Mike Johnson, despite some people’s thinking, is not the most conservative guy the Republican Party has ever elected speaker, with his DW-Nominate score at 0.566. That would be Frederick Gillett (1851-1935) of Massachusetts, who has a DW-Nominate score of 0.662. Although in 1892, Republican President Benjamin Harrison lost reelection, he did win in the state of Massachusetts, and this was the backdrop in which Gillett was first elected to Congress. During the Cleveland years, Gillett supported repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, opposed tariff reduction, supported growth of the navy, and supported a literacy test for immigration for people 16 and older. He developed a respectable reputation among his colleagues.
During the McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft years he proved a strong supporter of the dominant conservative wing of the Congressional party, and backed Joe Cannon’s (R-Ill.) rule of the House, including opposing the successful effort in 1910 to limit the powers of the speaker. With the fall of the Republicans in 1912, Gillett found a president whose policies were most contrary to his own.
He was a staunch opponent of President Wilson, voting against the Federal Reserve Act and the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914. In the leadup to American participation in World War I, Gillett voted for preparedness measures, including the “Big Navy” bill on June 2, 1916, and voted against an anti-trust investigation into foodstuff producers on February 28, 1917. Other votes he cast that placed him in a strongly conservative category included voting against raising the income tax to fund the World War I effort on May 23, 1917, and voting against an income tax for Washington D.C. on March 12, 1918. Gillett also voted against Prohibition, women’s suffrage, and criminalizing interracial relations in Washington D.C.
In 1918, the Republicans won control of the House in the midterms, and while House Minority Leader James R. Mann (R-Ill.) looked like the natural speaker in the upcoming session, he was found to have too close connections to Chicago meat packers, having received gifts including choice cuts of beef and a horse (Haines, 1). He was thus unable to get sufficient support for speaker after the midterms, so it went to the quiet, reserved, but respected Gillett. Although Gillett won, many Mann supporters remained in control of key committees, so Mann’s organization remained intact (Haines, 4). He would remain essentially the major power in the House until his death on November 30, 1922.
As Speaker, Gillett was strongly supportive of Presidents Harding and Coolidge. He faced a minor revolt in 1923 from the progressive wing of the Republican Party, which I have written about before and required multiple ballots to elect him speaker. In 1924, Gillett ran for the Senate at the behest of President Coolidge, who thought him best able to defeat Democratic Senator David I. Walsh, and Coolidge’s coattails brought him over the top. As a senator, Gillett voted his conservative line, and opposed continuing the Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act. By 1930, he was nearly 80 years old, facing competition in the Republican primary, and facing a bad election year, so he opted to retire.
References
Haines, L. (Ed.). (1919, May). Mann and Gillett. The Searchlight, 4(1).
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Hill, R. Frederick Gillet[t] & the fight for speaker. The Knoxville Focus.
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To Adopt H.J. Res. 200 [women’s suffrage amendment]. Govtrack.
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https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-2/h69
To Agree to S.J. Res. 17…. [Prohibition Amendment] Govtrack.
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https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-2/h61
To Amend H.R. 4280….[Raise income tax for WWI]. Govtrack.
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https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/65-1/h23
To Pass H.R. 1710 [Interracial relations ban in D.C.]. Govtrack.
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Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History 