The convening of the 66th Congress
May 19, 1919
On this date, 435 Members (plus 2 Delegates and 2 Resident Commissioners) gathered in the House Chamber for the opening of the 66th Congress (1919–1921). Speaker of the House Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts presided over the House Chamber, controlled by the new Republican majority. Notably absent from the House was Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had made history in the 65th Congress (1917–1919) by becoming the first woman to serve in Congress. Representative Rankin did not seek re-election to the House in 1918, instead losing her bid for the U.S. Senate. The Congressional Directory listed a variety of professional backgrounds for the all-male membership of the 66th Congress: iron molder, stock raiser, tree surgeon, cheese manufacturer, and glass blower. Freshman Representative James Whitson Dunbar of Indiana described himself as a “political accident.” At the opening session, the House refused to seat Representative-elect Victor Berger of Wisconsin. Speaker Gillett ordered Berger not to take the oath of office due to charges of espionage. His seat remained vacant throughout the Congress. During the first session of the 66th Congress, the House passed (for the second time) the women’s suffrage amendment on May 21, 1919, and the Volstead Act enforcing Prohibition on October 28, 1919. In his remarks to the House, Speaker Gillett declared, “The good feeling and mutual respect which exists today, although it may at times be clouded and dimmed…will at the end of this Congress, I hope be no less general and genuine.”
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