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Now, it so happened that all the States had elected their Representatives to this Twenty-fifth Congress except the States of Arkansas and Mississippi. For the period for which the Representative from Arkansas and our Representatives, Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson, had been elected, had, by this Congressional limitation, expired on the 4th of March. It followed, of course, that these States could have no representation in this extra session unless a special election was held, for by our State law the regular biennial election was to be held on the succeeding November. The reason of this cassus omissus, it will be seen, was owing to the fact that the Congressional terms did not coincide as to time with our regular biennial elections.

To elucidate the matter still more clearly, we collate the clauses of the Federal and State constitutions and laws bearing upon it:

Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States prescribes: "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States.”

Paragraph 4, Section 2: "When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.”

Section 4: "The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof, but Congress may at any time make or alter such regulations."

In virtue of these provisions, the act of 1833 of our Legislature (Howard and Hutchinson, page 88) prescribed, in pursuance of our State constitution, Article 3, Section 8, that representatives to the Legislature be elected at the court-house, etc., on the first Monday and day following in November, biennially, etc., and that Representatives to Congress be elected at the same time.

Section 7 specifically prescribes: "The Representatives to Congress from this State shall be elected by the qualified electors at the time of choosing representatives to the Legislature, once in every two years, to be computed from the first Monday in November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirtythree," etc. "It shall be the duty of the governor to deliver to

the persons elected proper credentials, under his hand and the great seal of the State, which shall entitle them to a seat in the body of which they are elected members."

Section 18, Article 3, of the Mississippi constitution, as we have before seen, prescribes: "When vacancies happen in either house (of the Legislature), the governor, or person exercising the powers of governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies;" and, in accordance with this clause, Section 26 of our State election law prescribed, that "When any vacancy shall occur in any State office in this State," etc., where the unexpired term shall not exceed a year, the governor is to appoint; but "whenever any vacancy shall occur in any such office when the unexpired term has more than a year to run, the governor, when notified of the vacancy, shall issue writs of election to fill the unexpired term on thirty days' notice for district officers, and ten days for general and State officers."

From the above collation it will be seen that the question in our State was a dish of many ingredients, or, to use a more expressive figure, it was a quadrangular wrangle. The Constitution of the United States, the laws of Congress, the constitution of Mississippi, and the acts of her Legislature were all involved in its solution.

Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson were elected on the first Monday of November, 1835, their term, therefore, extended to the first Monday of November, 1837, by the State law; but the body to which they were elected had expired, and they were thus functius officio.

A grave question was mooted at the start, Was this hiatus the happening of such a vacancy in the Congressional office as would justify the governor in issuing writs of election to fill it? Prentiss and some other leading lawyers were of the opinion that the governor did not have the power. Prentiss had very thoroughly ventilated the question of the meaning of the term "vacancy" in the discussion of the Chickasaw counties question, and he held that no vacancy had happened here within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States, and, therefore, our governor had no right to issue writs of election for this extra session. It was a topic of heated discussion, and we shall

presently sec was made the first ground of objection to Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson taking their seats.

Governor Lynch, however, not being willing that the State should go unrepresented in such an important session, gave the State the benefit of the doubt, and accordingly issued his proclamation for an election of Representatives, reciting,

"That whereas, the President of the United States has convoked Congress to meet on the first Monday of September next; and whereas, a vacancy has occurred in the representation of the State of Mississippi in the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, by the expiration of the term of service for which Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson were elected, I do issue this writ authorizing and requiring you to hold an election in your county on the 3d and day following of July next for two Representatives to Congress to fill said vacancy until superseded by the members to be elected on the first Monday and day following of November next."

Previous to his going to Portland, Prentiss had made a short little canvass, but, regarding the election as void, he was not greatly disappointed at the result. He was beaten by Claiborne and Gohlson by about two thousand five hundred votes. The election was by general ticket. To show how the Chickasaw counties regarded him,-in Newton he got one vote out of one hundred and twelve; Tishemingo, three out of three hundred and sixty-four; Chickasaw, sixteen out of eighty-six. If the reader will bear these figures in his memory he will see hereafter what a contrast was affected in the votes of these counties.

