Representatives had been meeting since December 5, 1859 on the usually routine task of electing a Speaker. In a marathon session that culminated in the thirty-ninth ballot, John Sherman of Ohio, for the Republicans, who had led every ballot was at last overtaken by William Smith of North Carolina. Smith, despite the support of a coalition of Democratic and American Party members, could not reach the required number of votes so the struggle went on. (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), 53.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
