William Hamilton of the Otoe and Omaha mission to act in that office. It does not appear, however, that "Father" Hamilton ever served as chaplain, but the record shows that Mr. Gage actually served a part of the time in the council and also in the house.
   A determined fight was at once begun by the anti-Omaha members in favor of contestants, against those who had received certificates of election from the governor. Archie Handley of Forney county contested the seat of Wood, Benjamin Winchester of

NILES RATHBONE FOLSOM

Santa Monica, California, doorkeeper first territorial council

Washington contested against Arnold, and J. Sterling Morton and Stephen Decatur of Bellevue against A. J. Poppleton and William Clancy of Omaha.
   On the 17th, Decker of Pierce offered a resolution for the appointment of a committee of three "to examine the certificates of members of the house, and to investigate the claims of those contesting seats," which was rejected. On the 24th Mr. Poppleton moved to amend rule 53, which was similar to Decker's resolution, so as to restrict the duty of the committee on privileges and elections "to examine and report upon the certificates of election of the members returned to serve in this house." The opposition exhausted all their parlimentary resources against the passage of the rule, but it was finally adopted by a vote of 13 to 12. This was an approximate division of the Omaha and anti-Omaha forces on the capital question. It is interesting to note that this violent measure was supported by the same members, who, with the addition of Robertson of Burt, two days later, passed the bill locating the capital at Omaha. The Palladium sounds this note of disgust and despair:

    Governor Cuming's appointees having the majority and being reluctant to have their claims investigated, yesterday they made it a rule of the House that Cuming's certificates were the only evidence which had a right to come before the House in the matter! ! ! And this in Nebraska, and enacted by the very men who are so loud in their praises of popular sovereignty! Oh! Shame! where is thy blush?
   Poppleton and Richardson of Douglas and Latham and Thompson of Cass argued that under the organic law the possession of the governor's certificate was conclusive, and that there could be no appeal or contest but to him. Decker of Pierce, Wood of Forney, and Doyle of Dodge insisted that the well settled principle that legislative bodies have the right to pass upon the qualifications of their members applied to this case. The Palladium admits that "Poppleton, the mover, closed the debate in a tolerably able vindication of the amendment." Even then Poppleton must have been a tolerably good jurist; and he must have laughed in his sleeve as his defense of his novel doctrine rolled out in plausible phrase and with unctuous smoothness.
   Nebraska, we believe, is unique in the discovery and application of this principle of parlimentary procedure. The provision of the organic act bearing on this question is as follows: "The person having the highest number of legal votes in each of said coun-

cil" -- or the house, as the case may be -- "shall be declared by the governor to be duly elected"; and this wording is found substantially in the organic acts of all the northwestern territories. We find a like lack of restraint in the organization of the first legislatures of other territories, though under the usual parlimentary rule. The first legislature of Kansas, at the first, arbitrarily unseated nine free-soil members who held certificates, and because they were free-soilers, the other two having resigned partly through disgust and partly through the "moral suasion" of the pro-slavery members. In Wisconsin, the first house unseated a

BENJAMIN B. THOMPSON

Doorkeeper, first territorial house of representatives

certificated member and seated the contestant, according to the general, but against the Nebraska parlimentary principle; and the first house of Indiana, whose first act was to consider the qualifications of its members, arbitrarily unseated the regular member from St. Clair county.
   On the first day of the session it appears that two of the contestants from Bellevue, J. Sterling Morton and Stephen Decatur, were admitted into the house and participated in the discussion about Cuming's credentials or certificates, and from what we of the present know of Morton we may be sure that the discussion was not lacking in aggressive vigor. The sardonic answer of the report of the committee on privileges and elections to the editor's hope and prayer for righteousness was that "Mr. Decatur advanced his claim on the ground that Douglas county is separate and distinct from Omaha, and that he is the representative from Douglas county, having received greater number of votes in that county than Mr. Poppleton"; but "Mr. Poppleton in defense produced a certificate from the governor of Nebraska declaring him duly elected a representative from Douglas county."
   It did not matter that the conclusion of the committee violated immemorial parliamentary usage and renounced all spirit of fairness; it was backed by a majority as resolute as it was oblivious of any such nice considerations. The finding was brief and to the point, as it could afford to be:

