Sergeant S.Prentiss, the incomparably brilliant member from Mississippi, attacked it most violently.
His impassioned invective did not stop short of personal indignity and insult to Mr.Polk.

He denied with emphatic iteration that the Speaker had been "impartial." On the contrary he had been "the tool of the Executive, the tool of his party." He analyzed Mr.
Polk's course in the appointment of committees, and with much detail labored to prove his narrowness, his unfairness, his injustice as a presiding officer.

For one, he said, he was "not wiling to give to Mr.Polk a certificate of good behaviour, to aid him in his canvass for the governorship of Tennessee, for which he is known to be a candidate." He believed "this vote of thanks was to be used as so much capital, on which to do political business," and he declared with much vehemence that he "was not disposed to furnish it." The opprobrious language of Prentiss did not wound Mr.Polk so seriously as did the vote of the House on the resolution of thanks.
The Whigs, as a party, resisted its adoption.

The Democrats could not even bring the House to a vote upon the resolution without the use of the _previous question_, and this, as a witty observer remarked, was about as humiliating as to be compelled to call the _previous question_ on resolutions of respect for a deceased member.
When the demand was made for "the main question to be put," the Whigs, apparently eager to force the issue to the bitter end, called for the _ayes_ and _noes_.

John Quincy Adams, who headed the roll, led off in the negative, and was sustained by such able and conservative members as John Bell from Mr.Polk's own State, McKennan of Pennsylvania, Evans of Maine, Corwin of Ohio, Menifee from the Ashland district in Kentucky, and William Cost Johnson of Maryland.
The vote stood 92 to 75.