my name is christine black and i am the exhibit's curator here at the capitol visitor center inside the us capitol. we are here in the congressional investigations exhibit in exhibition hall and this is an exhibit that speaks to how and why congress does one of its most important jobs. the constitution, and gives congress the power to legislate. but in order to do that, congress needs information on what topics it can legislate on what needs to be legislated about. and congress gets that information through investigations. so at any given time, congress can be investigating. for example, if a law is being implemented as it was intended to or the cause of a disaster. and and it gathers information

and uses that information to create new laws. one of our goals for this exhibit was for americans to be able to get a better understanding of the things that happen here in the capitol, the things done by their representatives in congress. so because investigations are one of those things that congress does so regularly, we wanted to highlight that and we wanted to show historical examples of congress investigating so that so that visitors can use that example to better understand what's going on right here in this building in the capitol. so there are four main reasons why congress investigates. one is fact finding investigations can reveal the facts of things that happened and clarify what happened and why. another reason is oversight.

so congressional investigations can reveal waste, fraud or corruption in government and can hold officials and agencies accountable to the american people. legislation is another reason why congress investigates. investigations can can provide information about new laws that could be made to benefit the american people. and sometimes they also provide information about revising existing laws as well. and a fourth reason why congress investigates is to influence opinion. so investigations can bring national attention to a subject and that can raise voter support for an issue. and canned get more support for a a member's or a party's preferred policies. the constitution does not explicitly state that congress

has the power to investigate, but the supreme court has ruled that investigate action is essential to congress's ability to legislate a power that is in the constitution. one of our goals for this exhibit is for americans to better understand what happens here in the capitol building and most investigations can follow a pattern of steps and recognizing that pattern in these historical examples here can help visitors see what's going on today. so the steps of of an investigation tend to repeat in most investigations. the first step is that something happens that causes congress to want to get more information. it can be a disaster. it can be an event. it can just be growing awareness of a problem. but whatever that spark is, congress decides that there's there's a reason it needs to

investigate. after after that happens, then there is another step. the authorization to investigate standing committees can investigate anything that's within their jurisdiction. but sometimes congress decides to authorize a special committee or a commission to take a closer look at a specific topic. the next step is hearings. and this is the step that many americans may be most familiar with. this is what a lot of americans will see on tv or on the news and hearings are those usually public events where congress gets to hear from witnesses and fr experts who know about the things that happened or who know about the problems that need to be resolved. and hearings is where congress gather that information, that they can then use. step four is report most investigations. and in a published report that

is used by congress and the american public to better understand what the information was that congress gathered during the investigation. the report can lay out what was discovered and usually also includes conclusions or recommendations about what congress should do next. after the investigation. and the last step is legislation and not every investigation ends in legislation, but most of them do. and the legislation is when congress acts on those recommendations or acts on the findings of the investigation and to solve a problem or to change the law to better address a situation. congress has first ever congressional investigation happened in the late 1700s, and it resulted from a military defeat. congress wanted to know why the military had been defeated so,

so badly by a a group of native american and tribal nations. so it asked the secretary of war for papers about about the defeat. secretary of war knocks didn't know exactly how to respond to that at this early stage in the american republic. congress and the and the executive branch were still figuring out what the separation of powers means. and the secretary knox went to president george washington and asked how he should respond to congress's requests for papers. president washington considered the question and had decided that there was going to be times where the executive branch should not share information and with either congress or the courts. and the reason for that is because the executive branch, the president has has a need sometimes for for private counsel from his advisers.

