[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 106 (Tuesday, September 12, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H7444-H7447]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
RECOGNITION FOR SLAVE LABORERS WHO WORKED ON CONSTRUCTION OF UNITED
STATES CAPITOL
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 368) establishing a special task
force to recommend an appropriate recognition for the slave laborers
who worked on the construction of the United States Capitol.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Con. Res. 368
Whereas the United States Capitol stands as a symbol of
democracy, equality, and freedom to the entire world;
Whereas the year 2000 marks the 200th anniversary of the
opening of this historic structure for the first session of
Congress to be held in the new Capital City;
Whereas slavery was not prohibited throughout the United
States until the ratification of the 13th amendment to the
Constitution in 1865;
Whereas previous to that date, African American slave labor
was both legal and common in the District of Columbia and the
adjoining States of Maryland and Virginia;
Whereas public records attest to the fact that African
American slave labor was used in the construction of the
United States Capitol;
Whereas public records further attest to the fact that the
five-dollar-per-month payment for that African American slave
labor was made directly to slave owners and not to the
laborer; and
Whereas African Americans made significant contributions
and fought bravely for freedom during the American
Revolutionary War: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That--
(1) the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the
President pro tempore of the Senate shall establish a special
task force to study the history and contributions of these
slave laborers in the construction of the United States
Capitol; and
(2) such special task force shall recommend to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore
of the Senate an appropriate recognition for these slave
laborers which could be displayed in a prominent location in
the United States Capitol.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
California (Mr. Thomas) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas).
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to compliment and congratulate the
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), my friend and my conference
chairman; and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my friend and
colleague on the Committee on Ways and Means; one, for the way in which
this legislation has been put together; and, two, the time in which we
have moved.
It has now become better known that several months ago a local
television reporter unearthed some United States Treasury Department
pay slips that, strange as it may seem, allows us to have a better
understanding of what went on in the early stages of the building of
our Capitol. One would think that we would have as complete a
documentation as any people could have.
And yet what we found out was that those pay slips showed that there
were slave owners who were paid for work in the building of the United
States Capitol. Pretty obviously, the labor was not done by the slave
owners. In fact, it was slaves that did the work, more than 400, which
gives us an even more appropriate reason for recognizing the importance
of this particular building, and a continued understanding of the true
and honest history of the United States.
The resolution would create a task force to study the history and
contributions of those slave laborers. There has been some concern that
the legislation is not real specific about the way in which this task
force would be appointed, other than, according to the resolution, to
have the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the
Senate make the appointments. I would hope everyone understands that
this is not to be a political task force. It is not to be some kind of
political endeavor to make sure one is politically correct.
The reason we wanted to have the task force was to reach out to those
very appropriate professionals who would have knowledge and
understanding to assist us in creating whatever the appropriate
recognition might be, and we do not want to prejudge what will be
presented to us, so that in a prominent location in the Capitol we can,
one, give proper credit; two, recognize the fact that it occurred but,
more importantly, understand better this particular building and the
very human involvement in now yet another dimension not fully
appreciated in the creation of our country.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
It is an appropriate and, at the same time, regrettable fact that I
rise today in support of this resolution. It is appropriate because I
am proud to join my colleagues in an attempt to recognize a terrible
wrong, to shed light on a dark chapter in our Nation's history. Sad,
because it is a shame that this resolution is even necessary. However,
it is necessary; and I commend the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis)
and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), my colleagues, for their
hard work in bringing this resolution to the floor.
This resolution, as the chairman has pointed out, will establish a
task force to recommend an appropriate recognition of the slave
laborers who built the United States Capitol. Not all of the workers
were slaves. There were free men that worked by their side; but there
were slaves who, as the chairman has pointed out, were not paid for
their work; their owners were paid for their work. And their work
helped build this Capitol.
That sentence should shock all of our sensibilities. Yes, this temple
of liberty was built, in part, on the backs of slave laborers.
{time} 1930
That is a tragedy, and was a denial of the statement we made to all
the world that we believed that all men were created equal and endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
Notwithstanding the fact that we published that to the world, we
continued slavery in America. Yes, we used slaves in part to build this
Capitol. Those workers toiled in the hot D.C. summers to build this
monument to freedom, the people's House, the freedom they did not have.
