The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1880-04-01
IN UNFORTUNATE AFFAIR.
Josiah Turner Expelled from the
House of Representatives.

The extra session has developed many
] extraordinary phases, but none more SO
] than the chapter relating to Josiah
/ Turner, the Independent, or Turncrite,
member of the House from Orange.
Everybody knows 80 Turner - the Vance,
himself, whose surname is "Zeb," for
whom mothers it is said have named their
boy-babies several years in advance, is not
much better known in North Carolina and
At one time was but little, if any, more pop
ular. As President of the State Railroad,
as member elect to Congress but excluded,
A. fearless editor of the State Democratic
organ amid the saturnalia Of scallawaggery,
as a leading victim of Kinks atrocious vii
lainy, and for the past half dozen years, as
the shrewd, splteful, audacious, pertinacious,
nnabashcd, bellicose Bull" in the political
''Ch3na-shops, he has been so constantly
before the public eye (and ear that not to
know him must argue yourself unknown.
He is a born demagogue, and as such has
greater capacity for distraction, than for
craftsmanship or progressiveness; but as a
staunch friend to his friends, a bold speaker
a good neighbor, and an honest man, he car
ries a measure of support which none Of his
freaks seem to lessen. We call him an honest
man, because all his life he has grown poorer,
instead of richer, though rarely out Of of
fee.
Mr.. Turner was expected to make mis-
chief in the last session of the Legislature !;
but his attempt to enter the Democratic
caucus lost him Republican support, and
his expulsion from that caucus left him SO
utterly without a following that he measur-
ably subsidized. The opening of the extra
session, however, found him promptly on
deck, and with both pockets bulged out with
Ring roor-backs. We have alluded to
his printed address to his constituents, where
IN he made many serious charges against
prominent personages. The substance of
these charges were made the text for a
lengthy speech early in the session. A
few days later r. NJ. Norment, Repub-
lican, introduced a set of Resolutions reel.
ting Turner'S charges, and appointing a
committee Of FIVE to investigate them, with
the p%roviso, that if unproven, he be expell-
ed as a libeller. The House of Representa-
tives, following the example of the parties
assailed by him, chose to regard Turner in
seated mania for finding mares nests; there
fore quietly tabled the resolutions, and ex-
plunged his other protests memorial,
Nc., from the Records. Most of the mem
bers seemed to feel that while there might
be a sub-stratum of truth in some of his
charges, others were false, and preferred
from s~piteful motives, and that the question
of establishing the truth did not devolve
upon them and were it otherwise, that the
matter could not now be reopened, after
twelve years interval, without doing far
more harm than good.
Turner now became more ''rampageous'
than ever, melted perhaps by love of noto-
riety, joined with violent dislike of Speaker
duct afforded much advertisement to the Gal
Ior;o-. ond q HaJlu nanor of ThurS1ay morn
ing alluded to him as clown Turner" who
had been ION the floor, and allover it,, the
previous evening.
On Friday Mr.. Turner as usual arose to a
question of privilege, and ratified away re-
gardlesS of time, tune, or topic. At length,
the Speaker whose moderation towards
Turner has led some persons to intimate
that he was restrained by personal ~reasons)
after repeatedly rapping for him to be sea
ted, ordered the o~ne-legged (ex-confederate)
doorkeeper, Norton, of Mcdowell, to en-
force order in the House by seating Turner.
As Norton approached, Turner raised his
voice to a loud pitch d%enouncing him as the
man who, at the close of the regular session,
der to gain time for the passage of the
School Bill. Great excitement ensued; both
on the floor and in the galleries. Turner, in
his element, yelled "Iohce!" ''I1oAcer'
tHtLp!" etc.
Speaker Moring now asked the will of the
House in regard to this unruly member.
Mr. Foard thereupon moved that the chair
be sustained and Turner expelled. A mum
Der of speeches were made, all, or nearly all,
condenlning Turner in severe language. The
Speaker Moring called Mr.. Cooke to the
chair, and took the floor to state in reply to
Turner allegations of unfair rulings, that
he had tried to do justice to every member,
and had allowed more than ordinary latitude
to the complainant. Turner bounced up to
another point of ORDER" to wit that the
Speaker had no right to take the floor in
sqlogy of himself. Thoroughly disguised,
Mr.. Moring now retired from the House,
leaving it to settle the rumpus as it saw fit.
Turner again fired his Ring Blunder-B uss.
We borrow from the Charlotte Press:
Mr.. Turner proceeded to answer the
charges and stated that they we're false in
every particular, and the reason he was as
sailed was beca use he had attacked the