alternatehistory.com

Originally, this was only going to be the Speaker of the House, but I thought that would be too limited. So I broadened, to include all of the US legislative offices: Speaker, Majority and Minority Leaders for the House and Senate, and if you want to , I suppose the whips as well.


Speaker of the House:
1st: James Madison, Virginia.
Elected in 1788 in the First Congress, Madison was the first Speaker of the House. Many Northerners were disturbed by the choice, as Washington, a fellow Virginian, already held the White House. The election was close, with Pennsylvanian Frederick Muhlenberg taking an opposition role. However, Madison was well-respected from his time in the Continental Congress, and eeked out a close victory, with Muhlenberg coming in second.

Madison was a strong advocate for the power of a centralized government, while at the same time pushing for a stronger Congress, and was instrumental in writing and passing the Bill of Rights. He was close with George Washington, but had an often-adversarial relationship with Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton.

In 1962, the oldest Congressional office building, which occupies a site south of the United States Capitol bounded by Independence Avenue, First Street, New Jersey Avenue, and C Street S.E., was renamed for Madison, becoming known as the Madison House Office Building.
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