Yet, they did not share in the promise of America. There was
compensation, as has been pointed out: $5 a month to the owners.
This tragic piece of our Nation's history needs to be explored and
exposed.
[[Page H7445]]
We often forget the proud history of slaves in the United States. The
government denied them their freedom, but nobody could take away their
dignity. They fought bravely in the Revolutionary War to secure our
Nation's freedom, yet they were not free. After that noble effort, they
worked to build a tribute to this Nation's ideals, this Capitol
building, but they were denied the very freedom it symbolized.
As a recent article in the Washington Post explains, little is known
about the slaves. We know that for a time Phillip Reid, the only slave
that we know the last name of, served as superintendent of the project,
but the other slaves are known only by first names jotted in dusty
ledgers.
I hope this task force is able to uncover more details about these
men who did backbreaking work for a nation that denied them their
fundamental rights. We need to know more about George, Thomas, Harry,
and Jerry, and all the others who built this temple to democracy and
freedom. Without knowing more about their history, Mr. Speaker, our
collective history, our Nation's history, will be forever incomplete.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
My colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), mentioned that
we do know for sure one of the slave's names, a fellow by the name of
Phillip Reed. Talk about irony upon irony, he, given his professional
capabilities, helped cast the bronze statue atop our Capitol that was
recently refurbished, and of course we know that as the Statue of
Freedom.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the rest of the time be
controlled by my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr.
Watts), chairman of the Republican Conference.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). Is there objection to the
request of the gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support House Concurrent Resolution 368,
legislation that I introduced earlier this year and that I believed to
be long overdue in highlighting a disturbing but important fact about
the history of this magnificent building and symbol of freedom, the
United States Capitol.
I want to especially thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), for joining in this effort as the bill's
original cosponsor, and I want to thank the chairman of the committee
on House Administration, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas),
and the ranking member, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), for
their support of this critically important recognition of the slave
laborers who built this extraordinary structure that houses the
deliberations of the oldest democracy on Earth.
Mr. Speaker, every day we are here in session our debates and
legislative activities underscore that this is a living building that
embodies America's greatest principles of democracy and liberty.
However, one significant historical fact about this building is often
forgotten. That fact is that much of the construction of this Capitol
in the 18th and 19th centuries was done by slave labor.
As we all know, slavery was not eliminated across the United States
until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Before that
date, slave labor was both legal and common throughout the South,
including the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia.
Public records attest to the historical fact that African-American
slave labor was used in the construction of the United States Capitol,
both here on this site and further south, in the Virginia quarries that
provided the marble for this very building.
It is time we recognize the contributions of these slave laborers. I
am proud we will have the opportunity today to do so by passing this
resolution to establish a special congressional task force which will
study the history of this period and recommend an appropriate memorial
to the labors of these great Americans to be displayed prominently here
in our Nation's Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, this year we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the
first session of Congress to be held here in this historic building. I
think that is a long enough time to go without a public and visible
acknowledgment of the incongruous but important historical fact that
the blood, sweat, and tears of African-American slave laborers built
this House for us all.
Let us reach back today through the thin veil of time and unshackle
their hands so we can shake them and say, thank you, ever so belatedly,
to these great Americans who built this great monument to freedom.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is my real honor to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), a distinguished civil rights
leader, Member of Congress, humanitarian, and the cosponsor of this
legislation. A gentleman who has been a giant in bringing the reality
of the words that I intoned earlier that are included in our
Declaration of Independence, and the promises incorporated in our
Constitution, to reality for all Americans.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from
California (Chairman Thomas) and the ranking member, the gentleman from
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), for bringing this legislation before us today.
I want to thank my friend and my colleague, the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts), for being the chief sponsor of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, when we walk through the halls of this building, we do
not see anything that tells the story that African-American slaves
helped build this magnificent building: no drawings, no murals, no
paintings, no statues, nothing. Slavery is part of our Nation's history
of which we are not proud. However, we should not run away or hide from
it. The history of the Capitol, like the history of our Nation, should
be complete.