the president needs to be able to receive candid advice and know that that advice will remain private. so washington decided that that was a situation that will probably be occurring in the future. and he recognized that as an important aspect of of the situation. however, he determined in this particular case that he could turn over the papers requested toess, and he did so. but this first conversation with president washington and his advisors was the first time that it was ded a concept that later became known as executive privilege. atower of the ent to withhold certain communications from congress in the courts. so in april 1912, just a few days after the sinking of the titanic, the survivors arrived in new york city from the rescue

ship. senators from here in washington raced up to new york to meet the survivors there. they wanted to find out what happened, why the ship sank, and ey wanted to find out from the people who could tell them what happened on the ship. so they went directly to new york to meet them to make sure that they had the opportunity to hear from witnesses before they began to disperse to their different locations around the world, including many who in plan to travel back to england. so the hearings for the titanic investigation started right there in new york city. they were held in the waldorf astoria hotel. and we have a photograph here in the case of those hearings in the waldorf astoria, the senators wanted to know how this came to happen and then what happened after the sinking. and one of the things that they found out during the during this investigation was how the rescue ship the carpathia had heard the distress call of the titanic and

raced through the dangerous, icy waters to reach the titanic. and the carpathia was the ship that collected all of the people who survived the sinking. and the captain of the of the carpathia was one of the people who testified to congress. congress was so impressed with the bravery that he exhibited during this event that they later awarded him a congressional gold medal, which you can also see on display here. we also have a map here that shows the north atlantic and where the ice fields were in that time. this was part of the fact finding that the committee did in their investigation to find out what was known about ice in the north atlantic prior to prior to the voyage of the titanic. as a result of the investigation, congress changed regulations about maritime safety and lifeboat regulations

and crew training. it also created the international ice patrol to ensure that the absence of information that the titanic captain faced wouldn't be something that was repeated. it also generally raised the profile of safety legislation and other such laws subsequently followed. so amidst the great depression in the early 1930s, congress started an investigation into why the stock market had crashed. in 1929, an event that precipitated the beginning of the great depression and congress investigated what happened on wall street and looked into the activities and and the procedures that that banks and financial businesses used on wall street. and they found that there was many financial industry insiders

who used their power on wall street to accumulate money to themselves, sometimes at the expense of their own investors. one of the people that congress, the senate, called to testify was charles mitchell. the the president of what was then the nation's largest bank, national city. and the subpoena of mitchell is right here under questioning, the bank president, mitchell admitted that he had acted irresponsibly with his investors money. he had sold securities as safe bets when he had not actually vetted them thoroughly to know whether or not they were safe bets. the committee also subpoenaed other wall street titans, like, for example, jpmorgan junior, who admitted under oath that he had paid no income taxes for several years and that he had given preferential stock deals to public figures.

so the the great depression had impact. did more americans than any other economic event had in american history. and they those americans were paying close attention to this investigation in the senate about wall street, that the investigation and the public hearings led to a increase in public support for new legislation that would regulate wall street for the first time. and there were several legislate of outcomes from this investigation. one of them was the banking act, that of 1933, which created the federal deposit insurance corporation, fdic and and then another act that was passed as a result of this was the to the securities exchange act of 1934, which which regulated the trade of securities on the stock market. any american who has over

retirement account that includes stocks has been affected by the legacy of those laws passed in the aftermath of this investigation. so on december 7th, 1941, there was a surprise japanese attack on the us military base in pearl harbor, hawaii, and there was thousands of people who died and many ships and planes that were destroyed. in the aftermath of the attack, americans wanted to know why america was so unprepared for this attack. so after the war ended, congress decided to investigate. it created a joint committee, which means members of both the house and the senate and that committee looked into what happened before pearl harbor and why. why we were so unprepared and why the consequences of that attack were so devastating. so i wanted to point out this item right here, this machine is called purple.

and it is one part of a machine created by the army signals intelligence service that was used to decrypt japanese diplomatic code in the months before and after the attack on pearl harbor. and one of the things that was discovered during that investigation was purple. so congress discovered that america had cracked the japanese code using purple and was decrypting these japanese diplomatic messages. and it was also discovered that one of the messages sent hours before the attack pointed towards military action by japan. but the american crew was not able to decrypt it and send that information to the military commanders in hawaii in time for them to act on it. before the attack began. but as a result of the information that congress discovered during the investigation, congress passed the national security act of

