First term (1889–91) In 1888, the
Republican Party retook control of the
House of Representatives and the
White House in an election defined by their support for the protective tariff. In
Congress, Reed was a leader of the campaign, delivering a lengthy and celebrated May 19 speech against tariff reform legislation before the House. Following the election,
The Washington Post reported that the "speakership question was regarded on all sides as being settled" in favor of Reed, though his leading rival, McKinley, was personally very popular. Reed's election as Speaker was decisively ensured by the support of the New York delegation on November 29, 1889. He carried the caucus the next day on the second ballot with 85 votes to McKinley's 38 and was elected speaker at the opening of the next session on December 2, 1889. McKinley was named chair of Ways and Means, placing him in charge of the tariff, with Reed's lesser rivals Cannon and
David B. Henderson on Appropriations and
Julius C. Burrows as chair of Manufactures. McKinley and Cannon also joined Reed on the Rules Committee.
Rules reform Even before his election as Speaker, Reed had renewed his calls for rules reform. In a March 1889 article for
Century magazine, he demanded checks on dilatory motions and a restoration of the "morning hour," permitting the House to consider urgent measures for prompt action at the start of each day, rather than consider measures in the order they were presented. In the October
North American Review, Reed compared the situation in the House to that in the House of Commons, where Reed argued Irish nationalists had hijacked the rules beyond their original intent in order to extract concessions through obstruction. Reed vowed that the incoming Republican House would adopt new Rules wholesale, as opposed to the traditional practice of adopting the previous House's rules
pro forma and amending as needed. On January 21, 1890, Reed made his first serious reform to House Rules when he refused a motion by
Richard P. Bland to require tellers for a motion to adjourn, on the grounds that the motion was merely intended to delay adjournment and obstruct House business. After a prolonged and heated debate, the Speaker's decision was ratified 149 to 137. In particular, Reed sought to circumscribe the "
disappearing quorum"—the ability of the minority to block business by remaining silent during a
quorum call, which, under the rules, prevented a member from being counted as present even if physically in the chamber, thus forcing the House to suspend business. Reed's solution was implemented on January 29, 1890, in what has popularly been called the "Battle of the Reed Rules," when Democrats attempted to prevent
Charles Brooks Smith, a Republican from West Virginia whose election was contested, from being seated. The motion to seat Brooks passed 162–1, short of the 165 required for quorum; when voting closed Democrats shouted, "No quorum," a formal quorum count was triggered. Reed began the
roll call, and when members refused to answer, Reed directed the Clerk to count them as present but not voting. Startled Democrats protested heatedly, directing verbal abuse, threats, and insults at Reed, while
James B. McCreary, a Democrat from
Kentucky, challenged Reed's authority to count him since he had not answered to his name when the roll was called. Reed replied "The Chair is making a statement of fact that the gentleman from Kentucky is present. Does he deny it?" The conflict over parliamentary procedure lasted three days, with Democrats delaying consideration of the bill by introducing points of order to challenge the maneuver and then appealing Reed's rulings to the floor. Democrats finally dropped their objections on January 31, and Smith was seated on February 3 by a vote of 166–0. Six days later, Reed won a vote to formalize the new Rules, eliminating the disappearing quorum and lowering the quorum to 100 members. Though Democrats reinstated the disappearing quorum when they took control of the House the following year, Reed would prove so adroit at using the tactic against them that they reinstated the "Reed Rules" in 1894. Following his decisive victory in the Smith election contest, Reed introduced wholesale reforms designed to speed the pace of legislation in the House. The Democratic minority permitted the resumption of business, with former Speaker Carlisle admitting, "We protest, but the case must be tried elsewhere." Under those conditions, the 51st Congress was the most productive since the Civil War and passed at least twenty-six pieces of major legislation, including the
McKinley Tariff,
Sherman Silver Purchase Act,
Sherman Antitrust Act, and
Immigration Act of 1891.