As the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) pointed out, it was not
until this year, 200 years after the opening of the Capitol for the
first session of Congress, that records were uncovered which prove what
many of us have already known or maybe some of us assumed, that
African-American slave labor was used in the building of the United
States Capitol.
These men, these slaves, laid the very foundation of our democracy.
Yet, they were denied the right to participate in our democracy.
Indeed, generations of their offspring were denied the right to vote.
Mr. Speaker, with this resolution, H.R. 368, we will honor the slaves
who helped build the Capitol. We will study the history and
contributions of the African-Americans who helped construct one of the
greatest symbols of democracy in the world, this building, the United
States Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, we will have a fitting and lasting tribute to these men,
black men, slaves, in a permanent place here in the United States
Capitol.
I urge all of my colleagues to vote for the passage of House
Concurrent Resolution 368.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Ose).
Mr. OSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for
yielding time to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this resolution. It is
interesting, the first day I was here I stood over by the painting of
Lafayette. This room was empty, and I was there with a radio reporter
from my town. Unbeknownst to myself, I was violating the rules of the
House when I conversed and they were recording the tape.
But the point of that conversation was that if one was quiet enough
in this Chamber, one could hear the voices of the people who have come
before us, and yes, those who built this place came before us, the
slaves that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) talked about, those
who have built this country that we have not to date given satisfactory
recognition to.
This resolution is a first step. I thank the gentleman for bringing
it. I am grateful for the opportunity to support it.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding time to me.
[[Page H7446]]
Mr. Speaker, I also want to commend and congratulate the gentleman
from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts)
for their introduction to a very important piece of legislation.
As a matter of fact, it is my hope and my understanding, as well as
my desire, that passage of this legislation will help shed additional
light on an extreme dark period in the history of this Nation, because
as we look back to better understand where we came from, it helps us to
recognize how we got to where we are, and then helps propel us into the
future in relationship to where we need to be going.
Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History Month, African-
American History Month, once said that while we should not
underestimate the achievements of our Nation's greatest architects,
builders, and industrialists, we should give credit to those slaves who
so largely supplied the demand for labor.
This resolution will do just that, and I would hope that as
historians write, that in the near future we will see in the history
books in every classroom throughout this great Nation the contributions
of those whose sweat, whose hard labor, whose intense drive helped to
produce not only a magnificent edifice, but helped to provide an
opportunity for democracy to grow and flourish.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).
Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time
to me.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this proposal. Americans
understand that our black brothers and sisters in this country have
been given a raw deal over our country's history, but most Americans do
not know exactly what a raw deal it has been and was.
The fact is that black Americans and their achievements quite often
have been written out of the history books. I love to read history, and
I have seen that in so many cases where black Americans, they pop up
here and there, but the average American has no idea that they have
done such tremendous things. Just like today, we are giving credit for
people who have built this altar of liberty, this altar of freedom for
all America to see, and there were black Americans, and to this point
very few people knew there were black Americans.
Let us remember that one of the first Americans to be killed during
the American Revolution, a man killed during the Boston Massacre which
sparked the whole American Revolution, was a black American.
In the last 4 or 5 years I fought a fight for patent reform here in
the United States, and I had to study the issue of inventors and people
who actually invented great things in our country.
Certainly every American knows about Booker T. Washington. But as I
studied the history of our patent system and the inventors in our
country, I was personally surprised to see how many great inventions
were invented by black Americans, because patent rights as a property
right, even during a time of great discrimination against our fellow
Americans, the patent rights were actually provided to black Americans.
They excelled in creativity, in creating new machines and new
technologies throughout our history.
{time} 1945
Not many people know that. Not many people know of the great many
American heroes, not only during the Civil War, but other conflicts.
But today we have the opportunity to congratulate those Americans
who, again, not many of us heard of before, but did a great service to
their country and to the cause of freedom in building this great
edifice. So I support the legislation and thank the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) very much for letting me participate in this
debate.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), the very distinguished
Representative in which this Capitol is located. I am sure the irony is
not lost on her that there are residents of this capital of freedom
that do not have full voting participation in this Capitol.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I very much thank the gentleman from
Maryland for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate enormously the work of the gentleman from
California (Chairman Thomas) and the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Hoyer), ranking member, in working together to bring this matter
forward. I am enormously grateful, of course, to the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), my
long-time friend and colleague from the civil rights movement, for
their leadership in bringing forward the bill that brings us to the
floor today.
