Until 1890, the minority party in the U.S. House of Representatives could block a vote by “disappearing.” A minority party member would demand a roll call, all the minority party members would remain silent when their name was called, and then the minority party would declare that too few members were “present” for the House to conduct its business. To incoming Speaker of the House Thomas Brackett Reed, who was the head of the majority party, this was a “tyranny of the minority.“ Within the first month of his term, on January 28th, he resolved to break it. When Democrats demanded a roll call and refused to answer to their names, Reed marked them present anyway. When Kentucky representative James B. McCreary objected, Reed said sweetly, “The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?”
There followed a sort of ontological shooting gallery. Democrats hid under their desks and behind screens to avoid being observed to exist. When they tried to flee the chamber entirely, Reed ordered the doors locked, which started a scramble to get out before the next vote. Representative Kilgore of Texas had to kick open a locked door to escape. Amid the howled objections, Confederate general “Fighting Joe” Wheeler came down from the rear “leaping from desk to desk as an ibex leaps from crag to crag,” and one unnamed Texas Democrat “sat in his seat significantly whetting a bowie knife on his boot.” Finally the Republicans mustered a majority even with the Democrats entirely absent, and the battle was over: Reed’s new rules were adopted on February 14.
Okay so I am reading historical things on Lafayette (because this is what Hamilton does to a person) and I am now on just a page about the whole Lafayette family line ect ect
and I find this
I did go to bed at 10, promising myself a rich sleep. Lay two hours vigil; that cursed one single dish of tea! Note: My bed had undergone a thorough ablution and there were no bugs or insects. Got up and attempted to light candle, but in vain; had flint and matches but only some shreds of punk which would not catch. Recollected a gun which I had on my late journey; filled the pan with powder and was just going to flash it when it occurred that though I had not loaded it someone else might; tried and found in it a very heavy charge! What a fine alarm it would have made if I had fired! Then poured out some powder on a piece of paper, put the shreds of punk with it and after fifty essays succeeded in firing the powder ; but it being dark, had put more powder than intended; my shirt caught fire, the papers on my table caught fire, burnt my fingers to a blister (the left hand, fortunately); it seemed like a general conflagration. Succeeded, however, in lighting my candle and passed the night till 5 this morning in smoking, reading, and writing this.
The Private Journal of Aaron Burr, August, 1809, attempting to light a candle with a gun and accidentally setting himself on fire (via yeezymandias)
i like in hamilton how they tell us that the islanders all chipped in to make sure that hamilton could go to the mainland and Make Something Of Himself like HE IS TOO TALENTED TO REMAIN HERE
but then much later its like… “he used to give 6 hour long speeches” and ur like… ok… sure. “would you like to donate to a good cause ma’am” “what cause” “sending alexander hamilton to another continent” “heres my life savings”
“Martha Washington often recalled the two saddest days of her life. The first was December 14, 1799 when her husband died. The second was in January 1801 when Thomas Jefferson visited Mount Vernon. As a close friend explained, “She assured a party of gentlemen, of which I was one…that next to the loss of her husband” Jefferson’s visit was the “most painful occurrence of her life.”
So Thomas Jefferson really liked Giuseppe Ceracchi’s (life-sized) sculpture of Hamilton, and got a copy of it for his entrance hall at Monticello. Then he set up a bust of himself across from it, so that anyone walking through the main entrance had to walk between the two. Which, you know, is petty and weird enough as it is. But apparently Jefferson’s bust was “colossal” and set up on this super ornate green marble pedestal so that it was waaaay bigger and more impressive than Hamilton’s. Literal children.
“Jefferson went to his grave struggling to cast his relationship with
Hamilton in the right light, trying to depict himself as a liberal,
right-minded leader rather than the petty and vindictive politician he
often appeared to be. It was concern for his reputation that inspired
him to put Hamilton’s bust in the main entrance way to Monticello; there
could be no nobler act than to acknowledge the greatness of one’s
enemies – and only the greatest of men could defeat such a foe.
Positioned in Jefferson’s American museum alongside Indian artifacts and
moose antlers, Hamilton’s bust is a political hunting trophy, evidence
of the path not taken and the superiority of those who chose the right
course.”
