WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.060 Welcome to the deep dive. We are spending our 00:00:03.060 --> 00:00:05.179 time today unpacking a piece of source material 00:00:05.179 --> 00:00:08.740 that might not seem at first glance like a pulse 00:00:08.740 --> 00:00:10.839 pounding thriller. No, it really doesn't sound 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.119 like one. Right. We are actually looking at a 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:15.939 Wikipedia article titled List of United States 00:00:15.939 --> 00:00:18.660 Senators from Rhode Island. So, you know, you're 00:00:18.660 --> 00:00:22.179 looking at rows, columns, names, dates, political 00:00:22.179 --> 00:00:24.940 party affiliations. Just a lot of raw data. Exactly. 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:28.350 And there's this. very unassuming column on the 00:00:28.350 --> 00:00:31.730 far right labeled electoral history. But our 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:33.990 mission today is to show you how this seemingly 00:00:33.990 --> 00:00:37.270 straightforward table is actually a hidden ledger 00:00:37.270 --> 00:00:39.170 of American political history. It really is. 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:42.920 The formatting of a spreadsheet often. It masks 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:45.719 the human drama behind the data. Yeah, when you 00:00:45.719 --> 00:00:47.640 start tracking the timeline and actually reading 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:49.439 the footnotes, you uncover a story about political 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:51.780 musical chairs, deeply entrenched family dynasties, 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.539 unexpected tragedies. And highly calculated strategic 00:00:54.539 --> 00:00:57.380 gamesmanship. Yes. Rhode Island is a particularly 00:00:57.380 --> 00:00:59.759 compelling case study for this because the state 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:01.640 has been part of the congressional record since 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:04.459 the very earliest days of the nation. Which means 00:01:04.459 --> 00:01:07.280 looking at this single state's delegation over 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:10.859 time provides a perfect microcosm of the entire 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.659 American population. So let's set the stage by 00:01:13.659 --> 00:01:15.579 looking at the very top of our source document. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.340 The text notes that Rhode Island ratified the 00:01:18.340 --> 00:01:21.700 United States Constitution on May 29th, 1790. 00:01:22.349 --> 00:01:24.450 But they didn't elect their first U .S. senators 00:01:24.450 --> 00:01:28.250 until over a week later. Right. On June 7, 1790. 00:01:28.409 --> 00:01:30.829 Yep. Which is when Theodore Foster and Joseph 00:01:30.829 --> 00:01:33.530 Stanton Jr. officially took office. And from 00:01:33.530 --> 00:01:36.329 that June day in 1790 all the way down to the 00:01:36.329 --> 00:01:39.069 present day, this list tracks two completely 00:01:39.069 --> 00:01:41.870 distinct columns of political power. The class 00:01:41.870 --> 00:01:44.329 one Senate seat and the class two Senate seat. 00:01:44.730 --> 00:01:46.810 And understanding the architecture of those two 00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:49.290 classes is essential before we even look at the 00:01:49.290 --> 00:01:50.810 people who filled them. Because it wasn't an 00:01:50.810 --> 00:01:53.709 accident. No. The founders deliberately divided 00:01:53.709 --> 00:01:55.810 the United States Senate into staggered classes. 00:01:56.269 --> 00:01:58.349 They wanted to ensure that the chamber was never 00:01:58.349 --> 00:02:00.670 entirely replaced in a single election cycle. 00:02:00.829 --> 00:02:03.530 Makes sense. By creating Class 1, Class 2, and 00:02:03.530 --> 00:02:06.150 Class 3 seats across the country, they guaranteed 00:02:06.150 --> 00:02:08.370 that only a third of the Senate would ever face 00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:12.020 reelection at a time. So our source tracks the 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:14.080 individuals who held Rhode Island's class one 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.560 seat and then completely separately tracks the 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:18.300 individuals who held the class two seat over 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:20.120 the span of centuries. And when you track them 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:23.340 side by side, the data reveals a massive shift 00:02:23.340 --> 00:02:26.120 in how American politicians actually treat the 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:28.659 job. OK, let's unpack this, because the first 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:30.879 major theme jumping out of this table is the 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.020 sheer unadulterated chaos of the late 1700s and 00:02:35.020 --> 00:02:37.759 the 1800s. Chaos is definitely the right word 00:02:37.759 --> 00:02:39.319 for it. I mean, looking at the modern. rows, 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:41.840 you see solid multi -decade blocks of service. 