Bill Quotes
The Civil Rights Bill of 1964
O’Reilly claimed that across the United States schools were driving the celebration of Christmas out of the schools and that some schools had forced students to sing Silent Night with new, less religious words. Letterman’s instinct was right. O’Reilly, not known for his carful research of what he stated, had taken a single incident and turned it into a alleged national attack on Christianity.
The Smithsonian in 1888 had started a “Department of Living Animals” and had 172 at the time whereas earlier all animals were stuffed. At the time no one was quite sure whether or not there would be any public interest in a zoo. This initial request for $200,000 to buy property on which to place the zoo was turned down as historically zoos were created by royalty and the very rich and didn’t seem democratic to many members of the House. Others however, saw the role of democracy as bringing to ordinary people what had historically been available only to royalty and the wealthy. See {629321} . The Speaker was not an enthusiast for the zoo and the House had voted it down in the previous session, but there had been a surge in popular opinion and Congressmen had been extensively lobbied by advcates for the upper and working classes. The Speaker was a realist as the quotation indicates, but he was not as tactful as later speakers were.
Trumbull was the sponsor of the bill. Eight years earlier he had not been an advocate of civil rights {587696} but his views changed considerably over time and over the Civil War.
Bribing Congressmen was quite common. In those days, money to Congressmen and Senators was not even disguised as campaign contributions. The letters were the short terms for the different agents.
