Mr. Robinson took his seat in the Forty-fifth Congress, which met in extra session, in October, 1877.  He was prompt in his seat on the first day of the first session.  Regularity in attendance, and constant attention to public business, have been characteristics of Mr. Robinson’s Congressional career.  He is in his seat when the gavel falls in the morning; he never leaves it until the House adjourns at night.  He does not spend his time in importuning the departments for clerkships, but he welcomes the civil service law.  He does not take the public time, which belongs to his constituents, for his private practice in the United States Supreme Court.  He is in the truest sense a representative of the people.  He is quick in discovering, and vigorous in denouncing an abuse.  He as quickly comprehends and as earnestly advocates a just cause.  He is a safe guardian of the people’s money and has never cast his vote for an extravagant expenditure; but he does not oppose an appropriation to gain a reputation for economy, or aspire to secure the title of “watch dog of the Treasury,” by resorting to the arts of a demagogue.

When he entered Congress, he went there with the sincerity of a student, determined to master the intricate, peculiar machinery of Congressional legislation.  He has become an authority in parliamentary law, and is one of the ablest presiding officers in Congress.

In 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.