Development Of Political Parties

By 1807, political parties had formed. The two main parties were the Whigs and the Democratic-Republicans. At that time, one of the powers of the Speaker of the House was to appoint members to various committees. The most important committee in the House was called the Ways and Means Committee, which handled bills related to taxes. Before 1807, the Speaker had always made sure to assign members to the Ways and Means Committee so that the partisan makeup of the committee reflected the partisan makeup of the House as a whole. For example, if the Democratic-Republicans had 40% of the seats in the whole House, the Speaker would make sure that the Democratic-Republicans also had 40% of the seats on the Ways and Means Committee.

In 1807, newly elected Speaker Joseph Varnum broke with this tradition. For the first time, he used his assignment powers to ensure that the Ways and Means Committee contained more members of his own party than the standard formula would allow.

This was the first step in turning the Speakership into an advocate for its own political party. With the power to appoint a disproportionate majority of his own party members to each legislative committee, the Speaker is in a position to ensure that his party dominates the legislative process. The tradition of stacking committees in favor of the majority party continues to this day.