[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 73 (Thursday, May 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6160-S6162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               THE SENATE CHAMBER DESKS--A BRIEF HISTORY

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, recently I announced that I was not going 
to be seeking another term in the Senate. It has been a wonderful 
opportunity these last 16\1/2\ years to serve in this great body, to be 
serving with all of my great colleagues and friends from all the 50 
States, and all the wonderful staff people that make this place run. I 
just want to thank all of them so much for their many kindnesses shown 
to me.
  Mr. President, I was cleaning out my desk a while ago and just 
looking through something I have had in my desk for some time that was 
prepared by some of the individuals, I think, in the Historian's 
office. That is not the proper name for those who prepared this. But I 
thought while there were interested parties involved, I might read a 
few pages of some of the history of the desks in this Chamber. This is 
a brief history.

       When British troops burned the U.S. Capitol in 1814 during 
     the War of 1812, they severely damaged the Senate Chamber and 
     destroyed the original furnishings. The rebuilt Chamber was 
     completed in 1819 and the Senate ordered 48 new desks at a 
     cost of $34 each from Thomas Constantine. A New York 
     cabinetmaker, he also constructed desks for the House of 
     Representatives. Many of these early desks remain in use in 
     the Senate Chamber today. As new states have entered the 
     Union over the years, additional desks of identical design 
     have been built and placed in use.
       Throughout most of the 19th century a senator's only office 
     was his desk on the Senate floor,

  We did not have, I might say, the Senate office buildings. This was 
our office, the desk that was on the Senate floor.

     but gradually separate rooms were assigned. The earliest 
     offices were Committee rooms occupied by their chairmen; 
     additional space later became available under the Olmsted 
     Terraces on the West Front of the Capitol. Finally, with the 
     completion of the first Senate office building [the Russell 
     Building] in 1909, all senators were able to occupy suitable 
     offices on Capitol Hill.
       Over the years, modifications have been made to the Chamber 
     desks to provide more room for books and papers. Beginning in 
     the 
     [[Page S6161]] 1830s, three- to four-inch high mahogany 
     writing boxes were added to each desk. The writing boxes were 
     not installed all at one time, but periodically over the next 
     40 years, usually at the request of a desk's occupant. Senate 
     vouchers record payments to carpenter R. B. Griffin for 
     altering nine mahogany desks in 1860, shortly after the 
     Senate moved to its present Chamber.
       Not every senator preferred the modification, but today 
     only one desk--``the Webster--lacks a writing box. Senator 
     Daniel Webster reputedly refused to have his desk added to on 
     the grounds that if his predecessor had managed without the 
     extra space, so could he. No succeeding occupant of Webster's 
     desk has seen fit to abandon that opinion. In order to bring 
     the height of the Webster desk into visual line with others 
     in the Chamber, a raised base has been added. Although he was 
     born in New Hampshire, Webster represented Massachusetts in 
     the Senate, and the desk has continued to be associated with 
     Webster's birth state. New Hampshire Senators Styles Bridges 
     and Norris Cotton, for example, occupied the desk for long 
     periods. In 1974, just before Cotton retired from the Senate, 
     he secured the adoption of Senate Resolution 467 (93rd Cong., 
     2nd sess.), specifying that the Webster desk would henceforth 
     always be assigned to the senior senator from New Hampshire.
       Other early Senate desks bear design characteristics that 
     allow their differentiation. The oldest desks incorporate 
     wooden inlays of circular and rectangular banding at the 
     sides, crotch veneer mahogany across the fronts, and narrow 
     reeding on the feet. These features were incorporated in 
     desks newly-made throughout the third quarter of the last 
     century and may today be found in more than seventy of the 
     present number.
       The difference in shape and dimension among the desks is 
     due to the original semicircular arrangement in the Old 
     Senate Chamber.

  Not this Senate Chamber, but the Old Senate Chamber.

       A desk's shape conformed to its position in the room: if on 
     the aisle it was narrow and angled, if near the center it 
     tended to be wider and more square. If the oldest desks could 
     be rearranged to the original configuration, it is believed 
     they would form a perfect semicircle.
       During the mid-19th century, mahogany shelves were added 
     near the bases of the desks. At the turn of the 20th century, 
     the feet were enclosed with a metal grille and connected to a 
     plenum chamber below the floor which provided ventilation.

  That, Mr. President, was the air-conditioning system. We have a much 
better air-conditioning system now than they had then.