McKinley Tariff As the campaign of 1888 had been waged over the issue of protective tariff policy, passing a heightened tariff was a key priority of the 51st Congress. The resulting bill, known as the McKinley Tariff after its primary author, passed the House on May 21, 1890, after an expedited drafting process. A revised bill passed the Senate on September 10 with a reciprocity clause (supported by now-Secretary of State
James G. Blaine) attached. Despite Reed's opposition, the reciprocity clause was allowed to remain after some further amendments, and the bill was signed into law on October 1. With a month to the House elections, the McKinley Tariff was immediately the center of political debate; no tariff since the so-called "
Tariff of Abominations" had been as controversial. The Tariff was seen as favoring the industrial and financial regions of the Northeast and Midwest over the rural South and West, which were suffering under poor conditions for the agricultural industry. The free trade publication
The Nation referred to it as "a series of minute interferences with trade and industry for the benefit of individuals, firms and corporations" and attributed its passage to the repayment of campaign debts to corporate donors. Though Reed defended the tariff package in public, he ultimately blamed it for the party's massive defeat in the 1890 elections and in 1894, admitted that protection had been carried to its extreme on certain goods. However, he later argued that the tariff had been a success in light of the
impending global financial collapse, which had rendered the international mercantile situation "a quicksand which then began to give signs of sinking." Though repealed and replaced by the next Congress, it gained greater support after the Panic of 1893 and made McKinley a serious national political figure; he would go on to win the White House in 1896 as the premier champion of industrial protection.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act By 1888, there was a growing movement in both parties to return the country to a currency system backed by
both silver and gold (thus
expanding the money supply), and it had become conventional wisdom that it was necessary to "do something for silver." Though Reed was a firm supporter of "
sound money," which tended to favor the more stable gold standard, a majority in both chambers of Congress had some level of sympathy for the free silver movement. On January 20, 1890,
Edwin H. Conger (chair of
Coinage, Weights and Measures) introduced a bill authorizing the
Treasury to issue notes in exchange for silver bullion at market price. A revised version of Conger's bill, providing for the purchase of $4,500,000 of silver per month ($ in ), was reported to the House in early June. If silver reached the ratio of 16 to 1 under this bill, free coinage was authorized. In a party caucus on June 4, Reed spoke against any further concessions to silver advocates; the silver Republicans dissented, seriously threatening party unity. On June 5, the Rules Committee (Reed, McKinley, and Cannon) passed a special order to permit only two days of debate before a final vote at 3 o'clock on June 7. After an outbreak of acrimonious dissent, the special order passed 120 to 117, and the bill ultimately passed on schedule without further amendments by a vote of 135 to 119. However, the Senate, controlled by silver advocates, passed an amended version adopting an unconditional free coinage amendment on June 17. The amendment caught Reed and House Republicans by surprise; a considerable number of Representatives were absent, making its passage likely if brought to an immediate vote. When McKinley moved on June 19 for approval of the House Journal (containing the procedural business of the day),
Roger Q. Mills objected that the Journal had not been read in its entirety. The omitted portions were the read, revealing the Senate bill had been referred to the Committee on Coinage, sparking an uproar. In a rare parliamentary defeat for Reed, the Journal was not approved by a vote of 105 to 117. Mills then successfully moved to have the Journal amended, hastening a vote. On June 20,
Richard P. Bland moved to debate the bill before the House. Conger and Reed engaged in a series of dilatory maneuvers, arguing that the bill was not on available for debate, because it was before Conger's committee. By the time the bill came for a vote the next day, enough Republican votes had been whipped via telegraph to return a working majority to Washington, and Bland's motion was defeated by a vote of 144 to 117. A
conference bill, called the Sherman Silver Purchase Act after
John Sherman, emerged which omitted the free coinage of silver and called for the parity of the two metals. The bill passed with great difficulty in the lame duck 1891 session.
Lodge Federal Elections Bill One of the most significant and controversial pieces of legislation which Reed pressed for passage in the 51st Congress did not become law. In 1889 and 1890, Republicans undertook one last stand in favor of federal enforcement of the
Fifteenth Amendment to protect the voting rights of blacks in the
Solid South, and Reed took a special interest in the project. Under the
Lodge Bill, introduced on June 14, 1890, congressional elections would be placed under the protection of the federal government; Reed personally defended the bill and the concept of equality of races under the law in an April 1890 speech and published article in the June 1890
North American Review. Opponents, especially in the South, derided it as the "Force Bill," and cynics attributed the proposal to an effort to secure Southern seats in the face of waning Republican support in the West. Reed also aroused Northern opposition in his speech, when he defended black voting in the South by way of comparison to immigrant votes in New York and other cities, arguing, "Why should they poll their ignorance and we not poll ours?" Reed, McKinley, and Cannon voted the Bill out of committee on June 25 and, over Democratic objections, it passed after a strict debate schedule on July 2. In the Senate, the bill was filibustered through two sessions of Congress, until it was ultimately laid aside during the lame duck session of January 1891 in favor of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Notably, several Republican Senators from the newly admitted Western states voted to prioritize the Silver Purchase Act; likely in retaliation, the House rejected a
free silver bill which passed the Senate to "provide against the contraction of the currency." The Lodge Bill was the last serious effort in Congress to enforce the terms of the Fifteenth Amendment until the
Voting Rights Act of 1965, and its defeat is sometimes marked as the beginning of
the decline in American race relations.
