The First Congress faced a unique challenge, and those congressmen and senators who gathered in New York in the spring of 1789 were awed by what lay ahead of them. Not only would members of the Congress have to pass some promised amendments to the new Constitution, but they would have to fill out the bare framework of a government that the Philadelphia Convention had created, including the organization of the executive and judicial departments. Some therefore saw the First Congress as something in the nature of a second constitutional convention.
Ralph Earl (1751—1801)
Oil on canvas. Buckman Tavern, Lexington Historical Society, Lexington, MA.
Oil on canvas; 64 5/8 in. x 49 5/8 in. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.
Engraving on copper; colored. First advertised for sale in New Haven, Connecticut, on 13 December 1775.
Engraving on copper; colored. First advertised for sale in New Haven, Connecticut, on 13 December 1775.
Engraving on copper; colored. First advertised for sale in New Haven, Connecticut, on 13 December 1775.
Engraving on copper; colored. First advertised for sale in New Haven, Connecticut, on 13 December 1775.
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)