Today I am celebrating April 1, the day that the House of Representatives achieved a quorum and got to work electing its officers. (Before anyone cracks jokes about the link between Congress and April 1st, please remember that The Speaker’s House receives funding from the federal government!)

Let’s review the facts. The U.S. Constitution mandated that Congress meet once a year and the final Continental Congress selected March 4th, 1789, as the opening day of the First Congress. This seems like a relatively simple plan, except the First Congress could not open session on the fourth of March because nearly everyone had trouble arriving at New York City, our nation’s capital at the time, by that day. Since a majority of members could not make it to the City by March 4th, the First Congress could not achieve quorum, and thus, it could not begin its work on opening day. In fact, Congress could not achieve quorum throughout the entire month of March.

You could just hear some of the newly-elected Representatives and Senators, chomping at the bit to begin debating and enacting legislation, crying, “My kingdom for a mass-transit bullet train!” (Likely, one of the more sensitive members chastised them with, “Your what? Kingdom? Don’t you think you want to rephrase that?”)

Frederick Muhlenberg was among those who would have traveled by horse or stage coach, but unlike most of his colleagues, he was present on March 4, 1789 for opening session, according to the Journal of the House of Representatives. Perhaps he discovered a less arduous traveling route or left earlier than the others or just had good luck with the weather. Representative Muhlenberg attended all the March non-session sessions, from March 4th to March 31st. Every day, a few more Congressmen would straggle into New York City’s Federal Hall, incrementally increasing the number of Representatives in attendance but always falling short of making quorum. For 24 days, the First Congress had to record these dreary words, almost Shakespearean in their ominous tone, in the Journal:

But a quorum of the whole number not being present,
The House adjourned until Monday morning eleven o’clock.

It was not until April 1st, 1789 that the House, which had 66 members, achieved quorum and immediately elected Representative Muhlenberg as the first Speaker of the House. So, instead of playing tricks on your co-workers, let’s ask them a trick question: What happened in our nation’s history 220 years ago today?

I refer, of course, to March 4, 1789, the day our nation’s First Congress did not show up for work.

Let me explain…The U.S. Constitution mandated that the Congress meet once a year. Before the final Confederation Congress adjourned in 1788, they chose March 4, 1789 as the opening day of the First Congress and the day on which George Washington would be sworn in as President of the United States. However because of the distances that members of Congress had to travel to convene in New York, the site of the new capital, quorum was not met on the fourth of March. (Those of you who sit on boards may find it reassuring to know that times do not change.) Frederick Muhlenberg was, of course, among those who were traveling to New York, likely by horse or stage coach.
It was not until April 1, 1789 that the House, which had 66 members, reached a quorum, and elected Representative Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as first Speaker of the House. The Senate achieved a quorum on the sixth of April and, at that time, elected its own officers. George Washington was not sworn in as president until April 30th of that same year.

So take this opportunity to celebrate the day that Congress did not show up for work, preferably with beverages and food that have not been luridly colored. You can always do that on March 17th.

This was the sentiment in 1789 when it became known that Frederick Muhlenberg would serve as the first Speaker of the House. One can certainly imagine similar feelings being shared by millions of people throughout the world, as Barack Obama is sworn in Tuesday, January 20, 2009, as the first African American President of the United States. Almost 2 million people braved freezing temperatures to bear witness to what President Obama has described as our “defining moment,” when the past, present and future of our nation, of our culture, of our conscience, merge and crystallize – a milestone of history achieved as President Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.

On April 30th, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated as first President of the United States of America, in the open gallery of the old City Hall (afterward called Federal Hall). The oath of office was administered by Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of the State of New York and New York’s highest ranking judge (there was no Supreme Court yet.) Speaker of the House Frederick Muhlenberg stood by Washington as he was sworn in. Washington then delivered his speech, in which he movingly paid tribute to the forces – known and unknown — that had made the moment possible:

Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency, and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of this united government, the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.

Two hundred and twenty years later, as Mr. Obama takes his oath of office, it too will be an event that “cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established.” Mr. Obama began his victory speech on November 4, 2008, “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our Founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.” I have a feeling that if compatriots Muhlenberg and Washington were here today, they would see the dream – the dream they helped start, the dream which has brought together so many “distinct communities” to our defining moment — as alive and well.