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:44.400 A modern senator gets elected, serves their six 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:46.939 years and usually runs again. But scanning the 00:02:46.939 --> 00:02:49.159 early years of this list reveals a total revolving 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.419 door. Between 1793 and the 1820s, almost no one 00:02:53.419 --> 00:02:55.300 wanted to stay in this job. What's fascinating 00:02:55.300 --> 00:02:58.120 here is when you look purely at the data, the 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:00.159 attrition rate in the early republic is just 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.780 staggering. Following the timeline row by row, 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.939 you realize how exceptionally rare it was for 00:03:06.939 --> 00:03:09.740 an early politician to actually complete a standard 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:12.240 six -year term. It's just a repetitive string 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.159 of the words resigned and died in that electoral 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:17.419 history column. Exactly. It paints a picture 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:19.539 of a role that was incredibly turbulent. You 00:03:19.539 --> 00:03:21.919 have a cascade of figures all throwing in the 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:25.340 towel. Just looking at class two, William Bradford 00:03:25.340 --> 00:03:28.560 was elected in 1793, but the table notes he resigned 00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:32.439 in October 1797. So Ray Green is elected to finish 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:35.259 that term, gets reelected in 1798, and then he 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.819 resigns in 1801. And he just keeps going. Yeah. 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:40.599 James Fenner resigns in 1807. Christopher G. 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:43.560 Champlin resigns in 1811. Over in class one, 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:46.240 James D. Wolfe takes office in 1821, and he's 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:49.020 gone by 1825. It really makes you wonder if the 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:51.000 commute to Washington on horseback was just that 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:52.860 miserable, or if the political... climate was 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:55.259 already that toxic? Well, it was likely a combination 00:03:55.259 --> 00:03:58.500 of both, alongside the reality of what the federal 00:03:58.500 --> 00:04:01.080 government actually was at that time. Serving 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.680 as a senator in the early 1800s was not the pinnacle 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.080 of a lifelong career that it's often considered 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:09.819 today. Right. Washington, D .C. was basically... 00:04:09.819 --> 00:04:12.259 Largely an undeveloped swamp. Yeah. The travel 00:04:12.259 --> 00:04:14.060 was arduous. The living conditions away from 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:16.500 home were poor. And the federal government simply 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:18.839 didn't yield the kind of localized day -to -day 00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.579 power that state -level politics did. So it was 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:24.139 more of a burden. For many of these men, going 00:04:24.139 --> 00:04:26.500 to Washington was a grueling duty, not a glamorous 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:29.439 prize. Once they felt they had done their part... 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:31.589 Or when the physical toll became too much, they 00:04:31.589 --> 00:04:34.110 simply walked away. And that physical toll is 00:04:34.110 --> 00:04:36.769 the other massive factor driving this early turnover. 00:04:37.069 --> 00:04:39.089 It wasn't just men deciding they were done with 00:04:39.089 --> 00:04:41.709 the job. It was men dying in office at an alarming 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:45.000 rate. The list of deaths is notable. Samuel J. 