Even by today’s standards, the US House of Representatives’ failure to elect a Speaker after 11 votes over three days would seem to be proceeding slowly
.
A similar election for Speaker was last seen in the United States in 1923, when another Republican uprising resulted in nine rounds of voting.
However, even that might be regarded as fairly quick by the standards of 1855 legislators.
When the 34th Congress convened that year, electing a Speaker took an unprecedented two months and 133 votes.