A 19th Century portrait of Frederick A. Muhlenberg is flanked by Joseph Melrose, Jr., President of The Speaker's House Board of Trustees and Allison Weiss, Executive Director, on the left; Mongomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel and Congressman Jim Gerlach (PA-6th District) on the right.

I don’t know about all of you, but I have had a hard time ridding myself of Thanksgiving’s turkey torpor; I found that imbibing thimble-sized glasses of sherry was the wrong way to remove it. My apologies for the long interval between the last blog entry and this one.

Fortunately, I and many other holiday revelers were given the stimulus to re-focus our energies by way of The Speaker’s House’s Annual Meeting, held last Tuesday, December 2, 2008. Superbly organized by the Board, staff and volunteers of The Speaker House, the Annual Meeting had an action-packed agenda, filled with exciting news, ideas and challenges. It was capped by presenting awards to the first recipients of The Speaker’s Choice Awards – U.S. Representative Jim Gerlach (PA-6th District) and Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Hoeffel – for their dedication and tireless efforts to make The Speaker’s House into an inspiring and educational institution.

But in today’s entry, I would like to write about the Annual Meeting’s central item, one which many of us were eagerly awaiting to hear about: progress on the strategic plan under development by The Osiris Group. As previously mentioned in this blog and on The Speaker’s House website, Phase I of the strategic planning process involved Jane Stojak and Steven Sonntag of The Osiris Group, surveying organizations with similar missions and goals to those of The Speaker’s House and conducting interviews and focus groups with dozens of people. After amassing all this data, The Osiris Group considered a variety of ideas and plans that will shape the future of The Speaker’s House and unveiled the results of the first two months of market research at the Annual Meeting, including some preliminary ideas about how The Speaker’s House should plan for its future.

Executive Director Allison Weiss introduces The Osiris Group at the annual meeting.

Based on the first two months of research and community input, The Osiris Group has begun developing outlines of their recommendations. My favorite is, “Speak Out” Community Conversations, which call for making the property a site for conversations about controversial issues that spanned Frederick Muhlenberg’s time and are still hot topics today, e.g., immigration, separation of church & state, human rights, etc. This could be one part of a much larger interpretive plan, but what a great way to make the site relevant to today’s audiences while linking them to the history of Muhlenberg!

In the coming months, I will be writing more about the strategic planning process, but I do want to end with an observation I had: about 60 people attended the Annual Meeting, which I found remarkable for a cold winter Tuesday night. That The Speaker’s House has such a loyal following already, with leaders like Congressman Gerlach and Commissioner Hoeffel who are determined to make The Speaker’s House into a community asset, suggests that while we have hard work ahead of us, we have the energy, passion and commitment needed to succeed.

Help determine the future by voting now!

Posted on our website (www.speakershouse.org) is a link to a short survey. Please participate in the planning of The Speaker’s House by voicing your opinion. It will only take five minutes, but your input will help shape the future of The Speaker’s House.

Have even more to say? Sign up to be part of a focus group by contacting us at info@speakershouse.org. You will be serving a crucial role in planning for the future of Trappe’s most valuable historic resource.

The Past and the Present – and Vice Versa

And now those other two stages of time, past and present. In less than a week, we will mark an important election in our nation’s history. I speak, in this case, not of the election next Tuesday, November 4^th (although I’ve heard rumors over the past two years that may be an important one too,) but the 228^th anniversary of Frederick Muhlenberg’s election to Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly on Monday, November 3^rd.

Hold on a second, you’re thinking. Didn’t you mean, Mr. Muhlenberg’s election to be Speaker of the House? No, you did hear me right – his election to Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and it was an important moment in both our nation’s history and Trappe’s history. Muhlenberg’s first election victory is significant not only because it served as a stepping stone to becoming the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but because it led to his decision to purchase a house – now The Speaker’s House – in Trappe.

Like his father, Muhlenberg was a minister until he switched to a political career in 1779, not realizing he was lowering his earning potential as well as his moral standing. “I have no horse, nor can I afford to keep one,” he lamented. “Believe me, I am not so well off now as when I left the Swamp [New Hanover, his last place of ministry], and if I had not been induced by the urgent appeal of the Germans to accept membership in the Assembly, a resolution in which the large majority of votes I received further confirmed me, I might have been tempted to take again to the apostolate.”1.  New Hanover may have been a swamp, but it was an inexpensive one.