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:48.100 Potter took office in 1803 and died in October 00:04:48.100 --> 00:04:52.420 1804. Francis Malbone took office in March 1809, 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.500 and the source notes he died in June 1809. Just 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:58.699 three months into his term. Three months. James 00:04:58.699 --> 00:05:02.220 Burrell Jr. died on Christmas Day, 1820. Nathan 00:05:02.220 --> 00:05:06.350 F. Dixon I died in January 1842. When we see 00:05:06.350 --> 00:05:08.850 a cluster of deaths like Potter and Malbone dying 00:05:08.850 --> 00:05:11.550 within months of taking office, it serves as 00:05:11.550 --> 00:05:13.790 a stark reminder of the actual health hazards 00:05:13.790 --> 00:05:16.970 of the era. The environment was notoriously disease 00:05:16.970 --> 00:05:19.649 -ridden. And practically speaking, this constant 00:05:19.649 --> 00:05:22.329 stream of death and resignation meant Rhode Island's 00:05:22.329 --> 00:05:25.269 representation was heavily fragmented. Very much 00:05:25.269 --> 00:05:28.129 so. The state was constantly scrambling to fill 00:05:28.129 --> 00:05:30.740 vacant seats. You see these short gaps in the 00:05:30.740 --> 00:05:32.879 dates on the table. A seat left vacant for a 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:35.180 month or sometimes just a few days before someone 00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:37.100 new is quickly appointed or elected to patch 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:39.120 the hole. It prevented the state from building 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:41.680 any kind of long -term leverage or seniority 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.000 in the chamber. Precisely. And while the personnel 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.279 was constantly changing, so were the political 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:48.939 parties. Oh, the party labels are wild. Today, 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.379 the columns are a solid wall of Democrats and 00:05:51.379 --> 00:05:55.220 Republicans. But scanning the 1700s and 1800s, 00:05:55.220 --> 00:05:57.439 it looks like a primordial soup of political 00:05:57.439 --> 00:05:59.589 factions. That's a great way to put it. Right 00:05:59.589 --> 00:06:01.649 at the beginning, Theodore Foster and Joseph 00:06:01.649 --> 00:06:04.149 Stanton Jr. are listed not with modern party 00:06:04.149 --> 00:06:07.430 names, but simply as pro -administration and 00:06:07.430 --> 00:06:10.370 anti -administration. That terminology really 00:06:10.370 --> 00:06:12.350 highlights how the country was trying to figure 00:06:12.350 --> 00:06:15.250 out what a political faction even was in those 00:06:15.250 --> 00:06:18.230 initial years. There wasn't a formal national 00:06:18.230 --> 00:06:20.250 party infrastructure yet. You were just either 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:23.829 for the president or against him. Exactly. Politicians 00:06:23.829 --> 00:06:26.029 were largely defined by whether they supported 00:06:26.029 --> 00:06:28.350 the current executive administration's agenda. 00:06:28.829 --> 00:06:31.410 or opposed it. As you scroll down the decades, 00:06:31.689 --> 00:06:34.410 you can literally watch the modern party system 00:06:34.410 --> 00:06:37.509 slowly organize itself out of those broad alliances. 00:06:37.790 --> 00:06:40.370 We shift from those administration labels into 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:43.410 the Federalist and Democratic Republican eras. 00:06:43.589 --> 00:06:45.790 The Democratic Republicans become incredibly 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:48.329 dominant on this list by the 1820s. And then 00:06:48.329 --> 00:06:50.790 the National Republican label emerges. Followed 00:06:50.790 --> 00:06:52.889 by the Whig Party, which really takes a stronghold 00:06:52.889 --> 00:06:55.209 in Rhode Island politics in the 1830s and 40s. 00:06:55.250 --> 00:06:57.350 But mixed in with these broader movements are 00:06:57.350 --> 00:07:01.670 incredibly specific. The anomalies are always 00:07:01.670 --> 00:07:03.730 the most revealing. The most striking example 00:07:03.730 --> 00:07:06.709 is John Brown Francis. The source shows he was 00:07:06.709 --> 00:07:09.850 elected in 1844 to finish a vacant term, and 00:07:09.850 --> 00:07:13.709 his party affiliation is listed as Law and order. 00:07:13.829 --> 00:07:18.189 A label like law and order in 1844 is a massive 00:07:18.189 --> 00:07:20.649 clue about the local political climate of Rhode 00:07:20.649 --> 00:07:23.509 Island at that exact moment. Yeah. It reminds 00:07:23.509 --> 00:07:25.990 us that the two party system we consider so foundational 00:07:25.990 --> 00:07:29.290 today was highly fluid. It wasn't locked in yet. 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:31.889 Not at all. Yeah. When a state experienced extreme 00:07:31.889 --> 00:07:35.029 internal turmoil or specific crisis, localized 00:07:35.029 --> 00:07:37.129 parties would spring up to address that single 00:07:37.129 --> 00:07:39.329 issue. You didn't always need a national platform 00:07:39.329 --> 00:07:41.670 to win a Senate seat. Sometimes you just needed. 00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:43.680 to represent the prevailing mood of the local 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:45.699 power brokers who were making the decisions. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:47.839 And if the localized power game was already that 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:50.040 intense, it sets the stage perfectly for the 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.639 next era of this list. Because as we move into 00:07:52.639 --> 00:07:55.240 the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the chaos 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.639 of people resigning and dying is replaced by 00:07:57.639 --> 00:07:59.420 a completely different kind of institutional 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:01.600 breakdown. A mechanical breakdown. I want to 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:03.879 draw your attention to a wildly intriguing anomaly 00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:07.500 from the year 1907 in the class one seat. George 00:08:07.500 --> 00:08:09.500 P. Wetmore was the Republican senator holding 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:14.529 that seat. His term ended on March 3, 1907. But 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:16.709 for the next row on the table, spanning from 00:08:16.709 --> 00:08:20.970 March 4, 1907 to January 22, 1908, the seat is 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:24.029 simply listed as vacant. And the electoral history 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:26.689 column provides the reason. It says, legislature 00:08:26.689 --> 00:08:30.420 failed to elect. That five -word phrase. legislature 00:08:30.420 --> 00:08:32.919 failed to elect, carries a massive amount of 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:35.179 historical and mechanical weight. I mean, for 00:08:35.179 --> 00:08:37.720 almost an entire year, Rhode Island only had 00:08:37.720 --> 00:08:39.980 one senator in Washington, D .C., because the 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:41.679 state couldn't figure out who to put in the other 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:43.500 chair. The gears of government just completely 00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:45.659 ground to a halt. They do. And the resolution 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:48.240 to this nearly year -long deadlock is perfectly 00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.580 ironic. On January 20, 1908, they finally managed 00:08:51.580 --> 00:08:53.340 to elect someone to fill the term. And who was 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:55.600 it? George P. Wetmore, the exact same guy whose 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:57.600 turn had ended the year before. He essentially 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.210 waited out the gridlock. and returned to the 00:09:00.210 --> 00:09:02.850 seat he had vacated. But the critical detail 00:09:02.850 --> 00:09:06.289 to examine here is the word legislature itself. 00:09:06.889 --> 00:09:10.350 It explicitly says the state legislature failed 00:09:10.350 --> 00:09:13.090 to elect him. Which feels weird to a modern voter. 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:15.409 Right. If you are accustomed to how senators 00:09:15.409 --> 00:09:18.049 are chosen today by the general public going 00:09:18.049 --> 00:09:21.070 to the ballot box and voting directly, that phrasing 00:09:21.070 --> 00:09:23.750 doesn't make sense. The general public doesn't 00:09:23.750 --> 00:09:26.649 fail to elect someone. They just count the votes 00:09:26.649 --> 00:09:28.980 and declare a winner. This detail highlights 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.539 that originally, the power to choose U .S. senators 00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:34.960 belonged entirely to state legislatures. So if 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.360 the politicians in the state capitol become paralyzed 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:40.580 by infighting, the state simply loses half its 00:09:40.580 --> 00:09:43.120 voice in Washington. Wow. And this wasn't just 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:45.580 a Rhode Island problem. These types of state 00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:47.659 -level deadlocks were happening across the country. 00:09:47.899 --> 00:09:50.340 A state legislature would fracture into factions, 00:09:50.539 --> 00:09:53.200 no candidate could get a majority, and the Senate 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:55.580 seat would sit empty for months, sometimes years. 