1947. and this act did a major reorganization of the military branches and in national intelligence. so it created a the first permanent intelligence agency and it also reorganized all the military services to be under one department of defense. just before the united states entered world war two, the senate created the special committee to investigate the national defense program. this committee was was created to oversee billions of dollars in appropriations that congress had just made for war preparation. this committee was led by senator harry truman and of missouri, and it investigated reports of fraud and inefficient c in war preparation. so the committee uncovered numerous instances of corruption and mismanagement and profiteering. it set a standard for

congressional oversight operations and was widely praised for its effective work, saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money. it also made senatorrun a national figure. the truman committee's investigations ranged far and wide, sometimes even including household goods like this umbrella that you can see here in the case. the tag on the umbrella there marked by the committee, said that it was an illustration of waste and material and manpower because of its shoddy construction. and it didn't last very long. so in wartime, even a regular consumer goods were considered to be critical. wartime commodities. the truman committee also requested tips from the american public, which he received many of. there are many, many letters that he received where individual americans were pointing out things that they had witnessed of of waste, fraud or abuse. and we have one letter here that

from somebody to from a citizen to truman thanking him for his for his actions, uncovering, uncovering the fraud. he was one of many people who wrote in to truman to express either tips or their their support at the conclusion of this investigation. after saving billions of dollars of taxpayer money. the senate decided that the committee, the truman committee, had been so effective at saving saving money and identifying fraud that they decided to make the committee permanent. and they created the permanent subcommittee on investigations, known as sy. and even today, sy is still investigating to four for accountability of government and to uncover waste and fraud. this photograph is of hart mountain relocate asian center near cody, wyoming. it was one of ten japanese american incarcerates and camps

built in remote areas of the american west during world war two. future congressman norman mineta was incarcerated and with his family there at hart mountain for several years during the war. so the story behind hart mountain and the other incarceration camps began after congress declared war against japan in 1941, which was the start of american involvement in world war two. subsequent to that, the us government forcibly moved and relocated. approximately 120,000 us residents of japanese descent, about two thirds of whom were american citizens. president franklin roosevelt, who issued the executive order for the incarceration, claimed that it was necessary to protect the country from espionage and sabotage. it wasn't, though, until decades after the war in 1980 that

congress decided to investigate. at that time, there was a number of asian american and pacific islander members of congress, including representative norman mineta from california, who led the effort to document the harms that had been caused by incarceration and to take action to rectify that. this commission, the commission on wartime relocation and internment of civilians that congress created, put out a two part report. this is the report right here in the case. the report concluded that there was no evidence of threat or or any military need for the incarcerations. it also found that the detention resulted from, quote, race, prejudice, wartime hysteria and a failure of political leadership, unquote. the commission recommended an official government apology and

also restitution payments to the survivors of the internment camps. many of whom had lost their homes or their businesses when they were forcibly relocated to the incarceration camps. with the advocacy of many asian american members of congress, including norman mineta, they congress eventually passed the civil liberties act of 1988, and this act did issue an official government apology for the incarceration and authorized the restitution payments to the survivors. so this letter right in the case is a letter by president george h.w. bush to one of the survivors of the incarceration camps and. the letter is a letter of apology and also included a payment. the survivor. so the objects in this case relate to the investigations into domestic communism in the

early 1950s, done by senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin. this was the period of the early cold war when there was an intense suspicion of domestic communists, and there was a number of members of congress who were attempting to influence public opinion to go to be against domestic communist holding positions of influence in the united states government and in the country as a whole. so senator joseph mccarthy had given a speech claiming that there were 205 known communists in the department of state. investigation found that those tions were false, mccarthy still had a lot of public support, and he continued his investigations. one of the objects that i want to call out here is this item right here. this is this is a speech that

