Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/726123
49 THE CAPITOL DOME his book, Many Heads and Many Hands: James Madison's Search for a More Perfect Union. The book explores the varied European antecedents of American democracy, espe- cially from the Netherlands. Van Duren structured his talk around the peregrinations of Francis Doughty through the American colonies, and the Forrest Gump-like ways that Doughty experienced growing interest in and experimenta- tion with representative government. The first week of May brought the annual symposium on the history of Congress. This year the symposium focused on immigration from 1790 to 1990. Paul Finkelman (Univer- sity of Saskatchewan and University of Pennsylvania), sym- posium director, also gave the keynote address on Thursday evening. Guests enjoyed a reception and then drank in Fin- kelman's overview of immigration trends and "American" feelings about immigrants, which was peppered with anec- dotes and personal stories. In fact, many symposium speak- ers included some of their family immigration history in their presentations. The day-long event kicked off Friday with Andrew Gyory (Facts on File) examining the depictions of Chinese in Gilded Age dime novels. In both words and images, fic- tional Chinese immigrants were bundles of complex, even contradictory stereotypes who had more agency than their real-world counterparts. Lance Sussman's (Reform Congre- gation Keneseth Israel and Gratz College) talk focused on one particular person, Rep. Emanuel Celler, who worked to bring Jewish refugees from Europe to the U.S. before and during WWII and went on to work on civil rights legisla- tion and the 1965 Immigration Act. The morning session concluded with Jack Chin (University of California, Davis School of Law), who offered two propositions: the 1965 Im- migration Act was the most successful civil rights legisla- tion since Reconstruction, and Members of Congress knew the act would change the makeup of the immigration stream before they passed it. During lunch, historical inter preter Ron Duquette appeared in the guise of Albert Gallatin, an early secretary of the Treasury who was a Swiss immigrant. In a short state- ment before taking questions, he noted that four of the first six Treasury secretaries were immigrants. Mariela Olivares (Howard University School of Law) began the afternoon session with a discussion of the 1986 immigration act and its effects on Latino/a immigrants, including some of the historical context of the act and its consequences—including the fact that the act ended up legalizing more men than women immigrants. Renee Redman (University of Connecticut) provided a short his- tory of asylum in the U.S., including a clarification: asylum seekers are people who arrive here and then ask for asylum, while refugees are people who are brought here. Redman noted that which groups are granted asylum tends to be in- fluenced by foreign policy at that moment. Finally, Kunal Parker (University of Miami School of Law) explored how the U.S. has used the "foreign" or "alien" designation to con- trol groups (such as Native Americans) or limit citizenship (such as blacks and women). The symposium closed with a final Q&A panel with all the speakers. In June, Fergus Bordewich, a historian and longtime friend of USCHS, spoke about his book, The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government. His talk cov- ered several personalities and episodes from the First Federal Congress, such as Members' opinions of James Madison and his political abilities, Madison's stance on topics like the early amendments, and his role in passing different pieces of legislation. C-SPAN recorded many of our lectures and talks and has aired them on American History TV. Once they have aired, all the talks are available at www.c-span.org (search for "U.S. Capitol Historical Society"). Our annual summer lecture series runs on Wednesdays from July 27 through August 31, and we're planning occasional talks for the fall as well. Visit www.uschs.org for updates on recently scheduled events! Ron Duqette as Albert Gallatin, with a C-SPAN camera in the background, takes questions from the symposium audience. Symposium speakers Kunal Parker (left) and Andrew Gyory (right) listen to keynote speaker and symposium director Paul Finkelman during the concluding panel.