[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H13529-H13535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING THAT THE GREAT HALL OF THE CAPITOL VISITOR CENTER SHALL BE
KNOWN AS EMANCIPATION HALL
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 3315) to provide that the great hall of the Capitol Visitor
Center shall be known as Emancipation Hall.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 3315
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. DESIGNATION OF GREAT HALL OF THE CAPITOL VISITOR
CENTER AS EMANCIPATION HALL.
(a) In General.--The great hall of the Capitol Visitor
Center shall be known and designated as ``Emancipation
Hall'', and any reference to the great hall in any law, rule,
or regulation shall be deemed to be a reference to
Emancipation Hall.
(b) Effective Date.--This section shall apply on and after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from
the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) and the gentleman from Arkansas
(Mr. Boozman) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia.
General Leave
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks
and to include extraneous material on H.R. 3315.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia?
There was no objection.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
H.R. 3315 is a bill to designate the great hall located in the
Capitol Visitor Center as ``Emancipation Hall.'' As we all know, the
new Capitol Visitor Center is the most recent and largest addition to
the United States Capitol in its 212-year history.
The great hall will include information and ticketing desks and
provide an area where Americans from across the country and where
people from all over the world can gather to take in scenic views of
the Capitol or prepare to tour the 580,000 square foot Visitor Center.
The great hall will also serve as a central gathering space in the
Capitol Visitor Center. It encompasses 20,000 square feet and its
dimensions are 100 feet by 200 feet, with a ceiling height of 35 feet.
It is indeed a majestic addition to the Capitol. There will be statues
from Statuary Hall on display throughout the great hall, if I may so,
hopefully, finally, statues from the Capitol of the United States; the
District of Columbia. The plaster model of the Statue of Freedom from
the Senate Russell building will be featured in the cellar rotunda. The
wall and column stone in the great hall is sandstone from Pennsylvania.
The floor stone is marble from Tennessee and dolomite from Wisconsin.
The black granite in the water features of the great hall comes from
California. It is remarkable and impressive as a public space befitting
this Capitol.
In 2004, congressional leaders directed the Architect of the Capitol
to produce a report on the history of slave labor in the construction
of the Capitol itself. The completed 29-page report examined the
efforts of slaves that helped build the Capitol, other Federal
buildings, and the White House, which at the time was known as the
President's House. Although the record was incomplete because of
limited documentation of slave labor, the evidence available and
historical context in the report provided several indications that
slaves and freed African Americans played a significant role in
building the physical symbols and the Capitol itself.
H.R. 3315 was introduced to acknowledge the work of many who were
forced to work on building the U.S. Capitol. On Wednesday, November 7,
the congressional task force completed its work and included in its
list of recommendations a specific recommendation to honor slaves who
built the Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, I am a third-generation Washingtonian. My great
grandfather, Richard Holmes, was a runaway slave from a plantation in
Virginia. He arrived here in the 1850s, and that's how our family began
here. He was freed in a congressional emancipation 9 months before the
Emancipation Proclamation. This emancipation was a Civil War
emancipation bill issued earlier than the more famous Emancipation
Proclamation.
He worked on the streets of the capital. I have no evidence that he
worked on the Capitol itself. Indeed, there was no mention of the work
of slaves or African Americans on this Capitol even in official Capitol
histories until recent decades.
This Capitol has stood for 212 years without even acknowledging, in
some small way, perhaps a marker, something to indicate that slaves,
many of them quite skilled because they were hired out as ``hired
Negroes'' in order to bring the greatest revenue to their slave owners,
and therefore, it behooved him or her to hire out those Negro hires, as
they were called, who could benefit the slave owner the most.
These are nameless African Americans. Nothing in the Emancipation
Hall and nothing that we do now will make us understand who they are.
The very least we can do, if we are adding to this Capitol, is to
finally acknowledge their work in building this extraordinary building
that was called from its earliest beginnings, the Temple of Liberty, or
perhaps now that we have founded the great hall, it will be more worthy
of that name.
When I visited the center, I was very impressed by it; but in the
early days of its construction, I asked, How are you going to
commemorate the fact that slaves worked on the original Capitol? And
there was something, along with many other historical remembrances,
that did indicate that slaves had built or helped build the original
Capitol, along with, of course, many working-class and skilled whites
who participated in the effort. But that was going to be the sum total
of it.
One of the difficulties may be, how do you do something so late in
the history of our country that is large enough to encompass what we
had not remembered for two centuries?
In my judgment, there is no place, there is no marker, there is no
piece of ground that can adequately, finally remember their
contribution. And so we don't name a hall, we don't name a room, we
don't have a statue. We say
[[Page H13530]]
enter this space. When you enter this space, it will be called
Emancipation Hall.
{time} 1230
And in that way we will perhaps emancipate our Capitol from more than
two centuries of ignoring the contribution of these slaves who helped
build this majestic building.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
H.R. 3315 provides that the great hall of the Capitol Visitor Center
be known as Emancipation Hall. The bill was introduced by
Representative Zach Wamp of Tennessee on August 2, 2007.
