WHEN U.S. lawmakers returned to Washington in December 1849 for the
Thirty-First Congress, they knew they faced a raucous session. As
Washington’s Democratic newspaper, the Daily Union,
editorialized, “A crisis in our affairs is rapidly approaching, and
great events are near at hand.” But the members could not foresee the
magnitude of legislative dysfunction. The crisis emerged when the House
couldn’t muster a majority to elect a Speaker. Without a Speaker, the
chamber couldn’t organize, and committees couldn’t meet. Without a
functioning House, the Senate couldn’t do business either. President
Zachary Taylor couldn’t send up his annual message and set a national
agenda. Congress couldn’t appropriate money. The government froze.
By the thirteenth ballot, some suggested the chamber should abandon the majority-vote principle and allow a plurality winner. But there was no majority for that idea either. The nation was hopelessly split over a controversy widely seen as a defining national issue—whether slavery would be allowed in the southwestern territories that had been acquired through the Mexican War. Both Democrats and Whigs were split along sectional lines, and the upstart Free-Soilers—vehemently opposed to slavery extension—held the balance of power. But the stiff-necked Free-Soilers refused to put any of the major Speaker candidates over the top.
“This is a fearful state of things, and may be the beginning of sorrows for our happy country,” wrote the St. Louis Democrat in an editorial cry from the heart that was shared by millions of Americans. Soon House members were hurling political epithets at each other. Southerners threatened to leave the Union; Northerners dared them to go ahead.
Read more: http://nationalinterest.org/article/americas-civic-deadlock-the-politics-crisis-6795
By the thirteenth ballot, some suggested the chamber should abandon the majority-vote principle and allow a plurality winner. But there was no majority for that idea either. The nation was hopelessly split over a controversy widely seen as a defining national issue—whether slavery would be allowed in the southwestern territories that had been acquired through the Mexican War. Both Democrats and Whigs were split along sectional lines, and the upstart Free-Soilers—vehemently opposed to slavery extension—held the balance of power. But the stiff-necked Free-Soilers refused to put any of the major Speaker candidates over the top.
“This is a fearful state of things, and may be the beginning of sorrows for our happy country,” wrote the St. Louis Democrat in an editorial cry from the heart that was shared by millions of Americans. Soon House members were hurling political epithets at each other. Southerners threatened to leave the Union; Northerners dared them to go ahead.
Read more: http://nationalinterest.org/article/americas-civic-deadlock-the-politics-crisis-6795
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