Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-06
Ifcilse.

Inc assembling OF The ErSt regular session
of the forty-seventh congress, had the effect of
drawing a vast number of visitors By IL
o'clock every seat IN the galleries of the house
of representatives was filled. Keifer stood for
Il short time in the rear of the desk, and was
warmly congratulated by his colleagues on
his success in obtaining the nomination fer
speaker.
At noon the clerk of the house, Adams,
called the body to order, and announced the
opening of the session. He then called the
roll, the roll showing representatives pres
ent, the absentees being two, Mills and Deus
ter.
Nominations for speaker being in order,
Keifer was put in nomination by Robson,
Randall by House, and Ford by Murch. Bur.
rows (Mich.), Holman, McCook and Ladd
were appointed tellers. The roll was called
and resulted as follows: whole number of
votes, 2S5; necessary for q choice, 143; for
Keifer, AS; Randall; 129; Ford, s. Those vot-
ing for Ford were Brumm, Burrows (Mo.),
Hazeltine, Jones (Tex.), Ladd, Mes grave,
Meerch and Rice (Mo.) None of the candi-
dates voted. Fulkelson and Paul, Virginia
readjusterS, voted for Keifer.
The result having been announced, Keifer
was escortedto the speakers chair by Randall
and Hiscock, and took the oath of office,
which was administered by Kelley, of Penn.
sylvania, as the oldest member in point of
service.
THE SPEAKERS ADDRESS.
Speaker Keifer, when the applause had
subsided which greeted his appearance at the
speakers desk, spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the house of representatives, l
thank you with heartfelt gratitude, for the
distinguished honor conferred on me by nv
election as your speaker I will assume the
powers of this high Office with, trust, due
share of ditfidence and dIstrust of nv own
ability to meet them acceptably to you and TO
the country. l believe that you, as a body
and as individuals, will give me hearty sup
port in the discharge of my duties. promise
to devote myself faithfully and assiduously
to the work before me. ! invoke You
and the country's charitable Judgment
on ali my official acts. l will strive to be
just to all, regardless of party or section.
Where party principle is involved / will be
found to be Republican, but in all other re-
spects hope to be able to act free from party
ties. 1t is singular fact, that at this most
prosperous time in our national history, no
party in either branch of congress has an
absolute majority over all other parties,
and it is therefore peculiarly fortunate that at
no other time since, and for many years prior
executive chair, has there been SO few unset
tied vital questions of a national character, in
relation to which party lines have been closely
drawn. The national prosperity of the people
is in advance of any other period in the his
tory of our government. Violence of party
spirit has subsided, and many of
the reasons for its existence are gone. While
the universal tendency of the people is to
sustain and continne to build upon this un-
paralelled prosperity, it should be our highest
aim to permanently promote and not cripple
it. This congress should be, and profoundly
hope will be, marked peculiarly as business
congress. 1t may be true that additional laws
are yet necessary to give to every citizen the
complete and peaceable exercise of all his
political rights, but with evenly balanced
party power, with few grounds for party
strife, and with no impending presidential
election to distract us from purely legislative
duties, l venture to suggest the present as an
auspcious time to enact laws to guard against
recurrence of the dangers to our institutions
and insure tranquility at perilous times in the
future. Again thanking you for the honor
conferred, ard again invoking your aid and
generous judgment, am ready to take the
oath prescribed by the law and the constitu.
tion, and forthwith proceed, with my best
ability, guided by sincere and honest pur-
pose, to discharge the duties belonging to the
Office to which you have elected me. (Great
applause.)
The work of swearing in members was com.
menced, Alabama being the first state called.
Jones (Texas) objected to the oath being ad-
ministered to Jas. Wheeler, of Alabama, and
asked that be compelled to stand aside.
Mr. Randall asked the reason for this ac-
tion. The speaker stated that the matter
would be postponed until the oath had been
administered to the other members. Mr.. Ran
dali contended that the gentleman could not
be compelled to stand aside, but might do so
if he desired, and it was finally decided he
should stand aside until the members to whom
there was no objection were sworn.
Mr.. Springer objected to the swearing in of
Cults, of Iowa; Van Vorhes, of New York;
King, of Louisiana, and Moore, of Tennessee,
which caused good deal Of laughter. All OF
these gentlemen stood aside. Objections were