At nearly 580,000 square feet, the Capitol Visitor Center is the
largest project undertaken by the Office of the Architect of the
Capitol in the Capitol's 212-year-old history. It is one of the most
important projects since the extensions to the Capitol and the Dome
were built more than 140 years ago. As an extension of the Capitol, the
Capitol Visitor Center will welcome visitors to the seat of the
American Government.
Within the Capitol Visitor Center, the great hall is a large 20,000-
square-foot room where visitors will gather as they enter the Capitol.
This promising gathering space will serve as the gateway for the
public's experience of the Capitol and American democracy.
The Capitol Visitor Center will provide visitors to the Capitol the
opportunity to learn about and more fully understand the Constitution,
the Congress, and the history of the Capitol, including the
contribution of slaves who helped build the Capitol and the country. It
will help deepen the understanding of all who visit about our Nation's
long struggle with slavery and its ultimate abolition.
It is fitting and appropriate to recognize the seminal moment of the
Emancipation Proclamation in American history. We should recognize the
sacrifice and contribution of the many slaves who helped build the
Capitol.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson).
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. Let me
express my great appreciation to the chairman and to the ranking member
of this committee.
Today we have come to this temple of democracy on this momentous
occasion to write a new chapter in the unfolding story of human
freedom. The event of emancipation marks one of the most if not the
most significant event in American history.
Emancipation was more than an act; it was a process. Emancipation was
not a date but a period. Emancipation was not an event but the
fulfillment of providence that the arc of history may be long but it
bends towards justice and human freedom.
When the American city war erupted, both North and South defended
their causes as morally just, legally right, and constitutionally
sound. Northerners and southerners saw themselves as the true Americans
following in the tradition and the footsteps of the Founding Fathers.
North and South used the Constitution as their source of moral and
legal authority for conducting a war against each other. Both sides saw
themselves as standing in the tradition of the American Revolution.
Each side contended that it was fighting for freedom and liberty,
though certain facts contradicted the beliefs of both. The South said
it was fighting to preserve the freedom, while owning slaves. The North
said it was fighting for liberty, while not initially fighting to grant
liberty to the slaves. President Abraham Lincoln's address to the
Sanitary Fair in Baltimore on April 18, 1864, summed up the quandary.
He said, ``We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word, we
do not mean the same thing. With some the word `liberty' may mean for
each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor;
while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they
please with other men and the product of other men's labor. Here are
two not only different but incompatible things called by the same name:
liberty. And it follows that each of these things is, by their
respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names:
liberty and tyranny.''
Today women, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered Americans,
African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and students see in the
word ``liberty'' one thing. Today for the Titans of Industry, it still
means quite another. For the disposed, it means for each person to do
with himself as they please. For the Titans, it means for them to do as
they please with other men and the product of other men's labor
anywhere in the world. As Lincoln said, ``And it follows that each of
the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and
incompatible names: liberty and tyranny.''
That is why the efforts to name the great hall Liberty Hall will
settle for some but still not settle for others the fundamental
question of human freedom. For millions of Americans to pass through
Emancipation Hall and not Liberty Hall is an important acknowledgment
about the process for attaining human freedom in the American
historical context.
Mr. Speaker, it is most appropriate that the distinguished gentleman
from Tennessee, Mr. Zach Wamp, offered this amendment, in conjunction
with the gentleman from Illinois, to help establish a marker in the
Capitol of the United States about the significant role that these
Americans, these Africans, played in the process not only in
constructing the temple of our democracy but in strengthening America.
Madam Chair, it is probably most appropriate that the Emancipation
Hall designation be established during this Thanksgiving period, as the
first Thanksgiving established by proclamation by President Abraham
Lincoln was during the American Civil War when President Lincoln, on
October 3, 1863, looked out over a Nation torn by war, ravaged by
internecine, intrafamily and interfamily struggles, and concluded that
because of the extraordinary efforts of the North and the South, men
and women who thought their causes were just, that we needed a national
day of thanks. And so on October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln
affixed to a national proclamation a national day of thanks to say
thank you for now until eternity for all of the blessings that have
been bestowed upon our Nation.
Thanksgiving has a lot less to do, Mr. Speaker, with Pilgrims in 1620
and much more to do with the emancipation of human freedom.
I thank the gentlewoman for the time.
Lincoln understood for his time and ours that we must not be confused
about the language and process of human freedom.
Much has been said about Lincoln and his ambivalence about
emancipation. I believe when placed in context greater clarity emerges
in Lincoln's calculation of emancipation.
In 1862, Lincoln's announced support of colonization, along with his
lack of public support for emancipation, was generating sometimes
vicious attacks from militant abolitionists, including a ``Prayer for
Twenty Millions'' editorial urging emancipation that appeared in Horace
Greeley's New York Tribune. On August 22, a month after the private
announcement to his cabinet on July 22 that he intended to issue an
Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln replied to Greeley's editorial with
a masterfully written open letter:
If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they
could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with
them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless
they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree
with them. My paramount objective in this struggle is to save
the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would
do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I
would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and
leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about
slavery, and colored race, I do because I believe it helps to
save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do
not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less
whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and
I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help
the cause.