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:58.399 That's a huge flaw in this system. When you see 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.539 that year -long vacancy sitting on the spreadsheet, 00:10:00.860 --> 00:10:03.600 you are looking at the exact mechanical friction 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:05.980 that eventually drove the country to pass the 00:10:05.980 --> 00:10:09.820 17th Amendment in 1913. That amendment stripped 00:10:09.820 --> 00:10:12.919 the legislatures of this power and gave the vote 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.620 directly to the citizens. The system was breaking 00:10:15.620 --> 00:10:19.059 down, and this footnote is the proof. Right after 00:10:19.059 --> 00:10:21.289 the Wetmore deadlock and that... eventual shift 00:10:21.289 --> 00:10:24.070 to direct elections, the electoral history column 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:27.529 gives us another fantastic narrative, the ultimate 00:10:27.529 --> 00:10:30.450 comeback kid, Peter G. Jerry. Oh, his timeline 00:10:30.450 --> 00:10:32.330 is fascinating. It requires you to bounce back 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:34.169 and forth between the two columns on the page. 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:36.850 Peter G. Jerry, a Democrat. Gets elected to the 00:10:36.850 --> 00:10:40.309 class one seat in 1916. He takes office in 1917, 00:10:40.610 --> 00:10:43.649 serves his six years and gets reelected in 1922. 00:10:43.809 --> 00:10:46.210 So he's building a solid career. But the table 00:10:46.210 --> 00:10:48.570 shows he loses reelection in the next cycle and 00:10:48.570 --> 00:10:51.049 his term ends in March 1929. Which is usually 00:10:51.049 --> 00:10:53.309 where the story ends. Normally, yeah. When a 00:10:53.309 --> 00:10:55.509 politician loses reelection after 12 years, that 00:10:55.509 --> 00:10:57.309 is the end of their story on a list like this. 00:10:57.590 --> 00:11:00.009 But if you scan down the class two column five 00:11:00.009 --> 00:11:02.190 years later, there he is again. He pops right 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:04.950 back up. Peter G. Jerry managed to get himself 00:11:04.950 --> 00:11:07.110 elected to the other Senate seat for Rhode Island 00:11:07.110 --> 00:11:10.669 in 1934, and he served in that seat until 1947. 00:11:11.190 --> 00:11:13.470 It's a very unusual trajectory for a political 00:11:13.470 --> 00:11:16.169 career in this era. He essentially got fired 00:11:16.169 --> 00:11:18.629 from one side of the Senate floor, waited out 00:11:18.629 --> 00:11:21.490 a single election cycle, and got hired back on 00:11:21.490 --> 00:11:24.470 the other side. That takes some serious maneuvering. 00:11:24.509 --> 00:11:27.110 It speaks volumes about the sheer political persistence 00:11:27.110 --> 00:11:30.330 required in that era. To pull off a return like 00:11:30.330 --> 00:11:32.610 that across different electoral classes, you 00:11:32.610 --> 00:11:36.070 had to maintain incredible name recognition and 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:38.610 a deeply loyal political apparatus within the 00:11:38.610 --> 00:11:40.990 state, even while you were out of office. And 00:11:40.990 --> 00:11:43.049 that concept of deep -rooted name recognition 00:11:43.049 --> 00:11:45.909 brings us to another huge theme hidden in the 00:11:45.909 --> 00:11:48.049 text. You start seeing the same names repeating, 00:11:48.190 --> 00:11:50.289 just with different Roman numerals attached to 00:11:50.289 --> 00:11:53.009 them. The political dynasties. Exactly. We mentioned 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:55.710 Nathan F. Dixon I earlier, the Whig senator who 00:11:55.710 --> 00:11:58.529 died in office in 1842. Well, scrolling down 00:11:58.529 --> 00:12:01.870 the list to the late 1800s, from 1889 to 1895, 00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:05.139 you see Nathan F. Dixon III, serving in the Senate. 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:07.000 Keeping in the family. Then you have Williams 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:11.220 Bragg III, who served from 1842 to 1844. And 00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:14.000 a few decades later, Williams Bragg IV, who served 00:12:14.000 --> 00:12:17.980 from 1863 to 1875. These repeating names illustrate 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:20.940 the reality of political networks in a geographically 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:24.100 small state like Rhode Island. Influence was 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:27.539 highly concentrated and deeply entrenched. These 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:29.679 families were clearly treating the Senate seats 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.259 almost like heirlooms. Like it belonged to them. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:34.019 You weren't just running as an individual candidate 00:12:34.019 --> 00:12:36.639 with a platform. You were running as the manifestation 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:39.299 of a multi -generational legacy. Here's where 00:12:39.299 --> 00:12:41.779 it gets really interesting, though, because as 00:12:41.779 --> 00:12:44.200 we move out of the early 20th century and into 00:12:44.200 --> 00:12:47.299 the mid to late 20th century, the entire visual 00:12:47.299 --> 00:12:50.259 complexion of this Wikipedia table changes dramatically. 