Year: 1872

the law and its provisions, in answer to


lures. He described the number Of these
| obnoxious laws, and their studied beGuest
! of powers as marvellous" He believed
the election, registration and cOnstabulary
| laws conferred 'royal prerogative OF the
| Governor"


He described his own election under the
| law, his registrars duties under the regis


tration law, and gave an account of his
short experience in Cameron parish as par
ish judge and registrar united. The law
provided for filing the vacancy of registrar,
aud he filed it, having a commission as
parish judge of Cameron. In this parish a
number of his Texas friends had emigrated,
and supported him for representative. be-
lieving he could act to their advantage in
this capacity, and he had been elected by a
two-thirds vote of the electors. His seat in
the House had never been contested. 1t
was contemplated to Oust him from his seat
on the ground Of new parish" but this
design had never been carried out. The
witness alluded to those parts Of the law
which justified his action Of holding blank
commission as registrar, full commission
as parish judge, and filling the blank with
his own name under the registration and
election laws.


Under the printing law, 81 100000 had
been disbursed by the State within three
years. Describing the provisions of the
printing law, he went on to state how he
had performed his duties as commissioner
under it. He denied giving the printing to
any but papers which would support his
party, as he had conferred it in several in
stances Oh men who were known to support
the administration, and on Democratic edi-
tors, as he was guided in this exercise CT
his duties as printing commissioner
only by the object of disseminating
information of public acts as widely
as possible, and without reference, in all
cases, to political services. The print
ing law was bad one. He had always so
considered it. The usual narrative of the
connection of Governor WarmOth with the
REPUBLICAN was told out and the expense,
to the taxpayers, of the law was about
S350, 900 year. In answer to question,
he said that Governor Warmoth did not
support the REPUBLICAN-he made it sup
port him. The printing contracts with the
country papers had been revoked, but had
subsequently been given out to the sup
porters of the administration.


He had consented to Impeachment only
when he believed it impossible to secure re-
forms without it. He had not believed in it
until this fact became apparent. Not that
he did not feel sure Governor Warmoth had
committed such "crimes and misdemean-
ors" as would justify it 4; but he had dis
countenanced it simply from motives of
policy He recapitulated the events
which led to his election as Speaker in the
that lie held over" and was the lawful
Speaker at the next session of the House.
Though he did not believe he could be over
turned as Speaker without the constitu-
tional twO-thirds, yet he had always con-
tessed his willingness to abide by decision
of the majority, and would have left the
seat if well pronounced majority of the
members had decided against him. His
opinion OF majority was that it meant the
greater number of all the members elected,
counting out vacancies by Death or resgna-
ton. Vacancies had not been filled, as no
calling of an election was made, on the
ground of lack of official notice, notwlth-
standing the funeral of the deceased mem
bers had been attended, death published and
the fact known.


He believed the calling the Senate alone
was illegal, the constitution providing for
convocatiOn of both Senate and House,
either being defunct without the action Of
the other. He recapitulated the we'll
known history of the called session, the
election of Lieutenant Governor Pinch
back, and subsequent events. He ascribed
the defeat of his coalition to the vote CT
Mr.. Lewis. He had heard it stated what
induced the latter to change his vote, but
knew nothing about it himself. While
seated on the platform he saw DR.. South
worth, who was his own personal friend.
go to Lewis after he had changed his vote
and entreat him, as he understood, not to
change it again. He told, in answer to a
question, what he had heard as the reason
why Lewis changed his vote, but knew
nothing. The remainder of the testimony
in this connection was simply conjecture.
That session of the Senate was clearly un-
constitutional: no such powers were con-
TERED on the Governor. 1t had been called
to fill the vacancy occasiOned by the death
of Lieutenant Governor Dunn, whose char
acter, the witness subsequently said, was
above suspicion.


The Governor, the witness went on to
say, had violated the constitution in his ap-
pointments of Senators to fill "mOre than
one Office of trust or profit" and offices
whose emOluments had been increased
during their term. He specified instances
of this in the selection of H. j. Campbell,
p. B. S. Pinchback and others. In chasing
General Heron among those who held more
than one office of trust, he went into the
history of the suspension of Bovee from his
office as Secretary of State-the malteasance
of the WaterwOrks law as cause.-the
reason of the Governors action being that
'he shall see the laws faithfully executed
and the subsequent history of the trial in
the Eighth District Court under the in
trusion act-all were recited. Ia this the
witness tried the point that the Governor
had overridden the constitution as we'll as
in his other acts of appointment, the de-
tails being extensive.


Touching upon the debt of the State, the