Welcome to the Deep Dive. We have a massive amount
of ground to cover today. We really do. Today's
mission is an exploration of the surprisingly
dramatic, intensely consequential, and constantly
evolving history of the United States Senate.
And we're basing this entirely on a comprehensive
Wikipedia history of the institution. Exactly.
So if you are listening to this, you're the learner
here. You probably look at the modern Senate
and see this maze of complex rules, parliamentary
procedures, and, well, frequent gridlock. Right.
It can look pretty dry from the outside. But
our goal today is to demystify all of that. We
want to show you how a single 5 -4 vote at the
1787 Constitutional Convention, the Connecticut
Compromise, basically created this legislative
body that would completely shape the nation.
It really proves the Senate is far more than
just a boring room where bills go to die. Okay,
let's unpack this. We have to start with the
wild early days of the Senate. Yeah, the early
days are fascinating. Because the very first
Congress met in 1789, they were in New York City,
and they held their Senate sessions in complete
secrecy. Completely locked down. I mean, no journalists,
no public spectators allowed in the galleries,
nothing. It sounds so bizarre to us now. Right.
But there is a reason for it. It really matters.
The founders intended the Senate to be a much
slower, more deliberate check on the House of
Representatives. Because the House was supposed
to be the voice of the people. Exactly. The House
was reacting to the passions of the day. But
the Senate... They locked the doors so they could
debate without that immediate public pressure.
Wow. And you see this culture solidify early
on. Take the 1804 impeachment acquittal of Supreme
Court Justice Samuel Chase. Right. That was a
huge moment. It was. The House impeached him
basically over political differences, but the
Senate acquitted him. And Aaron Burr, who was
vice president at the time. He actually presided
over that trial, right? He did. And he gave this
famous farewell quote right after. He called
the Senate a sanctuary, a citadel of law and
order meant to resist the storms of political
frenzy. The storms of political frenzy. I love
that 19th century language. It's very traumatic.
But those storms were very real, which brings
us to the 1820s through the 1860s, the crucible
of slavery and sectional conflict. This is where
that structural imbalance really takes center
stage. Right, because the defining feature of
the Senate is equal representation. Every state
gets two votes, regardless of population. And
that made it the ultimate battleground for the
issue of slavery. Because the North's population
was just exploding at this time. Exactly. The
North easily took control of the House of Representatives
because of their population size. But the Senate...
That was a different story. The Senate allowed
the slave states to maintain this incredibly
powerful grip on the legislative agenda. They
absolutely needed to keep a perfect balance of
free and slave states to hold on to that power.
Which led to some incredibly intense moments,
like the Webster -Hain debate of 1830. Oh, that
was huge. New England pitted directly against
the South. Just massive sectional tension, and
lawmakers were constantly trying to pass legislation
to keep the country from falling apart. You had
the Missouri Compromise of 1820. And then the
compromise of 1850 later on. But the tension
kept building until it reached a literal boiling
point. This detail is just shocking. In 1856,
Senator Charles Sumner gave a speech heavily
criticizing slavery. And then a few days later.
A representative, Preston Brooks, walked right
onto the Senate floor and physically assaulted
Sumner. He beat him with a metal -topped cane.
Right at his desk. beaten unconscious over a
speech, it just emphasizes how insanely high
the stakes were. It really does. And I want to
ask, what stands out to you listening to this?
It's a great question to think about. Because
we often think of rules, like equal state representation,
as just procedural math. But you have to think
about how these structural rules can literally
dictate the fate of millions of lives. Yeah.
This mathematical rule pushed an entire nation
towards civil war. It's heavy. And it changes
the way you look at the institution. Definitely.
Moving forward post -Civil War. From 1865 to
1945, we move from the Gilded Age power brokers
to the era of direct democracy. Which is a massive
transition. Because right after the Civil War,
senators were still not elected by the people.
They were chosen by state legislatures. Which
meant wealthy financiers and party bosses essentially
ran the chamber. People like Nelson Aldrich.
The Millionaire's Club. Exactly. But even in
that super restrictive era, we see some incredible
trailblazers, like Hiram Revels. The first African
-American senator. Right, in 1870. And his seating
wasn't easy. He had to survive a 48 to 8 vote
just to take his seat because members formally
objected. And he got in. He did. And he was followed
by Blanche Bruce. Plus, in 1907, Charles Curtis
became the first Native American senator. some
really significant firsts during a very elite
time. But here's where it gets really interesting.
