The Worst House Speaker Election Ever? A Look Back At 1856

House Republicans will limp back into Washington, D.C., with a speaker nominee in Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who, as of this writing, didn’t have enough votes, even from his own caucus, to win the job.

That’s hardly surprising, given the party’s recent descent into self-parody. Jordan, whom former Speaker John Boehner once described as a “legislative terrorist” and much more recently, was a full-throated election denialist, may yet bully his way to a bare majority. We shall see. But if he fails, the Republicans are forced to go back to the drawing board…a natural question arises: is this the most dysfunctional House speaker election we’ve ever had?

Nope, not even close. As with so many instances of dysfunction, despair and outright devilry, we have to go back to the years just before the Civil War. The 1856 election for House speaker went on for almost two months, with 133 ballots cast before choosing Massachusetts Rep. Nathaniel Banks.

People today worry that a government shutdown is possible in a few weeks; the world is burning with wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Inflation lingers, budgets are bursting, debt is piling up…it all cries out for a working House that can at least get bills to the floor for votes.

Back in 1856, slavery was on the minds, lips, and fists of lawmakers across the Capitol. In “Bleeding Kansas,” a guerrilla war was underway between pro- and anti-slavery factions. 

And that violence spread all the way to Congress:

…Senator Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts antislavery Republican, addressed the Senate on the explosive issue of whether Kansas should be admitted to the Union as a slave state or a free state.  In his “Crime Against Kansas” speech, Sumner identified two Democratic senators as the principal culprits in this crime—Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina.  He characterized Douglas to his face as a “noise-some, squat, and nameless animal . . . not a proper model for an American senator.”  Andrew Butler, who was not present, received more elaborate treatment.  Mocking the South Carolina senator’s stance as a man of chivalry, the Massachusetts senator charged him with taking “a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean,” added Sumner, “the harlot, Slavery.”  

Representative Preston Brooks was Butler’s South Carolina kinsman. If he had believed Sumner to be a gentleman, he might have challenged him to a duel. Instead, he chose a light cane of the type used to discipline unruly dogs. Shortly after the Senate had adjourned for the day, Brooks entered the old chamber, where he found Sumner busily attaching his postal frank to copies of his “Crime Against Kansas” speech.

Brooks got off lightly:

Brooks was arrested but only sentenced to a $300 fine. Enthusiastic supporters in his home district in South Carolina immediately provided the funds. A vote in the House to expel Brooks failed, but he nevertheless resigned voluntarily. This was a calculated move to demonstrate his support in the south, as his home district unanimously reelected him back to the vacated position.

As for Speaker Banks…he served a single term, leaving Congress to become governor.  

We may be in the midst of the worst type of political theater right now over which unlucky member gets to be speaker. But even the deeply unserious and profoundly narcissistic bunch we have on Capitol Hill today can’t compare to the bloody-minded bunch who once walked those same halls.

Should we feel grateful for that? Yes, of course. But we should also demand more and much better of the current crop of time servers and meme-lords infesting Congress today.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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