Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/69

 68 Southern Historical Society Papers.

and taken possession of the State House, but Hampton was there. He spoke words of encouragement and of hope, and warned his friends that ultimate success depended upon the strict observance of peace. It was good counsel and it prevailed, but it was hard to follow it. The people showed themselves on that day, as on other occasions, capable of self control, and Chamberlain might have heard the knell of his hopes in the way in which they submitted to this enormous usurpation. The retiring delegates, sixty-four in number, withdrew to a large hall in Columbia, where, as an un- doubted quorum, they organized the House of Representatives by choosing W. H. Wallace their Speaker, and Sloan, Clerk. Whilst organizing they discovered that their numbers had increased to sixty- five by the adherence of Ruder, of Orangeburg.

The Radicals intended to take possession of the House and organize, whilst the Democrats would be parleying about the admission of their associates, and in fact before the Democrats had retired the roll was called by Jones, the clerk of the former House. It was then proposed to organize, and a doubt was expressed by a member whether a constitutional quorum was present. Whereupon Mackey asserted that there was a quorum. One hundred and sixteen mem- bers had been elected, he said, fifty nine is one more than half of that number, and there were just that number in the hall, they were, therefore, a competent quorum and his word was law to that hope- ful assembly. He was elected Speaker, Jones clerk, and thus the crime was consummated.

In the Senate a full body appeared. Three new members appeared, two from Edgefield and Laurens, who, not being commissioned by the Secretary of State, were not allowed to sit, and one from Abbe- ville, who, having been elected to fill a vacancy, it was said could not take his seat until he had been admitted by the Committee on Privi- leges and Elections. The constitution of the Senate was thirteen Democrats to seventeen Republicans. The admission of the three new members would have reduced their majority to one.

When Wallace was elected Speaker a message was sent to the Senate, but the latter refused to recognize it as a House. A demand was also made on the Secretary of State for the election returns, so that the votes for Governor might be counted. That officer replied that the returns had already been delivered to Mackey, who gave his receipt for them as Speaker. A motion was then made in the Supreme Court for mandamus on Mackey and the Secretary of the State to deliver the returns to Wallace, the Speaker of the House.