Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate President Pro Tempore
“The ‘Famous Five'”
Thursday, March 12, 2026

VIDEO

[I’m here] to remind my colleagues in the nation about a significant day in the history of the Senate and of course, America’s 250th celebration gives us a special opportunity to reflect on events and the people who made a mark [in] our nation’s history.

That, of course, would include more than 2,000 Americans who have served in the United States Senate since it first met on March the 4th, 1789.

On another occasion, on this very day, 67 years ago, two very distinguished members of this body presided at a special ceremony in the Senate Reception Room. That Senate Reception Room is the beautiful space just located just off the floor of this historic chamber.

So, on March the 12th, 1959, then-Senator John F. Kennedy and then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson unveiled the five portraits of senators who were unanimously chosen for their “statesmanship” and “leadership in national thought and constitutional interpretation.”

These five senators are known as [the] “Famous Five:” Henry Clay of Kentucky, Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, Robert La Follette, Sr. of Wisconsin and Robert Taft of Ohio.

Now, [in the] year 2000, which would have been 41 years after the first portraits were unveiled, another historic review took place. The United States Senate approved two former senators to join the “Famous Five.” So, on September 14th, 2004, the portraits of Senator[s] Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan and Robert Wagner of New York were unveiled.

Now, [in] giving you this history, all I can do is encourage Americans to study these senators who made a mark on U.S. history from just before the Civil War through the Cold War to make America the more perfect union that the Constitution preamble calls us to evolve into.

Obviously, [the Founders were] expressing in 1789 that they knew we were not a perfect union and we were to be always an evolving principle for the United States of America.

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