Lincoln was reiterating his central thesis, that the purpose of the
war was preservation of the Union, but in light of the intransigence of
the border States, he was publicly hinting that he might have to do
something more, including emancipation, to save the Union. In this open
letter, Lincoln was saying ``if,'' but he had already concluded in his
own mind ``that'' the only way to save the Union was to free the
slaves.
After the emancipation proposal became public, Lincoln was sometimes
ridiculed in political oratory and newspaper editorials about
[[Page H13531]]
his Emancipation Proclamation, which would free the slaves only where
the president had no power to do so--in the rebel southern States--but
preserve the institution everywhere else. But Lincoln's enemies either
misunderstood the president, lacked his understanding of the
Constitution, or ignored his politics. On saving the Union, Lincoln had
additional flexibility under the Constitution. Politically, he could
sometimes get away with violating it by engaging in arbitrary arrests
and suspending the writ of habeas corpus. On the question of ending
slavery, however, Lincoln saw no such flexibility. His understanding of
the Constitution committed him to acting within both it and the law,
for neither had yet been changed. Under the Constitution, slavery was
still legal in the United States.
On the first question, Lincoln and all Republicans agreed that a
Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery must be added to the
Constitution. The Senate quickly passed such an amendment, but the
House--which had gained thirty-four Democrats in the 1862 midterm
elections--was opposed.
Lincoln understood, if others didn't, that issuing the Emancipation
Proclamation would convert a struggling Union army, trying to hold a
Nation together, into a liberation army to free the slaves. The newly
freed slaves could help win the struggle by fighting alongside the
Union soldiers. Of course, the liberation of slaves would happen only
if the North won the war. Militant abolitionists still thought the
proclamation weak, southerners thought it an outrage, but most
antislavery advocates, both black and white, understood its
revolutionary implications. It was the one act that changed the entire
character of the war. It gave the war a moral purpose--human freedom--
to bolster the political goal of saving the Union. And a purpose with
such deep emotional power condemned the Confederacy to sure defeat.
The question now was, having transformed the conflict into a war of
liberation, would the northern Union soldiers still fight? Some said
no. ``An Ohio Democrat amended the party's slogan to proclaim, `the
Constitution as it is, the Union as it was, the Niggers where they
are.' '' But most said yes! ``A Democratic private in the Army of the
Potomac whose previous letters had railed against abolitionists and
blacks now expressed support for `putting away any institution if by so
doing it will put down the rebellion, for I hold that nothing should
stand in the way of the Union--niggers, nor anything else.' ''
With the July 4, 1863 victory at Gettysburg and Vicksburg northern
hopes rose and southern spirits sank.
The burial of the Gettysburg dead was originally planned for October
23 but rescheduled to November 19 because the principal orator, Edward
Everett of Massachusetts, could not be ready before then. Lincoln, by
comparison, was casually invited to attend and make a few remarks. ``No
insult was intended. Federal responsibility or participation was not
assumed, then, in state activities. And Lincoln took no offense. Though
specifically invited to deliver only `a few appropriate remarks' to
open the cemetery, he meant to use this opportunity. The partly
mythical victory of Gettysburg was important to his administration's
war propaganda.''
There are mythical accounts that Lincoln wrote his Gettysburg Address
on the back of an envelope. Even though the 272-word speech probably
took less than three minutes to deliver--interrupted with applause five
times by the twenty thousand in attendance--such cavalier preparation
would have been totally uncharacteristic of Lincoln, who took such
opportunities very seriously.
Lincoln intended to use this occasion and speech to lift the Nation's
eyes above the death and carnage of Gettysburg ``to a level of
abstraction that purges it of grosser matter . . . Lincoln did for the
whole Civil War what he accomplished for the single battlefield.'' He
transformed its meaning and in so doing transformed what it meant to be
an American.
Lincoln mentioned neither slavery nor Gettysburg. He drained his
speech of all particulars in order to lift up an ideal. Lincoln
intended to create something good and new out of this tragic and bloody
episode. Both North and South strove to interpret Gettysburg to further
their own war interests. Lincoln was after an even bigger victory--
winning the ideological as well as the military war. And he succeeded.
``The Civil War is, to most Americans, what Lincoln wanted it to mean.
Words had to complete the word of the guns.''
When we wave the flag and celebrate on July 4, Independence Day, we
are not so much celebrating our American-ness in terms of our
independence from England. We are celebrating the meaning of the flag
and America as Lincoln interpreted them in his Gettysburg Address. At
Gettysburg, Lincoln reinterpreted the Constitution. Looking past
slavery in the Constitution, he appealed to the Declaration of
Independence and its claim that ``all men are created equal.''
Conservative political ``heirs to his outrage still attack Lincoln for
subverting the Constitution at Gettysburg.''
Lincoln is here not only to sweeten the air at Gettysburg,
but to clear the infected atmosphere of American history
itself, tainted with official sins and inherited guilt. He
would cleanse the Constitution--not, as William Lloyd
Garrison had, by burning an instrument that countenanced
slavery. He altered the document from within, by appeal from
its letter to the spirit, subtly changing the recalcitrant
stuff that legal compromise, bringing it to its own
indictment. By implicitly doing this, he performed one of the
most daring acts of open-air sleight-of-hand ever witnessed
by the unsuspecting. Everyone in that vast throng of
thousands was having his or her intellectual pocket picked.
