FIRST SESSION TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS: MEMBERS: ORGANIZATION:
POLITICAL MAP OF THE HOUSE.
_Members of the Senate_.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.--Henry Hubbard, Franklin Pierce.
MAINE.--John Ruggles, Reuel Williams.
MASSACHUSETTS.--John Davis. Daniel Webster.
VERMONT.--Sam'l Prentiss, Sam'l S. Phelps.
RHODE ISLAND.--Nehemiah R. Knight, N. F. Dixon.
CONNECTICUT.--Thaddeus Betts, Perry Smith.
NEW YORK.--Silas Wright, N. P. Tallmadge.
NEW JERSEY.--Sam'l L. Southard, Garret D. Wall.
PENNSYLVANIA.--James Buchanan, Daniel Sturgeon.
DELAWARE.--Thomas Clayton.
MARYLAND.--John S. Spence, Wm. D. Merrick.
VIRGINIA.--William H. Roane.
NORTH CAROLINA.--Bedford Brown, R. Strange.
SOUTH CAROLINA.--John C. Calhoun, Wm. Campbell Preston.
GEORGIA.--Wilson Lumpkin, Alfred Cuthbert.
KENTUCKY.--Henry Clay, John J. Crittenden.
TENNESSEE.--Hugh L. White, Alex. Anderson.
OHIO.--William Allen, Benjamin Tappan.
INDIANA.--Oliver H. Smith, Albert S. White.
MISSISSIPPI.--Robert J. Walker, John Henderson.
LOUISIANA.--Robert C. Nicholas, Alexander
Mouton.
ILLINOIS.--John M. Robinson, Richard M.
Young.
ALABAMA.--Clement C. Clay, Wm. Rufus
King.
MISSOURI.--Thomas H. Benton, Lewis F.
Linn.
ARKANSAS.--William S. Fulton, Ambrose
Sevier.
MICHIGAN.--John Norvell, Augustus S. Porter.
_Members of the House of Representatives._
MAINE.--Hugh J. Anderson, Nathan Clifford,
Thomas Davee, George Evans, Joshua A. Lowell,
Virgil D. Parris, Benjamin Randall, Albert
Smith.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.--Charles G. Atherton,
Edmund Burke, Ira A. Eastman, Tristram Shaw,
Jared W. Williams.
CONNECTICUT.--Joseph Trumbull, William
L. Storrs, Thomas W. Williams, Thomas B.
Osborne, Truman Smith, John H. Brockway.
VERMONT.--Hiland Hall, William Slade,
Horace Everett, John Smith, Isaac Fletcher.
MASSACHUSETTS.--Abbot Lawrence, Leverett
Saltonstall, Caleb Cushing, William Parmenter,
Levi Lincoln, [Vacancy,] George N. Briggs,
William B. Calhoun, William S. Hastings, Henry
Williams, John Reed, John Quincy Adams.
RHODE ISLAND.--Chosen by general ticket.
Joseph L. Tillinghast, Robert B. Cranston.
NEW YORK.--Thomas B. Jackson, James de
la Montayne, Ogden Hoffman, Edward Curtis,
Moses H. Grinnell, James Monroe, Gouverneur
Kemble, Charles Johnson, Nathaniel Jones,
Rufus Palen, Aaron Vanderpoel, John Ely,
Hiram P. Hunt, Daniel D. Barnard, Anson
Brown, David Russell, Augustus C. Hand, John
Fine, Peter J. Wagoner, Andrew W. Doig,
John G. Floyd, David P. Brewster, Thomas C.
Crittenden, John H. Prentiss, Judson Allen,
John C. Clark, S. B. Leonard, Amasa Dana,
Edward Rogers, Nehemiah H. Earl, Christopher
Morgan, Theron R. Strong, Francis P. Granger,
Meredith Mallory, Seth M. Gates, Luther C.
Peck, Richard P. Marvin, Millard Fillmore,
Charles F. Mitchell.
