Back to Results
Speaker Samuel Randall’s portrait tops a page of national political news in this December 1876 issue of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Randall was elected Speaker amid an electoral crisis: Electoral returns remained in dispute in a close race between Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. Although Randall was active in Tilden’s campaign, his role during the proceedings, presiding over House deliberations on the contested votes, was widely considered a model of impartiality.
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “The Hon. Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives,” https://history.house.gov/Collection/Listing/2010/2010-037-000/ (January 27, 2021)
Office of the Historian
Office of Art and Archives
Attic, Thomas Jefferson Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 226-1300