Only a few people straggled into the galleries to see the wind-up of the second longest session in U.S. history. Only a few Congressmen were on the floors of House & Senate, and those few were somber and bitter. It was the day word came that Manila had fallen. Texas' Tom Connally uttered Congress' stammering epitaph: "We are a peaceful people. We were not expecting a war, we were not prepared for war. ..." The gavels banged. The 77th Congress of the U.S. ended its first session.
The peaceful people and their Congress were not prepared, but they had been...
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