NEW JERSEY.--Joseph B. Randolph, Peter
D. Vroom, Philemon Dickerson, William R.
Cooper, Daniel B. Ryall, Joseph Kille.
PENNSYLVANIA.--William Beatty, Richard
Biddle, James Cooper, Edward Davies, John
Davis, John Edwards, Joseph Fornance, John
Galbraith, James Gerry, Robert H. Hammond,
Thomas Henry, Enos Hook, Francis James,
George M. Keim, Isaac Leet, Albert G. Marchand,
Samuel W. Morris, George McCulloch,
Charles Naylor, Peter Newhard, Charles Ogle,
Lemuel Paynter, David Petrikin, William S.
Ramsey, John Sergeant, William Simonton,
George W. Toland, David D. Wagener.
DELAWARE.--Thomas Robinson, jr.
MARYLAND.--James Carroll, John Dennis,
Solomon Hillen, jr., Daniel Jenifer, William
Cost Johnson, Francis Thomas, Philip F.
Thomas, John T. H. Worthington.
VIRGINIA.--Linn Banks, Andrew Beirne,
John M. Botts, Walter Coles, Robert Craig,
George C. Dromgoole, James Garland, William
L. Goggin, John Hill, Joel Holleman, George
W. Hopkins, Robert M. T. Hunter, Joseph
Johnson, John W. Jones, William Lucas,
Charles F. Mercer, Francis E. Rives, Green B.
Samuels, Lewis Steinrod, John Taliaferro, Henry
A. Wise.
NORTH CAROLINA.--Jesse A. Bynum, Henry
W. Connor, Edmund Deberry, Charles Fisher,
James Graham, Micajah T. Hawkins, John
Hill, James J. McKay, William Montgomery,
Kenneth Rayner, Charles Shepard, Edward
Stanly, Lewis Williams.
SOUTH CAROLINA.--Sampson H. Butler, John
Campbell, John K. Griffin, Isaac E. Holmes,
Francis W. Pickens, R. Barnwell Rhett, James
Rogers, Thomas B. Sumter, Waddy Thompson,
jr.
GEORGIA.--Julius C. Alford, Edward J.
Black, Walter T. Colquitt, Mark A. Cooper,
William C. Dawson, Richard W. Habersham,
Thomas B. King, Eugenius A. Nisbet, Lott
Warren.
ALABAMA.--R. H. Chapman, David Hubbard,
George W. Crabb, Dixon H. Lewis, James Dillett.
LOUISIANA.--Edward D. White, Edward
Chinn, Rice Garland.
MISSISSIPPI.--A. G. Brown, J. Thompson.
MISSOURI.--John Miller, John Jameson.
ARKANSAS.--Edward Cross.
TENNESSEE.--William B. Carter, Abraham
McClellan, Joseph L. Williams, Julius W.
Blackwell, Hopkins L. Turney, William B.
Campbell, John Bell, Meredith P. Gentry,
Harvey M. Watterson, Aaron V. Brown, Cave
Johnson, John W. Crockett, Christopher H.
Williams.
KENTUCKY.--Linn Boyd, Philip Triplett, Joseph
Underwood, Sherrod Williams, Simeon W.
Anderson, Willis Green, John Pope, William J.
Graves, John White, Richard Hawes, L. W.
Andrews, Garret Davis, William O. Butler.
OHIO.--Alexander Duncan, John B. Weller,
Patrick G. Goode, Thomas Corwin, William
Doane, Calvary Morris, William K. Bond, Joseph
Ridgway, William Medill, Samson Mason,
Isaac Parish, Jonathan Taylor, D. P. Leadbetter,
George Sweeny, John W. Allen, Joshua
R. Giddings, John Hastings, D. A. Starkweather,
Henry Swearingen.
MICHIGAN.--Isaac E. Crary.
INDIANA.--Geo. H. Proffit, John Davis, John
Carr, Thomas Smith, James Rariden, Wm. W.
Wick, T. A. Howard.
ILLINOIS.--John Reynolds, Zadok Casey,
John T. Stuart.
