The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-01-27

tives in the presence of both houses of the
General Assembly. On Monday morning
of January IL, 1857, a message was received
by the Senate from the House of Represent
atives, inviting the Senate to attend in the
Hall of the House at " half past two
o'clock for the above purpose (See Senate
Journal, page Al. The Senate convened at
one o'clock, P. NJ, and Immediately took up
the message of the House, and was proceed
ing to amend the same, when the President
of the Senate laid before the Senate a COM
munication from the Speaker of the House
of Representatives, in which said Speaker
informs the Senate that he would proceed
.instanter to open, and count, and pub
lish the vote for Governor and Lieutenant
Governor, whereupon the President of the
Senate announced that the connection with
the Senate as their presiding officer had ter
minated, and Immediately, without adjourn
ment, Or motion therefor, and as your me-
morialist afirms, and verify believes in vio-
lation of Section 10, Article A, of the Con-
stitution, left the Senate, followed by twen-l
ty-three of the Senators. The, remainder
of the Senators occupied their seats and
proceeded with business, but, upon q call of
the Senate being had, it was ascertained
the Senate could make no disposition of
the business then pending. "A resolutions
embodying this fact was introduced and
spread upon the journal, and the Senators
present continued in their seats until the
return of the absent Senators, preceded by
the incoming Lieutenant Governor and ex-
officio President of the Senate, when the
pending questions were taken up in their
order, and disposed of as though no inter
ruption had taken place. The President of
the Senate left the, chair and hall of the
Senate at FIVE minutes before two o'clock.
upon the receipt of the communication of
the Speaker of the House OF Representatives,
which communication your memorialist af-.
firms and believes to have been wholly uE-.
authorized by the House of Representatives,
as the journals of said House contain no
record of such authority or, change in the
time for that duty from the time named
in the resolution sent to the Senate. (For
record of these facts see Senate Journal,
pages Al to 75, inclusve).s s-F t4ss4s :
1t is further a part of this proceeding,
that while in the mectinS thus authorized,
the President of the Senate and Governor
elect did at first preside during the counting
of the vote, but upon the conclusion of that
the position of presiding officer who, then
and there assumed, without motion, leave,
or desire therefor, on the part of said meet
| ing, the power to adjourn said meeting to
| the I'd day Of February following, and so
did adjourn it. On February the I'd, said
meeting was again convened, and, as before,
by leaving the Senate, as on the former oc-
casion, without a constitutional quorum,
/ and xxrifh odi
for. (See Senate Journal, pages 22l and
222).
At this last-named meeting, the Lieut..
Governor adjourned, as the Senator on a
former occasion had done, the meeting to the
4th day of February On Wednesday, the
4th of February, the President of the Sem
ate again left the chair, and with number
of Senators left the Senate Chamber, as on
u former occasion, in the midst of its delib-
erations and without adjournment. At this
unauthorized meeting the persons, who
have since claimed to be the Senators OF
| your memoralist, claim to have been elected,
and upon that claim have been permitted to
act as snch Senators by your honorable body
to the present time.
1t will thus be apparent to your honor
able body, that this unauthorized meeting,
at which the present incumbents claim to
have been elected United States Senators,
| was originated in violence and continued
in insubordination. The Constitution oil
| this State in sec. A. art. 5, under which those
who contend for the legality of the mutiny
above named act imposes duty upon the
| Speaker of the House of Representatives
alone, and does not, by any fair construction,
| enjoin upon the Legislature any obligation
at all, much less even remotely contemplate
the organization of joint convention OF
both Houses. But IN the latter clause oi
sec. of the same act, in case of two per-
sons having an equal and the highest num-
ber of votes, provision is made for deciding
the question by a joint vote of the General
Assembly. Now it is only necessary, in or.
der to ascertain whether joint convention
is-contemplated in this article, to enquire, as
duty is here devolved on the General As.
sembly what the Constitution means by the
term General Assembly.
To answer this question, it is sufficient
to refer to sections l and 2, art A, of the Con-
stitution, which should be read in connec.
tioH with sec. ii of the same act. But i
the meeting, originated as herein described
had no legislative power, your memorialisti
would respectfully submit whether one ol
more adjournments of such meeting, could
by any possibility, confer upon it authority
sufficient to legalize the act under which the
present incumbents hold the honor and ex
ercise the power of United States Senators
for the State of Indiana?
But again, if this meeting had not origi
nally, belonging to it the power of legisla
ton, if it was not at first legal organiza
ton, was it not less so when an effort wal
made to perpetuate its existence by an in
dividual who had been called to preside oye
its deliberations-by the presiding officer o
, the Senate, at a moment when his power Il
preside as such officer ceased and had ex
pired? Yet such vas the case, for the Pres
ident of the Senate, who had the powe
, when the Senate was in session in its owl
chamber to call any Senator to the chai
temporarily, at this unauthorized meeting
: which was not Senate, appointed when b
had no longer the power himself, Senate
: to conduct its deliberations. This Senate
assumed to adjourn the meeting to distan
day; at which the meeting assembled, an
was again, in like manner, adjourned to an
l other day; at which last named day tn