Joseph Weldon Bailey Sr. (October 6, 1862 – April 13, 1929), was a United States senator, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, lawyer, and Bourbon Democrat who was famous for his speeches extolling conservative causes of his time, such as opposition to woman suffrage or restrictions on child labor.

Historian Elna C. Green says that Bailey "was known in Texas as a rigorous defender of states' rights, constitutional conservatism, and governmental economy.

De Armond sought to block a three day adjournment, a maneuver understood as a repudiation of Bailey's cooperative relationship with Republican Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed.

[5] Bailey's most severe disappointment as minority leader came in 1898, when he argued that congressmen who had accepted commissions to serve in the army without resigning from Congress had violated the Ineligibility Clause of the Constitution.

[6] Despite Bailey's advocacy, a majority of Democrats opposed a motion to consider a resolution which would have removed several members from Congress who had simultaneously held commissions during the Spanish–American War.