Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1859 — How they Elect Rogus United States Senators in Indiana. [ARTICLE]

How they Elect Rogus United States Senators in Indiana.

[From Hie,Tribune Almanac for 1559.

In 1845, fourteen years ago, it became the duty of the Indiana Legislature to ele.ct a United States Senator. The House was Whig by ten majority, the Senate a tie, and Jesse D. Bright, the Lieutenant Governor, presided over it. Although the House repeatedly invited the Senate to meet them in Joint Convention to elect a Senator, every jjiip of their resolutions was lost in the Senate by the casting vote of Mr. Bright, Us President. The election was thus staved off’ for the session; the next legislature was “Democratic,” and Mr. Bright received the vacant Senatqrship ns his reward. In 1855 another Senator was to he elected. In the Senate, in consequence of half its members being hold-overs, there was two Democratic majority; but. iii the House there was sixteen Anti-Nebraska majority, making four een Republican majority on joint ballot. The House sent resolution after resolution to the Senate for a Joint Convention to elect a Senator, and the numerous State officers which the Constitution and the laws required to be filled by that session of the Legislature. But the Senate, by a party vote, refused to join the House, leaving the Senatorial seat vacant, and the entire patronage of the State in tbe hands of the Democratic Governor. T\Vo years passedby, and in 1856 Indiana elected her next Legislature—a majority on joint ballot, under the issue of “Buchanan and Fair Play for Kansas,” being Democratic: but, as it happened, while the House had a Democratic majority, the Senate now, by the changes in the former hold-overs, had an Opposition majority of four, In giving,a narrativefof what subsequently occurred, it should be borne in mind that the Republicans were willing, from the first to the last, that both Senators (to fill the vacancy and for Mr. Bright’s full term) should be chosen by a concurrent vote of each House acting separately, and that they demanded as their right only the Senator for the vacancy, which they had fairly won by the twelve thousand Anti-Nebraska majority of tbe people, and fourteen majority in the Legislature, at the previous election, and which they had been deliberately cheated out by their op ponents. The Constitution of Indiana requires that the votes for Governor and Lieutenant Governor shall be counted in the presence of ! both branches of the Legislature, and the Democracy determined to use this to trap their opponents into a Joint Convention, which, as no law for electing Senators exists in Indiana, should immediately after the counting elect two gentlemen to that office. The Republicans insisted that, in the absence of law, the Constitution of the United States was tiie only guide in the matter. That instrument declares that Senators shall be elected by “the Legislature,” and the Constitution of Indiana defined the Legislature to be the Senate and the House, and requires all acts of legislation by them to be assented to by a majority of the entire membership of each, acting separately. From the official report and the official copies of the journals of both branches of the Legislature appended to Senate RepnrfNo. 275, (Volume 2, Reports of U. S. Senate, 1857—8,) we find the following facts: On the 12th of the House sent to the Senate a resolution inviting them to be present in their hall at half past two o’clock P. M., "to open a id publish the returns of the election.” The Republican Senators' offered to concur, with a proviso that, as soon as tbe counting and swearing in was over, tile joint meeting should be adjourned sine die. But while this was pending, and before any vote was taken on the inv'itation of the House, and thirty-jive minutes before the time designated in the resolution, Lieutenant Governor Willard, who was presiding, and who was also the Governor elect, vacated his seat, and, followed by a minority of the Senate, repaired to the Representative Hall, leaving the Senate still in session. Arrived there, this sham Joint Convention opened, the Speaker of the House in the chair. After counting the

