McCarthy and Crenshaw Vote with Pelosi to Remove Vice President Calhoun Statue from Capitol Hill

The House including Republicans, Dan Crenshaw (TX), and Kevin McCarthy (CA) voted to remove the statue of Vice President John C. Calhoun, who was known as a nationalist, from the Crypt on Capitol Hill. Calhoun served as Vice President under John Quincy Adams as well as Andrew Jackson. He was President James Monroe’s Secretary of War, Secretary of State under Presidents John Tyler and James Polk. Calhoun also served on Capitol Hill in both the House and the Senate and served until he passed in 1850.

Calhoun was recognized by John F. Kennedy as one of the greatest senators of all time. Also labeled as one of the ‘Immortal Trio’ or ‘Great Triumvirate, which included Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. The three representing the three major mindsets of the time, western settlers, northern businessmen, and southern slaveholders. Calhoun who was from South Carolina and would be removed from what we can only guess is for his stance on slavery, in what he called a ‘Positive Good‘. His stance on slavery seems to be the only thing that matters now in this political climate. Charleston, South Carolina already removed a statue of the vice president earlier this year.

In the same bill, the House voted to revise U.S. Code 2131 on the National Statuary Hall, which allows each state two statues to be placed in the hall of deceased individuals who are, ‘illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services’. This was to be determined by each state. The new language proposed is now to include ‘other than persons who served as an officer or voluntarily with the Confederate States of America or of the military forces or government of a State while the State was in rebellion against the United States’. This change will mean any person who served in the Confederacy be it in the military or government will have their statues removed from Capitol Hill.

2 U.S. Code § 2131. National Statuary Hall R.S. 1814 currently reads:
Suitable structures and railings shall be erected in the old hall of Representatives for the reception and protection of statuary, and the same shall be under the supervision and direction of the Architect of the Capitol. And the President is authorized to invite all the States to provide and furnish statues, in marble or bronze, not exceeding two in number for each State, of deceased persons who have been citizens thereof, and illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services, such as each State may deem to be worthy of this national commemoration; and when so furnished, the same shall be placed in the old hall of the House of Representatives, in the Capitol of the United States, which is set apart, or so much thereof as may be necessary, as a national statuary hall for the purpose herein indicated.

If passed in the Senate the statues of those who served the Confederacy will come down. They will be put into storage until the States can collect them and do with them what they choose.

Senator Crenshaw took to social media with his support for the bill that he also voted for as we previously reported. He boasts about his support for removing Democrat statues from the Capitol, pieces of American History. Crenshaw wasn’t alone in fact many Republicans, including Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, voted for the bill with many other Republicans and all Democrats.

Republicans won the civil war. That’s our history.

Democrats have a long list of segregationists & KKK members. That’s their history.

I’m glad to help them confront that racist past & voted to remove these Democrat statues from positions of prominence.https://t.co/D9KGH4Kz6b

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) July 22, 2020

There are also a handful of other statues that are also in the bill to be removed from Statuary Hall including James Paul Clarke, Charles Brantley Aycock, and John C. Breckenridge. If this bill passes the Senate what will be next? Will they remove George Washington or Andrew Jackson and any other slave-owning political or military figures?