I want to recognize the work of a local reporter for Channel 4 News
here, Edward Hotaling, who brought this matter to public attention and
was responsible for our bringing it, therefore, today to public light,
for what we are doing this evening is opening the eyes of America to an
important discovery for most in American history.
We know the cliche because we have said it over and over, the slaves
helped build America. But there are seldom any specifics to that. What
slaves? What part of America? It turns out that the oldest and most
treasured parts of America, the most hallowed places are what we are
talking about; the White House, yes, and this very place where we meet.
What is true here is probably true for every historic public building
south of the Mason-Dixon line. We celebrate the slaves who built the
Capitol and the White House, but the same could be said throughout the
American South and much of the American North if the building is old
enough.
It is a matter of public record that slaves and free blacks built
these two buildings. But it is also true that much of the District of
Columbia was built by slaves and free blacks.
My own great grandfather, Richard Holmes, was one such slave. Richard
Holmes walked away from slavery in Virginia, got hired before the Civil
War to work in the streets of the District of Columbia, got discovered
by his white owner who was refused ownership when my great grandfather
did not answer to his name when he was discovered and the white foreman
refused to allow his return to the owner who had discovered him. I have
no information that Richard Holmes worked on the White House or the
Capitol, but we do have information that has been lost to history that
many black men and free blacks did, in fact, work on these and other
places in the District of Columbia. We know them by their works.
We also know that slaves did every job imaginable, including the most
highly skilled jobs. We know their owners were compensated. We know
that neither they nor their descendants were.
Let me lay to rest whether anybody feels any confusion about whether
to be proud or ashamed that our most revered structures were built by
slave labor. Let us not be like the Soviets who revise or deny history.
Let us, with this bill, put those questions for these purposes aside,
put these emotions aside because on one question there can be no
disagreement.
We often have recognized what the slaves achieved and the tributes
over and over again to these great buildings, and to the 25 million
visitors who come every year to the District of Columbia to see this
building among others. It is time finally to recognize the men who
helped achieve the place where we work, the place that we love.
I thank my colleagues very much for all they have done on this bill.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I do not have any more speakers
on my side, so I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Michigan (Mr. Conyers), one of the most distinguished leaders in our
House, one of the senior Members of the House and an American who
perhaps was most responsible for ensuring that this Nation recognized
the contribution of one of its greatest citizens of the world, Martin
Luther King, Jr.
Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr.
Hoyer) and the gentlemen who have participated in bringing this measure
forward.
I was very moved by the remarks of the gentlewoman from the District
of Columbia (Ms. Norton). This plays right into the book recently
written by Randall Robinson called The Debt in which he, touring the
Capitol with his
[[Page H7447]]
wife, found this tremendous sculpture about everybody that had
contributed, but there were no depictions of slaves and their
contribution.
So all of the dialogue tonight has been very, very important in
beginning to recognize and bring forward, as scholars are, as forums
are going on in our universities, in which we are bringing up the
records of the slaves, of their travels across the waters, the
insurance records, and a lot of other factual materials.
So it seems to me that we are moving inextricably into the question
of how we recognize and study the question of reparations as may affect
them. I could not imagine this conversation just going on tonight
without us examining what we do in the preparation of a commission to
study the history of slaves and their descendants in terms of their
contributions and where we might fit into the picture presently.
So I see this as a tapestry, a very important part of it. I see the
hate crimes bill shortly being very important in which we take the
subject of the lynching, the hate crimes started back in the 1920s when
the civil rights movement, the NAACP began the great rush to federalize
the lynching of African Americans. Then, after Dr. King's assassination
in 1968, we got the first hate crimes bill; and we have another pending
in this body now.
So much of our legislation is moving together. This resolution giving
recognition to the contribution of people of color, both free and
enslaved, is a very important step forward. I commend all who have
contributed toward it.