votes, one of the Democratic Senators was, without any mo ion or any vote, called upon to preside. He took his seat, and, without any proposition from any member whatever, or any vole being taken, adjourned the Joint Convention till Monday, the 2d of February, without stating any reason or pretext for its reassembling. It becoming evident that a fraudulent election of Senators was about to be attempted, (all pesuasions to seduce the majority of the Senate into a Joint Convention havin the Senate, on the 29th of January, four days before the time at which the unauthorized Convention was to meet, adopted a Bole i n protest agalnstait, by a vote, by yeas and nays, of 27 todeclaring that they had given no assatnt to any Joint Convention for any purpose whatever; that any pretended assemblage of that sort would be illegal and fraudulent, and branding in advance any attempt to thus elect Senators as insulting to the Senate and disgraceful to the State. This formal and* solemn protest, thus adopted by 27 out of 'SO State Senators, staggered the conspirators, And when the 2d of February arrived, although the new Lieutenant Governor, with a minority of the Senate, again repaired to the Representative Hall, leaving the Senate still in session and going on with their business, nothing whatever was done or attempted; but the presiding officer, without any motion or any vote, and without staling any object whatever, declared the Joint "Convention again adjourned till the following Wednesday. On Wednesday, the 4th of February, the pretended Joint Convention again assembled, (and it should be borne in mind that the affidavits of the Secretaries of the Senate set forth the fact that the Senate was never even invited by the House to meet them in Joint Convention for the purpose of electing j Senators from the first day of the session till the lust.) when, without any motion or resolu- j lion by any member of this illegal assem- ; blage. the Lieutenant Governor instructed them > “to proceed to choose. United States Senators by a viva voce vote.” Whereupon 23 Senators (out of 50) voted for Bright and Fitch—one Senator, who Was present, looking on, re-1 fused to vote—6o out of the 100 Represent- : atives (it requires by tiie State Constitution two-thirds of the whole number of members 1 to make a quorum for transacting business | in either branch) voted for the same candi- 1 dates, ami two Representatives voted for Geo. G. Dunn and R. W. Thompson. The Lieutenant-Governor declared Bright and Fitch elected, and again, without any motion or vote, adjourned the Joint Convention till February 11 • The intention was at that tim ■ to go on and choose the State officers, whose election they had prevented two years before; but, finding that the incumbents, though of heir own party, would not consent without a legal contest to be ousted by any such bogus election, the Joint Convention, when j the 11th us February arrived, was adjourned ! sine die. and the patronage again left in the ! hands of the Governor for the ensuing two years. The Senate, having protested against this fraud on the 29th of January, in advance of its commission, again repudiated it the day after its alleged consummation. On the s’h of February, 27 Senators, out of the 50.! signed and placed on their journals a protest. ' a copy of which they sent to tbe United i States Senate, decl-ring that their body had j not participated in the election, was in ses- i sion when it was pretended to have occur- 1 red, and most solemnly protesting against the recognition of this fraud. With these papers came up, also, a petition to the United States Senate, signed by 27 Sen t tors and 36 Representatives, remonstrating against this fraudulent election, which was not participated in by a quorum of either branch, declaring this Joint Convention unTiuthbrized by any law of the State, bv any resolution adopted by the Legislature, or by any pr vision of the State or National Constitution; and that to affirm it would destroy the existence of the Senate of Indiana as nit independent branch of the Legislative department of the State. And to .make their argument Unanswerable, the sworn affidavit of 26 Senators accompanied these protests, each of them solemnly declaring that they did not participate in this so-called Joint Convention, but were at the very hour of its alleged assembling sitting in their seats in the Senate, in open session. Thus it will be seen that this case differs from the Harlan or lowa case most materially. In that election both branches had agreed to the Joint Convention, and had voted repeatedly but ineffectually for Senator; but finding at last that a Republican was about to be elected, a majority of the Senate, being Democrats, absented themselves; and although Mr. Harlan had a clear majority of the whole Legtslature, the Democrats in the United States Senate turned him out of his seat. After this decision, the above high-handed and disgraceful outrage was carried through in Indiana in the very teeth of the Harlan decision. And the- same United States Senate, after staving it off for over a year, with the usurpers meanwhile in their seats, voting Lecompton, appropriation bills, &c., ratify it at last in the expiring hours of lust session by seven majority. The sitting mnmbers at the regular session of 1857, at the extra session, and again at the last regular session, insisted that They must have more testimony than the records afforded; and finally, on February 16, 1858, a resolution passed giving them ninety days to take it in, before any Judge, by giving notice thereof to tbe protestants. But, after tin’s long delay on this pretext, they did not give a single notice under the resolution, and the only evidence they proffered was ex parte. affidavits ot political triends, taken when no cross-examination xvas allowed. The Republicans, however, gave notice, and proved by Governor Willard himself, bv William Sheets, ex-Secretary of State, that no Joint Convention to count Gubernatorial votes bad ever even attempted to adjourn over for tbe transaction ofotlier business; and tbe two latter witnesses, who had known the usage in Indiana for electing United States Senators for thirty years past, testified that there never had been a precedent or parallel for this. oO”Sixtcen boys were crushed and trampled to death in the Victoria Theatre, London. on the 27th of December, in a panic caused by a false alarm of fire. The excitement speetMly subsided, and tlm performance «H 0 proceeded smith 9S