The organization of the House was delayed for many days by a case
of closely and earnestly contested election from the State of New
Jersey. Five citizens, to wit: John B. Aycrigg, John B. Maxwell,
William Halsted, Thomas C. Stratton, Thomas Jones Yorke, had
received the governor's certificate as duly elected: five other
citizens, to wit: Philemon Dickerson, Peter D. Vroom, Daniel B.
Ryall, William R. Cooper, John Kille, claimed to have received
a majority of the lawful votes given in the election: and each
set demanded admission as representatives. No case of contested
election was ever more warmly disputed in the House. The two sets
of claimants were of opposite political parties: the House was
nearly divided: five from one side and added to the other would
make a difference of ten votes: and these ten might determine its
character. The first struggle was on the part of the members holding
the certificates claiming to be admitted, and to act as members,
until the question of _right_ should be decided; and as this would
give them a right to vote for speaker, it might have had the effect
of deciding that important election: and for this point a great
struggle was made by the whig party. The democracy could not ask
for the immediate admission of the five democratic claimants, as
they only presented a case which required to be examined before it
could be decided. Their course was to exclude both sets, and send
them equally before the committee of contested elections; and in
the mean time, a resolution to proceed with the organization of
the House was adopted after an arduous and protracted struggle, in
which every variety of parliamentary motion was exhausted by each
side to accomplish its purpose; and, at the end of three months
it was referred to the committee to report which five of the ten
contestants had received the greatest number of legal votes. This
was putting the issue on the rights of the voters--on the broad
and popular ground of choice by the people: and was equivalent to
deciding the question in favor of the democratic contestants, who
held the certificate of the Secretary of State that the majority of
votes returned to his office was in their favor,--counting the votes
of some precincts which the governor and council had rejected for
illegality in holding the elections. As the constitutional judge
of the election, qualifications and returns of its own members, the
House disregarded the decision of the governor and council; and,
deferring to the representative principle, made the decision turn,
not upon the conduct of the officers holding the election, but upon
the rights of the voters.
This strenuous contest was not terminated until the 10th of
March--nearly one hundred days from the time of its commencement.
The five democratic members were then admitted to their seats.
In the mean time the election for speaker had been brought on by
a vote of 118 to 110--the democracy having succeeded in bringing
on the election after a total exhaustion of every parliamentary
manoeuvre to keep it off. Mr. John W. Jones, of Virginia, was
the democratic nominee: Mr. Jno. Bell, of Tennessee, was nominated
on the part of the whigs. The whole vote given in was 235, making
118 necessary to a choice. Of these, Mr. Jones received 118: Mr.
Bell, 102. Twenty votes were scattered, of which 11, on the whig
side, went to Mr. Dawson of Georgia; and 9 on the democratic side
were thrown upon three southern members. Had any five of these
nine voted for Mr. Jones, it would have elected him: while the
eleven given to Mr. Dawson would not have effected the election
of Mr. Bell. It was clear the democracy had the majority, for the
contested election from New Jersey having been sent to a committee,
and neither set of the contestants allowed to vote, the question
became purely and simply one of party: but there was a fraction in
each party which did not go with the party to which it belonged:
and hence, with a majority in the House to bring on the election,
and a majority voting in it, the democratic nominee lacked five
of the number requisite to elect him. The contest was continued
through five successive ballotings without any better result for
Mr. Jones, and worse for Mr. Bell; and it became evident that there
was a fraction of each party determined to control the election. It
became a question with the democratic party what to do? The fraction
which did not go with the party were the friends of Mr. Calhoun, and
although always professing democratically had long acted with the
whigs, and had just returned to the body of the party against which
they had been acting. The election was in their hands, and they gave
it to be known that if one of their number was taken, they would
vote with the body of the party and elect him: and Mr. Dixon H.
Lewis, of Alabama, was the person indicated. The extreme importance
of having a speaker friendly to the administration induced all the
leading friends of Mr. Van Buren to go into this arrangement, and
to hold a caucus to carry it into effect. The caucus was held: Mr.