The crowd departed with a new thing in its ideological
luggage, that new Constitution Lincoln has substituted for
the one they brought there with them. They walked off, from
those curving graves on the hillside, under a changed sky,
into a different America. Lincoln has revolutionized the
Revolution, giving people a new past to live with that would
change their future indefinitely.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was transforming the United States from
a plural to a singular noun--from the United States are into the United
States is a free government.
According to Garry Wills, Lincoln, by his words and action, converted
the Union from a mystical hope into a constitutional reality.
July 4, 1776--only white men could vote; July 4, 1863--Gettysburg;
July 4, 2007: Barack Obama, an African American, Hillary Clinton, a
woman, Mitt Romney, a Mormon, All are candidates for President; America
and what it means to be an American today will not be the same
definition of what it means to be an American tomorrow. We are all part
of the Emancipation process.
A bit of trivia, when was the first Thanksgiving? 1620. Why? Landing
of Plymouth Rock. Interesting, because the first slaves arrived in
Jamestown in 1619.
In November 1863, Abraham Lincoln looked out over a Nation ravaged by
war, internecine warfare, intra and inter family feuding, and saw light
at the end of the tunnel for Northern victory and proclaimed the 3rd
Thursday in November as a national day of thanks. Proclamation of
Thanksgiving:
Washington, DC,
October 3, 1863.
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for
America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his
administration, President Lincoln issued many orders like
this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered
government departments closed for a local day of
thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a prominent magazine editor, wrote a
letter to Lincoln on November 28, 1863, urging him to have
the ``day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and
fixed Union Festival. `` She wrote, ``You may have observed
that, for some years past, there has been an increasing
interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on
the same day, in all the States; it now needs National
recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become
permanently, an American custom and institution. `` The
document below sets apart the last Thursday of November ``as
a day of Thanksgiving and Praise. ``
According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay,
one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was
written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the
original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow
Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary that he
complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript
was sold to benefit Union troops.
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled
with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To
these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are
prone to forget the source from which they come, others have
been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they
cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of
Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled
magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign
States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has
been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained,
the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has
prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military
conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by
the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful
diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of
peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested
the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the
borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron
and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more
abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily
increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in
the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country,
rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and
vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large
increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath
any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the
gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with
[[Page H13532]]
us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be
solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one
heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do
therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and those who
are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the
last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the
ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances
and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our
national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or
sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition
of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to
restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and
caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
three, and of the Independence of the United States the
Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln.
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State.
The question for contemporary American memory is why would we
appropriate the memory for Thanksgiving as ``Plymouth Rock'' an event
that has its formation in quite a different story.
The same can be said for the story of our capitol. From the moment a
visitor enters this building the unfolding process of emancipation, the
players in this drama, the actors, the people, the heroes and the
sheroes have been hidden, denied a fair and accurate account of these
unfolding events.
Rotunda: Story of America from pilgrims to the Wright Brothers. Not a
story of America; Statuary Hall: Emancipation is ignored in Statuary
Hall as we count among our honored dead Confederate President Jefferson
Davis, Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens,
Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and Confederate Commander Joseph
Wheeler--still in uniform; Rather than discuss this history we reduce
the story of this Nation to acoustics; Old Senate Chamber: Charles
Sumner, Preston Brooks, Plessy v. Ferguson; Old Supreme Court Chamber:
Dred Scott, Amistad Africa.
It is the emancipation process that led to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth
and Fifteenth Amendments. And as descendants of Slaves we believe that
as Americans are better educated on this history that process will lead
to our twenty-eighth amendment, our twenty-ninth and thirtieth: Health
care for all; Education of equal and high quality for all; Cleaner
environment; Fix our Nation's voting system; Provide equality for
women.
It is our Nation's historical process and only that process can
provide emancipation for all.
Interpreting Lincoln's life and work is extremely important. Recently
there have been questions raised as to whether Lincoln should be
credited with freeing the slaves. The argument goes: Given some of
Lincoln's history, his racial attitudes and stalemates, his moderate
views on the subject, his noninterference with slavery where it already
existed, his one proposed solution of colonization, his gradualist
approach to ending the institution, his hesitancy with respect to
issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and using colored troops in the
war, his late conversion to limited voting rights for blacks, and more,
why should he be given credit with freeing the slaves? Some have even
argued that it was various actions taken by the slaves--including the
power given to the Union cause as a result of the moral case for
overturning slavery, plus the actual military role of working and
fighting in Union campaigns--that actually freed them. By forcing the
emancipation issue onto the agenda, first of military officers, then of
Congress, and finally of Lincoln, it was their actions that led to
freedom.
