In a public ceremony this afternoon on the first floor of the Auburn University library, an Auburn graduate returned. Former U.S Representative for the 6th Alabama district Spencer Thomas Bachus III returned to Auburn to donate his congressional papers to the Special Collections and Archives department of the library.
One hundred cubic feet of congressional office records will first go through a preservation process before becoming available to the public in 2020. Along with written documents, Bachus also donated electronic data to the library.
Dwayne Cox, head of the Special Collections and Archives department in the library said the donation would be a great contribution to the collection.
“He was invested in some very important financial legislation,” Cox said. “We have a number of Auburn grads who have worked in legislation and have papers in special collections and archives.”
The ceremony began with Bachus' recount of his journey through congress and the work he has done in his life. Amidst a few rival jokes, (Bachus received his graduate degree from the University of Alabama) there were also a few moments of sincere gratitude for Auburn.
“When I get ten miles from Auburn I get excited because I associate it with really wonderful people,” Bachus said.
In attendance were some of Bachus’s family members including his wife, two sons and a few of his law partners. He spoke of the influence each person has had in his life and how it affected the decisions he made in office.
“I had a friend in Birmingham who was a car dealer,” said Bachus. “The day I was told the economy would crash he called me and said, ‘Don’t you do anything to bail these people out.’ A month later he called me again and said, ‘When are y’all going to do something?’”
The economical collapse was “a bang, not a panic” according to Bachus, and deciding how to handle the banks was a difficult task for congress.
Bachus went on to explain different decisions congress was faced within the 20 years in office (1995-2015.) The documents he donated from congressional meetings will provide insight into the current housing and financial crisis facing our state and country.
“This is a great historical resource,” said graduate assistant to the Department of Special Collections and Archives Daniel Williams. “I’ve already been through some of the papers and the details it gives us about what was going on is incredible.”
Tommy Brown, assistant archivist, said he is excited to obtain more political documents for Auburn.
“One of our collective strengths is Alabama politics,” Brown said. “We already have other congressional papers and this just makes our collection stronger.”
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