Now, the 17th Amendment? Yes, 1913. The 17th
Amendment fundamentally changes everything. It
mandated the direct popular election of senators.
If we connect this to the bigger picture, being
accountable to actual voters suddenly changed
the entire face of the Senate. They actually
had to campaign. Right. And because of that,
The demographics started to shift. You get the
first woman elected, Hattie Caraway, in 1932.
And Dena Chavez in 1935, the first Latino elected
to a full term. The democratization of the chamber
was really underway. But while who was in the
chamber changed, the rules of debate were still
wild. Let's talk about the filibuster. The famous
filibuster. It was actually rarely used until
World War One. There was this small group of
senators who completely blocked a bill to arm
U .S. merchant ships. President Woodrow Wilson
was furious about that. Live it. He called them
a little group of willful men. And that public
fury led directly to the 1917 creation of the
cloture rule, a way to actually end debate, which
originally required a massive two thirds vote
to pull off. Right. So moving into our third
section here, the modern Senate, we're looking
at 1945 to the present, independence, the Cold
War, and civil rights. The modern era really
shows the Senate flexing its institutional muscles.
Oh, absolutely. They weren't afraid to stand
up to massively popular presidents. Like in 1937,
FDR tried to push his court packing plan. And
he was at the height of his popularity. But the
Senate flat out rejected it. They protected their
institutional norms. And you see that global
focus shift, too, right after World War II. Managing
the Cold War. Exactly. They ratified NATO, approved
the Marshall Plan. It became heavily focused
on global foreign policy. But domestically, things
got very dark in the 1950s. The McCarthy era.
Yeah. Senator Joe McCarthy leading these massive
anti -communist investigations. He used his committee
power to make these sweeping accusations, ruining
lives across government in Hollywood. But ultimately,
the Senate policed its own. In 1954, they formally
censured him in a 67 to 22 vote. Which effectively
ended his influence. And right around that same
time, you have the rise of Lyndon B. Johnson.
LBJ, the master of the Senate. He practically
invented the modern majority leader rule. He
used it to just completely dominate the chamber.
He used every trick in the book to push through
the 1957 Civil Rights Act. And the rules kept
evolving. In 1975, they lowered that cloture
rule threshold from two thirds down to three
fifths, making it slightly easier to break a
filibuster, though it's still a huge hurdle today.
Definitely. Now, looking at the modern era, it
is just a joy to run through the rapid expansion
of representation we've seen. It really accelerates
here. Hiram Fong became the first Asian -American
senator in 1959. Edward W. Brook in 1966. Carol
Moseley Braun became the first African -American
woman elected in 1992. Tammy Baldwin, the first
openly gay senator in 2012. Catherine Cortez
Masto, the first Latina in 2017. The momentum
is incredible. And even just looking at 2020.
25 milestones. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Angela
Alsobrook serving simultaneously. Andy Kim is
the first Korean -American. It's a completely
different chamber than the one in 1789. And we
should give a nod to the non -elected trailblazers,
too. People like Paulette DeSalle, the first
female page, and Kathy Alvarez, the first female
legislative clerk. They broke massive barriers
behind the scenes. OK, so we wrap up. I have
to mention this fun fact from the text. 17 US
presidents used the Senate as a stepping stone.
That's a huge number. Truman, JFK, LBJ, Nixon,
Obama, Biden. The list goes on. It's the ultimate
proving ground for a national profile. So what
does this all mean? We started with a secretive
elite club of men chosen by state legislatures
in a locked room. And we tracked it all the way
to a transparent, directly elected body. A body
that still grapples with immense power, constant
filibusters, and trying to represent a highly
diverse nation. At the end of the day, the Senate
was designed by the founders to force compromise.
To slow things down. Exactly. To slow down the
passions of the day for better or worse. For
better or worse. And I want to leave you, the
listener, with a final thought to mull over.
Go for it. The Senate was originally built to
be isolated from popular opinion. They were chosen
by state legislatures, yet they gave equal voting
power to every single state. Right. But now,
the 17th Amendment has subjected senators to
direct democracy. Yet the massive population
disparities between modern states remain equally
represented. That's a huge tension. So does the
current Senate function as the constitutional
framers intended, or has it mutated into a fundamentally
different institution that is just trapped inside
its original 1787 architecture? Wow. That is
an incredibly provocative thought to end on,
a mutated institution trapped in its original
architecture. Well, thank you for joining us
on this deep dive. We hope you feel a little
more equipped to understand the history echoing
through the halls of the Capitol today. Keep
learning and we'll catch you next time.