This Day in History - 1st U.S. Congress Meets

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Well, before you email me, I do understand that there were no women signers of the Declaration of Independence & no female delegates involved in the adoption of the Articles of Confederation & no female representatives, when the first U.S. Congress convened in New York City on this date in 1789. But it is an important day in our collective history. (And, yes, I have not forgotten, that women did not get the right to vote nationally in the United States of America until 1920.)

Federal Hall, Wall Street & Trinity Church in New York in 1789. Federal Hall in New York was the site of the meeting of the first federal Congress in 1789. Built in 1700, as New York's City Hall & demolished in 1812, it also was the site of other key events on Americas road to freedom. After the first & second sessions of Congress in 1789 & 1790, the federal government moved to Philadelphia. In 1800 it moved to its permanent home in Washington.

On this day in history, the first session of the U.S. Congress is held in New York City as the U.S. Constitution takes effect. However, of the 22 senators and 59 representatives called to represent the 11 states who had ratified the document, only nine senators and 13 representatives showed up to begin negotiations for its amendment.

When the Congress met in this building in New York City, the House of Representatives met on the first floor; while the Senate on the second floor, making it literally the "upper chamber."

In 1786, defects in the Articles of Confederation became apparent, such as the lack of central authority over foreign and domestic commerce and the inability of Congress to levy taxes, leading Congress to endorse a plan to draft a new constitution. On September 17, 1787, at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the new U.S. Constitution, creating a strong federal government with an intricate system of checks and balances, was signed by 38 of 41 delegates to the convention.


As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. The Constitution was thus sent to the state legislatures, and beginning on December 7, five states--Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut--ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document for its failure to reserve powers not delegated by the Constitution to the states and its lack of constitutional protection for such basic political rights as freedom of speech, religion, and the press, and the right to bear arms.

The first session of the 1st Congress (1789–1791) met at then end of this street in Federal Hall in New York City. In December 1789, Congress moved to Philadelphia.

In February 1788, a compromise was reached in which Massachusetts and other states agreed to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would immediately be adopted. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, making it binding, and government under the U.S. Constitution was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1789.

On September 25, 1789, after several months of debate, the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. This action led to the eventual ratification of the Constitution by the last of the 13 original colonies: North Carolina and Rhode Island.

See http://www.history.com/
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