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The Last Day

Today we toured the U.S. Capitol.  I had scheduled a tour through Sen. Heitkamp's office.  Ben was our tour guide and he was very good.  If you ever go to Washington, call one of our senator,s offices and get a tour through them.  A public tour had about 30 people per group.  We had five in ours, a family of three from Bismark and David and me.  Because our group was small Ben was able to take us into places the larger groups could not go.  Ben was also very knowledgable.  He had done his homework.
     The Senate was in session, that is if you call two Senators debating each other, in session.  What you see on C-Span is usually a congressman speaking to an empty chamber.  They act like they are speaking to a packed place, but they seldom are.  It is all just an act.
     After we finished at the capitol, we visited the Supreme Court building.  The court was not in session so there were not any demonstrators outside on the front steps.  Because the Civil War happened 150 years ago just about every building has a Civil War theme.  The Supreme Court was no different.  On the bottom floor which is really nothing more than a museum, the theme was the legal conflict between Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney over the writ of habeas corpus which guarantees us a trial.  Lincoln suspended it during the Civil War so he could throw civilians who aided the South in jail without a trial.  Taney claimed this was unconstitutional.  Lincoln argued that he would have to disregard one part of the Constitution in order to save the whole.  "It makes sense to sacrifice an arm to save a life, but I have never heard of sacrificing a life to save an arm," Lincoln said in defense of his actions.
     After the Supreme Court we toured the Jefferson building of the Library of Congress.  This is the most beautiful building in all of Washington.  The architecture and the artwork is spectacular.  I have never seen so much symbolism.  We saw a Gutenburg Bible.  Thomas Jefferson's book collection was in a room by itself.  He had the largest library in the US.  In fact, his library was the genesis of the Library of Congress.  The reading room is famous for being in the movie "National Treasure II"
    It was terribly cold today.  I do not think it got above freezing.  The wind was howling.  It was more like North Dakota than Virginia.
 

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