I thank the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for yielding me this
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). The gentleman from Oklahoma
(Mr. Watts) has reserved the balance of his time and has the right to
close.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I have no additional requests for time. But I know that,
on both sides of the aisle, if they were on the floor, all Members
would want to rise in support of this resolution. Every Member would
want to recognize the importance of the principle involved in the
adoption of this resolution, the recognition of those who have been
ignored, forgotten, hidden, in part, perhaps, because of the shame that
a society shared for on the one hand saying it believed in freedom and
on the other hand enslaving a people because of the color of their
skin.
This resolution is important in my opinion, Mr. Speaker, not only to
recognize those who participated and labored and who helped build this
Capitol, but it is also important, it seems to me, because it reminds
us of the contradictions between our principles and our performance.
It heightens our awareness, Mr. Speaker, of the gulf that sometimes
exists between our promises and our practice. I introduced, Mr.
Speaker, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers). I remember standing
with him on the front of this Capitol and supporting him in his
leadership of the necessity to recognize the contributions made by
Martin Luther King, Jr. who, in 1963, stood just some thousands of
yards from where we stand right now and reminded the Nation in a
compelling address that we ought to live out the dream and make reality
the promises that we had made.
Our Nation responded. This Congress responded. We passed legislation
to try to make reality the promises of the 13th Amendment passed 100
years before. Whether it was in employment or housing or public
accommodations, we said that America was not a land in which we ought
to discriminate against individuals based upon such arbitrary
distinction as color of skin or national origin or religion.
In fact, we are still arguing today about artificial distinctions we
make between human beings and whether they ought to be discriminated
against, not on what they do to us or laws that they break, but on what
they may be that is different from us.
Mr. Speaker, that is why this resolution is important, not only as
the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) and the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Lewis) have so eloquently pointed out, to recognize the
contribution of the individuals who helped build this Capitol and, as
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) has pointed
out, built so many others, including the White House, Monticello, and
Mount Vernon. I can go on in listing the dwellings that we know are
dwellings in which democracy saw its genesis and its growth.
This resolution is significant because it also teaches us to be aware
daily of the necessity of applying our principles in practice.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, again, this bill recognizes the long-ignored
role of African American slaves in building the United States Capitol.
Again, in closing, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), I
thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas), the gentleman
from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), ranking member, I thank them for their
efforts on behalf of this resolution.
Again, this year we celebrate the bicentennial of the United States
Government's arrival here in Washington. Proper recognition for these
laborers is long past due.
{time} 2000
We often, as Members of Congress, get to drive into the grounds or
drive onto these grounds; and at night especially driving onto these
grounds we see our Nation's dome, the Nation's Capitol and remind
ourselves that this building that we stand in today is recognized as
the symbol of freedom for all the world. This resolution today again
recognizes the contribution that slave labor played in building the
symbol of freedom.
Mr. Speaker, I remind us that, on the Senate side, the Senate version
of this bill is sponsored by Senator Abraham from Michigan and Senator
Lincoln from Arkansas. So, on the Senate side, this bill will be known
as the Abraham/Lincoln bill. Very fitting.
Again, thanks to my colleagues for this bipartisan support that we
have seen in bringing this effort forward and making it happen here
this evening.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Thomas).
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the
time.
Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to respond in part to my friend and
colleague, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), in terms of his
supposition that perhaps it was out of shame.
I think I will just tell the gentleman that it was far more
fundamental than that, and it was that common physical labor is not a
high achievement and that we never, even to this day, recognize the
fact that without it we would not have what we have today.
The thing I like most about this, given the discussion, the
participants, and the reflection on history, is that one of the
fundamentals of democracy is in the inherent belief that an individual
is worth something simply because they are alive and that what we are
doing here is celebrating the obvious acknowledgment of our shared
humanity in the best way we can in reaching back and telling those
people, thank you, thank you very much for that basic physical labor
that produced the opportunity, as Mr. Davis so eloquently indicated,
the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Holmes) indicated,
we forget about.
So it is in the shared humanity of our recognition that I think we
can all share and appreciate.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Isakson). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Watts) that the House
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res.
368.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the concurrent resolution was
agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________