Return to minority (1891–95) In reaction to Reed's aggressive legislative agenda and the new appropriations associated with it, the 51st Congress was branded by critics as the "Billion Dollar Congress." Democrats regained the House by a wide majority, and both of Reed's top lieutenants, McKinley and Cannon, were defeated. Republicans retained the Senate by a reduced margin. With government thus divided in the
52nd Congress, legislation reached a standstill. In Reed's words, the House "led a gelatinous existence, the scorn of all vertebrate animals." Anticipating a further disaster in the 1892 elections, Reed privately opposed the nomination of President Harrison for a second term, and his own name gained some traction in the press as a potential compromise candidate. When Harrison was
ultimately nominated, Reed declined to campaign for him in the general election.
Grover Cleveland was elected and the Republicans lost the Senate, giving the Democratic Party control of the White House, Senate, and House for the first time since the
Civil War. Reed did win a minor victory in 1892, when the
Supreme Court decided
United States v. Ballin, determining that Reed had acted within the Constitution in defining a quorum to include all members present. The 53rd Congress was dominated by the
Panic of 1893; it convened early in summer 1893 when President Cleveland called a special session asking for the repeal of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Though Reed was still a member of the minority for partisan purposes, he could be counted among the leaders of the cross-party majority which supported repeal. Reed gave the closing argument for repeal on August 26, 1893, arguing that the regular schedule of redemptions had drained the nation's currency reserves and undermined confidence in the financial system. Two days later, repeal carried in the House by a vote of 240 to 110. A vote for free silver was defeated 227 to 124. When the Senate delayed passage of the repeal bill, Reed delivered a public speech on October 25 arguing that the Senate was directly opposed to the will of the majority; five days later, repeal passed the Senate 43 to 22. The remainder of the term was marked by infighting among the majority, which had become hopelessly divided over the currency issue; meanwhile, the Republican minority remained loyally unified behind Reed, delivering him opportunities to undermine Speaker
Charles Frederick Crisp. A frustrated Crisp remarked of his predecessor on March 29, 1894: "The leader that they follow without question has one great thought, one great idea in his mind, and that is to force this side to count a quorum. Every other question, no matter who great, no matter how important it may be, sinks into insignificance. Gentlemen on that side blindly follow him, no matter how their own convictions may differ from his. He is the great leader on that side. You will hear them privately saying 'Reed ought not to do that,' or 'This is wrong,' but when Reed says 'Do it,' they all step up and do it."Given Crisp's failure to hold his majority together, the House officially adopted a rule to use a present, rather than voting, quorum on April 17, 1894, consistent with Reed's 1890 reforms.
Return to speakership (189599) , Reed finished second in the
presidential balloting behind
William McKinley, who went on to win the
presidency 1896 presidential campaign After four years in the minority, the economic situation and divisions in the Democratic majority delivered the Republicans a historic landslide in
the 1894 elections. In the House, the party gained 110 seats; , this remains the largest single-election seat swing in United States history. With a wide majority but little room for common ground with President Cleveland outside of the currency issue, Reed's focus during the 54th Congress was his highly anticipated campaign for the presidency. Observers in the capital soon found Reed a changed man; he shaved his trademark mustache and was less given to humor or sarcasm, giving the impression of a man who felt "a necessity of taking himself seriously, of presenting an impressive aspect, of looking as wise as he can." At the start of the 54th Congress, Reed was widely regarded as the favorite for the Republican nomination as the party's leading figure and spokesman on financial matters. He had the vigorous support of
Henry Cabot Lodge and
Theodore Roosevelt, and party bosses including
Joseph H. Manley,
Matt Quay,
J. Donald Cameron, and
Thomas C. Platt were reported to be sympathetic. His chief opponent for the nomination was William McKinley, his longtime lieutenant and rival for party supremacy, now serving as
Governor of Ohio. McKinley's campaign was managed by
Mark Hanna, who raised unprecedented sums of money for the race. Hanna also launched a nationwide publicity campaign to raise McKinley's profile and successfully framed the issue in the campaign as
protective tariffs, McKinley's strength, rather than the currency question, acknowledged to be Reed's strength. As the year 1896 began, McKinley supporters claimed the secure support of 433 delegates, only thirty short of nomination on the first ballot. When
New Hampshire senator
William E. Chandler accused Hanna of effectively taking bribes from mercantile interests in exchange for promises of a new protective tariff, the backlash permanently damaged the struggling Reed campaign. Some accused Chandler, whose reputation for political corruption rendered his charge hypocritical, of deliberately sabotaging Reed. When the Vermont convention declared for McKinley on April 28, breaking solidarity in the New England ranks, Reed's campaign was effectively doomed. In addition to the vigorous campaign by Hanna and Chandler's gaffe, Reed's ultimate failure to secure the nomination has been attributed to his refusal to make pledges or commitments in exchange for political or financial support. Despite his unvarnished ambition for the White House, Reed refused to give special consideration to allies or supporters when considering committee appointments or appropriations. On one occasion, he was quoted, "The bill will not be allowed to come up even with that Reed button on your coat." By the time the
1896 Republican National Convention met in
St. Louis, McKinley had secured a greater share of delegate pledges than any candidate since
Ulysses S. Grant in 1872, and he became the first candidate since Grant in 1868 to win an open nomination (i.e., without an incumbent in the race) on the first ballot. Reed received the support of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, as well as a handful of Southern delegates. Reed supporters at the convention, led by Lodge, did succeed in including a
gold standard plank in the party platform, abandoning their prior proposal for bimetallism by international agreement. Reed vigorously supported McKinley in the general election against
William Jennings Bryan, a vocal
free silver advocate. The election of 1896 returned the Republican Party to control of government, with McKinley as President and majorities in both the House and Senate. Despite some suggestions that Reed would sabotage the McKinley administration as retribution for his defeat in 1896, he set personal differences aside and was again credited as the shepherd of the Republican agenda. Nelson Dingley returned as chair of Ways and Means and set about drafting the protective tariff legislation for which McKinley had campaigned, ultimately passed as the
Dingley Tariff in July 1897.