00:12:50.259 --> 00:12:52.879 You no longer see the fragmented, chaotic rows 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:55.940 of the 1800s. Exactly. The narrow rows of men 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:58.580 serving one or two years disappear. We enter 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:01.210 the era of the long haul. The modern rows become 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:04.389 massive, unbroken blocks of time. It is the era 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:07.149 of the career incumbent. And no one exemplifies 00:13:07.149 --> 00:13:09.669 this shift more than Claiborne Pell. He was a 00:13:09.669 --> 00:13:12.090 Democrat who took office on January 3rd, 1961. 00:13:12.490 --> 00:13:15.549 If you follow his row, it just keeps going. Re 00:13:15.549 --> 00:13:20.789 -elected in 1966, 1972, 1978, 1984, and 1990. 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:25.159 He served until January 3rd, 1997. That is 36 00:13:25.159 --> 00:13:27.879 straight years. The source notes he is the longest 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:30.559 serving senator in the state's history. The contrast 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:32.820 between Pell's massive block of time and those 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:35.200 early politicians dying after three months is 00:13:35.200 --> 00:13:37.740 staggering. It represents a fundamental stabilization 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.539 of the institution. Medical advancements, better 00:13:40.539 --> 00:13:43.120 travel, and the professionalization of politics 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:46.419 made the Senate a highly desirable lifelong career 00:13:46.419 --> 00:13:49.240 rather than a hazardous temporary duty. It became 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:51.659 a destination. But it also highlights the rising, 00:13:51.779 --> 00:13:54.179 almost unshakable power of modern incumbency. 00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:56.980 Once a senator secured a seat and built a political 00:13:56.980 --> 00:13:59.240 machine in this modern era, they were exceptionally 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.539 difficult to dislodge. But even with all that 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:04.019 modern stability, there is still incredible strategic 00:14:04.019 --> 00:14:06.279 gamesmanship happening behind the scenes. The 00:14:06.279 --> 00:14:08.080 source gives us a brilliant example of it with 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:09.720 the exit of John Pastore. Well, this is a great 00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:13.080 detail. Pastore, a Democrat, was a titan in his 00:14:13.080 --> 00:14:16.019 own right. He served from 1950 all the way to 00:14:16.019 --> 00:14:20.340 1976, another very long, stable tenure. But if 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:22.299 you look closely at the electoral history column 00:14:22.299 --> 00:14:24.720 for his exit, it doesn't just say he retired. 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:28.480 The footnote reads, retired and resigned early 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:31.700 to give successor preferential seniority. If 00:14:31.700 --> 00:14:34.320 we connect this to the bigger picture, that single 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:37.019 footnote is a masterclass in how the internal 00:14:37.019 --> 00:14:39.320 rules of the United States Senate are played 00:14:39.320 --> 00:14:42.480 like a highly calculated game of chess. Preferential 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:45.220 seniority sounds like deep insider jargon. I 00:14:45.220 --> 00:14:47.159 mean, why does resigning early matter if he was 00:14:47.159 --> 00:14:49.639 already planning to leave anyway? Because in 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:52.220 the ecosystem of the Senate, seniority is the 00:14:52.220 --> 00:14:54.960 ultimate currency. The longer you have continuously 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:57.379 served in the chamber, the more power you wield. 00:14:57.460 --> 00:14:59.179 It dictates everything. Almost everything of 00:14:59.179 --> 00:15:01.259 value. Which powerful committees you get assigned 00:15:01.259 --> 00:15:02.899 to, whether you get to chair those committees, 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:05.259 and even physical perks like choosing the best 00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:07.659 office space. The traditional transition of power 00:15:07.659 --> 00:15:10.039 happens in January, when all the newly elected 00:15:10.039 --> 00:15:12.159 senators from across the country are sworn in 00:15:12.159 --> 00:15:14.220 together. So they are all tied at the starting 00:15:14.220 --> 00:15:16.820 line. Exactly. They all essentially start with 00:15:16.820 --> 00:15:18.740 the exact same amount of seniority on that day. 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:22.019 But when John Pastor decides to retire in 1976... 