United States. Congress. House

U.S. House of Representatives is the lower house of Congress.

The first session of the Congress of the United States, under a resolution passed by the Congress of the Confederation, on September 13, 1788, was called to meet in New York City on March 4, 1789. On the appointed day only 13 Members of the House were present and, as this number did not constitute a quorum, the sessions were adjourned from day to day until April 1, when a majority of the Members made their appearance. The House thereupon elected Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg as its Speaker, and John Beckley as its Clerk. On April 6 the House was notified that a quorum of the Senate had assembled, whereupon the House withdrew to the Senate chamber where the electoral votes for President and Vice President were counted jointly. On April 7 the House adopted rules and orders for the conduct of its business, and on April 8 the Chief Justice of the State of New York administered the oath of office to all House Members who were present.

The first and second sessions of the First Congress were held in New York City, but the third session, which began on December 6, 1790, was held in Philadelphia. Congress continued to meet there until it moved to the new Capitol in Washington for the opening of the second session of the Sixth Congress on November 17, 1800. The House occupied a room in the south end of the new building.

Both Houses were forced to vacate their chambers temporarily in 1814, when the British burned the Capitol Building. The Congress met first in Blodgett's Hotel on E Street between Seventh and Eighth Streets NW., and later in larger quarters erected for its use at the corner of First Street and Maryland Avenue NE., on the site now occupied by the Supreme Court Building. After the Capitol was restored both Houses returned to their respective quarters for the opening of the 1st session of the 16th Congress on December 6, 1819.

The House continued to occupy the chamber originally provided for its use until December 16, 1857, when it moved into a much larger chamber in the newly constructed House wing. Since that time the old chamber has been used to house statues of famous Americans and has been known as Statuary Hall.

The general organization and nature of the House of Representatives have changed little since 1789. The House is a new body at the beginning of each Congress, since all its Members are elected every two years and none of them carry over from one Congress to another except by re-election.

Records of the House of Representatives were transferred from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800. The early records of the House are rather incomplete. It is possible that some of the records were lost in these moves, and others may have been lost as the result of inadequate filing space and the carelessness of early custodians. Still more were lost when the British burned the Capitol in 1814. A letter written on September 15, 1814, to the Clerk of the House, Patrick Magruder, by two of his subordinates, S. Burch and J.T. Frost, explains in some detail what records were lost on that occasion. They wrote.

"[We were ordered] not to begin packing up until it was ascertained that the clerks of the War Office were engaged in that business; and it was not until 12 o'clock, on Monday, the 22d, that we were informed that they had begun to move the effects of that office, although we were subsequently told that it had commenced the day before."

"We immediately went to packing up, and Mr. Burch went out in search of wagons or other carriages, for the transportation of the books and papers; every wagon, and almost every cart, belonging to the city, had been previously impressed into the service of the United States, for the transportation of the baggage of the army; the few he was able to find were loaded with the private effects of individuals, who were moving without the city; those he attempted to hire, but, not succeeding, he claimed a right to impress them; but, having no legal authority, or military force to aid him, he, of course, did not succeed. He then sent off three messsengers into the country, one of whom obtained from Mr. John Wilson, whose residence is six miles from the city, the use of a cart and four oxen; it did not arrive at the office, until after dark on Monday night, when it was immediately laden with the most valuable records and papers, which were taken, on the same night, nine miles, to a safe and secret place in the country. We continued to remove as many of the most valuable books and papers, having removed the manuscript records, as we were able to do with our one cart, until the morning of the day of the battle of Bladensburg, after which we were unable to take away anything further."

"Every thing belonging to the office, together with the library of Congress, we venture to say, might have been removed in time, if carriages could have been procured; but it was altogether impossible to procure them, either for hire, or by force."

"The most material papers which have been lost are, the last volumes of the manuscript records of the Committees of Ways and Means, Claims, and Pensions and Revolutionary Claims; the clerks were engaged in bringing up these records previous to the alarm, and as it was not certain that the enemy would get to the city, and being desirous to have them completed, they were not packed away with the rest, but were kept out, that they might be finished by the meeting of Congress; but with the intention of taking them to a private residence, if such removal should be found necessary. After the defeat of our troops at Bladensburg, Mr. Frost, removed them to the house commonly called General Washington's, which house being unexpectedly consumed by fire, these records were thus unfortunately lost."

"The secret journal of Congress was also consumed; it was kept in a private drawer in the office, and in the hurry of removal was forgotten. Its contents, however, have been, in most cases, published by order of the House."

"The manuscript papers, which have not been saved, were mostly of a private nature, consisting chiefly of petitions, and unimportant papers, presented previous to the year 1799."

