs worked on this and other public works projects during the 1850s, he kept a detailed journal of his activities, written in Pitman shorthand and not completely transcribed from shorthand until the early 2000's.

Initially, Meigs used the journal to record decisions and activities related to his official duties. Early entries, for example, noted the arrival of supplies, such as brick and stone, and the number of workmen employed on each aspect of the construction.

Later, however, he expanded the entries to discuss his social and family life and political events in Washington, as well as commenting on such world events as the Crimean War. The entries for the mid-1850s provide a rich glimpse of life in nineteenth-century Washington.

 
The United States Senate 1787–1801 (1988)

The United States Senate 1787–1801 A Dissertation on the First Fourteen Years of the Upper Legislative Body, prepared by Roy Swanstrom.

When this work was first published it was the only in-depth study of the Senate's formative years available. Swanstrom completed this work in the 1960's as a doctoral dissertation at the University of California. In 1961, at the request of Senator Warren Magnuson, the Senate agreed to publish it as a Senate Document.

 
200 Notable Days: Senate Stories 1787-2002 (2006)

This 226-page book by Senate Historian Richard A. Baker, published by the Senate Historical Office, includes essays about the landmark days that shaped the Senate as an institution. Arranged chronologically, this book of days collectively reveals the character of the "World's Greatest Deliberative Body." From the founders' debate about the creation of the Senate through the contentious legislative battles that have played out in the Senate Chamber for more than two centuries, these stories also reveal how the Senate's activities have influenced the larger landscape of history. This collection describes how the institution has evolved over time, explains how the organizational, administrative, and leadership structures have emerged, and describes the many traditions that give the Senate its distinct nature.

Abstract: In this volume you will find some of the Senate's most influential members, notorious personalities, and even the more obscure senators. Among those featured are Henry B. Anthony and William Borah, whose names were synonymous with the institution during their years of service. There is the independent Senator Wayne Morse, who in April of 1953 filibustered for a record-setting 22 hours and 26 minutes, and Senator James Bayard, who resigned from the Senate on January 29, 1864, in protest of a newly mandated loyalty oath. Some impressive and dedicated individuals in Senate history have been long-serving employees. Two of the Senate's earliest administrators, Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper James Mathers and Secretary of the Senate Samuel Otis are described as devoted employees with service records unmatched by any of their successors. Frederick Brown Harris, elected as the Senate's 56th Chaplain on October 10, 1942, spent 24 years ministering to the Senate community.

Minutes of the Senate Democratic Conference 1903–1964 (1999) 

719 pages of Minutes of the Senate Democratic Conference, Fifty-eighth Congress through Eighty-eighth Congress, 1903–1964. Transcribed, annotated, edited, and indexed minutes.

Abstract: In 1991 the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress unanimously recommended that these minutes, and their Republican counterparts, be edited for publication. The discussions they contain tell a great deal about the development of party organization during these formative decades from before World War I to the mid-1960s.

 These conference minutes add significantly to our knowledge of the Senate’s institutional development during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century.

 
Minutes of the Senate Republican Conference 1911–1964 (1999)

1,067 pages of minutes of The Senate Republican Conference, Sixty-second Congress through Eighty-eighth Congress, 1911–1964. Transcribed, annotated, edited, and indexed minutes.

Abstract: These conference minutes add significantly to our knowledge of the Senate’s institutional development during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century. Their publication, on the unanimous recommendation of the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress, serves as a further demonstration of the Senate’s desire to open its historical records in a timely and useful manner

 
A History of the United States Senate Republican Policy Committee 1947-1997 (1997)

A History of the United States Senate Republican Policy Committee 1947-1997, prepared by Donald A. Ritchie, Associate Historian U.S. Senate Historical Office. 

Abstract: Leadership in the Senate has sometimes been described as “herding cats” or “keeping frogs in a wheelbarrow.” Or, as former Majority Leader Howard Baker once characterized it, “trying to push a wet noodle.” In recognition of the extraordinary difficulties in steering a body of equals, the United States Senate, fifty years ago, authorized each party to create a policy committee. Since 1947, the U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee, under its various chairmen and staff directors, has dedicated itself to promoting party cohesiveness, and better enabling Republican senators to determine and implement their legislative strategies
 

Black Americans in Congress 1870–2007 (2009)

 An 808-page book published by the Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk U.S. House of Representatives, its chronicles African Americans’ participation in the federal legislature and their struggle to attain full civil rights.

 

Hispanic Americans in Congress, 1822-2012 (2012)

The 775-page 2012 update of Hispanic Americans in Congress 1822–1995 is written for a general audience and researched using primary and secondary sources, this book contains a profile of every Hispanic American who has served in Congress up to the year 2012. Former Member profiles are introduced by contextual essays that present major events in congressional and U.S. history.

 
Pro-Tem Presidents Pro Tempore of the United States Senate Since 1789 (2008)

This 118-page book was prepared by the Senate Historical Office under the direction of Nancy Erickson, Secretary of the Senate. Includes a preface by Senator Robert C. Byrd, who was serving as the President Pro Tem in 2008. Provides a history of the office followed by portraits and brief biographies of the Senators who served as President Pro Tem between 1789 and 2007.

 
Senate Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases from 1793 to 1972 (1972)

Compiled by Richard D. Hupman, Senate Library, under the direction of Francis R. Valeo, Secretary of the Senate, for the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections of the Committee on Rules and Administration, United States Senate.

United States Senate Election, Expulsion, and Censure Cases, 1793-1990 (1995)

A 516-page book by the U.S. Senate Historical Office.
       
Article 1, Section 5, of the U.S. Constitution provides that, "Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member." The Constitution also gives each house of Congress the power to be the judge of "elections, returns, and qualifications of its members." This publication compiles and explains the various election, expulsion, and censure cases that the Senate engaged in from 1793 to 1990.