       Inkwells and sanders atop the desks have also undergone 
     change. Original inkwells were composed of clear cut glass, 
     covered with square, flat tops that moved horizontally. In 
     1933, the remaining original inkwells were replaced by 
     containers having hinged covers, because the earlier design 
     was no longer manufactured.
       Over the years the desks have been periodically rearranged, 
     as new states sent senators and as party representation 
     increased and diminished. When additional desks were 
     required, these were generally made by private cabinetmakers, 
     although the four newest desks--those constructed for Alaska 
     (1959) and Hawaii (1960)--were built in the Senate's own 
     cabinet shop.
       Seven distinct numbering systems have been employed over 
     the years to track the expanding group of desks and their 
     locations. These numbers--both Roman and Arabic--are still 
     visible below and inside the desks in various places. The 
     current system, instituted in 1957, consists of Roman 
     numerals burned into the right-hand corner of the principal 
     crosspiece beneath the desks. The desks are not arranged on 
     the Senate floor in numerical order. The easiest method of 
     tracing the heritage of each desk is to read the names carved 
     inside desk drawers.

  Now, in earlier years, the Members of the Senate carved their names 
in the desk drawers. I hate to say that in modern times I have looked 
in my desk drawer and some of the occupants of this desk even wrote 
their name, it appears, with a ball point pen. That is not quite as 
classy as carving.

       It appears that such inscriptions are a 20th-century 
     tradition, for the earliest recorded names date back only to 
     the first decade of this century. Possibly some 19th-century 
     senators inscribed their names in the desks, but these names 
     have been lost when drawers were refinished. Not all names in 
     drawers were personally inscribed by the senators. Many 
     reveal an identical hand, suggesting either that older drawer 
     bottoms were replaced and the names recopied, or that staff 
     members, rather than senators, took responsibility for 
     chronicling certain holders. In recent decades, senators have 
     adhered more closely to a tradition of personally inscribing 
     desks.
       One difficulty in verifying the desks' 19th-century 
     assignees is the fact that for many years Senate doorkeepers 
     closely guarded such privileged information. Isaac Bassett, 
     Senate page and doorkeeper from 1831 through 1895, feared 
     that souvenir hunters might damage the historic furniture if 
     it was widely known which pieces were used by the famous 
     Senators Clay, Calhoun, or Senator Webster. Bassett the page 
     and the doorkeeper had reasonable cause for alarm. In April 
     1861, when the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was bivouacked 
     temporarily in the Senate Chamber, literally living in the 
     Senate Chamber, Bassett entered the room just in time to hear 
     the sound of splitting wood on the Democratic side. Rushing 
     to
      investigate, he found a Union soldier bayonetting the desk 
     recently vacated by Jefferson Davis, then president of the 
     Confederacy. ``Stop! Stop! What are you doing?,'' Bassett 
     shouted. ``That is not Jeff Davis' desk--it belongs to the 
     government of the United States. You were sent here to 
     protect government property, not to destroy it.'' Today, a 
     small block of wood inlay on the left side of the desk 
     marks the spot where the bayonet once struck the desk of 
     Jefferson Davis.
       Traditions associated with Senate desks continue to evolve. 
     A recent example is the so-called `Candy Desk''. Each member 
     of the Senate knows which desk is the candy desk. Senator 
     George Murphy (R-CA) originated the practice of keeping a 
     supply of candy in his desk for the enjoyment of fellow 
     senators. This desk was subsequently passed on to other 
     members for use, but the tradition of keeping candy in the 
     desk that occupies that particular place in the back row of 
     the Chamber continues today.
       The custom of dividing the arrangement of Senate desks by 
     party is almost as old as the parties themselves. Democrats 
     traditionally sit on the presiding officer's right; 
     Republicans on his left. But the division has not always been 
     definitive as it is today.
       In the Old Senate Chamber, an equal number of desks was 
     placed on each side of the aisle, without regard to party 
     size. When one party elected more than half the senators, 
     some majority party members had to find space on the minority 
     side. When the Senate moved to the modern Chamber in 1859, 
     the practice of dividing the desks equally continued for 
     several years. But during the Civil War many Southern 
     Democrats withdrew from the Senate and Republicans took their 
     places on the Democratic side, even though empty desks were 
     available on ``their own'' side.
       The new Chamber was large enough to permit a somewhat 
     flexible seating arrangement and in 1877 the practice began 
     of moving desks back and forth across the center aisle to 
     permit all majority members to sit together on the 
     appropriate side of the aisle. From time to time since then, 
     one party has elected such an overwhelming majority that it 
     has become necessary to again have majority members sit on 
     the minority side. For instance, during the 60th Congress 
     (1907-1909) ten Republicans sat on the Democratic side, while 
     during the 75th Congress (1937-1939) thirteen Democrats sat 
     on the Republican side. Such seating became known as the 
     ``Cherokee Strip,'' meaning that the overflow of majority 
     party senators were ``off their reservation'' [the Cherokee 
     Strip in Oklahoma was land belonging neither to the Indian 
     Territory nor to the United States]. By then it had become 
     the practice for senior senators to take front row, center 
     aisle seats; junior majority party members who filled the 
     ``Cherokee Strip'' were assigned either rear row or end seats 
     on the minority side of the chamber.
       Senators independent of either party have traditionally 
     chosen on which side of the aisle they preferred to sit. 
     Once, during the 1950s, when Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon 
     had left the Republican party but not yet joined the 
     Democrats, he placed his chair temporarily in the middle of 
     the center aisle in order to demonstrate his independence.
       The seating of the majority and minority leaders at the 
     front row desks on either side of the center aisle is a 
     relatively recent Senate tradition, dating back only to 1927 
     for the Democrats and 1937 for the Republicans. In the 19th 
     century, party leadership was not yet institutionalized. 
     Certain senators were recognized as leaders for reasons of 
     personal popularity and political skill, not elected to an 
     official post by their parties. For example, Henry Clay 
     always occupied a rear seat near the Chamber entrance. From 
     that position he was able to signal party members as they 
     came in before a vote, while vigorously denying the role of 
     party floor leader.
       Not until the 1890s did party caucus chairmen emerge as 
     floor leaders and for the most part such leaders retain 
     regular seats. Front row desks went to senior senators in the 
     party. For many years, the front seat on the Republican side 
     was held by Senator Robert La Follotte, Sr., an insurgent who 
     was frequently at odds with his party's majority. Two earlier 
     Democratic leaders, John T. Morgan, in 1902, and Oscar W. 
     Underwood, in 1921, took front row desks, each retaining that 
     position after his service as leader had end. Not until 
     Underwood left the Senate did Democratic minority leader 
     Joseph Robinson move to the front row desk, which he 
     continued to hold as majority leader. Following Robinson's 
     death, the desk went to his successor majority leader, Alben 
     Barkley. The desk has been used by Democratic leaders ever 
     since. On the Republican side, the front row desk was held by 
     senior senators until 1937, when minority leader Charles 
     McNary moved there, setting a precedent that continues today.