    After considering the evidence of each party your committee are of the opinion that A. J. Poppleton is entitled to a seat in this House according to the organic law and rules adopted by this House.³

   Of the five members of the committee, four had voted for the obnoxious rule and afterward consistently voted to locate the capital at Omaha. It is a barren formality to add that every member to whom Governor Cuming had given his certificate held his seat. This was the beginning of the end of the most important act of the first legislature.
   The council or upper house, the equivalent of a state senate, contained some men of remarkably good intellect, and several of previous experience in legislative bodies. Colonel Joseph L. Sharp, nominally of Richardson county, who was elected president of the council over his bitter political and personal rival,. James C. Mitchell of Florence, had formerly been a member of the legislature of Illinois and also of the legislature of Iowa. He was a disciplined and ready parliamentarian. He knew and could apply with quick decision, the rules governing deliberative bodies. Down to this day no one has presided over the senate, or any other deliberative body of the state,

with more skill or dignity. He was a man of italic individuality. His person was angular and his height six feet three. His hair was abundant and iron gray, and it covered a leonine head. His eye was a bright steel-blue, his chin square, his mouth tight-shut and firm. In the little council chamber where these primitive lawmakers were laying the footings for the walls of the civic edifice since built, there was but small space for spectators; but they drifted in from the curious East, now and then, and, standing against the railing which fenced them out from the members, took notes and made whispered observations among themselves upon the proceedings of the council and the demeanor of its president. It was the misfortune of Colonel Sharp to have been fearfully scarred, indented, and pitted with smallpox. That dreadful disease had bleared, glazed over, and destroyed the sight of his left eye, and at the same time had twisted and deeply indented his prominent nose, which looked somewhat awry; so that, altogether, the victim's facial expression was rather repellant. Right against the lobby rail was the desk and seat of his spiteful and malignant competitor, Jim Mitchell, as he was called. Mitchell was a lithe, slender, small man, about sixty years of age, not more than five feet six inches tall and weighing not more than one hundred and twenty pounds. He was quick of mind, had a hair-trigger temper, and his courage was unquestioned. He had justifiably killed his man at Jackson, Iowa, had been tried and honorably acquitted. Therefore no bully presumed to insult him, though his features were mild, gentle, and pallid as those of a studious orthodox clergyman, and his manners were refined and quiet. His hatred of Sharp was deep and relentless. One day a couple of visitors from "down east" were leaning against the railing by Mitchell's desk, watching President Sharp and listening to his rapid decisions and rulings, and finally one said to the other, in an undertone which reached the alert car of Mitchell: "That president knows his business. He is able and impartial, quick and correct, but certainly the homliest (sic) man I ever looked at"; and Mitchell, with a cynical smile and tranquil irony, remarked: "Hell! You should have seen him before he was improved by the smallpox." Possibly state senators of this day keep sarcasm in stock sharper and more spontaneous than that, but they seldom exercise it.
   The other law-maker of experience in the council was Origen D. Richardson of Douglas county. He had served in the Michigan senate and had also been governor of that state. He was a native of Vermont, level

ORIGEN D. RICHARDSON

Oldest member of the first territorial assembly

headed, honest, and of sound judgment. More than any other individual, Richardson determined the character and quality of the legislation of that first assembly. As chairman of the permanent committee on the judiciary, in the council, he did an enormus (sic) amount of thoughtful, diligent, and efficient labor. He no doubt planned, formed, and shaped more statutes than any other member of either house, not excepting Andrew J. Poppleton, who was the most capable, industrious, and painstaking member of the house committee on judiciary, the superior of any lawyer then