New York EXPLAINED
Get the brief

On this day in New York · April 1, 1789

Congress Finally Gets a Quorum

After a month of empty chairs and mounting embarrassment, two late arrivals walked into a room on Wall Street and quietly got the federal government moving.

The facts

House quorum reached
April 1, 1789, at Federal Hall, when Reps. James Schureman of New Jersey and Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania arrived to bring the chamber to 30 members
First Speaker elected
Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, a former Lutheran minister, chosen the same day
Senate quorum reached
April 6, 1789, when Virginia's Richard Henry Lee arrived as the 12th senator out of 22 total
Scheduled start
Congress was due to convene March 4, 1789, but sat without a quorum for nearly a month

The Constitution set March 4, 1789, as the day the new federal government would open for business at Federal Hall on Wall Street, but almost nobody showed up. Roads were bad, travel was slow, and plenty of newly elected members saw no rush to get to New York. The representatives who had actually made the trip sat idle for weeks, stuck short of the 30 members needed to do anything at all. On April 1, Representatives James Schureman of New Jersey and Thomas Scott of Pennsylvania finally arrived and pushed the House past that number, and the chamber immediately elected Frederick A. C. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, a former Lutheran minister, as its first Speaker. The Senate needed five more days to scrape together its own quorum of 12.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. I have never felt greater Mortification in my life[;] to be so long here with the Eyes of all the World on Us & to do nothing, is terrible.

    Sen. William Maclay of Pennsylvania, in a letter to Benjamin Rush, March 1789

    Source: U.S. Senate Historical Office

  2. Being a Quorum, consisting of a majority of the whole number of Senators of the United States.

    Senate Journal, April 6, 1789

    Source: U.S. Senate Historical Office

Why it still matters

The federal government didn't launch with a parade, it launched with a month of stragglers trickling into town. Until the House hit 30 members, Washington couldn't even be certified as president, so two unheralded latecomers effectively unstuck the whole country.

Sources

Get the day it happened, the day it happens.

Every morning brief ends with this day in New York history, and every day adds a page to this almanac. Free, in your inbox.

Free to start. The unsubscribe link actually works.