  Mr. President, the actual office that prepared this report, and it 
was done in February 1995, was the Office of Senate Curator. I want to 
thank the Senate Curator for preparing this report.
  Also, in the back of this report, it gives a history of desk No. 39. 
This is 
[[Page S6162]] desk No. 39, Mr. President, and it lists all of the 
Senators who have occupied this particular desk.
  I just want to name a few of these. Some of these names may stand 
out. John Bankhead from Alabama occupied this particular desk. John 
Bankhead lived over on 19th Street, right off of Dupont Circle. John 
Bankhead was the father of Tallulah Bankhead. Tallulah Bankhead was one 
of the grand actresses during that period of time, and they lived on 
19th Street, where I used to live.
  Now, also, Patrick McCarran of Nevada occupied this particular desk, 
No. 39. He was the author, I assume, of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 
which many people will recognize.
  Theodore Francis Green, of Rhode Island, occupied desk No. 39. 
Theodore Francis Green may have been--I do not know, that record may 
have been broken--but at one time he was the oldest Member to ever 
serve in the Senate. That may have been surpassed. I need to check and 
correct it. But he was the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee 
immediately preceding the chairmanship of Senator J. William Fulbright 
of the State of Arkansas.
  Another very illustrious individual who has occupied desk 39 is Estes 
Kefauver, from Tennessee, known for his coonskin cap and all his grand 
campaigning as he ran for President and as he ran for Vice President. 
He really was a major force in the 1950's in the Democratic Party and 
in American politics.
  Another great Senator who has occupied desk No. 39 is Henry M. 
``Scoop'' Jackson, of course from Washington State, who passed away 
just a few years ago. He truly was one of the giants of the Senate. He 
occupied desk 39.
  Frank J. Lausche, from the State of Ohio, occupied this desk, desk 
No. 39. For some of you who may not know, Frank J. Lausche, to the best 
of my recollection, served more terms as Governor than any other 
Governor elected in the history of America. I think he was Governor of 
his State for--it seems like well over a decade and perhaps even close 
to 2 decades, in the State of Ohio.
  Mr. President, some of this may not seem too important to a lot of 
people, but there may be some students around who someday would want to 
know more about the Senate Chamber and about the desks in the Chamber.
  As Senator Rockefeller and Senator Coats and myself take our 
constituents through the Capitol and sometimes sit with them in the 
galleries, sometimes people ask us about the aisle, where do the 
Republicans sit and where do the Democrats sit? And so we thought it 
might be a good time to put a little statement in the Record giving a 
little, brief history about this Chamber and some of the desks that 
make up this wonderful U.S. Senate Chamber.
  Mr. President, I see no other Senator seeking recognition.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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