Lewis was adopted as the candidate of the party: and, the usual
resolves of unanimity having been adopted, it was expected to elect
him on the first trial. He was not, however, so elected; nor on the
second trial; nor on the third; nor on any one up to the seventh:
when, having never got a higher vote than Mr. Jones, and falling
off to the one-half of it, he was dropped; and but few knew how the
balk came to pass. It was thus: The writer of this View was one
of a few who would not capitulate to half a dozen members, known
as Mr. Calhoun's friends, long separated from the party, bitterly
opposing it, just returning to it, and undertaking to govern it by
constituting themselves into a balance wheel between the two nearly
balanced parties. He preferred a clean defeat to any victory gained
by such capitulation. He was not a member of the House, but had
friends there who thought as he did; and these he recommended to
avoid the caucus, and remain unbound by its resolves; and when the
election came on, vote as they pleased: which they did: and enough
of them throwing away their votes upon those who were no candidates,
thus prevented the election of Mr. Lewis: and so returned upon the
little fraction of pretenders the lesson which they had taught.
It was the same with the whig party. A fraction of its members
refused to support the regular candidate of the party; and after
many fruitless trials to elect him, he was abandoned--Mr. Robert M.
T. Hunter, of Virginia, taken up, and eventually elected. He had
voted with the whig party in the New Jersey election case--among
the scattering in the votes for speaker; and was finally elected by
the full whig vote, and a few of the scattering from the democratic
ranks. He was one of the small band of Mr. Calhoun's friends; so
that that gentleman succeeded in governing the whig election of
speaker, after failing to govern that of the democracy.
In looking over the names of the candidates for speaker it will be
seen that the whole were Southern men--no Northern man being at
any time put in nomination, or voted for. And this circumstance
illustrates a pervading system of action between the two sections
from the foundation of the government--the southern going for the
honors, the northern for the benefits of the government. And each
has succeeded, but with the difference of a success in a solid and
in an empty pursuit. The North has become rich upon the benefits of
the government: the South has grown lean upon its honors.
This arduous and protracted contest for speaker, and where the
issue involved the vital party question of the organization of the
House, and where every member classified himself by a deliberate
and persevering series of votes, becomes important in a political
classification point of view, and is here presented in detail as the
political map of the House--taking the first vote as showing the
character of the whole.
1. Members voting for Mr. Jones: 113.
Judson Allen, Hugh J. Anderson, Charles G. Atherton, Linn Banks,
William Beatty, Andrew Beirne, Julius W. Blackwell, Linn Boyd,
David P. Brewster, Aaron V. Brown, Albert G. Brown, Edmund
Burke, Sampson H. Butler, William O. Butler, Jesse A. Bynum,
John Carr, James Carroll, Zadok Casey, Reuben Chapman, Nathan
Clifford, Walter Coles, Henry W. Connor, Robert Craig, Isaac E.
Crary, Edward Cross, Amasa Dana, Thomas Davee, John Davis, John
W. Davis, William Doan, Andrew W. Doig, George C. Dromgoole,
Alexander Duncan, Nehemiah H. Earl, Ira A. Eastman, John Ely,
John Fine, Isaac Fletcher, John G. Floyd, Joseph Fornance,
John Galbraith, James Gerry, Robert H. Hammond, Augustus C.
Hand, John Hastings, Micajah T. Hawkins, John Hill of North
Carolina, Solomon Hillen jr., Joel Holleman, Enos Hook, Tilghman
A. Howard, David Hubbard, Thomas B. Jackson, John Jameson,
Joseph Johnson, Cave Johnson, Nathaniel Jones, George M. Keim,
Gouverneur Kemble, Daniel P. Leadbetter, Isaac Leet, Stephen
B. Leonard, Dixon H. Lewis, Joshua A. Lowell, William Lucas,
Abraham McLellan, George McCulloch, James J. McKay, Meredith
Mallory, Albert G. Marchand, William Medill, John Miller, James
D. L. Montanya, William Montgomery, Samuel W. Morris, Peter
Newhard, Isaac Parrish, William Parmenter, Virgil D. Parris,
Lemuel Paynter, David Petrikin, Francis W. Pickens, John H.
