the Congress which he first entered the Democrats were in power in
the House. "They had come back," as one of their Southern leaders (Ben
Hill) said, "to their father's house, and come to stay." Mr. Randall was
elected Speaker. He put Mr. Robinson on one of the minor standing
committees--that of Expenditures in the Department of Justice--and
subsequently placed him near the foot of the list on the Special
Committee on the Mississippi Levees. Before the latter committee had
made much progress with its business, it was discovered that where
"McGregor sits is the head of the table." Mr. Robinson, at the extra
session of the Forty-fifth Congress, took little active part in the
public proceedings. He was a student of Congressional rules and
practice.

At the second session of the Forty-fifth Congress he began to actively
participate in the debates, and from the outset endeavored to secure a
much needed reform in Congressional proceedings. He always insisted
that, in the discussion of important questions, order should be
maintained. He followed every important bill in detail, and the
questions which he directed to those who had these bills in charge
showed that he had made himself a master of the subject. He took
occasion to revise upon the floor many of the calculations of the
Appropriations Committee, and to urge the necessity of the most rigid
economy consistent with proper administration.

It was at the third session of the Forty-fifth Congress, January 16,
1879, that Mr. Robinson made his first considerable speech. It was upon
the bill relative to the improvement of the Mississippi River. He was
very deeply impressed with the magnitude of the problems presented by
that great river, and, while he was willing that the public money should
be wisely expended for the improvement of the 'Father of Waters,' he did
not wish that Congress should be committed to any special plan which
might prove to be part of a great job, until an official investigation
could be had. The interest with which this first speech was listened to,
and the endless questions with which the Southern men who favored
absolutely the levee system plied him, showed that they understood that
great weight would be given to Mr. Robinson's opinion, and that they did
not wish him to declare, unconditionally, against their cause. The
speech was a broad and liberal one, but extremely just. It had been
intimated in the course of the debate that Eastern members, who d