Houses in Trappe must have been less costly than those in the big city of Philadelphia because Muhlenberg bought the large stone house on the main road between Philadelphia and Reading. His decision to settle his family in Trappe was pragmatic for other reasons as well: both Muhlenberg’s and his wife Catherine’s families lived in Trappe and could support Catherine and the children while Muhlenberg lived in a rented apartment and carried out his political duties in Philadelphia. His Trappe residence also served as a place of refuge from his busy (and often tedious) political work in a noisy, crowded city. During a vacation in Trappe in 1782, Muhlenberg wrote his brother:

I enjoy my life; it is true, in the sweat of my brow, yet far from the noise of the City and of the restless political life. Here I am not troubled with clients, petitioners, and the hundred other curious inquirers with whom my house in the City was all the time swarming; but I can comfortably attend to my work in the garden, the field, or the store, – my constitution begins to improve in the wholesome air. 2.

Muhlenberg thought he would soon return to the “wholesome,” bucolic Trappe full-time, believing 1782 would be his last year of public service. But as we know, his political career had just begun taking off.

Next Monday, November 3^rd, please take a moment to recognize the anniversary of Frederick Muhlenberg’s election to Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and its significance today. And when you vote next Tuesday, November 4^th in the presidential and congressional elections, please remember Frederick Muhlenberg’s and our founders’ roles in creating our democracy. With all of its imperfections, we are lucky to have such a government.

The Osiris Group, which was selected after we reviewed proposals submitted by firms all over the country, is a Philadelphia-based business strategy and communications firm.  You may have unwittingly come across one of their most recent projects: developing an outreach strategy for the Municipality of Norristown (or in more common language, developing a Norristown “brand.”)  The Osiris Group does not work exclusively with historic sites, but it was their experience and creativity that excited the Strategic Planning Committee.  Check out this link and you will see what we mean: http://www.osiris-inc.com/_home/osiris_movie/index.html

Throughout the strategic planning process, the Board of Trustees and Executive Director Allison Weiss will be re-examining The Speaker House’s mission, its impact and role in the community, and its role among historic preservation and public history organizations locally, regionally, and nationally.  (Try saying that all in one breath.)   So how do we do that?  In order to make decisions, we need to hear from you, our stakeholders.  During the first two months of the strategic planning process, the Osiris Group will be conducting dozens of interviews with community leaders, preservation specialists, educators, and potential visitors to The Speaker’s House.

This is where you fit in.  Have a strong opinion about the future of The Speaker’s House?  Want to make your voice heard?  Contact us right now (info@speakershouse.org) to be part of a focus group.  This will only take about an hour of your time but you will be serving a crucial role in planning for the future of this historic resource.

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As anyone who has come within ten feet of a news source in the past two years knows, we are in the final stretch of a historic presidential election. Three of the four presidential and vice presidential candidates are firsts in a variety of categories: Senator Barack Obama, of course, is the first black Democratic Party presidential candidate; Senator John McCain is the oldest candidate and, if elected, would be the first President who served in the Vietnam War; and Sarah Palin is the first female Republican vice presidential candidate as well as the first female Alaskan governor. Senator Hillary Clinton was the first female Democratic presidential candidate and came within a hair’s width of winning her party’s nomination. (I don’t want Senator Joe Biden to feel left out; perhaps we can mark his candidacy as the first “third Senator” vice presidential nominee.)

How is this relevant to The Speaker’s House? you may be wondering. Well, we are all about historical firsts at The Speaker’s House, especially when it comes to elections. The first and foremost similarity is that Frederick Muhlenberg ran in our country’s first ever national election. He won his election and became the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in1789. As a result of his position as Speaker of the House, Muhlenberg was the first to sign the Bill of Rights in September 1789.

But Frederick Muhlenberg achieved another historic first — perhaps the most relevant one to today’s presidential election: he was the first German-American to be elected to a national office. (His brother, Peter, was also elected to the First Congress so one could argue he tied Frederick in this category.) Muhlenberg’s election was no small feat. German immigrants were regarded with suspicion and not a little xenophobia, especially newly arrived families who did not speak English.

