Hello from the Heartland. My name is Jenna, and this is Smarter News, news when it matters and why it matters.

Our Smarter series features unique people who help us think and live smarter.

When senators take their seats during the impeachment trial of President Trump, some will sit at

deaths 200 years old. Nearly half of all the wooden deaths in the Senate chamber date back to when the

United States government had to rebuild after the British burned Washington, D.C., including the

U.S. Capitol during during the War of 1812,

senators sat at those same deaths during the impeachment trial against President Andrew Johnson,

as the country emerged from the Civil War, and another impeachment trial more than 100 years later

against President Clinton, and any number of heated debates and arguments over the decades

that some may have speculated would finally tear the Union apart.

But the country, and those deaths, have survived.

And we returned to the Senate yet again for a historic moment, where lawmakers exercising their duty

to check the power of the executive branch will decide whether

or not a U.S. president will be removed from office. Why did the framers give the Senate this

responsibility? And what should we know about the past that will help guide us in present times?

We're lucky enough to have some unique perspective from Dan Holt, the assistant historian

at the U.S. Senate Historical Office. I use their website all the time to help inform our

conversations on smarter news. It's an amazing asset for everyone, and I highly encourage you to

take a few moments to explore the extraordinary body of work these historians gather on a regular basis.

So we all have access to America's story.

It's truly a national treasure.

So I was overjoyed when Dan agreed to join us.

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