Clearly, just as the Congress and Lyndon Johnson would not have been
able to pass and sign the civil rights and social legislation of the
1960s apart from a modern civil and human rights movement, so too the
military commanders, the Congress, and Lincoln would not have been able
to achieve what they did without the agitation and movement of the
slaves and their allies. On the other hand, the slaves would not have
become freedmen apart from what these leaders did. Because historical
interpretation has played up the role of white male leaders while
playing down the role of mass movements and leaders of color and women,
our understanding of history has been skewed. Some of the current
``putdown'' of traditional historical interpretation is legitimate
rejection and reaction to his past limited and distorted understanding
and interpretation of our history. The search now, it seems to me,
should be for a more balanced interpretation, which includes striving
to put many forces and multiple players in proper balance and
perspective. That, I think, is what is at issue with regard to the
question: Did Lincoln free the slaves?
To answer this question James M. McPherson says in Drawn With the
Sword that we must first ask: What was ``the essential condition, the
one thing without which it would not have happened? The clear answer is
the war.'' Slavery had existed for nearly two and a half centuries, it
was more deeply entrenched in the South than ever, and every effort at
self-emancipation--and there were plenty--had failed. ``Without the
Civil War there would have been no confiscation act, no Emancipation
Proclamation, no Thirteenth Amendment (not to mention the Fourteenth
and Fifteenth) . . . and almost certainly no end of slavery for several
more decades at least.''
As to the first question, what brought on the war, there are two
interrelated answers. What brought on the war was slavery. What
triggered the war was disunion over the issue of slavery. Disunion
resulted because initially seven and ultimately eleven southern States
saw Lincoln as an antislavery advocate and candidate, running in an
antislavery party on an antislavery platform, who would be an
antislavery president. Rather than abide such a ``Black President'' and
``Black Republican Party,'' southern States led by the Democratic Party
severed their ties to the Union. Through secession, which Lincoln and
the Union refused to accept, they went to war over preserving the
Union. While Lincoln was willing to allow slavery to stand where it
stood from 1854 when he reentered politics onward, Lincoln never
wavered or compromised on one central issue--extension of slavery into
the territories. And while gradualist in approach, Lincoln (and the
slave states of the South) knew this would eventually mean the end of
slavery. It was Lincoln who brought out and sustained all of these
factors.
Thus, while Lincoln's primary emphasis throughout was on saving the
Union, the result of saving the Union was emancipation for the slaves.
If the Union has not been preserved, slavery would not have been ended
and may even have been strengthened. Strategically, Lincoln understood
that the Union was a common-ground issue around which he could rally
the American people, while slavery and antislavery were divisive. And
looked at in perspective, by holding his coalition together around the
issue of the Union, enough Unionists eventually saw the connection
between the two issues that he could ease into emancipation in the
middle of the war--when it gave the North a huge boost.
Even when Lincoln believed he was going to lose the presidency in
August 1864, he said, ``There have been men who proposed to me to
return to slavery the black warriors'' who had fought for the Union. `I
should be damned in time and eternity for so doing. The world shall
know that I will keep my faith to friends and enemies, come what will .
. . In effect, he was saying that he would rather be right than
president . . . As matters turned out . . . he was both right and
president.
Clearly, many slaves did self-emancipate through the Underground
Railroad before the war, and through flight during the war. Even so,
that is not the same as bringing an end to the peculiar institution of
slavery, which only the Civil War and Lincoln's leadership did. By
pronouncing slavery a moral evil that must come to an end and then
winning the presidency in 1860, provoking the South to secede, by
refusing to compromise on the issue of slavery's expansion or no Fort
Sumter, by careful leadership and timing that kept a fragile Union.
Toby--Kunta Kinte.
Toby--Kunta Kinte.
Toby--Kunta Kinte.
Boy your name is Toby!
Today we begin the process of educating America on who Mr. Kinte was!
Today we acknowledge in a small way Mr. Kinte's contribution to the
Union making it more perfect.
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
sponsor of the bill, Mr. Wamp of Tennessee.
Mr. WAMP. I thank the distinguished ranking member and the chairwoman
and Mr. Jackson.
I love this Capitol. I love every square inch of it. I have spent
many, many hours walking people through this Capitol and talking about
the extraordinary history of this place. About 1,700 times I have taken
groups through the Capitol over the last 13 years.
Some of the stories that I have learned about as I share them just
send chills up and down my spine. To think that there were 4,000 Union
troops during the Civil War stationed on Capitol Hill, that 4,000
troops were here at the Capitol during the Civil War.
[[Page H13533]]
And when you go up inside of the Dome, the magnificent Dome, which
around the world is the beacon of freedom, the symbol of hope,
recognizable everywhere in this world, you go up inside of it, and you
ask what the little hooks are hanging there, and they will tell you
that is where they hung the lanterns when Union soldiers would work
side by side with slaves to build that Rotunda in the depths of the
Civil War.
That is a fact that few people know because, as Ms. Norton said, the
story was never told. It was never archived, the incredible commitment
and the irony of the people fighting for the slaves' freedom were
working side by side during the Civil War to build this temple of
freedom. All the history books point out that that is one great and
grave omission in the Capitol history.
A guy named Oz Guiness once told me that the power to convene is
greater than the power to legislate. And we convene here in the
Capitol, people from all over the world, for good causes. The floor
space of the Rotunda, which is the most prominent room in Capitol, is
about 7,500 square feet. As Ms. Norton said, the floor space of this
new hall, which has been called the great hall, is almost three times
that size. It's a magnificent space designed to bring all of the
visitors there to convene them before they enter this temple of
freedom.