Therefore while Prentiss was making his great Fourth of July oration in Portland the ballots of Mississippi were sealing his political doom. Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson took their departure for the extra session, and arrived by the first Monday in September. These gentlemen were both eminently popular, and, having been members of the House the preceding session, were there at home.

It was, I believe, in this extra session that, for the first time, was mooted the question as to how the new House should be organized. The clerk of the Twenty-fourth Congress was proceeding to call the House, as usual, by roll, when he reached the name of Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, that gentleman rose,

and in substance stated that he saw around him gentlemen whom he understood by common fame to be members elect of this House, but he did not know this, nor had he means of ascertaining by authentic evidence; they could not be considered a House until they had elected a Speaker and been severally qualified. He protested against the present course, and did so simply by calling attention to it.

After a desultory discussion, in which the veterans turned to the old precedents, showing that this had been the usual custom, and therefore law, the clerk continued to call the roll. When, however, he reached the State of Mississippi, Mr. Mercer, of Virginia, rose, and interrupted the call. In effect he said, that from certain statements in the public prints in reference to the Congressional election in Mississippi he wished to propound certain questions to those gentlemen elect. He then referred to the proclamation of the governor calling for a special election to this extra session to serve until the 1st of November, and asked if such was the fact. He denied the right of the governor to appoint the time for such election, which, by the constitution, was required to be fixed by the Legislature, with the consent of Congress, not by the governor, and inferred that the election thus unconstitutionally appointed to be held was void, and, of course, the members then chosen could not be entitled to seats on the floor of the House.

Mr. Gohlson very justly arose, and declined to enter into a discussion of the question until the House was organized, stated, briefly, the right of the governor in the matter, that but few had questioned the validity of the election, that no objection had been made until the result was known, that fifty-five out of fifty-six counties had cast their votes in a legal manner, etc.

After some more skirmishing, Mr. Mercer afterwards brought the matter to a direct issue by moving a resolution to the effect that sufficient evidence was not before the House to show that Messrs. Claiborne and Gohlson were entitled to their seats.

This premature, not to class it by the harsher term, offensive, resolution at once brought Claiborne to his feet, and he in substance said that, debilitated as he was, he would not reply to the gentleman from Virginia, for he would not, at that time, suffer

himself to be drawn into an argument on that subject, but that he rose to protest, in the name of the people of Mississippi, against a step which he denounced as high-handed, arbitrary, and unprecedented, for he deliberately asserted that the gentleman from Virginia had no more right to question his title to a seat on that floor than he had to question the right of that gentleman other.

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The debate was cut short by Bynum, of North Carolina, moving to lay Mercer's resolution on the table, which was carried by a vote of one hundred and thirty-one. This was, so to speak, the first gun fired in the great case of the "Mississippi contested election." While the call was in progress, Rhett, of South Carolina, moved that Louis Williams, of North Carolina, he being the senior member of the House, be called to the chair until the House is organized. This, after a sharp but desultory debate, was voted down, and the House then proceeded to the election of a Speaker.

The older readers will recollect how close the vote stood. It was, for James K. Polk, one hundred and sixteen; John Bell, of Tennessee, one hundred and thirteen; scattering, five. It shows how nearly balanced were the scales of party, and how highly esteemed were these two distinguished Tennesseeans. The one, as is known, afterwards became President of the United States, and the other led the forlorn hope of the Whig party in the great quadrilateral contest for the Presidency between Lincoln, Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell, when the funeral-knell of our country was sounded.

As soon as the House was organized the credentials of the Mississippi delegation were referred to the Committee on Elections, but their action was so tardy that, as early as the 18th, Mr. Gohlson moved that it be instructed to report, etc.

On the 23d of September, Buchanan, from the committee, reported favorably, and closed with a resolution "that T. J. Gohlson and J. F. H. Claiborne are duly elected members of the Twenty-fifth Congress, and as such are entitled to their seats." Maury, of Tennessee, announced that he did not agree with the report of the majority.

The resolution led to a hot debate, and was laid over from

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