ok but i feel like after hamilton i can’t take the founding fathers seriously anymore like
mention john adams and all i think about is ‘tell my wife john adams doesn’t have a real job anyway’
mention james madison and all i think about is ‘madison u made as a hatter so take ur medicine’
mention thomas jefferson and all i think about is ‘stayin mellow doin whatever the hell it is u do in monticello’
mention george washington and all i think about is [jefferson voice] daddy’s calling’
idk this is becoming a problem
tbh I don’t really see it as a problem? like the founding fathers are not serious they’re ridiculous and petty and self absorbed and absolutely flawed human beings and i think the musical does a great job of conveying that! and it’s important is because everyone tries to portray the founding fathers as this monolithic group of intelligence and justice and bravery and they really…. weren’t. gouverneur morris literally dies by shoving a whalebone up his dick. aaron burr tries to start his own empire in the southwest and is tried for treason (and if I’m not mistaken i think one of his defense attorneys is luther martin, aka the former attorney general of maryland and most abrasive– but also most strongly anti-slavery– asshole at the constitutional convention). alexander hamilton literally tries to fight the entire democratic-republican party. like, these guys are ridiculous and they all have vastly different viewpoints and everyone glorifies them and tries to use them in their political arguments (take a shot every time u hear someone say “but the founding fathers believed” like which fucking founding father i want citations) and it’s popular media like hamilton that humanizes them, that makes people realize that they really weren’t just a bunch of boring marble statues who were somehow more enlightened or superhuman than the rest of us.
so like this is all true, but I just want to add that one of the most frustrating/hilarious parts of doing constitutional law is that a huge amount of the time when even super eminent people say “the Founding Fathers believed” they mean “the Federalist Papers say.” Aka “Hamilton specifically writing in his most propagandistic mode believed”. Aka “the man with the most opinions in the history of opinions believed, and probably no one else.”
I am mostly into (as u say @crossedwires) the mythological retelling aspect of the musical but if ONE originalist sees this show and thinks “wait…….these documents were not delicately handcrafted out of marble and a lot of the people who wrote them were habitual liars and the best interpretive guide we have to the Constitution was written by a guy whose idea of compromise was the Reynolds Pamphlet…………” I will be very satisfied.
wait can we go back to the thing about morris
you can’t just casually drop “dies by shoving a whalebone up his dick” into the discourse and then move on
Odd bless America.
*raises hand* wait, I too would like more detail about death by whale bone sounding, what the actual fuck.
according to wiki: Morris died on November 6, 1816 after causing himself internal injuries
and an infection while using a piece of whale bone as a catheter to
attempt clearing a blockage in his urinary tract.
See? “The Founding Fathers” wanted us to all have access to medical care.
I can’t decide whether, if Alexander Hamilton miraculously came alive and was able to see his own show and the fervor surrounding it, would be
(1) delighted at the attention
(2) considering how to leverage it for some kind of political power
(3) pissed as hell because OH MY GOD there are minute details that are WRONG where is Lin-Manuel they gonna have a FIGHT
ok but i feel like after hamilton i can’t take the founding fathers seriously anymore like
mention john adams and all i think about is ‘tell my wife john adams doesn’t have a real job anyway’
mention james madison and all i think about is ‘madison u made as a hatter so take ur medicine’
mention thomas jefferson and all i think about is ‘stayin mellow doin whatever the hell it is u do in monticello’
mention george washington and all i think about is [jefferson voice] daddy’s calling’
idk this is becoming a problem
tbh I don’t really see it as a problem? like the founding fathers are not serious they’re ridiculous and petty and self absorbed and absolutely flawed human beings and i think the musical does a great job of conveying that! and it’s important is because everyone tries to portray the founding fathers as this monolithic group of intelligence and justice and bravery and they really…. weren’t. gouverneur morris literally dies by shoving a whalebone up his dick. aaron burr tries to start his own empire in the southwest and is tried for treason (and if I’m not mistaken i think one of his defense attorneys is luther martin, aka the former attorney general of maryland and most abrasive– but also most strongly anti-slavery– asshole at the constitutional convention). alexander hamilton literally tries to fight the entire democratic-republican party. like, these guys are ridiculous and they all have vastly different viewpoints and everyone glorifies them and tries to use them in their political arguments (take a shot every time u hear someone say “but the founding fathers believed” like which fucking founding father i want citations) and it’s popular media like hamilton that humanizes them, that makes people realize that they really weren’t just a bunch of boring marble statues who were somehow more enlightened or superhuman than the rest of us.
so like this is all true, but I just want to add that one of the most frustrating/hilarious parts of doing constitutional law is that a huge amount of the time when even super eminent people say “the Founding Fathers believed” they mean “the Federalist Papers say.” Aka “Hamilton specifically writing in his most propagandistic mode believed”. Aka “the man with the most opinions in the history of opinions believed, and probably no one else.”
I am mostly into (as u say @crossedwires) the mythological retelling aspect of the musical but if ONE originalist sees this show and thinks “wait…….these documents were not delicately handcrafted out of marble and a lot of the people who wrote them were habitual liars and the best interpretive guide we have to the Constitution was written by a guy whose idea of compromise was the Reynolds Pamphlet…………” I will be very satisfied.
wait can we go back to the thing about morris
you can’t just casually drop “dies by shoving a whalebone up his dick” into the discourse and then move on
Kimchi and Justice 