I want to answer the question why not the Great Hall, because it has
been referred to as the great hall. But the Great Hall for over 100
years is the foyer, the Great Hall, at the Library of Congress in the
Jefferson building. It is one of the most ornate spaces in the United
States of America. I think it is the most beautiful room in Washington,
D.C. And it is called the Great Hall. The Librarian of Congress told
us, as soon a I became the ranking member of the Legislative Branch
Appropriations Subcommittee in January, that this was a conflict
because the CVC construction adds a tunnel between the Great Hall and
the great hall. On two sides of the tunnel is going to be two great
halls. Are you kidding me? How did we do that? That's confusing. That's
problematic. That diminishes the name and the history for over a
century of the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, which everyone in
this city, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Speakers of the House, know as
the Great Hall. So you can't call this the great hall. So what shall it
be called?
Emancipation brings us all together at a time in this country where
we need things to bring us together. This is a way to honor this
incredible process that led to an event that liberated all people in
this country under our Constitution, not just some. And it was Abraham
Lincoln who was the great emancipator.
So our parties come together today, and I ask the House to join us in
this most important naming. It is important what you name things. It's
important what we name each other. It's important what we call things.
It's important what we call each other. Words matter.
Emancipation liberates us today, the thought of Emancipation Hall,
the largest and most prominent room in this 580,000-square-foot
addition to the Capitol.
Come together, House of Representatives. Come together, United States
Senate. Let us send the message to all who come to this temple of
freedom that emancipation lives on. And with such an important moment
in the learning process of this experiment in freedom and democracy
known as the American Republic, let's come together today.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
Mr. GOHMERT. It is so true that slavery was an abomination and is
even today an abomination. It was a blight on this country's collective
soul, and we can thank God that it has been eliminated.
Emancipation Hall, it does have a great ring to it. It sounds
beautiful and it sounds like it's high time that such a hall were so
named, and it does sound like an appropriate hall.
As I go back, though, and think through the comments and the speeches
of those who were able to get rid of this abomination in this country,
I think about the reasoning they had. Some have said that if there is
no universal standard of right and wrong, if there is no force in the
universe beyond ourselves that is unwavering as to right and wrong,
then people can treat others the way they wish. If we are each god in
our own way, then we can treat each other as we wish.
But I believe, as those who fought so hard to eliminate slavery, that
there is a universal standard of right and wrong, and that is the God
that's referenced ``In God We Trust.''
But as we look throughout the Congressional Visitor Center, we find
the Emancipation Hall will be a great addition, but there ought to be a
basis, some reference, so people know why the emancipation was so
important.
{time} 1245
Yet, as I understand it, the term ``Creator,'' ``we are endowed by a
Creator with certain inalienable rights,'' that's nowhere in the hall;
that's been eliminated. There is no reference to the Lord. The
Constitution is dated in the year of our Lord in 1787. We find out a
couple of weeks ago that ``Laus Deo'' that's on the capstone of the
Washington Monument, meaning ``praise be to God'' has been obliterated
and changed from the display so that people don't know what's up there.
And the capstone itself, the monument replica, is turned where people
can't see it.
We are categorically removing God and references to Creator, to God,
to Lord, from all of these things. And Lincoln, in his addresses,
repeatedly said we pray to the same God, it's in his second inaugural
address, and yet the efforts these days are to eliminate that.
John Quincy Adams' eloquent speeches on the floor of Statuary Hall
over and over and over demanding an end to this abomination, that God
will judge America harshly if we don't eliminate it, Lincoln said,
after he became President, wasn't much happening during those 2 years
he was in the House except for those ``great sermons from that dear man
Adams.''
So I hope that not only can we move forward with naming the hall more
appropriately Emancipation Hall, I think that's wonderful, but I think
that we ought to restore to the plans God, who made it all possible.
Mr. BOOZMAN. I just want to close by thanking Mr. Wamp, the gentleman
from Tennessee, and Mr. Jackson for his help in moving this forward.
This certainly is a very fitting honor. And I ask all of my colleagues
for a resounding ``yes'' vote to this so that we might move forward.
I also want to thank the chairman of the subcommittee for her hard
work in pushing this forward and getting it on the floor.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. NORTON. I would like, also, to thank Mr. Wamp and Mr. Jackson,
who worked very diligently on this bill to reach this point.
I would like to read from the recently released report of the Task
Force on Slavery, on the use of slaves in the Capitol:
``The issue of slavery, in particular, was an embarrassing subject
that did not sit well with squeamish writers. Early histories of the
Capitol were focused on architecture, architects and superintendents,
and not on the workmen who actually implemented the plans and orders.
This situation has changed dramatically in more recent accounts, which
reflect a new respect for all who played a role in the Capitol's
history, including lower-class laborers and slaves. This is the result
of a more inclusive view of history by modern scholars and a relatively
new interest in multi-cultural subjects.''
