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On this day in 1881, Vice President Chester Arthur broke a 37-37 tie to cast the deciding vote over competing Republican and Democratic slates of Senate committee chairmen and members. But the Democrats refused to budge on replacing the officers they had chosen in the previous Congress. The ensuing stalemate froze Senate business for the next two months.
The Senate had convened in a special session to deal with nominations for federal office submitted by James Garfield, the newly inaugurated president. In November 1880, the Garfield-Arthur ticket had won the White House by fewer than 10,000 votes.
Soon Republicans split over the issue of filling the New York customs post Arthur once held. Sen. Roscoe Conkling (R-N.Y.) held that senators should exercise personal control over federal appointments within state boundaries. Conkling had resisted efforts by the prior Republican president, Rutherford Hayes, to enact civil service reforms.
In response to Garfield’s failure to take the New York senators into account, both Conkling and Thomas Platt, New York’s new junior senator, resigned in May. They anticipated the New York legislature would soon reelect them and, in so doing, send the White House a message about how to deal with powerful senators. But that did not happen.
Their resignations gave the Democrats a two-vote Senate majority. In the spirit of compromise, the Democrats agreed not to press their numerical advantage and did not insist on resuming control of committees. In return, the Republicans allowed the Democratic staff holdovers to remain in office, at least until the next session.
After Garfield’s assassination in September, the Senate halted its internal management battle. Arthur moved into the White House to begin a surprisingly able run in the presidency.
People still listen when Greenspan speaks; AP reports U.S. military will soon suffer 4,000th death of Iraq war. Check out the most recent edition of Playbook.

politico.com