Representatives had been meeting since December 5, 1859 on the usually routine task of electing a Speaker. The sectional crisis made this year very different, however. Now at the thirty-fourth ballot, there was still no resolution. John Sherman of Ohio, for the Republicans, could not reach the required numbers of votes and no challenger had been able to reach him, so the struggle went on. No more votes would be held for thirteen days. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Richard Franklin Bensel, Yankee Leviathan: the origins of central state authority in America, 1859-1877 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 52.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