Prentiss, William S. Ramsey, John Reynolds, R. Barnwell Rhett,
Francis E. Rives, Thomas Robinson jr., Edward Rodgers, Green
B. Samuels, Tristram Shaw, Charles Shepard, Albert Smith, John
Smith, Thomas Smith, David A. Starkweather, Lewis Steenrod,
Theron R. Strong, Henry Swearingen, George Sweeny, Jonathan
Taylor, Francis Thomas, Philip F. Thomas, Jacob Thompson,
Hopkins L. Turney, Aaron Vanderpoel, David D. Wagner, Harvey M.
Watterson, John B. Weller, William W. Wick, Jared W. Williams,
Henry Williams, John T. H. Worthington.
2. Members voting for Mr. Bell: 102.
John Quincy Adams, John W. Allen, Simeon H. Anderson, Landaff
W. Andrews, Daniel D. Barnard, Richard Biddle, William K. Bond,
John M. Botts, George N. Briggs, John H. Brockway, Anson Brown,
William B. Calhoun, William B. Campbell, William B. Carter,
Thomas W. Chinn, Thomas C. Chittenden, John C. Clark, James
Cooper, Thomas Corwin, George W. Crabb, Robt. B. Cranston, John
W. Crockett, Edward Curtis, Caleb Cushing, Edward Davies, Garret
Davis, William C. Dawson, Edmund Deberry, John Dennis, James
Dellet, John Edwards, George Evans, Horace Everett, Millard
Fillmore, Rice Garland, Seth M. Gates, Meredith P. Gentry,
Joshua R. Giddings, William L. Goggin, Patrick G. Goode, James
Graham, Francis Granger, Willis Green, William J. Graves, Moses
H. Grinnell, Hiland Hall, William S. Hastings, Richard Hawes,
Thomas Henry, John Hill of Virginia, Ogden Hoffman, Hiram P.
Hunt, Francis James, Daniel Jenifer, Charles Johnston, William
Cost Johnson, Abbott Lawrence, Levi Lincoln, Richard P. Marvin,
Samson Mason, Charles F. Mercer, Charles F. Mitchell, James
Monroe, Christopher Morgan, Calvary Morris, Charles Naylor,
Charles Ogle, Thomas B. Osborne, Rufus Palen, Luther C. Peck,
John Pope, George H. Proffit, Benjamin Randall, Joseph F.
Randolph, James Rariden, Kenneth Rayner, John Reed, Joseph
Ridgway, David Russell, Leverett Saltonstall, John Sergeant,
William Simonton, William Slade, Truman Smith, Edward Stanly,
William L. Storrs, John T. Stuart, John Taliaferro, Joseph L.
Tillinghast, George W. Toland, Philip Triplett, Joseph Trumbull,
Joseph R. Underwood, Peter J. Wagner, Edward D. White, John
White, Thomas W. Williams, Lewis Williams, Joseph L. Williams,
Christopher H. Williams, Sherrod Williams, Henry A. Wise.
3. Scattering: 20.
The following named members voted for William C. Dawson, of Georgia.
Julius C. Alford, John Bell, Edward J. Black, Richard W.
Habersham, George W. Hopkins, Hiram P. Hunt, William Cost
Johnson, Thomas B. King, Eugenius A. Nisbet, Waddy Thompson,
jr., Lott Warren.
The following named members voted for Dixon H. Lewis, of Alabama:
John Campbell, Mark A. Cooper, John K. Griffin, John W. Jones,
Walter T. Colquitt.
The following named members voted for Francis W. Pickens, of South
Carolina:
Charles Fisher, Isaac E. Holmes, Robert M. T. Hunter, James
Rogers, Thomas B. Sumter.
James Garland voted for George W. Hopkins, of Virginia.
Charles Ogle voted for Robert M. T. Hunter, of Virginia.