was delivered by one of mccarthy's fellow senators. this is from senator margaret chase smith of maine. and smith was one of the only republicans, one of the first republicans to speak up mccarthy's investigations. and she did so because she was concerned about the way that mccarthy had been using abuse of tactics and unsubstantiated allegations. his investigations of suspected communists and the allegations that mccarthy was making could often end up in ruined lives and ruined careers. senator, i think i never really gave your probing or your recklessness. so margaret chase smith decided to speak up about about mccarthy's tactics. and she gave this speech on the floor of the senate. in the speech, she. she decried mccarthy's tactics,

and she condemned the climate of, quote, fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear, unquote, that mccarthy had created. there was a few of chase's fellow republicans that joined her condemnation of mccarthy at that time. mccarthy's investigations and later in 1954, the army mccarthy hearings were televised. and it was these televised hearings where americans got to see mccarthy's abuse of tactics and unsubstantiated allegations. for the first time. this changed public opinions and the viewpoint of mccarthy. and within a few of the hearings, the the senate had decided had voted to censure mccarthy for conduct unbecoming a senator in in the early 1950s. there was an increasing number of media reports focused on

organized crime and there was an increase in americans who were concerned that that this crime was becoming a serious problem and nothing was being done about it. senator estes kefauver of tennessee decided to look into this, and he created a committee in the senate to investigate organized crime and the mob. part of his investigation going to different cities, the country. he went to 14 different cities and he interviewed law enforcement officers and politicians and citizens in these different cities to find out what the state of organized crime was in their areas. they often put suspected mobsters and gamblers on the stand as well. and these hearings, which were televised, captivated the nation. the crime hearing's biggest sensation comes from frank costello, reputed in king of the

underworld. he provides a starkly king, bit of dramatic reality order, by which i think an awful lot of respect for. i'm not going to answer another question. you're just because i'm not under arrest and i'm going to walk out. i just about it, mr. costello. we'll use every resource in our command to see that he's brought to contempt. and he was arrested by the united states senate. so many people were interested in watching these televised hearings that some of them were shown in movie theaters where people who did not have televisions at home could go and watch these hearings themselves. americans tuned into these hearings in incredible numbers. one report was that there were more americans watching the committee hearings than had watched the world series in 1950. the committee's immediate legislative accomplishments were somewhat modest. but senator kefauver became a nationally known figure, and he

adopted as a trademark, a coonskin cap that evoked the another well-known tennessean, daniel boone. and he wore this coonskin cap, which you can see here in the case, to many of his events. it made him instantly recognizable to the public who knew about his investigations into the mob. the kefauver investigation into the organized crime was one of those instances where there wasn't a huge legislative output from the investigation, but it did have a really big impact on public opinion and the public wanted more law enforcement. after hearing about what was actually happening in the world of organized crime. well, one of the reasons why we this exhibit is here right now on congressional investigations is because it is the 50th

anniversary of watergate. one of the most important and consequential oversight investigations is that congress has done so. the watergate scandal began with a crime, a break in at the watergate complex in washington, d.c., in june of 1972. by people who were associated with president richard nixon's reelection campaign. it evolved into a battle between congress and the president over access to tape recordings that contained evidence about the crime and the cover up. and it concluded with the resignation of president nixon under threat of impeachment. so i wanted to point out several documents in this case. one is this security log right here from the watergate complex. and this security log, you can see the date of june 17th, 1972, which was the date, the break in at the watergate hotel.

and the log has a note written by the security guard from the watergate frank wells, who made a note there in the log that he had seen a piece of tape on a door that prevented the door from latching and made the door accessible from outside. first, he removed the piece of tape, but later, the same night as he was continuing his rounds, he found another piece of tape on the door and that tipped him off that something was happening and there might be intruders in the building. he the police. and when the police arrived, they found the five burglars inside the democratic national committee headquarters inside the watergate complex, and they were arrested. so this log, this security log here marks the very beginning of the watergate scandal, the event that triggered all the other events that followed. another item i want to talk about here was the tape recorder right here.

