The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-04

ed between the two houses. He was
the original Father of the House."
Clay served as speaker during all of
the Twelfth congress and during the
nrst session of the Thirteenth. Dur
ing the second session he resigned
and went abroad as a member Of the
commission appointed to negotiate
treaty of peace and commerce with
Great Britain. During his absence
Langdon Cheves, of South Carolina,
was chosen speaker. Clay returned
and was elected to the Fourteenth
congress and was again chosen speak
er, as he was also of the Fifteenth
and Sixteenth congresses.
The house in the Twenty-fourth
congress was presided over by John
Bell, of Tennessee, one of the most
eminent men of his time. Bell was
one of the founders of the Wing
party, and was elected to the speaker
ship over James X. Polk. Bell was
secretary of war in the elder Harri-
sons cabinet and also served in the
United States senate. In 1860 he was
the candidate for the presidency of
/ the Constitutional Union party, his
associate on the ticket being Edward
| Everett, of Massachusetts. When
the war was on, Bell yielded to his
surroundings and advocated standing
| by the Southern cause.
The house in the Twenty-fifth and
Twenty sixth congresses was presid-
ed over by James K. Polk, of Tennes-
see, who left congress to become gov
ernor of his State, and whose friends
| took his name before the convention
in Baltimore in 1914, hoping to have
him nominated for the vice presi-
dency. In the wrangle which ensued
Polk was finally nominated for the
presidency, being the first clark
horse" that had appeared in Ameri-
can national politics.
Robert NJ, T. Hunter, of Virginia,
was speaker of the house in the
Twenty-seventh congress. He was
defeated for reelection to the house
at the next term. Later he was elect
ed United States senator, and was a
member of the senate at the outbreak
| of the war. He withdrew from that
| body and was afterward formally ex-
PEELED. He was a member of the pro-
| visiOnaI confederate congress and it
was originally intended that he
| should be chosen president by the
| Confederacy with Jefferson Davis as
commander-in-chief of the army. For
time he was secretary of state of
the Confederacy and afterwards a
member of the Confederate senate
Robert G. Winthrop, of Massachu-
setts, was speaker of the Thirtieth
congress. Armistead Burt, of South
Carolina, acted as speaker pro tenn
pore for this term for a few days.
| Winthrop was a candidate for the
speakership in the next congress, but
was, after a contest of a few weeks,
defeated by Howell Cobb, of Georgia.
| While speaker he delivered the ad-
dress at the laying of the corner stone
of the Washington monument. He
was appointed by the governor of
Massachusetts to serve out the unex-
pired term in the senate of Daniel
! Webster, who has become secretary
of state. When the legislature came
to elect Sumner was chosen over
Winthrop by a coalition between free
sellers and Democrats.
| Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachu-
sets, was speaker of the Thirty
fourth congress. He was elected
speaker as a Know-NOthing, after a
contest lasting more than two
months. in which 1873 ballots were
cast. The house was in a perfect
deadlock and no candidate could get
| majority of all the votes. The con-
test was only ended when a resolution
was adopted that on the next ballot
the candidate having the highest
number of votes should be declared
elected speaker. This proved to be
Banks. Banks last legislative ser
vice was as a member of the Fifty
first congress.
| Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania,
was chosen speaker of the Thirty
seventh, or first war congress. He
was a man of ability, and would IN
doubleday have continued in that Of
fee If he had been returned to the
/ Thirty-eighth congress, but he was
not. At the close of his servise as
{ speaker, Grow received a unanimous
vote of thanks, the first of the kind
given to any speaker in many years.
Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, was
speaker of the Thirty Thirty
ninth and FOrtieth congresses He
might have been speaker longer, but
at the close of the Fortieth congress
he left the speakers chair to assume
that of vice president at the north
end of the capitol
Samuel ]. Randall was chosen
speaker at the second session of the
Forty fourth congress. and also of the
Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth con
crosses.
James G. Blaine, of Maine, was
speaker during the Forty-first, Forty
second and Forty-third congresses.
When the house became Democratic.
he was succeeded in the Forty-fourth
congress by Michael c. Kerr.
The Forty-seventh congress was Re