The report also says, and here, again, I'm quoting: ``It is not
possible to examine the documents of the National Archives related to
the Capitol's early construction without being impressed by the sheer
number of references to `negro hire.' ''
Mr. Speaker, according to the records, the financial records of the
District of Columbia, hundreds of local residents of the District of
Columbia received payments for the work of the slaves they owned here.
Remember, the Capitol of the United States retained slavery until just
before the end of the Civil War. But we should not forget
[[Page H13534]]
that, while it is well enough to acknowledge that slaves were
instrumental in building this building, there is no building from the
19th century that was constructed in this town, no public building, no
building of any note, that was not built in part through the labor of
slaves. This was true throughout the United States. Faneuil Hall in
Boston, the so-called ``Cradle of Liberty,'' was built by slave labor.
The homes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were
constructed with the help of slaves.
They will never be commemorated. What Emancipation Hall will do is to
make Americans want to know more about how much of our country was
built on the backs of slave labor that have never been recognized. And
Emancipation Hall is the place to do it because the visitor center
itself is going to be a giant temple for education about our country,
about our Capitol, and about what has happened in this building. So
when people visit the Capitol and come through Emancipation Hall, there
should be a marker indicating why the great entrance to the visitor
center is named Emancipation Hall. And throughout their visit, as they
travel down the history of our country, which is going to be recorded
there in so many ways, they will be educated about much that has
happened in our country; and for most Americans, this will be the first
time they will have been educated about slaves and their contribution
to the United States of America.
Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker I rise in strong support of H.R. 3315, a
bill to designate the great hall of the Capitol Visitor Center
(``CVC'') as ``Emancipation Hall''. I commend the work of the gentleman
from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Jackson)
for their work in support of this bill.
The United States Capitol and its iconic dome are symbols of
democracy around the world; symbols of the deliberative legislative
process, a place where people debate in the realm of ideas not with
arms, swords, or bombs but with minds and ideas. As America has grown
and changed over its history, so has the Capitol. Beginning next year,
the Capitol will have an extraordinary new addition, the Capitol
Visitor Center. The CVC represents the largest addition to the U.S.
Capitol in its 212-year history.
This facility will host the more than three million people who visit
the Capitol on an annual basis. The great hall will include information
and ticketing desks, and provide an area where Americans from all over
the country can gather to take in scenic views of the Capitol or
prepare to explore the 580,000-square-foot Visitor Center. The CVC will
also include an exhibition gallery, a 550-seat cafeteria, gift shops,
and orientation theaters.
The CVC will provide an opportunity for visitors to learn about the
construction of the Capitol from its very beginning. This education
would not be complete without an acknowledgement of the contribution
slave labor.
In 2004, Congress directed the Architect of the Capitol to produce a
report on the history of slave labor in the construction of the United
States Capitol. Although the record is incomplete because of limited
documentation of slave labor, the evidence available and historical
context provide several indications that slaves and free African
Americans played a significant role in building these historical
monuments.
The U.S. Capitol was constructed during a time when the Potomac
region's population was sparse, but the concentration of slave laborers
was the highest in the nation. Slave labor was an integral component of
the region's workforce. Slave labor was utilized in all aspects of
construction of the Capitol and slaves often worked alongside free
blacks and whites in the areas of carpentry, masonry, carting, and
painting. Many of the products of slave labor are still visible in the
Capitol buildings today and they serve as a reminder of the significant
and undeniable contribution that these individuals made to our nation.
In 2005, the Slave Laborers Task Force was established to study and
recognize the contributions of enslaved African Americans in building
the U.S. Capitol. On November 7, 2007, the Slave Laborers Task Force,
chaired by Representative John Lewis, specifically recommended that the
great hall of the Capitol Visitor Center be designated as
``Emancipation Hall''.
H.R. 3315 acknowledges the historic contributions of slaves and
freedman to the building of the United States Capitol. This bill is a
fitting tribute to those who worked tirelessly, but especially to those
who were slaves and who gave their labor in this citadel of freedom and
democracy.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 3315.
Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I support recognizing emancipation and
honoring the contributions of slaves in the construction of the
Capitol. However, as I discussed in the subcommittee hearing and full
committee markup, I have concerns about renaming the Great Hall of the
Capitol Visitor Center.
Throughout the history of the Capitol, none of the monumental spaces,
such as the House and Senate chambers or the Rotunda, have been named
after specific individuals or events in history. Instead, these great
spaces of the Capitol have long been called by their functional names.
By doing so, all people regardless of their race, ethnic heritage,
contributions, or human travails are equally recognized.
These spaces are dramatic because of their physical settings and the
unique historical events that took place within their walls. Similarly,
the Great Hall of the Capitol Visitor Center will become a monumental
space with its own unique history; and just as those spaces have not
been named, I believe the Great Hall should be reserved and left to
honor all Americans.
While I do not believe it is appropriate to rename the Great Hall, I
do believe that it is important for Congress to acknowledge and honor
the contributions slaves made to the Capitol. In the hearing held by
the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and
Emergency Management and again in the full committee markup of this
legislation, I recommended that other spaces could better acknowledge
emancipation and honor the slaves that helped build the Capitol.
It would be most appropriate to name the exhibition hall that will
provide an important historical context to the name Emancipation Hall.
