The House speaker bog-down, Dec. 3, 1855
On this day in 1855, newly elected representatives, riven by sectional conflicts, convened in the Old House Chamber — the present-day Statuary Hall — and promptly bogged down in an effort to elect a speaker. The main dividing issues were the spread of slavery, which dominated U.S. politics in the run-up to the Civil War, and immigration policy.
No party held a majority of seats. With the Republican Party still taking form, there were 100 members from the Opposition Party, 83 Democrats and 51 nativist American (“Know-Nothing”) Party members.Continue Reading
After four failed attempts to elect a speaker on opening day, the normal first order of business for a newly seated Congress, the House adjourned. In the absence of an elected speaker, John Forney, the House clerk, presided over what became a record drawn-out affair. In all, 21 members initially vied for the position. As the balloting dragged on, some of them withdrew hoping to end the impasse so legislative work could begin.
Rep. Lewis Campbell of Ohio, an Opposition Party member and early front-runner in the contest, sent the Congressional Globe a copy of an editorial he had written for National Intelligencer about the stalemate. In withdrawing his name from contention, he said, “The struggle to elect a speaker has been surrounded with much embarrassment.”
Finally, on Feb. 2, 1856, two months later and with 133 ballots, the House elected Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts of the American Party by a vote of 103 to 100 over Rep. William Aiken of South Carolina.
Banks, who belonged to both the American and the Free Soil parties, was reelected in 1856 as a Republican. He resigned from his seat, however, in December 1857, after the Democrats captured control of the House. Banks went on to become governor of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1860.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF HISTORY AND PRESERVATION, CLERK OF THE U.S. HOUSE