His position on the tariff was that of a Pennsylvania protectionist, and upon the tariff reform issue in 1883, he was defeated for the Speakership.

At that time, John G.Carlisle of Kentucky was raised to that post, while Morrison again became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

But Randall, now appointed chairman of the Appropriations Committee, had so great an influence that he was able to turn about forty Democratic votes against the tariff bill reported by the Ways and Means Committee, thus enabling the Republicans to kill the bill by striking out the enacting clause.
Only this practical aim, then, was in view in the reports presented by the committee on rules.

The principal feature of the majority report was a proposal to curtail the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee by transferring to other committees five of the eleven regular appropriation bills.

What, from the constitutional point of view, would appear to be the main question--the recovery by the House of its freedom of action--was hardly noticed in the report or in the debates which followed.