House Receptions
Blog Post
"Members of the House of Representatives, I deem it a high privilege and a great honor to present to you..."
Congress has invited speeches by dignitaries throughout its history. Initially, the standard manner in which both the House and the Senate received addresses by foreign leaders was to invite dignitaries to a one-chamber reception. This procedure required either unanimous consent or resolution by the chamber that wished to receive the foreign leader. The Marquis de Lafayette was the first foreign leader to address a House Reception on December 10, 1824.
Though typically used to receive foreign dignitaries, notable exceptions included receptions to honor military leaders like United States Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1866, United States General Jonathan M. Wainwright in 1945, and United States General H. Norman Schwarkopf in 1991. United States General Ulysses S. Grant addressed the House twice, once in 1866 and again (post presidency) in 1880.
President Richard M. Nixon addressed the House in 1969 in a show of gratitude for its support on a just peace resolution for the war in Vietnam. In 1977, United States Senator Hubert H. Humphrey became the first sitting Senator to address the House.
These receptions are not associated with other informal, social receptions and lunches provided for foreign leaders on behalf of congressional leadership or individual committees. In the post-World War II era, the practice of using one-chamber receptions largely disappeared. The last House Reception to honor a foreign leader was held for Mexican President José Lopez Portillo in 1977.
Foreign Dignitary Addresses
| Date | Foreign Dignitary |
|---|---|
| December 10, 1824 | Speaker Henry Clay; General Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, of France |
| January 7, 1852 | Louis Kossuth, exiled Governor of Hungary |
| June 9, 1868 | Anson Burlingame, Ambassador from China |
| March 6, 1872 | Tomomi Iwakura, Ambassador from Japan |
| February 2, 1880 | Charles Stewart Parnell, Member of Parliament from Ireland |
| February 9, 1911 | Count Albert Apponyi, Minister of Education from Hungary |
| February 2, 1912 | Count Francis Luetzow, dignitary from Bohemia |
| June 10, 1912 | Dr. Orestes Ferrara, Speaker of the House of the Cuban Congress |
| May 3, 1917 | Rene Raphael Viviani, Minister of Justice from France; Jules Jusserand, Ambassador from France; address attended by Marshal Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre, member of French Commission to U.S. |
| May 5, 1917 | Arthur James Balfour, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs |
| June 2, 1917 | Ferdinando di'Savoia, Prince of Udine, Head of Italian Mission to U.S.; Guglielmo Marconi, member of Italian Mission to U.S. |
| June 23, 1917 | Boris Bakhmetieff, Ambassador from Russia |
| June 27, 1917 | Baron Moncheur, Chief of Political Bureau of Belgian Foreign Office at Havre |
| September 5, 1917 | Kikujiro Ishii, Ambassador from Japan |
| January 8, 1918 | Milenko Vesnic, Head of Serbian War Mission |
| August 27, 1918 | Dr. Baltasar M. Brum, Uruguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| October 28, 1919 | Albert I, King of the Belgians |
| January 25, 1928 | William Thomas Cosgrave, President of Executive Council of Ireland |
| October 7, 1929 | Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of England |
| April 1, 1937 | John Buchan, Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada |
| May 8, 1939 | Anastasio Somoza Garcia, President of Nicaragua |
| May 11, 1942 | Manuel Prado, President of Peru |
| June 2, 1942 | Manuel L. Quezon, President of Philippines |
| June 15, 1942 | George II, King of Greece |
| June 25, 1942 | Peter II, King of Yugoslavia |
| November 24, 1942 | Carlos Arroyo del Rio, President of Ecuador |
| December 10, 1942 | Fulgencio Batista, President of Cuba |
| February 18, 1943 | Madame Chiang Kai-shek, of China |
| May 6, 1943 | Enrique Penaranda, President of Bolivia |
| May 13, 1943 | Edvard Benes, President of Czechoslovakia |
| May 27, 1943 | Edwin Barclay, President of Liberia |
| June 10, 1943 | Hininio Morinigo M., President of Paraguay |
| January 20, 1944 | Isaias Medina Angarita, President of Venezuela |
| August 9, 1949 | Elpidio Quirino, President of the Philippines |
| October 13, 1949 | Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India |
| May 4, 1950 | Liaquat Ali Khan, Prime Minister of Pakistan |
| July 31, 1950 | Tokutaro Kitamura, member of Japanese Diet |
| August 1, 1950 | Robert Gordon Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia |
| March 16, 1955 | Robert Gordon Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia |
| March 30, 1955 | Mario Scelba, Prime Minister of Italy |
| May 4, 1955 | P. Phibunsongkhram, Prime Minister of Thailand |
| June 30, 1955 | U Nu, Prime Minister of Burma |
| February 2, 1956 | Anthony Eden, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom |
| March 15, 1956 | John Aloysius Costello, Prime Minister of Ireland |
| February 27, 1957 | Guy Mollet, Prime Minister of France |
| May 28, 1957 | Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany |
| June 20, 1957 | Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan |
| July 11, 1957 | Husseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister of Pakistan |
| June 25, 1958 | Muhammad Daoud Khan, Prime Minister of Afghanistan |
| July 25, 1958 | Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Prime Minister of Ghana |
| July 29, 1958 | Amintore Fanfani, Prime Minister of Italy |
| April 18, 1961 | Constantine Karamanlis, Prime Minister of Greece |
| June 22, 1961 | Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan |
| July 26, 1961 | Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria |
| February 17, 1977 | José Lopez Portillo, President of Mexico |
United States Military Leaders and Officials Addresses
| Date | United States Military Leaders and Officials |
|---|---|
| February 11, 1865 | United States Army Lieut. General Ulysses S. Grant |
| February 5, 1867 | United States Army General Philip H. Sheridan |
| December 16, 1880 | United States Army General Ulysses S. Grant |
| January 29, 1886 | United States Army Major General W. T. Sherman; United States Army General George Meade, United States Army General George H. Thomas |
| September 10, 1945 | United States Army General Jonathan M. Wainwright |
| May 17, 1949 | United States Army General Lucius D. Clay |
| November 13, 1969 | United States President Richard M. Nixon1 |
| November 3, 1977 | United States Senator Hubert H. Humphrey2 of Minnesota |
| May 8, 1991 | United States Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf |
Footnotes
1President Richard M. Nixon was the first sitting President to be received in a one-chamber reception by the House. The House was in-session and did not recess for President Nixon. President Ulysses S. Grant was no longer a sitting President when he addressed the House in 1880; rather, he was presented as General Ulysses S. Grant.
2The event took place during an intra-day recess of the House of Representatives. It is the first known instance of the House of Representatives standing in recess to receive a sitting Senator in the House Chamber.