00:15:23.580 --> 00:15:35.480 Okay. Okay. brief vacancy. This allowed his successor 00:15:35.480 --> 00:15:37.700 to be officially appointed by the governor and 00:15:37.700 --> 00:15:39.620 sworn into the Senate before the new Congress 00:15:39.620 --> 00:15:42.740 began in January. Wow. So by stepping down a 00:15:42.740 --> 00:15:45.480 few days early, Pastore essentially let his replacement 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:48.779 cut in line ahead of the entire freshman class 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:51.100 of senators elected that year. It gave the new 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:53.840 senator an immediate, permanent leg up in the 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:56.080 seniority rankings over everyone else in their 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:58.559 incoming class. That translates to immediate, 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:00.899 tangible power and influence for the state of 00:16:00.899 --> 00:16:07.490 Rhode Island. It is an incredible And the beneficiary 00:16:07.490 --> 00:16:09.470 of that strategic early resignation was Republican 00:16:09.470 --> 00:16:11.490 named John Chafee, who was appointed on December 00:16:11.490 --> 00:16:14.870 29, 1976. And Chafee's own story on this list 00:16:14.870 --> 00:16:17.090 brings together several of the historical themes 00:16:17.090 --> 00:16:19.690 we've been tracking. He gets that seniority boost, 00:16:19.909 --> 00:16:21.950 and he goes on to serve for decades, getting 00:16:21.950 --> 00:16:25.970 reelected in 1982, 1988, and 1994. He becomes 00:16:25.970 --> 00:16:28.490 an absolute institution. He really does. But 00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:30.669 as his final term was coming to an end, the source 00:16:30.669 --> 00:16:32.149 notes he announced, announced his retirement, 00:16:32.370 --> 00:16:35.169 yet he didn't make it to the finish line. John 00:16:35.169 --> 00:16:38.250 Chafee died in office on October 24th, 1999. 00:16:38.809 --> 00:16:41.789 It's a sudden and tragic end to a decades -long 00:16:41.789 --> 00:16:44.789 tenure, echoing those unexpected vacancies of 00:16:44.789 --> 00:16:47.730 the 1800s, but happening in the modern era. And 00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:49.730 the way that sudden vacancy was handled brings 00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:51.870 us right back to the theme of family dynasties. 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:54.610 The seat was empty for just a little over a week. 00:16:55.070 --> 00:16:57.990 On November 7, 1999, the person appointed to 00:16:57.990 --> 00:17:00.389 finish out John Chafee's term was his own son, 00:17:00.669 --> 00:17:03.529 Lincoln Chafee. The torch was passed quite literally 00:17:03.529 --> 00:17:06.009 from father to son in the Senate chamber. The 00:17:06.009 --> 00:17:08.089 political network and the name recognition were 00:17:08.089 --> 00:17:10.529 simply transferred to the next generation, proving 00:17:10.529 --> 00:17:12.690 that the concept of the political heirloom didn't 00:17:12.690 --> 00:17:14.970 disappear in the 19th century. Lincoln Chafee 00:17:14.970 --> 00:17:17.029 finished out his father's term, and then, as 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.430 the source shows, he went on to win a full term 00:17:19.430 --> 00:17:21.730 of his own in the 2000 election, keeping the 00:17:21.730 --> 00:17:24.759 family name in that seat until 2007. It is a 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:26.920 striking moment of continuity in the face of 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:29.240 sudden loss. And that modern stability brings 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:32.200 us right up to the present day delegation. Which 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:34.420 looks remarkably different from the chaotic, 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:37.759 fragmented timeline we started with in 1790. 00:17:37.940 --> 00:17:40.019 Completely different. Rhode Island's current 00:17:40.019 --> 00:17:43.000 senators are both Democrats. Jack Reed has been 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:45.720 holding the class two seat since 1997. He actually 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.299 succeeded Clyburn Pell. And Sheldon Whitehouse 00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:50.400 has been holding the class one seat since 2007, 00:17:50.700 --> 00:17:53.200 having defeated Lincoln Chafee. So when you look 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:55.420 at the very bottom of this table, the chaos of 00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:58.279 the 1800s is completely gone. There are no sudden 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:00.799 resignations, no deadlocks, no localized third 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:03.079 parties like law and order. It is just long, 