Extra session of the 53rd Congress. Character sketches, made during the Silver debate in both Houses.

Object Details

Members of Congress strike poses, wave their fists, and play to the visitors in the galleries in one of the many debates over how to solve the economic crises of the 1890s. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper’s artists captured the energy of the orators, but the accompanying article revealed they were “speaking to empty benches. It is doubtful if a single vote has been changed by the argument on either side.” On the left page of the roundup of images, George Washington Murray, a noted orator and the only Black Member of Congress at the time, sits forward in his chair holding a fan against the sweltering summer heat. Murray may have been listening on the edge of his seat, but his views were already well-known. He made his first floor speech on the topic a few weeks earlier.