If you have followed my column over the years you may have noticed a theme. My belief is that there is really nothing new, that in some way or another we have seen everything before.Most of my writing is comparing modern events to the past. Yet, recently the fates have mocked my belief as not only has a former president been indited for the first time in our country’s history, but the Speaker of the House was removed – the latter a feat tried on a few occasions but never successful.Earlier this year was the fourth time in our nation’s history that the Speaker of the House was not chosen on the first day of the Congress. Much of this craziness is coming from a group of 20 of so Republicans who feel the status quo is no longer working and it is their task is to shake things up, starting with new leadership.Historically speaking, this is not completely new. While it took four days and 15 ballots to elect McCarthy back in January, the 31st Congress took 19 days to elect a speaker and the 68th Congress took three. Now, however, I guess the House has nothing better to do, so they decided to do it all over again. With the ousting of McCarthy, Republicans tried to find a representative who could satisfy all sides of the party. This time it took three weeks and several candidates to finally get their man.While I could choose any of these earlier speaker contests to in which to compare, the one from the 1850s that took two months seems most applicable as the 1850s look politically similar to today.The makeup of the 34th Congress was 83 Democrats, 51 Know-Nothings, and 100 Oppositions. On the opening day of Congress, Dec. 3, 1855, 21 different candidates were nominated for speaker. The most important of these were William Richardson, Democrat from Illinois, who received 74 votes; Lewis Campbell, Opposition from Ohio, who received 53 votes; Humphrey Marshall, Know-Nothing from Kentucky, who received 30 votes; and finally, Nathaniel Banks, Know-Nothing from Massachusetts, who received 21 votes. After that, the votes dropped off greatly among the other candidates. That meant 74 votes for the Democrats, 53 for Opposition, and 51 between the two Know-Nothings, but 113 votes were needed to win a majority. The House voted three more times that day with very little movement in the ...