It would also provide visitors an opportunity to learn about and pay
tribute to emancipation. One of the first recommendations I made as a
member of the Capitol Preservation Commission was to create a first
class museum space within the CVC. I proposed the highest level
museum space so America could exhibit some of the Nation's treasurers--
like the Emancipation Proclamation--which are rarely viewed by the
public.
The exhibition hall will be 16,500 square feet. Outside of the
National Archives Building, this will be our Nation's finest exhibition
space. This hall will not only honor those who built the Capitol, but
provide information about their contributions to American history. This
exhibition hall will display and prominently house the catafalque that
was built to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln--the Great
Emancipator. This is the original funeral bier used as the Great
Emancipator lay in state in the Capitol Rotunda. This hall will contain
permanent exhibits on the Constitution and the post-Civil War
amendments proposed by Congress and ratified by the States to abolish
slavery, to guarantee equal protection under the law, and to ensure the
right to vote.
This beautiful hall will have strong historical and contextual links
to emancipation. It will be the primary venue for acknowledging and
commemorating the slaves who helped build the Capitol and the country.
It will help deepen the understanding of our Nation's long struggle
with slavery and its ultimate abolition for all who visit here. For all
of these reasons, nothing could be more appropriate or significant than
naming this area of the Capitol Visitor Center Emancipation Hall.
Another possible Emancipation naming CVC venue would be the
congressional auditorium. While it does not have the strong links to
emancipation as the exhibition hall, it is the most significant
functional space in the facility, a place where leaders will gather to
discuss important ideas of their time. The auditorium is a grand space
that is being designed to serve as an alternative House Chamber. Except
for the current House and Senate Chambers, no other venue in the
Capitol has such an important purpose. The name Emancipation Hall would
serve as a valuable reminder of courage, leadership, and our unique
commitment to advance the cause of human freedom and fulfill the
promise of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. As such, I
believe it would be appropriate and fitting to name the facility
Emancipation Hall.
In sum, I believe there are more appropriate areas in the Capitol
Visitor Center to name Emancipation Hall. Additionally, we have a
tradition of leaving the monumental spaces of the Capitol un-named. As
a monumental space in, and an introduction to, the Capitol, the Great
Hall should retain its current functional name like the other great
spaces within the Capitol.
Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support
of H.R. 3315, to provide that the great hall of the Capitol Visitor
Center shall be known as Emancipation Hall, and to commend the Slave
Laborers Task Force, led by Congressman John Lewis, and its important
work. As the Task Force concluded, H.R. 3315 helps to fill an important
gap in the history of the Capitol. It is a fitting, albeit overdue,
tribute to the slaves--gifted carpenters, skilled stone masons,
woodworkers, clay makers and other craftsmen--
[[Page H13535]]
who built the Capitol that the Capitol Visitor Center be renamed
Emancipation Hall and celebrate the freeing of all Americans from
bondage, oppression, and restraint.
The Capitol symbolizes our nation's core values of freedom and
liberty and the basic rights of all humans. It symbolizes who we are as
a nation. However, though countless visitors walk its halls each day,
few know the important role slaves played in the construction of the
Capitol.
Many slaves worked in quarries, extracting the stone used to
construct this building. Others were used as carpenters. Women and
children often molded clay in kilns. District of Columbia financial
records show that hundreds of local residents received payment for the
work of slaves, recorded in the ledger as ``Negro hire.'' In all,
hundreds of slaves helped build the Capitol from the late 1700s until
the mid-1800s.
Indeed, it was Philip Reid, a slave laborer who figured out how to
take apart the plaster mold for the ``Freedom'' statue, which still
crowns the dome, beneath which we toil, to allow it to be cast in
bronze. What irony, what symbolism: Slaves built our monument to
freedom; and the ``Freedom'' statue was cast in bronze by a man who was
not free.
Today we have an opportunity to celebrate freedom; to make sure that
every person who visits the Capitol knows that it is for preserving and
protecting freedom that we, as Members of Congress, gather in this
building and work every day; and that it is for liberty, democracy and
freedom--emancipation--that our nation stands.
Emancipation Hall is an important reminder that the floors on which
we walk, the walls that surround us and, yes, the ``Freedom'' statue
atop the Capitol dome, were constructed in significant part by men and
women who knew no liberty and were not free. We should never forget
that.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3315--
legislation which would designate the great hall of the new Capitol
Visitor Center as Emancipation Hall. As Vice Chair of the Legislative
Branch Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, I must note that
similar language was added to H.R. 2771--the House-passed 2008
Legislative Branch appropriations bill.
Mr. Speaker, this recognition is long over due. For nearly two
centuries, the slaves who helped to build our Capitol have been
overlooked, brushed aside, and denied their just recognition. How
ironic that this great building that is viewed world-wide as a symbol
of freedom, a symbol of justice, and a symbol of democracy, was
constructed in part, piece by piece, by those who did not know freedom
nor justice.
That is why I would like to thank the Slave Laborers Task Force,
chaired by Rep. John Lewis, for their diligence and commitment in
ensuring that the slaves who labored to build our Nation's Capitol are
both recognized and honored.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this historic
legislation.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) that the House
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3315.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
____________________