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:07.220 stable, multi -decade tenures. The rows are thick 00:18:07.220 --> 00:18:09.660 blocks of time once again. So what does this 00:18:09.660 --> 00:18:12.339 all mean? We started this deep dive looking at 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:15.799 what appeared to be a dry, boring Wikipedia table, 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:19.680 just lines of text and dates. But by tracking 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.299 the timeline and reading the footnotes, we've 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:24.380 taken a comprehensive journey through the evolution 00:18:24.380 --> 00:18:27.000 of American politics. We really have. We have 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.559 gone from an era where the system was so hazardous 00:18:29.559 --> 00:18:31.960 and chaotic that senators constantly died or 00:18:31.960 --> 00:18:34.720 quit after a year or two, to an era of political 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:37.559 gridlock where state legislatures simply failed 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:40.119 to elect anyone at all. Which led directly - 00:18:40.140 --> 00:18:42.759 to a change in the Constitution. Exactly. And 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:45.779 finally, we arrived at the modern era where politicians 00:18:45.779 --> 00:18:48.019 served for decades and strategically managed 00:18:48.019 --> 00:18:50.279 their retirements down to the exact day just 00:18:50.279 --> 00:18:53.160 to game the chamber's internal seniority system. 00:18:53.259 --> 00:18:55.640 The real takeaway for you listening is that a 00:18:55.640 --> 00:18:57.940 simple table of names and dates is never just 00:18:57.940 --> 00:19:01.200 a simple table. It is actually a map. In this 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:03.640 case, it is a map of how American political representation 00:19:03.640 --> 00:19:07.539 stabilized, professionalized, and evolved over 00:19:07.539 --> 00:19:09.420 more than two centuries. Well, right there in 00:19:09.420 --> 00:19:12.819 the data. The specific data points, the clusters 00:19:12.819 --> 00:19:15.920 of resignations, the year -long gaps, the repeating 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:19.460 family names, the strategic early exits, they 00:19:19.460 --> 00:19:22.420 all tell the story of a governmental system trying 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:24.920 to find its footing and eventually hardening 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:27.500 into the powerful institution we recognize today. 00:19:27.869 --> 00:19:30.569 It truly is a masterclass in how much dramatic 00:19:30.569 --> 00:19:33.069 history is hiding in plain sight if you just 00:19:33.069 --> 00:19:35.049 take the time to look closely at the source material 00:19:35.049 --> 00:19:37.970 and ask why the data looks the way it does. This 00:19:37.970 --> 00:19:39.750 raises an important question, though, and I want 00:19:39.750 --> 00:19:41.430 to leave you with a final thought to ponder as 00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:44.150 we wrap up our analysis. We discussed how the 00:19:44.150 --> 00:19:46.630 original system of class one and class two senators 00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:50.049 was designed back in 1790 with staggered terms. 00:19:50.250 --> 00:19:52.549 Right. Looking at the data from those early decades, 00:19:52.750 --> 00:19:55.690 that system was clearly designed in and for a 00:19:55.690 --> 00:19:58.230 high turnover world. It was an era where seats 00:19:58.230 --> 00:20:01.210 constantly flipped due to resignations, unexpected 00:20:01.210 --> 00:20:04.130 deaths and extreme political turbulence. The 00:20:04.130 --> 00:20:06.309 turnover was built into the reality of the time. 00:20:06.490 --> 00:20:10.049 Exactly. The staggered classes were a necessary 00:20:10.049 --> 00:20:12.950 mechanism to ensure at least some continuity 00:20:12.950 --> 00:20:16.170 when everything else was in constant flux. But 00:20:16.170 --> 00:20:19.490 now we live in an era where modern senators like 00:20:19.490 --> 00:20:23.109 Pell, Reed and Whitehouse serve for 20. 30 or 00:20:23.109 --> 00:20:25.049 almost 40 years at a time. It's a completely 00:20:25.049 --> 00:20:27.250 different landscape. So when the turnover completely 00:20:27.250 --> 00:20:30.650 stops, incumbency becomes nearly permanent. How 00:20:30.650 --> 00:20:32.589 does that fundamentally change the rhythm of 00:20:32.589 --> 00:20:34.529 representation the founders originally envisioned 00:20:34.529 --> 00:20:36.869 when they drew up those two distinct columns 00:20:36.869 --> 00:20:40.049 in 1790? That is a phenomenal question to think 00:20:40.049 --> 00:20:41.829 about and a perfect place for us to leave it 00:20:41.829 --> 00:20:43.890 for today. Thank you so much for exploring this 00:20:43.890 --> 00:20:46.210 historical ledger with us. Until next time, keep 00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:47.130 digging into the details.