Federal Hall National Memorial

Federal Hall National Memorial lies in between Wall and Nassau Streets in Lower Manhattan, paying homage to some of the most memorable political events in our nation’s history. It is of extreme political significance since it serves as the first US Capital Building, the site where the freedom of the press was first challenged, the Stamp Act Congress was held, the place where George Washington was first inaugurated as president, and the site where the Bill of Rights was ratified. The original structure was demolished in 1812, and the structure in its place today, Federal Hall National Memorial, was created in 1842, on the site of the old Federal Hall on Wall Street. It first served as the United States Custom House, and then as a sub-Treasury
This led to the second event of political significance that occurred in Federal Hall: the Stamp Act Congress. The Stamp Act Congress was held between October 7 and 25, 1765 to protest “taxation without representation”. The meeting was the first gathering of twenty-seven elected representatives from nine different American colonies that came together to protest British taxation. The colonists showed British Parliament that they were able to create a strong opposition. The meeting resulted in the Declaration of Rights and Grievances, which stated that there should be “no taxes imposed on Colonists without their consent or receive a tax from from a body which they have no representative in” (What was the Stamp Act Congress? Summary of 1765 Stamp Act Congress). The Stamp Act Congress created a newborn sense of unity among the colonists—and they realized much could be attained by working together. The Stamp Act Congress is now “generally viewed as one of the first organized and coordinated political actions of the American Revolution” (Stamp Act Congress 2015). It is significant to American politics as it played a “major role [in] enabling the organized colonial resistance that led to the American Revolution in 1775” (Stamp Act Congress 2015), and conclusively, American
After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the United States established by the new Constitution met for the first time in Federal Hall on March 4, 1789. The First Federal Congress is perhaps the most important Congress in U.S. history. It discussed the necessary legislation needed for the new form of government, rules of the House and Senate, and “established the roles of its officers such as Speaker of the House and President of the Senate” (The First Federal Congress). The First Federal Congress played a significant role in American politics because it was the first body that began to implement the new Constitution of the United States. One of the first acts of the Congress was counting the ballots that named Washington as the first president. Washington was inaugurated on the steps of Federal Hall on April 30,