Samuel J . Randall Samuel Jackson Randall ( October 10 , 1828 – April 13 , 1890 ) was a Pennsylvania politician , attorney , soldier , and a prominent Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives during the late 19th century . He served as the 33rd Speaker of the House and a contender for his party ' s nomination for the President of the United States in two campaigns . Early life . Samuel J . Randall was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . His paternal grandfather , Matthew Randall , had been a judge on the Philadelphia court of common pleas . His father Josiah Randall , had been one of the leading lawyers in Philadelphia and a leading Henry Clay Whig , as well as a supporter of Prohibition . When Josiah Randall moved into the Democratic party , his two sons moved there with him . He was a member of the common council of Philadelphia and a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate . During the Civil War , he served as a member of the First Troop , Philadelphia City Cavalry in 1861 for three months , and again as a captain in 1863 during the Gettysburg Campaign . He served as Provost Marshal at Gettysburg , Pennsylvania , under Maj . Granville Haller in the days before the battle , and had the same role at Columbia , Pennsylvania , during the battle of Gettysburg . Political career . He was elected in 1862 from the first Congressional District in Philadelphia , a district designed by a Republican legislature for a Democratic candidate ( with the other four districts in the city designed to guarantee Republican control ) . Its most influential figure was William " Squire " McMullen , boss of the fourth ward , who would remain a lifelong Randall ally . Randall defeated former three - time mayor Richard Vaux for the seat . Later , the two men became close friends . Randall served in the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Pennsylvania from 1863 to his death . Randall ' s early career in the House showed little promise . According to news reports , he drank heavily . Sometime in 1869 , after getting into a fistfight with a Texas politician , he swore off liquor and quickly turned into one of the hardest working and most effective parliamentarians that the Democratic minority had . " Sam used to take his whisky straight and his bed as he could catch it , " a journalist wrote in 1877 . " Now he takes straight to bed , and is temperate as a horse - block . He is a first - rate instance of the size of a man after his liquor is all drawn off . " . ” His enemies all admitted him honest , no small thing in a state notorious for corruption . " I don ' t think it possible for a Pennsylvania politician to be a pure man , " a columnist admitted , " but I will say for Sam Randall he has never enriched himself through any speculation off the public Treasury . The worst that can be said of him is that his friends have been terrible thieves ; b ut then they were Pennsylvanians , coming from a Staate that nver produced but one eminent man . . . and up to the present investigation , but three honest men . . . " . ” Jay Cooke , the leading banker in Philadelphia , found Randall a vexing antagonist and suspected that rival bankers controlled him , for which there was no proof . He fought all the railroads seeking land grants , denounced the national banks , and resisted any measure giving private corporations a subsidy . Friends knew better than to ask his support as a personal favor . " You must not speak to me about that bill , " he told one of them sternly . " It is a bad bill , and I shall do everything I can to defeat it . " . ” Coming to the House early , leaving it late , he retired to his house to work , his dinner - table piled with files and papers , his day ending past midnight . ” In 1875 , he came into national attention , when he led a Democratic filibuster of Republican Reconstruction measures . That fall , he sought the Speakership , but lost out to another contender because of rumors that the Texas and Pacific Railroad lobby favored his election . Just the reverse was true : the Texas and Pacific feared his election more than that of any other . " His mind is of the heavier type - - there is nothing humble or elastic about it , " one journalist concluded . " He is not a fluent talker , but , nevertheless , a good debater , quick to see a point , and ready to turn it to his party ' s interests . He is one of the warchdogs of the House , always on the alert , and ready for attack and defense at any time . " . ” With the death of Speaker Michael Kerr of Indiana in the summer of 1876 , the Democrats elected Randall to the chair . From 1876 to 1881 , he served as the Speaker of the House and played a prominent role in establishing Democratic Party policy . During the presidential dispute in 1876 - 1877 , Randall stood with the militant Democrats , who wanted to resist what they saw as a Republican theft of the presidency , but when the party caucus went against him , he used his power as Speaker to put down a filibuster and permit Rutherford B . Hayes to be counted in peacefully . Nearly six feet tall , with black , curly hair and polished manners , he proved a master of tactics on the floor and of parliamentary law from the chair . . ” But tariff reformers knew that he would not allow their bills through , and that the Ways and Means Committee would be stacked against them . In 1883 , when the Democratic party came back to power after two years in the minority , it chose not to return Randall to the Speakership , selecting a supporter of low tariffs , John G . Carlisle of Kentucky , instead . Randall was placed at the head of the Appropriations Committee , where his diligence in cutting extravagance and pork - barrel provisions from spending bills made him the terror of lobbying interests . He also had time to lead the small protectionist minority in Democratic ranks to make coalitions with Republicans and stymie two different attempts in his own party to make a down - payment on tariff reform . He was considered for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 1880 and 1884 . In neither case did he stand much chance . Considered as former New York Governor Samuel J . Tilden ' s choice in 1880 , he found his candidacy foundering because Tilden waited too long to withdraw from the race . When , in 1884 , he sought the nomination , his protectionist views had marginalized hm too far in the Democratic party to give him much chance of winning . Those same views made Pennsylvania Republicans appreciate him , and in their redistricting of Pennsylvania , they made sure that he would have a district in which he suffered no risk of defeat . " You are one of the few Democrats I like , " the chairman of the Republican state committee , Thomas V . Cooper , wrote him in 1884 . " An effort will be made to deprive you of your district in the coming Congressional apportionment . . . I will resist it , and think you can aid me without political or other impropriety by reasserting to me and to others , in your way , that tariff interests will be safe in your hands . " They were . His district by then took in seven Philadelphia wards fronting the Delaware River . They included banks and factories , including twenty - five of the thirty - nine national banks in the city , but most of his constituents were unskilled working class , with a heavy Irish and German immigrant population . Increasingly out of touch with his party , Randall found his power in state politics declining during Grover Cleveland ' s administration . He was deprived of much of his power to control patronage and with it the ability to dominate the state party conventions . By 1888 , he had been marginalized in the House as well . Part of the reason was his failing health . By 1889 , he was confined to his bed , and in 1890 had to be sworn into office from there . Outlasting all his colleagues in continuous service , Randall died in Washington , D . C . while still in office . His remains were conveyed to Philadelphia and interred in the Laurel Hill Cemetery . To his credit , he died poor , leaving behind no real estae and very few personal effect . Funeral expenses and a $ 300 allotment to his wife exhausted his entire estate . ”