Ja. Jenkins et Tp. Nokken, The institutional origins of the Republican Party: Spatial voting and the House speakership election of 1855-56, LEGIS STUD, 25(1), 2000, pp. 101-130
This study explores the Republican Party's origins at the institutional lev
el, specifically in the 34th House of Representatives. We focus on an espec
ially critical event, the House speakership election of 1855-56, which resu
lted in the first major victory for the new party. We conduct our analysis
by applying the spatial theory of voting to the House balloting for Speaker
, using a scaling technique: developed by Poole (1998). Results from our sp
atial model suggest that slavery Was the overriding determinant of vote cho
ice throughout the two-month speakership battle. Its effects were considera
ble from the outset, even in multiple candidate rounds, and proved to be mo
re influential as the balloting progressed. We also find that the issue of
nativism, which was so important in the previous congressional elections an
d would continue to affect the Republicans' electoral fortunes for several
more years, had no impact on members' votes for speaker. Once elected, the
new Republican speaker, Nathaniel Banks, organized the House around anti-sl
avery tenets, stacking both committees and chairs with anti-slavery advocat
es. Overall, these results suggest that while the Republicans would struggl
e for an electoral identity deep into the 1850s-balancing the competing int
erests of slavery and nativism to win office-they emerged as a single-issue
, anti-slavery coalition at the institutional level as early as 1855.