Each week American History tvs american artifacts visits museums and Historic Places and up next we travel to philadelphias Independence National historic park to learn about Congress Hall. The Meeting Place in the u. S. House and senate between 1790 and 1800. Our guide is park Ranger Michael ifill. For we are standing in the house of representatives Call Congress how and was originally most of the history that is when it was but in the years that the city of washington, d. C. Is being built, philadelphia serves as our temporary u. S. Capital. This room serves for the house of representatives. The second floor of the building that we will see in a moment if the United States senate. The house of representatives each representative at that point in our history represented 30,000 people. We had a population in our first sense of about three and three quarters million. We had 106 members of the house would sit in this room and then eventually from 16 states. And the story of philadelphia
Captioning performed by vitac captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 each one is different. Each one has its own sets of governments and own sets of law, and ill use pennsylvania. This room was pennsylvanias legislature. Pennsylvania decides to write a constitution that is so radical for its day that they basically get rid of the position of governor. They are not going to have really a chief executive for pennsylvania anymore. They are going to have a fairly democratically run onehouse legislature as opposed to the standard two houses that most of the states are going to use, that the United States has known throughout its history so pennsylvania has a very different setup. It proves a little too radical to work and our 177 of pennsylvania constitution will last only 14 years. They will have to redo it, go to the traditional two houses of government and legislature setup. This is 1776 that each of these states is going to start itself over. Now, the problem is being al
Philadelphia serves as our temporary u. S. Capital. This room is for the house of representatives. The second floor was the United States senate. The house of representatives, each representative at that point in our history represented 30,000 people. We had a population around 3. 75 million. We had 106 members of the house he would sit in this room, and eventually from 16 states. The story of philadelphia as the u. S. Capital, we are taking the new constitution and doing things like adding new states to the original 13. Also the bill of rights would become a part of our constitution while philadelphia was the capital. In fact, secretary of state Thomas Jefferson would formally announce the amendments to the constitution by basically coming to congress here in this building and officially announcing that we have changed our constitution, which of course, the bill of rights is a huge part of our history and will be in the future a continuing talking point in our political life. But also
We have been projecting that with 290 electoral votes joe biden has won the president ial election he is now the president elect of the United States pennsylvania is the state that put him over the top and he has now also been declared the winner. Youre watching live pictures now from new york we are seeing huge celebrations all across the country however there are a number of gatherings of Trump Supporters out there flags as well in a number of places in pennsylvania and in washington d. C. As well as you can see theyre out on the streets theyve been charging usa usa the other groups of supporters for joe biden have been celebrating his victory well his victory also means that Vice President elect comer harris will be the 1st woman 1st south asian and 1st black person to hold that office she learned all of that news while she was out jogging and was also one of the 1st to congratulate her wedding ring. Wait wait then a very very heavy the next president of the United States. Lets now
I am joined by alley and hope. Hope wright, my dear colleague, began her career at Colonial Williamsburg when she was in the third grade. She was a performer in a play on my own time, and the black music program. She has collaborated with many other departments at the foundation as well as with other museums over the course of her career. She has worked a variety of educational institutions as an actress, story teller, writer, refer, and mentor. Please welcome hope wright. Thank you. Our special guest, ally larson, is a professor of law and director of the bill of rights law. Cynic she joined the william and mary faculty in 2010, she has received many awards including the statewide outstanding faculty award in the rising star category. Professor larson is a scholar of constitutional law and legal institutions with a focus on how information dynamics affect both. Her work has been featured multiple times in various publications and these are just a few of her accomplishments. Please hel