James Mathers
Encyclopedia

Early life

Born in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, he migrated with his family to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 some years before the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. He married Mary Maxwell and the couple had a daughter Effa baptized on 12 December, 1770 at a Presbyterian church in New York City. In the war's earliest days, Mathers joined the Continental Army
Continental Army
The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in...

 and served throughout the conflict, suffering a major wound. After the war, with a large family of his own to support, Mathers found employment as a clerk with the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....

.

Doorkeeper of the Senate

The Congress had moved in the 1780s from one major city to another, ending up in New York by 1785. In New York, the Continental Congress elevated Mathers to the post of principal Doorkeeper
Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives
An appointed officer of the United States House of Representatives from 1789 to 1995, the Doorkeeper of the United States House of Representatives was chosen by a resolution at the opening of each United States Congress. The Office of the Doorkeeper was based on precedent from the Continental...

. He assumed those duties on May 15, 1788, just as the Congress was about to go out of existence. Upon ratification
Ratification
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...

 of the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 in June 1788, Mathers and the handful of other congressional staff devoted their attention to helping with the transition into new Congressional quarters on lower Manhattan's Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

.

The Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 of the first Congress, meeting in the second-floor chamber of the newly refurbished and renamed Federal Hall
Federal Hall
Federal Hall, built in 1700 as New York's City Hall, later served as the first capitol building of the United States of America under the Constitution, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States. It was also where the United States Bill of...

, achieved a quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...

 for business on April 6, 1789. As one of their very first orders of business, members elected Mathers to be their doorkeeper. This was a particularly important post for a legislature that intended to conduct all its sessions in secret, a closed-door policy that copied the practice of both the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....

 and the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Only the House of Representatives, meeting on the floor below (the "lower house") welcomed visitors to its sessions.

On the Senate's second day in session, members elected as their secretary Samuel Otis, an ally of Vice President John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

. Close in age, Mathers and Otis differed greatly in background and education. A first generation American, Mathers lacked Otis' educational opportunities and financial backing. Otis had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 more than a quarter-century earlier. Prior to the Revolution, as Mathers was establishing himself in a new land, Otis flourished as a Boston merchant and state legislator. As the Senate's principal officers, Mathers and Otis took on duties similar to those of the Continental Congress' doorkeeper and secretary. As Otis and his assistants were keeping the financial accounts and legislative records, Mathers and his one aide tended the chamber door, maintained the Senate's two horses, and purchased the firewood. While the Senate considered its secretary a year-round official, its doorkeeper performed most of his duties during the approximately six months each year that the Senate was in session. Consequently Otis received an annual salary of $1,500, while Mathers received three dollars for each day
Per diem
Per diem refers to a specific amount of money that an organization allows an individual to spend per day, to cover living and traveling expenses in connection with work...

 on the job. (At that time, senators were also paid for each day of actual attendance at a rate of six dollars per day.)

Congress moved to Philadelphia, where the House and Senate took up temporary quarters in the newly renamed Congress Hall; Doorkeeper Mathers' security functions expanded significantly during the Senate's residence there. In 1794, after receiving much unwelcome criticism for its closed-session policy, the Senate decided to open its legislative proceedings as soon as a gallery
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

 could be constructed. When that gallery opened in December 1795, Mathers assumed responsibility for keeping order among the visitors.

Sergeant at Arms of the Senate

Three years later, as the Senate planned its first impeachment trial, members realized that they needed to have an officer with the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 powers necessary to arrest those who refused to appear before that proceeding. One of the uncooperative parties was the target of the proceeding, former Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

 Senator William Blount
William Blount
William Blount, was a United States statesman. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention for North Carolina, the first and only governor of the Southwest Territory, and Democratic-Republican Senator from Tennessee . He played a major role in establishing the state of Tennessee. He was the...

. From his home in Tennessee, Blount indicated he had no plans to attend his Senate trial. Wishing to return Blount by force, if necessary, the Senate, on February 5, 1798, created the office of sergeant at arms, modeled after a similar post in the House of Representatives and the British Parliament. The Senate added these new duties to those of Doorkeeper Mathers, expanding his title to "sergeant at arms and doorkeeper."

When Mathers failed in his efforts to return Blount to Philadelphia, the Senate proceeded without the former senator. At the trial, Mathers became the first Sergeant at Arms to issue the Senate's newly adopted proclamation: "All persons are commanded to keep silence while the Senate of the United States are receiving articles of impeachment against ______ on pain of imprisonment." In recognition of his added responsibilities, the Senate increased Mathers' pay to the equivalent of $800 per year. (Not until 1873 did the Senate's two principal officers receive approximately equal compensation.)

When the Senate moved to Washington D.C. in 1800, Mathers assisted with the shipment of its furnishings and papers. He helped establish the new quarters in the Senate's Capitol
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

 wing and remained on the job (and in his employers' good graces) until his death in 1811. In addition to being the Senate's first Sergeant at Arms, Mathers maintains the distinction of holding his post for more than twenty-two years. Although his immediate successor missed breaking that record by weeks, no Sergeant at Arms since the early nineteenth century has come close.

In 1811, Mathers tripped and fell down his cellar stairs, breaking an ankle; complications from the accident were fatal. A funeral procession through Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, which included a Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...

 honor guard
Honor guard
An honor guard, or ceremonial guard, is a ceremonial unit, usually military in nature and composed of volunteers who are carefully screened for their physical ability and dexterity...

, took place on September 5, 1811 and was attended by heads of government agencies, Revolutionary War veterans, and the city's "most respectable citizens."

Mathers' exact age was uncertain, although his guess was that he had been born about 67 years earlier.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK