Lewis Tappan: “For 37 years out of 60, the chair of the House of Representatives has…”

On the record

For 37 years out of 60, the chair of the House of Representatives has been filled and its Committees appointed by slaveholders.

Said by

Lewis Tappan

Source

Tappan notes that slaveholders have dominated the leadership of the House of Representatives for a significant portion of American history.

More from Lewis Tappan

We might as well talk of poor men owning herds of cattle and studs of horses, as gangs of negroes.

If we turn to the new States, we find that slavery and freedom have the same influence on population as in the old.

Slavery moreover is monopolizing in its tendency, and leads to the accumulation of property in few hands.

Has it ever happened that the mass of any people were rich enough to keep, for their own convenience, such expensive laborers--as southern slaves?

Lewis Tappan: “For 37 years out of 60, the chair of the House of Representatives has been filled and its Committees appointed by…”