Spanish-American War and resignation Beginning in 1895,
the struggle for Cuban independence was the subject of increasing American attention during the McKinley presidency. The severity of Spanish rule and the potential for an economic and military foothold in the Caribbean drew calls for an American intervention on the island, which had long been the target of expansionists. Reed was an opponent of "
jingoism" and expansionism generally, having privately criticized Benjamin Harrison's
involvement in Chile and publicly opposed efforts to
annex Hawaii. Foreign policy is the constitutional province of the Senate, giving Reed few opportunities to participate in the growing debate over Cuba. On July 7, 1897, the issue came before the House for the first time when Representative
Benton McMillin offered a resolution recognizing the Cuban rebels. Nelson Dingley promptly moved for adjournment. Reed continued to avoid addressing Cuba in the House but made his position public through a series of interviews and articles. In September, he published an article in the
Illustrated American which called for the government to avoid foreign entanglements, "grow up to the territory we have already," and strive for national unity. He added that there was no serious threat of attack from Spain or Cuba and, while he supported naval power as a form of insurance, over-insurance was "costly and makes a moral hazard and danger of a conflagration which might burn what we have not protected." In a second article titled "Empire Can Wait," he pointed to historical examples to argue expansion created variation in the thought and needs of a country and that unassimilated populations would inevitably create a strain on American institutions. He further arraigned the press for feeding public interest in "
prurient details of crime" in Cuba and
Turkey in an effort to influence foreign policy. Initially, Reed and President McKinley agreed on the issue. McKinley actively sought a peaceful solution to the Cuban Revolution and Reed gave him full support. However, after the publication of the
De Lôme Letter and the
sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, public opinion rapidly turned against peace and in favor of a declaration of war. Reed refused to believe the
Maine was intentionally sunk by Spain, a position he maintained until his death. On March 8,
Joe Cannon (as chair of Appropriations) introduced a bill at the behest of McKinley to appropriate $50 million (approximately $ in ) for defense, and it received almost unanimous support. Reed clung to hope that war could be avoided, and his suppression of a resolution to recognize Cuban independence aroused resentment throughout the country. Though public opinion was growing in favor of war, the question of Cuban independence remained considerably more controversial. A war resolution passed on April 19 with only six votes against. Reed was quoted as telling one of the six, "I envy you the luxury of your vote. I was where I could not do it." Reed's political position became increasingly fraught following the
easy American victory at Manila Bay on May 1, as the aims of American expansion grew to include strategic positions in the Pacific. The
Newlands Resolution, which would prove Reed's signal defeat, was introduced in the House on May 4. For three weeks, the Speaker blocked its consideration but, when opinion in the House became overwhelming and a petition for its introduction was signed by Republican members, Reed surrendered. On June 2, it was announced that the resolution would be passed before adjournment. Reed was re-elected in 1898 and retained the Speaker's gavel but became increasingly isolated during the debate over the ratification of the
Treaty of Paris and imperial expansion, especially after the loss of three key allies: Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Cabot Lodge were ardent expansionists, and Nelson Dingley died on January 13, 1899. After meeting with President McKinley on
Jekyll Island in the spring, Reed finally announced on April 19 that he would retire from public life and become senior partner in the firm of
Simpson, Thatcher and Barnum. His resignation was made formally effective on September 4. ==Personal life==