Shows how the speakership began as a relatively weak office, and how votes for Speaker prior to the Civil War often favored regional interests over party loyalty. This title reveals how struggles over House organization prior to the Civil War were among the most consequential turning points in American political history.

List of Illustrations vii List of Tables ix List of Abbreviations xi Preface xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 The Evolving Roles and Responsibilities of House Officers in the Antebellum Era 25 Chapter 3 Organizational Politics under the Secret Ballot 56 Chapter 4 Bringing the Selection of House Officers into the Open 76 Chapter 5 Shoring Up Partisan Control: The Speakership Elections of 1839 and 1847 109 Chapter 6 Partisan Tumult on the Floor: The Speakership Elections of 1849 and 1855-1856 151 Chapter 7 The Speakership and the Rise of the Republican Party 193 Chapter 8 Caucus Governance and the Emergence of the Organizational Cartel, 1861-1891 241 Chapter 9 The Organizational Cartel Persists, 1891-2011 274 Chapter 10 Conclusion 303 Appendixes House Officer Elections and Caucus Nominations 323 Appendix 1 Summary of House Organization, First-112th Congresses (1789-2011) 324 Appendix 2 Election of House Speaker, First-112th Congresses 332 Appendix 3 Election of House Clerk, First-112th Congresses 370 Appendix 4 Election of House Printer, 15th-36th Congresses 391 Appendix 5 Summary of Democratic and Republican Caucus Nominations for Speaker, 38th-112th Congresses 398 Appendix 6 Democratic and Republican Caucus Nominations for Speaker, 38th-112th Congresses 403 References 421 Index 439

"The Speaker of the House is the third-highest constitutional office in the United States. Yet political scientists and historians have largely ignored how the House chooses the holder of this exalted position. No longer—Jenkins and Stewart have convincingly placed the contest for the speakership at the center of the historical development of Congress."—Nolan McCarty, Princeton University

"The development of an 'organizational cartel' has been central to the evolution of political parties in the U.S. House. The parties control access to committee and leadership slots. Whether this has allowed parties to control policy is a separate and contingent matter. Jenkins and Stewart press this theoretical distinction and offer much else in this excellent and authoritative work of congressional history."—David Mayhew, Yale University

"This is an ambitious and impressive piece of scholarship with extraordinary historical sweep. Urging scholars to move beyond the study of the majority party's procedural control of the agenda, Jenkins and Stewart grapple with the organizational evolution of the House and the starring role ultimately played in that institutional drama by the majority party caucus. This is a must-read for students of Congress and America's political development."—Sarah Binder, George Washington University and the Brookings Institution

"Fighting for the Speakership makes a new and important contribution to our knowledge of the role of speakership contests in the development of party organization in the House of Representatives. Most previous scholarship begins with the observation that majority parties firmly control the House's top organizational positions. Jenkins and Stewart show that this was not always the case."—Steven S. Smith, author of Party Influence in Congress