{"id":4910,"date":"2020-05-07T12:01:27","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?p=4910"},"modified":"2024-12-21T12:07:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T17:07:53","slug":"a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved"},"content":{"rendered":"

A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

The House of Representatives recently abandoned a plan to allow Congress to vote remotely during the coronavirus outbreak. This is not the first time a congressional session has been threatened by a lethal virus. PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENDAN HOFFMAN, GETTY<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

TENS OF MILLIONS<\/span>\u00a0of Americans are working from home amid the coronavirus pandemic. Not Congress. The House of Representatives recently abandoned a plan to allow lawmakers to cast votes remotely, and on April 28 decided not to return to Washington because of fears for the health of lawmakers. \u201cWe had no choice,\u201d House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters. Meanwhile, a bipartisan Senate effort to conduct business virtually remains stalled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yet the nation\u2019s founders confronted a similar crisis, and left behind a blueprint for Congress to do its job safely and effectively in spite of contagious illness. The trouble began in the late summer of 1793 in Philadelphia, then the country\u2019s capital. President George Washington called what happened next \u201cthe calamity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Famed Philadelphia physician Benjamin Rush sounded the alarm on August 19. Yellow fever was spreading rapidly along the city\u2019s docks. The illness likely originated from a ship that carried infected\u00a0mosquitoes<\/a>\u00a0from the West Indies, though the origin of the illness was a mystery in that era. Citizens at first largely dismissed Rush\u2019s warning as overblown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Congress was not due back in session until December, but Washington and his cabinet were at work in the city. Some of the first victims of the epidemic were the wife of the president\u2019s personal secretary and the wife and child of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson\u2019s coachman.<\/p>\n

\n

With his usual precision, Jefferson noted that the illness began \u201cwith a pain in the head, sickness in the stomach, with a slight rigor, fever, black vomiting and feces, and death from the 2nd to the 8th day.\u201d He added that \u201cit is the opinion of the physicians there is no way of stopping it\u201d and that no two doctors \u201cagree in any one part of their process of cure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Struck down with the fever, his rival, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, claimed to have been cured by cold baths and a half-dozen bottles of wine sent by the concerned president.\u00a0Rush prescribed copious bleeding<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

By September, two hundred people a day were dying. \u201cEvery body, who can, is flying from the city, and the panic of the country people is likely to add famine to the disease,\u201d wrote Jefferson. Washington left for Mount Vernon while Jefferson decamped to Monticello, as Vice President John Adams retreated to his farm in Quincy, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

With the illness rampant in the capital, Washington wrestled with whether he had the power to postpone or move the upcoming congressional session to a safer venue. The Constitution requires federal lawmakers to \u201cassemble at least once in every year,\u201d but without specifying how or where. \u201cIt is a delicate situation for the President to be placed in,\u201d he wrote Hamilton on October 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hamilton responded warily. \u201cI know of no law that abridges in this respect the discretion of the president,\u201d he wrote ten days later, \u201cif the usual seat of the Government may be in possession of an enemy\u201d or \u201cswallowed up by an earthquake.\u201d But he feared that some lawmakers might bridle at an attempt by the White House to dictate the work of lawmakers. \u201cI doubt therefore whether the circumstance of a contagious disease existing at the seat of Government be a constitutional ground for convening Congress at\u00a0another place<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

He advised Washington instead simply to recommend an alternative site as near Philadelphia as possible. The president chose to reconvene the cabinet in Germantown, a few miles north of Philadelphia, to wait out the epidemic. Within weeks, an early snowfall killed the mosquitoes and averted the brewing constitutional crisis. (Here’s how a smallpox outbreak nearly derailed the American Revolution.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe fever in Philadelphia has almost entirely disappeared,\u201d Jefferson reported. A relieved Washington did not have to meddle in congressional affairs. \u201cSeveral Members of Congress are arrived and Business is going on with some Spirit,\u201d noted Abigail Adams after her November 30\u00a0<\/sup>return.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The ghastly outbreak, however, had killed more than four thousand people out of a population of 30,000, while paralyzing the government. A shaken Congress approved an act the following April allowing lawmakers to meet at another place given \u201ccontagious sickness or the existence of other circumstances\u201d if the president deemed that gathering in the capital proved \u201chazardous to the lives of health of the members.\u201d The act authorized the president to issue a proclamation that Congress convene \u201cat such other place as he may judge proper.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That legislation was tweaked in 1799 to ensure that \u201cin case of the prevalence of a contagious or epidemical disease at the seat of government,\u201d the president could lawfully move government operations to those places \u201cdeemed most safe and convenient for conducting the public business.\u201d The new act also allowed courts to move their place of work in case of \u201ccontagious sickness.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

