Given the hostage-taking nature of Kevin McCarthy’s historic, 15th-ballot victory over elements within his own party to win the House speakership Friday night/Saturday morning, it might be helpful to consider how much worse it could have been.

McCarthy’s four-day battle to become speaker of the House was the second-longest such process since 1856, when Nathaniel Banks of Massachusetts needed two months and 133 rounds of voting to win — but not before a burly congressman from pro-slavery Arkansas approached influential New York Tribune publisher Horace Greeley, a Banks supporter, and pummeled him. In an even-more-violent epilogue weeks later, a congressman from South Carolina cane-whipped a Massachusetts senator to within an inch of his life.

Robert Price is an Emmy-winning reporter for KGET-TV. His column appears here Sundays; the views expressed are his own. Reach him at rprice661@gmail.com or via Twitter: @stubblebuzz.