David Broderick of California became the only sitting senator to die as a result of injuries suffered in a duel. Several days earlier, in the midst of a bitter state political campaign, Broderick had charged that California's chief justice was corrupt and unfit for office. Urged to recant, Broderick merely repeated the charge more loudly. When Chief Justice David Terry heard of the slander, he demanded justice. Terry resigned his office and challenged Broderick to a duel. After Broderick discharged his pistol into the sand, Terry coolly aimed, fired, and shot Broderick in the chest. He died three days later.
The framers signed the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia. In 1956 Congress established Constitution Week to encourage all Americans to learn more about this founding document. Each year Constitution week begins on September 17th. In 2004, Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia included key provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2005 designating September 17th of each year as Constitution Day and requiring public schools and governmental offices to provide educational programs to promote a better understanding of the Constitution.
A small group of invited guests and onlookers attended an elaborate ceremony to place the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol Building in the District of Columbia. Observers watched as President George Washington lay an engraved, silver-plated plate in the foundation trench and then placed the cornerstone atop it. The stone was blessed with corn, wine, and oil. Artillery blasts marked the historic occasion. Later those in attendance enjoyed a fine meal of barbequed ox. Since 1793, as the Capitol has been enlarged and expanded, efforts to locate the original cornerstone have proven futile.
The Senate convened in the Patent Office building, also known as Blodgett's Hotel, in a state of profound crisis. Four weeks earlier, invading British troops had reduced all but one of Washington's major public buildings to smoking rubble. In March 1815 members authorized President James Madison to borrow from local banks to rebuild, on their existing sites, the Capitol, White House, and cabinet quarters. When Congress returned in December, they moved to a new temporary structure on the site of today's Supreme Court Building. They hoped it would be a brief stay, but construction delays and cost overruns kept them there for another four years.
President James A. Garfield succumbed to bullet wounds sustained by an assassin. Vice President Chester A. Arthur's succession to the presidency removed him from the Senate at a time when his tie-breaking vote was of special importance. For the first time in its history, the body stood equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. Two independent members, William Mahone of Virginia and David Davis of Illinois helped shape institutional decisions. When Arthur took the president's oath, the parties in the Senate declared a truce. For the balance of that Congress, Republicans controlled the committees and Democrats managed the patronage.
