The Democrats and Republicans in the House were doing everything they could think of to force the hands of their opponents into appointing the House Speaker. However, no one could secure the majority number of votes to take over the position. The crisis reached a breaking point when a congressman actually suggested that everyone from the House resign in order eliminate the issue entirely. With every passing day, party lines became clearer and our Loco-Focos were at the core of the anti-slavery Republican movement.

Why was there a speakership crisis? How did the House overcome the crisis? What happened to the Loco-Focos in the 1850’s? Did the speakership crisis just serve as a foreshadowing of the trouble to come for the U.S.?

Further Reading:

Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 2005.

Bigelow, John. William Cullen Bryant. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1980. (Original printing: 1890).

Brooks, Corey M. Liberty Power: Antislavery Third Parties and the Transformation of American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2016.

Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. Perennial Classics Edition. 2002. Originally Published: 1988.

Reynolds, David S. Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Knopf. 1996

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