FLORIDA. 



275 



mimicated by them to Mr. Gleason, who an- 

 swered that, "After Governor Reed's formal 

 impeachment by the Assembly, and the recog- 

 nition of himself as Lieutenant and Acting 

 Governor by both bodies of the Legislature," 

 the Supreme Court had nothing to do in the 

 matter, and he therefore "declined to submit 

 any questions connected with the matter of 

 impeachment to their honors." On November 

 16th Mr. Gleason issued another proclamation, 

 in which, after detailing many reasons to show 

 that, pending the impeachment, Mr. Reed could 

 not exercise the functions of the Executive, 

 and that they must be performed by himself, 

 he concluded as follows : 



Now, therefore, I, "William H. Gleason, Lieutenant 

 and Acting Governor of Florida, do issue this, my 

 proclamation, declaring that said Harrison Eeed, 

 Governor of Florida, is deemed by the constitution 

 " under arrest, and disqualified from performing any 

 of the duties of his office until acquitted by_ the Sen- 

 ate," and that " the power and duties of said office " 

 have devolved upon me : 



I call upon all citizens to aid me in exercising the 

 powers and discharging the duties thus devolved 

 upon me by the constitution, and to put down the 

 lawlessness and anarchy which must inevitably ensue 

 if any man impeached or indicted, however exalted 

 his station, may refuse to submit to the arrest im- 

 posed by the constitution, or to the only tribunal 

 appointed by the constitution for his trial. If one 

 man may do this, all may do it, and. this being done, 

 law and order will cease to exist. Anarchy, lawless- 

 ness, and violence, will reign supreme. Against such 

 a doctrine, leading most certainly to such dreadful 

 results, I call upon all law-abiding citizens to sustain 

 me, and stand by the constitution and laws of our 

 State. 



In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my 



r -i hand, and caused the great seal of the State 



*- L< S>J to be affixed, this 16th day of November, 

 A. D. 1868. WM. H. GLEASON, 



Lieutenant and Acting Governor. 

 By the Lieutenant and Acting Governor : 



Attest-rGEORGE J. ALDEN, Secretary of State. 



On November 24th the Justices of the Su- 

 preme Court gave their written answers, sep- 

 arately, to the first of the two questions pro- 

 posed by Governor Reed. They, especially 

 two of them, consider the subject-matter at 

 length and thoroughly, in regard to fact as 

 well as law and precedents, and, though they 

 consider it from different points of view, all 

 three arrive at the same conclusion, which is 

 unanimous. Their answers were published in 

 the papers of December 3d. Associate-Jus- 

 tice James D. Westcott says : " It is, therefore, 

 my opinion upon the facts submitted in your 

 communication and upon the authorities and 

 precedents cited, that twelve Senators did not 

 constitute a quorum to do business ; and hence 

 that there was no Senate within the meaning 

 of this clause of the constitution, and that " a 

 Legislature of the State of Florida, consisting 

 of a Senate and Assembly, 'vested with the 

 Legislative authority of the State," did not 

 convene in extraordinary session under your 

 proclamation of November 3, 1868." 



Chief-Justice E. M. Randall, concurring fully 

 in this, discusses the matter on his own ac- 



count, and concludes : " We are, therefore, of 

 the opinion that, even upon the assumption 

 that the proceeding of impeachment is not 

 properly "legislative business," and that it 

 may be presented at a called session, without 

 the actually-expressed consent of both Houses, 

 there has not been an effective impeachment 

 and suspension from the performance of offi- 

 cial duties." 



Associate-Justice O. B. Hart entirely agrees 

 with both of the others, and for himself con- 

 denses the whole matter in this sentence : " Un- 

 til a majority of the Assemblymen and Sena- 

 tors provided for by the constitution assemble, 

 there can be no Legislature." 



On a writ of quo warranto, a suit of ouster 

 was instituted before the Supreme Court by 

 the Attorney-General against Lientenant-Gov- 

 ernor Gleason, on the ground that, at the time 

 of his election, he was ineligible, he being a 

 non-resident of Florida. He denied the juris- 

 diction of the Supreme Court in his case; 

 alleged, moreover, that he " could not obtain 

 justice in this Court ; " and used other means 

 to escape ; but these things availed not, and he 

 having been granted a certain time " to show 

 cause why final judgment of ouster should not 

 be rendered against him," his counsel, on 

 December 14th, filed a plea of eighteen counts, 

 claiming that, before reconstruction, the con- 

 stitution of Florida, and the State itself, did not 

 exist, but was only provisional, and, there- 

 fore, that Mr. Gleason, though ineligible by 

 the laws of Florida, was eligible by the law 

 of Congress in the reconstruction acts, and by 

 the order of the district military commander. 

 After hearing his plea, the Supreme Court 

 rendered against him a judgment of ouster, 

 "restraining him from performing the duties 

 of Lieutenant-Governor." Upon this he filed 

 a writ of error, resting on the same ground 

 with the plea referred to above, and appealed 

 to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

 Chief- Justice Randall refusing to sign a " writ 

 of citation," Mr. Gleason proceeded to Wash- 

 ington, where he obtained of Associate- Justice 

 Miller a " citation writ " returnable on the first 

 Monday of December, 1869. This reinstated 

 him as Lieutenant-Governor of Florida for the 

 time. 



The election ordered by Governor Reed's 

 proclamation of October 28th, for the purpose 

 of filling the many vacant seats in the Senate 

 and House of Representatives, having been held 

 on December 29th, and the vacancies filled, 

 the Legislature assembled on January 5, 1869, 

 the day fixed for its second session by the new 

 constitution. 



Upon their meeting in January, 1869, both 

 the Senators and Assemblymen seemed anima- 

 ted by a quite different spirit from that which 

 guided them in November, 1868, in reference 

 to Mr. Reed's impeachment. Whatever its 

 grounds, they now regarded it as not existing, 

 and considered Mr. Reed to be in the legal pos- 

 session of the Executive office of Florida. In the 



