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19 the exclusive roster of conferees points to the fact that the honor remains one of the few ways the United States gov- ernment can acknowledge a foreigner's contribution to the nation and/or to mankind. e congressional joint resolu- tion clearly enumerated Gálvez's contributions: he led a truly multi-national military force to strategically significant victories against Great Britain during the Revolutionary War; he later served the cause of science as viceroy of New Spain by sponsoring hydrographic expeditions of the Gulf of Mexico; his name has been given to several localities in Texas and Louisiana; and the state of Florida named him a "Great Floridian" in 2012. In the spring of 2014, Representative Jeff Miller (FL) introduced H.J. Res. 105 in the House, and Senator Marco Rubio (FL) introduced S.J. Res. 38 in the Senate, to confer honorary United States citizenship on Gálvez. As president general of the Sons of the American Revolution, I wrote a letter to every member of the House Foreign Affairs Com- mittee, encouraging the committee to recommend that the House adopt this resolution. Lynn Forney Young, presi- dent general of the Daughters of the American Revolution, wrote a similar letter to the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. e House and the Senate passed their respective reso- lutions on 28 July and 4 December, and on 16 December 2014 the Joint Resolution was signed by President Barack Obama, as Public Law 113–229: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assem- bled, at Bernardo de Galvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Galvez, is proclaimed posthumously to be an honorary citizen of the United States. -Joseph W. Dooley JOSEPH W. DOOLEY is a member of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He served as President General of the National Society, Sons of the American Revolu- tion in 2013-2014. WILLIAM DIGIACOMANTONIO is chief historian and a vice president at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He is also working on a book collecting the main papers of Rep. George atcher. NOTES 1. T. Lawrence Larkin, "A 'Gift' Strategically Solicited and Magnanimously Conferred: The American Congress, the French Monarchy, and the State Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette," Winterthur Portfolio 44, no. 1 (2010): 31–75; Larkin, "Final Report for Research Undertaken with the Aid of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, April–June 2000," Research Files, USCHS. 2.James Alton James, "Oliver Pollock, Financier of the Revolution in the West," Mississippi Valley His- torical Review, 16, no. 1(June 1929): 67–80; Robert Morris to Bernardo de Gálvez, 21 Nov. 1781, in E. James Ferguson and John Catanzariti, eds., The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781-1784 (9 vols., Pitts- burgh, PA, 1980–99), 2:221–22. 3.Robert Morris Diary, 31 Jan. 1783, in Fergu- son and Catanzariti, Papers of Robert Morris, 7:385; Oliver Pollock to Elias Boudinot, 8 May 1783, Item 50, p. 289, RG 360 (Papers of the Continental Congress), National Archives, Washington, DC; entry for 8 May 1783, in Worthington Ford, et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols., Washington, DC, 1904–37), 24:333; Elias Boudinot to Oliver Pollock, 9 May 1783, in Paul H. Smith and Ronald Gephart, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789 (26 vols., Washington, DC, 1976–2000), 20:298; Elias Boudinot to Bernardo de Gálvez, 3 June 1783, in Smith and Gephart, Letters of Delegates, 20:240. 4. omas Lee Shippen to Dr. William Shippen, 25 March [1785], Shippen Family Papers, Library of Congress; thanks to Dr. Kenneth R. Bowling for discovering this fascinating letter. IMAGE CREDITS: Fig. 1. Sen. Robert Menendez Fig. 2. Sen. Robert Menendez Fig. 3. Bill Walendzinski, via Wikimedia Commons THE CAPITOL DOME

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