After a prolonged struggle, Nathaniel P.Banks was chosen Speaker over William Aiken.

It was a significant circumstance, noted at the time, that the successful candidate came from Massachusetts, and the defeated one from South Carolina.

It was a still more ominous fact that Banks was chosen by votes wholly from the free States, and that every vote from the slave States was given to Mr.Aiken, except that of Mr.Cullen of Delaware, and that of Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, who declined to vote for either candidate.

It was the first instance in the history of the government in which a candidate for Speaker had been chosen without support from both sections.

It was a distinctive victory of the free States over the consolidated power of the slave States.