so after the watergate break in happened, there was some investigative reporting indicated that president nixon might been aware of it and might have been in the break in. so the senate created a special committee to to look into it. the special committee to investigate presidential campaign activities, better known as the watergate committee. and one of the most important facts that the committee uncovered and as part of the investigation was that president nixon had recall had installed a secret tape recording system in the white house and in other locations to record the conversations he had with his advisers. so as soon as the senate, watergate committee discovered the existence of these recordings, they wanted to hear them to know if they contained evidence that the president himself was personally involved in the crime. that's when the senate issued

the the subpoena right here. you can see on the back of the wall there, the first ever congressional subpoena of a sitting president. and they subpoenaed this. this is the subpoena for the tape recordings. but they also subpoenaed other documents as well. president richard nixon decided to not comply with the subpoena, citing executive privilege. executive privilege is a power claimed by president ice to withhold certain communication from congress and the courts. and the idea behind executive privilege is that there is that the president to be able to receive candid advice from his advisers and know that conversations will remain private. so the president's refusal to comply with the subpoena set off a constitutional crisis between congress and the president. subsequently, the house judiciary committee in may of

1974 began hearings on whether or not president nixon should be impeached for his involvement in the watergate break in and cover up. they also issued subpoenas to the president, and he declined to comply with those as well. again, citing executive privilege. a couple of months later, the house judiciy committee did vote to adopt three articles of impeachment of the president and just two weeks, less than two weeks later, president nixon facing sure impeachment and conviction in the senate, decided to resign and his resignation letter is also here in the case on the back wall over there. there was a substantial legislative legacy from this investigation. there was a number of the investigation revealed, a number of problems that had been exploited by the nixon administra ation.

and there was a number of needs for new legislation, just some of the laws that passed in the aftermath of watergate include the privacy act of 1974, the freedom of information act of 1978, and the foreign intelligence surveillance act, pfizer of 1978 as well. so there was also further investigations that came out of watergate as well. this turned out to be one of the most cancer essential oversight investing actions that congress has conducted. and it set a standard for how congress conducts its oversight of the executive branch. so on september 11th, 2001, a, there was a terrorist attack in the united states by the terrorist group al-qaeda. and as a result of this attack in new york city, in washington,

almost 3000 people died. in the aftermath of that congress created a house and senate investigation into intelligence failures that allowed 911 to happen. in addition, congress also created an independent, bipartisan legislative commission. the commission on the national commission on terrorist attacks upon the united states. but that commission is better as the 911 commission. the staff of the 911 commission made this map right here, document the events that happened on 911. the map shows the paths of the four. of the flights of the four hijacked planes. and those paths are initially marked as solid lines at the moment that the were hijacked. the turned off. the transponders that broadcast the planes location and on the map here. that moment is by a change in

the flight paths, from a solid line to a dashed line. two of the hijacked planes flew into the twin towers in new york city, which caused them to subsequently collapse. one of the planes was flown into the pentagon in washington, d.c., and a fourth plane crashed in a field near shanksville, pennsylvania. but the 911 commission concluded that that fourth planes intend to target was either the white house or here at the capitol building. one of the outcomes of the 911 investigation is were was the creation of a new cabinet level department of the federal government. the new department of homeland security. and this chart right here shows was created while the that law was being considered. and it shows all of the many

different sections of the federal that had a role to play in the nation'national se and illustrated how spread out those responsibiti wd how little coordination there was between those different federal government entities. so the new department of homeland security was created to bring all of those different pieces of the national security system, all under one person in one leadership. i think it's really important for americans to understand and what happens here in the capitol and what our elected representatives do on our behalf. the historical investigations that we have put on display here allow americans to see how this process works and by seeing how congress has acted and how congress has invested created in

the past. i hope that will be able to better understand what is happening today in current investigations and that they can use that historical context to to know how things are working, what is actually happening in congress, and why it's important to them. well during the rican struction period following the civil war, congress investigated a sharp rise in violence against freed black slaves and their supporters. it was violence committed by a new organization called the ku klux klan. in 1871, hearings were held in congress, heard gripping testimony from victims about what they had suffered. these congressional