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Records/Archives in the News Part 02 01/23/00
Records/Archives in the News r000104a
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Rocky Mountain News 1/4/00
Historic Congressional documents to go on display
________________________________________________________________
Rocky Mountain News 1/4/00
Historic Congressional documents to go on display
by Lance Gay
Scripps Howard News Service
<snip>
WASHINGTON - It may be grasping at straws, but if President Clinton hopes
eventually to blot impeachment from his record, there is some historical
precedent.
It happened in 1837, when the Senate voted 24-19 to expunge the censure a
previous Senate had approved, 26-20, against President Andrew Jackson for
having ?assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the
Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.?
Following much hullabaloo, lawmakers decided that instead of tearing the page
from the Senate?s official journal, as some proposed, they would order the
book brought into the chamber, where black lines were scratched through the
offending words and the inscription ?expunged by order of the Senate? written
beside them.
Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky, who instigated the censure in 1834, bitterly
complained about the efforts to change history but realized Jackson
supporters had the votes this time. ?The deed is to be done, that foul deed
which, like the bloodstained hands of the guilty Macbeth, all oceans? waters
will never wash out,? he said. ?Proceed then, with the noble work which lies
before you, and like other skillful executioners, do it quickly.?
The Jan. 15, 1837, resolution authored by Sen. Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri
that ordered this change in the Senate?s historical record will be put on
display this month by the National Archives along with the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence. It is part of a ?Treasures of Congress?
exhibit that opens Jan. 21 and runs through Feb. 19.
Richard Baker, historian of the Senate, said Americans are lucky to have such
treasures because it wasn?t until 1937 that Congress decided it should
preserve its own history.
Until that year, Baker said, documents generated by Congress were dumped in
empty rooms in the Senate?s attic or in leaky rooms that once were used to
hold coal that fired the Capitol?s boilers.
?One of the national tragedies is that they were not taken care of,?? said
Baker, noting that the document rooms were not guarded and were often raided
by souvenir-hunters, who prized documents with presidential signatures on
them. The documents left behind went through further indignities as many were
damaged by rain or gnawed through by rats, which still thrive in the
Capitol?s bowels.
Baker said some missing documents have shown up at private auctions, but many
others have simply disappeared. Congress recently paid $1,000 to recover its
1798 Lighthouses Act, which Baker said somehow made its way to a private
auction.
But in 1937, the Senate ordered the National Archives to take care of its
documents, and in 1946 the House declared that its historic documents should
be kept at the Library of Congress. Congressional rules still allow lawmakers
to keep their own documents when they leave office and do with them as they
wish. Many of these collections end up in state or local libraries.
Baker admits that many of the documents displayed in the Archives exhibit
look mundane. ?Documents are physically not engaging until you step back and
think what they stand for,? he said.
<SNIP>
<SNIP>
Baker hopes the exhibits will eventually become part of a permanent
historical exhibit in Congress if lawmakers approve funds for a new visitor?s
center. Few people get an opportunity to see the historic documents Congress
has generated, he said, ?and this is a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit.?
(For more information, call the National Archives, 301-713-6000. ?Treasures
of Congress? will be displayed in 26 cases in the Rotunda of the National
Archives on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets NW. Hours are 10
a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily, Jan. 21-Feb. 19.)
<SNIP>
PETER A. KURILECZ CRM, CA
PAKURILECZ@AOL.COM
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