September 21, 1939

Less than three weeks after the outbreak of European hostilities in World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a Joint Session of Congress to open a Special Session which he had called to revise U.S. neutrality law. Reflecting the beliefs of many Americans and a determined group of isolationists in Congress that U.S. banks and munitions-makers had embroiled the country in World War I, Congress had passed a series of neutrality acts in the 1930s aimed at keeping the U.S. out of another conflict. These laws prohibited the sale and transportation of war munitions and armaments, and eventually the extension of loans, to belligerent countries. In his address, Roosevelt assured Congress and the American public that he sought to keep the country out of the war but that he believed efforts to “legislate” neutrality ran counter to American interests. “Destiny first made us, with our sister nations in this hemisphere, joint heirs of European culture,” Roosevelt waxed. “Fate seems now to compel us to assume the task of helping to maintain in the Western World a citadel wherein that civilization may be kept alive.” Weeks of pitched debate ensued between allies of the Roosevelt administration and isolationists such as Representative Hamilton Fish of New York. On November 2, the House repealed provisions of the 1935 act by a vote of 243 to 181. Roosevelt signed the measure into law on November 4. Marking the erosion of U.S. neutrality, the new law provided for the sale of U.S. armaments and munitions to belligerent nations on a “cash and carry” basis, allowing allies such as Great Britain to purchase war materials in cash, so long as they were transported on non-American ships.

September 22, 1826

On this date, just after sunrise on the Linkumpinch dueling field near Franklin, Kentucky, Representative Sam Houston of Tennessee gravely wounded General William A. White, a veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, in a pistol duel. In a convoluted turn of events, White was the stand-in for Nashville Postmaster John P. Erwin. Patronage politics were at the root of this affair of honor. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee had promoted another candidate for Nashville postmaster against Erwin (the son-in-law of Jackson’s nemesis, Henry Clay of Kentucky). Jackson encouraged Houston to thwart Erwin’s appointment. Houston wrote to President John Quincy Adams, that Erwin “is not a man of fair and upright moral character.” He also attacked Erwin in a speech on the House Floor. When Houston returned to Tennessee after the 19th Congress (1825–1827), Erwin dispatched Colonel John Smith T., a professional duelist, to deliver a challenge to Houston for besmirching Erwin’s character. That challenge was rejected, but General White then proceeded to challenge Houston, who reluctantly accepted. Houston prepared by practicing his marksmanship at Jackson’s home, The Hermitage. Old Hickory even advised him to bite on a bullet while dueling: “It will make you aim better.” On the appointed morning, Houston and White squared off at 15 paces. Houston emerged unscathed. White, struck in the groin, called out to Houston, “you have killed me.” White survived, but in June 1827 a Kentucky grand jury delivered a felony indictment against Houston, who had left the House to campaign for governor of Tennessee. The state’s sitting governor, William Carroll (whom Houston succeeded that October), refused to arrest or extradite Houston arguing that he had acted in self defense.

September 22, 1961

On this date, a bill providing $40 million for the permanent establishment of the Peace Corps was agreed to by House and Senate conferees, approved by their respective chambers, and then signed into law by President John F. Kennedy. The Peace Corps had been created by Executive Order earlier in the year, as a Cold War presidential initiative to provide educational and technological support to developing countries through the work of trained, college-aged American volunteers. Opponents, such as Representative H.R. Gross of Iowa described the idea as a “utopian brainstorm” that would exacerbate the U.S. deficit. In response, Congresswoman Marguerite Stitt Church of Illinois—who had traveled widely in sub-Saharan Africa—entered the well of the House to recount her numerous trips abroad where she had seen foreign-aid dollars misspent and misdirected in the battle for the developing world. “Here is something which is aimed right,” Church told colleagues, “which is American, which is sacrificial—and which above all can somehow carry at the human level, to the people of the world, what they need to know; what it is to be free; what it is to have a next step and be able to take it; what it is to have something to look forward to, in an increase of human dignity and confidence.” Catherine May of Washington recalled that Church’s speech was critical in persuading a number of reluctant Republicans to support the measure. “You quite literally could see people who had been uncertain or perhaps who had already decided to vote against the Peace Corps sit there, listen to her very quietly and start to rethink,” Representative May recalled. The House eventually passed the bill by a wide margin, 288 to 97.