However, Germans were becoming an important group in the nascent country and had supported the Revolutionaries against the British. As with today’s presidential election, Frederick Muhlenberg’s colleagues weighed the political risk of his candidacy. Muhlenberg historian Lisa Minardi noted in her Master’s thesis, “With the election of [George] Washington, a Virginian, as president, and the New Englander John Adams as vice-president, Congress sought someone for the speakership of the House who would bring political balance to the new government.  Frederick Muhlenberg’s experience as speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, his Pennsylvania roots, and ability to bring out German-speaking voters, was discussed favorably by the members.” A person’s regional and ethnic background seemed to be as important a factor of a candidate’s electability in the late 18^th century as it is today.

Muhlenberg’s achievement of holding an office of high honor filled the German-Americans, settled in and near Philadelphia – including Trappe, with great pride. Upon hearing the news of Muhlenberg’s successful election, a German-language Philadelphia newspaper proclaimed that, “the blood of the grandchildren of our grandchildren will proudly well up in their hearts when they read in the histories of America that the first Speaker of the House…was a German, born of German parents in Pennsylvania.” We hear similar sentiments expressed in the 2008 election by African-Americans in regard to Barack Obama’s nomination and by women from all different backgrounds about both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Pallin’s ascendancies.

The newspapers of the 1700s were right that descendants of the early German settlers would proudly celebrate Muhlenberg’s historic firsts. The lives of Muhlenberg and other prominent German-Americans who have helped make our nation great will be celebrated during German-American Day 2008, September 27^th – October 6^th (or should we say Days since the celebration lasts for 10 days) . A schedule of events can be found at the German-American Day web site: wwwgermanamericanday.org. You’ll find out all about the contributions of America’s largest ethnic group, including when and where the Oktoberfests are happening! Be sure to visit The Speaker’s House on Saturday, September 27 between noon and 3 pm for a tour of the house and grounds.

At The Speaker House’s Pork Bar-b-que and Open House on Saturday, July 26th, we had perfect weather, incredible food and learned what’s been going on at The Speaker’s House since their last open house in July 2007. Even better, we raised much needed funds to continue The Speaker’s House mission and we learned about the fascinating archaeological discoveries at The Speaker’s House from the wonderfully enthusiastic Nick Bendas, an Ursinus College student majoring in history who volunteered last summer during an archaeological survey of The Speaker’s House property. (You can read more about Nick in The Speaker’s Gazette, Summer 2008: http://www.speakershouse.org/pdf/newsletter_summer08.pdf.

We sat under the large graceful maple and walnut trees in The Speaker’s House backyard, experiencing a rare July day of low humidity, savoring succulent pork sandwiches barbequed by Satchmo’s Sandwich Shop (315 E Main Street Collegeville, PA), munching on sweet, cool watermelon and sampling heavenly homemade muffins, cookies and brownies

A cookie-eating expert samples our treats -- and approves!

baked by generous volunteers and all part of a bake sale brainstorm by Carol Royce who works at Ursinus College. Thank you for your tasty culinary contributions!

Nick Bendas gave a group of visitors an impromptu tour of The Speaker’s House exterior, eagerly telling us about the archaeological work he did in summer of 2007 as an intern. He showed us the outline of the general store Frederick Muhlenberg ran to supplement his income (apparently, government salaries have always been on the low side.) The store was constructed c. 1782 and torn down c. 1867. When a mason hired by The Speaker’s House removed stucco from the east side of the building, the outline of the store appeared (check out the next blog entry for more on the general store.) Nick showed the spot he helped dig last year to search for artifacts – the area abuts the east wall exactly where the store would have been and was about 4 feet x 4 feet. He and a team of professional archaeologists led by the firm Kise Straw and Kolodner, found a treasure trove of history: thimbles, pins, buttons made out of bone, ceramic and glass fragments – objects or fragments of objects sold at the 18^th century store.

Nick Bendas, tour guide extraordinaire

“We dug two feet down and found pieces we thought must have been sold in the store,” Nick told us excitedly. “Then we decided to keep going, and sure enough, more turned up a few feet deeper. Some of the items dated back to the 18^th century and others were newer, from the 19^th century – probably discarded or lost.” Nick was also able to tell us about the ages of the different layers of material, exposed when architectural historians removed the outer layer of plaster at some spots on the house. He made the archaeological dig seem so fun and rewarding, I was contemplating joining in on the next dig. Rumor has it that next year’s archaeology dig may be led by Lou Farrell, a graduate student in archaeology at Temple University, and the head of the Upper Perkiomen Archaeology Club.