How Our Laws Are Made (2007)

“How Our Laws Are Made” (House Document 110-49); revised and updated by John V. Sullivan, Parliamentarian, United States House of Representatives, July 2007. It provides a basic outline of the numerous steps of our federal law-making process from the source of an idea for a legislative proposal through its publication as a statute.


Standing Rules of The Senate (2013)

Standing rules of the Senate, revised to January 24, 2013

 
Senate History Newsletter (1978-1991) 

110-pages, every issue published from July 1978 to Fall 1991. Senate History was a newsletter published by Historical Office, Office of the Secretary United States Senate. This newsletter was published monthly and contained 4 to 12 pages per issue. 

To Make Beautiful the Capitol: Rediscovering the Art of Constantino Brumidi (2014)

A full color reproduction of a 2014 150-page monograph prepared under the direction of the U.S. Senate Commission on Art. To Make Beautiful the Capitol offers the latest scholarship on Constantino Brumidi, the artist whose elaborate wall and ceiling murals give the U.S. Capitol its distinctive appearance.

 
United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art (2002)

This full color 519-page work highlights 160 works of fine art in the Senate. 

Abstract: To the surprise of many visitors, the interior of the United States Capitol abounds in magnificent art that rivals its exterior architectural splendor. The fine art held by the U.S. Senate comprises much of this treasured heritage. It spans over 200 years of history and contains works by such celebrated artists as Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Hiram Powers. Daniel Chester French. Charles Willson Peale. Gilbert Stuart. Walker Hancock, and Alexander Calder The United States Senate Catalogue of Fine Art represents the first comprehensive effort to illustrate and interpret this rich trove of paintings and sculptures.

 
United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art (2008)

This 518-page volume is the first comprehensive publication of the almost one thousand prints in the holdings of the United States Senate. The diverse illustrations range from inauguration ceremonies and impeachment trials to senatorial portraits and political cartoons. Represented in the Senate's graphic art collection are some of the most notable artists who worked in

the printmaking medium: Augustus Kollner, Rembrandt Peale, Alexander Hay Ritchie, Thomas Nast, and Joseph Keppler.

Abstract: The Senate maintains a collection of over 900 historical prints and engravings. This collection contains a rich array of 19th and early 20th century images portraying the events, people, and settings of the U.S. Senate. This book is about that collection. Prepared by the Office of Senate Curator under the direction of the U.S. Senate Commission on Art.

 
Senate Historical Office Oral History Transcripts

8,198 pages of transcripts of interviews of individuals involved in operations at the Senate from 1917 to 2016.

The 52 people interviewed includes administrative, committee, floor, party, and leadership staff, officers, pages, and personal staff.

10 of the 25 Interviewees include:

Edward E. (Ted) Kaufman - Chief of Staff to Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr.; 1973–1994; 2009–2010
Covers: Impeachment, Investigations and Oversight, Nominations, Elections, Filibuster and Cloture, Rules and Legislative Process, Women in Congress, Foreign Policy, National Security, Lobbying, The Financial Meltdown, National Security
 
Richard A.  Baker - Senate Historian 1975–2009
Covers: Watergate, Vietnam War, September 11, 2001, U.S. Capitol Complex, Impeachment, Filibuster and Cloture, Rules and Legislative Process

Sheila P. Burke - Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert J. Dole; Deputy Staff Director, Finance Committee; Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff to Republican Leader Robert J. Dole; Secretary of the Senate 1977–1996

Capitol Telecommunications - Capitol Operators 1970–2006
Oral History Interviews with Joan Sartori, Ellen Kramer, Martha Fletcher, Barbara Loughery, Kimball Winn, Rick Kauffman

Rufus Edmisten - Staff to Senator Samuel J. Ervin; Deputy Chief Counsel, Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (Watergate Committee) 1964–1974
Covers: Watergate, Investigations and Oversight, Civil Rights, Lobbying, North Carolina Politics
 
Roy L. Elson - Administrative Assistant to Senator Carl T. Hayden; Candidate for the U.S. Senate 1955–1969
Covers: Watergate, U.S.  Capitol Complex, Elections, Civil Rights, Lobbying, Joining Carl Hayden's Staff, Lyndon Johnson as Majority Leader, Bobby Baker and the Senate, The Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Hayden Runs for Reelection, First Campaign for the Senate, The Kennedy Administration, The Central Arizona Project, Second Campaign for the Senate, LBJ and the Great Society
 
Floyd M. Riddick, - Senate Parliamentarian 1947–1974
Covers: McCarthyism, Impeachment, Elections, Filibuster and Cloture, Rules and Legislative Process, Civil Rights, Contested Elections: The Durkin-Wyman Case, Censure: The McCarthy and Dodd Cases

George A. Smathers - U.S. Senator from Florida 1951–1969
Covers: Watergate, Vietnam War, McCarthyism Elections, Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, Leadership, Lobbying, The Senate and the Press, Kennedy and Johnson, LBJ as Majority Leader

George Tames - Washington Photographer for the New York Times 1945–1985
Covers: Civil Rights, Lobbying, A Creature of the New York Times, The View from the Press Gallery, Competing with Television, The Story Behind the Photograph 

Valeo, Francis R. - Staff, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Aide to Senator Mike Mansfield; Democratic Party Secretary; Secretary of the Senate 1952–1977
Covers: Watergate, Vietnam War, Impeachment, Investigations and Oversight, Elections, Filibuster and Cloture, Rules and Legislative Process, Women, Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, Lobbying, The Foreign Relations Committee, Travels, With Mansfield, Johnson and Mansfield, With LBJ in Southeast Asia, Senate Democratic Secretary, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The Great Society, Secretary of the Senate, Opening the Door to China, Senate Leaders