It is not clear if the work of the legislative branch was included in the revised act, but political scientist Douglas Harris of Loyola University says it is a safe bet that Congress wanted all three branches to continue their work uninterrupted amid an epidemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Today\u2019s courts and federal offices have found twenty-first century ways to do so, by conducting their public business online. Even the Mother of Parliaments is seeing the advantages of virtual governing; on April 21, British parliamentarians approved a motion allowing up to 120 members to use video links to participate in the House of Commons, with 50 meeting in person. (Video calls may seem like an elegant solution, but they uniquely tax the brain.<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Yet Congress remains hobbled by rules of its own making. As they did during the 1918 influenza pandemic, absent House members are using unanimous consent to pass vital legislation. A single member can, however, block any bill. That bodes ill for a nation facing an economic as well as medical crisis that could last for months, if not years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cCongress means \u2018coming together\u2019 but the Constitution is not a suicide pact,\u201d adds Harris. With some state legislatures embracing remote voting, \u201cit seems a reasonable idea for Congress to do so for the short term.\u201d House and Senate rules forbid this, but these are rules made by legislators, not statutes in law or articles embedded in the Constitution. \u201cIf there is a bipartisan will, then they can find a way to vote remotely,\u201d says Lee Drutman, a congressional expert and senior fellow at New America, a Washington think tank.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cThere are legitimate concerns about permitting remote voting, and those need to be addressed,\u201d wrote Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) on April 8\u00a0in\u00a0The Hill<\/i><\/a>, after introducing a resolution with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) to allow the procedure. The resolution would require a vote every month in order to extend the practice into the next 30 days.<\/i>\u00a0\u201cWe cannot let the pandemic stop us from doing our essential work.\u201d Given the founders\u2019 brush with a devastating epidemic, they no doubt would have applauded that sentiment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-geographic"],"yoast_head":"\nA virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#:~:text=A%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in,remotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#:~:text=A yellow fever outbreak in,remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andrew Lawler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"252\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"AndrewLawler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"AndrewLawler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"AndrewLawler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"headline\":\"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1212,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"National Geographic\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.\",\"name\":\"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00\",\"description\":\"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/05\\\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":252},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nationalgeographic.com\\\/history\\\/article\\\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Andrew Lawler\",\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of four books\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022\",\"name\":\"AndrewLawler\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1920,\"caption\":\"AndrewLawler\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\\\/content\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/02\\\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg\"},\"description\":\"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.andrewlawler.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/AndrewLawlerAuthor\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/LawlerAndrew\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/channel\\\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler","description":"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#:~:text=A yellow fever outbreak in,remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler","og_description":"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#:~:text=A yellow fever outbreak in,remotely during the coronavirus outbreak.","og_site_name":"Andrew Lawler","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","article_published_time":"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":252,"url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"AndrewLawler","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"AndrewLawler","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\/"},"author":{"name":"AndrewLawler","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"headline":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved","datePublished":"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\/"},"wordCount":1212,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg","articleSection":["National Geographic"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/a-virtual-congress-americas-founders-would-have-approved\/","url":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.","name":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved • Andrew Lawler","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg","datePublished":"2020-05-07T16:01:27+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-21T17:07:53+00:00","description":"A yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia almost caused a constitutional crisis when George Washington considered moving the seat of government.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak."]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/96361792_6186025741429_2032810800040640512_n.jpg","width":480,"height":252},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/virtual-congress-american-founding-fathers-would-approved#%3a~%3atext%3dA%20yellow%20fever%20outbreak%20in%2cremotely%20during%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A virtual Congress? America\u2019s founders would have approved"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/","name":"Andrew Lawler","description":"Andrew Lawler is author of four books","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbc9a5140b6f2e4922d45f0726e70022","name":"AndrewLawler","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg","width":1920,"height":1920,"caption":"AndrewLawler"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/ST-LawlerJacketPic-1x1.jpg"},"description":"Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World\u2019s Most Contested City, The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization. As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew\u2019s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AndrewLawlerAuthor","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/andrew-lawler-9b5a064a\/","https:\/\/x.com\/LawlerAndrew","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCsliIwdDC_wPYE01Se2zzAw"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18555,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4910\/revisions\/18555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewlawler.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}