This letter was transmitted by the Clerk to the Speaker of the House, together with the explanation that the Clerk himself had been absent from the city since he had left home "the latter part of July, for the Springs, on account of indisposition." The committee to which this matter was referred reported that is was "constrained to express the opinion that due precaution and diligence were not exercised to prevent the destruction and loss which has been sustained." Although the Clerk sent another letter on December 17, 1814, to the Speaker, explaining more fully the reasons for his absence from Washington, the committee entertained "the same opinion which they before expressed." Consequently the Clerk submitted his resignation on January 28, 1815.

The concern then expressed by the House for its records grew with the years until it came to hold them with jealous regard. In 1880 the House strengthened its control over its records with the adoption of House Rule 36, which provides that:

"The clerks of the several committees of the House shall, within three days after the final adjournment of a Congress, deliver to the Clerk of the House all bills, joint resolutions, petitions, and other papers referred to the committee, together with all evidence taken by such committee under the order of the House during the said Congress and not reported to the House; and in the event of the failure or neglect of any clerk of a committee to comply with this rule the Clerk of the House shall, within three days thereafter, take into his keeping all such papers and testimony."

Because of the periodic flow of committee records to the Clerk's custody, a staff sufficiently large to handle current business was maintained, but the problem of caring for and managing older records became increasingly acute. Walter H. French, who was the House file clerk during the latter part of the 19th century, gave considerable attention to this problem. Although he did not have adequate space or equipment to care for the records properly, he gave freely of his own time to keep the records of the House intact and orderly.

The space situation was relieved somewhat when, in accordance with an appropriation act approved on June 6, 1900, bound volumes of original House records were transferred to the Library of Congress in January 1901. Loose papers remained with the Clerk until 1910, when the House adopted a resolution authorizing him to desposit all original letters and papers of historical value for preservation in the Library of Congress. These papers were to remain a part of the files of the House of Representatives, subject to removal or withdrawal only by its order (H. Res. 403, 61th Cong.). The papers selected as having historical value and being suitable for transfer were largely for the period before 1871 and amounted to about 89 cubic feet.

Another segregation of House papers occurred as the result of an act approved March 3, 1925, which authorized the Chief of the Division of Publications of the Department of State to collect, edit, copy, and prepare for publication the official papers relating to the Territories from which States had been formed. Accordingly, about 25 cubic feet of House papers that related to the territories were withdrawn from the files and removed to the Library of Congress for easy access.

Early in 1937, T.R. Schellenberg, then a deputy examiner for the National Archives, made a comprehensive survey of the records of the House and recommended their transfer to the National Archives. Although the Senate ordered the transfer of its records that year, the House failed to take similar action.

Some steps were taken, however, to provide better storage facilities and greater protection for the older records of the House, and additional loose papers and bound volumes of records were transferred to the Library of Congress in 1937 and 1938. The Third Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1942, approved December 17, 1941, appropriated $25,000 to enable the Architect of the Capitol to construct a depository for records beneath the crypt in the center of the Capitol Building (55 Stat. 817). This act was amended by the Legislative Branch Appropriation Act, approved June 8, 1942, which authorized the Architect of the Capitol to erect a vault in the Annex of the Library of Congress (56 Stat. 342); and the First Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1944, approved April 1, 1944, appropirated $1,000 for the removal of documents from the Manuscripts Division and the Old House Office Building, to the newly constructed vault early in 1944 was an important step toward bringing the older records of the House together.

The next important step in the concentration of the House records was the passage of the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 812), one section of which reads as follows:

" Sec. 140 (a) The Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Rpresentatives are authorized and directed, acting jointly, to obtain at the close of each Congress all of the noncurrent records of the Congress and of each committee thereof and transfer them to the National Archives for preservation, subject to the orders of the Senate or the House, respectively."

"(b) The Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized and directed to collect all of the non current records of the House of Representatives from the First to the Seventy-sixth Congress, inclusive, and transfer such records to the National Archives for preservation, subject to the orders of the Senate or the House, respectively."

In accordance with this act the records of the House from the First through the Seventy-sixth Congress, amounting to about 7,500 cubic feet, were transferred to the National Archives in September and October 1946. As the act was passed during the 79th Congress, it was interpreted to mean that the House was to keep in its own custody the records of two Congresses before the current Congress. Since that time, as each Congress has ended, the House has transferred to the National Archvies the records of the oldest Congress in its custody. By the end of 1954 the records of 81 Congresses had been deposited in the National Archives and their volume exceeded 10,000 cubic feet.