For all of yuse that ain’t playing Liberal down in DC.
Tonight I’m featuring an artist from my younger days. I saw them in concert on a double bill with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Good time, good times.
Without further due, I present…
Jay and the Americans
Only in America.
And my personal favorite.
On April 12, 1880, Stephen W. Downey, a congressional delegate from Wyoming Territory, introduced a bill that began with a recital of the Apostles’ Creed and went on to propose that $500,000 be appropriated to decorate the Capitol walls with scenes from “the birth, life, death and resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.” Downey also obtained permission to have additional “argument” in support of his bill published in the Congressional Record. When the Record appeared on April 22nd, readers were surprised to find that Downey’s “argument” was a religious-mythological poem over twenty-five hundred lines in length. The affair occasioned much mockery of Downey and debate about the abuse of the Congressional Record.
(Washington Post, 23 Apr 1880: “Downey’s Immortal Ode,” p. 1; “Downey Invades the Record,” p. 2).
