The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1859-07-15
VINO Elected pnnks speakerp

W ~ AAAOCtCA ANnhno t1RNphCA
Many, il not all, the democratic papers
charge the Americans with having elect-.
ed Nathaniel P. Banks Speaker Of the
House of Representatives of the Bath
Congress-tbat Congress which the DEM
ocratic leaders assert made 50 many ex-
travagant appropriations. Every reading
man knows this charge against the Amer
leans is utterly false, and has been so pro
ven hundred times The whole truth
and history of the matter is simply and
substantially set forth below by our co
temporary of the Clarksville Chronicle
Promising that Banks was first elected to
Congress by the regular democratic party,
our cotemporary continues:
"No one will deny that the plurality
rule adopted after the 10th ballot, was
Immediately followed by the election of
Banks whose friends, the dcmocfatslz knew,
would stick to him, and that his chances
for plurality vote amounted almost TO q
certainty of his election Well, Sam
Smith offered the plurality resolution,
which was adopted, and is in these words;
"Resolred, That the House will proceed imme-
dately TO the election of o Speaker, riro eoce. If
after the roll shall have been called three times,
no member shall have received majority Of all
the votes cast, the roll shall again be called and
the member who shall then receive the largest
number of votes, provided II be majority of q
quorum, shall be declared duly elected Speaker Of
the House Of Representatives Of the Thirty Fourth
Congress-"
This resolution having been adopted
Richardson of Illinois, was withdrawn
and Aiken, of South Carolina, without the
formality of nomination, became the
democratic candidate, and on the last,
and one hundred and thirty-third ballot,
Banks was elected, thevote standing thus:
Banks, .......................,.. 103
Aiken, .......,....."......,...."..,. lOO
FULLER, .................s.....p...,,.-..
Campbell, .....,'.'..'.''''.'.'.'.''..."..
Wells, ......-.....i'.'...''..'''''. Il
The whole number of votes cast was
two hundred and fourteen-twenty mem-
bers being absent The vote of Banks
was three or fourless than he had receiv-
ed on previous ballots; twenty-eight A.
mericans, if we have counted right, voted
for Aiken, and six for Fuller-their nomi-
nee. We have seen that Banks gained no
votes after the adoption of the plurality
rule: we have seen that about the whole
American strength was on hand and vot-
ed nearly the whole of them for Aiken:
then who defeated Aiken and elected
Banks? The democrats who were absent;
and theirwhole course. during two months
of ballotting and wrangling, goes toprove
that their absence was intentional; bitter
enmity to the Americans suggested the
unworthy trick of electing Banks that
they might afterwards proclaim it as the
act of the American party. But the re-
cord holds them to theresponsibility and
they can not avoid it. Twenty-eight
Americans voted for Aiken, democrat,
purely to defeat Banks, whilst democrats
enough declined to vote for a Southern
democrat, to ensure the election of a
Black Republican. Had Banks been an
American, as the democratic papers charge,
he could have been elected the first day
of the session, as well as on the 9th of
February, two months after; but in our
analysis of the ballots, we can not find
that he received single American vote
from the beginning to the end of the
contest: and had the democrats stood by
Aiken, he would have been the Speaker,
and made such by the balance of power
in the hands of the American party in
Congress-"
The facts here set forth by the Clarks-
vile paper are strictly true. Banks was
first elected to the House by democratic
votes. lie never could have been placed
in the Speakers Chair without the adop-
tion of the plurality rule, and no
Southern man, but Sam Smith. could be
found in the notorious Thirty Fourth Con
gress to offer that rule foradoption, know
ing as he did, and as everybody did, that
the result would be the elevation of a
prominent enemy of the South to the
third Office in the government, who would
have the appointment Of all the Commit
tees and largely shape the legislation Of
the session. And yet this man Smith
who did more than other man, in rout o.
Congress, to place the Black Republican
in the Speakers Chair, is going about ovei
1 fho Sd Congressional District, charging
the Southern opposition with afiiliatinl
with the anti-slavery people of the Ere,
Statesl,eH is not too much to assert tha
the SECTION Of Mr.. Banks to the Speaker
Allip of the House was more effective ii
| Strengthening the hands of the enemie
of the South than all the articles writer
and published by Horace Greeley, and al
the speeches made by Bill Seward. lie
the voters of the Third District renem
Der this when Sammy and his party pa
pers grow eloquent over the wrongs o
the South"
| RSs~ The King, Victor Emmanuel, it i
said, was wounded i'm the arm at the bat
tie of Magneta. The bravery of the KIM
has gained for him the title by election
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