determined to ruin Mr. Caperton against whom he instigated and decided not less than a hundred trespass suits. In every county in the circuit he breathed forth threatenings and slaughter and spread consternation and dismay. He was notoriously licentious in his mode of life and it soon became known that he was also corruptible in the administration of his public office. But his persecution of the ex-rebels won for him the high regard of the state Government and the enthusiastic admiration of the Legislature. The Supreme Court of Appeals at that time consisted of three judges, and the law provided that when any one of the three was absent by reason of sickness, or was in any other way incapacitated from duty in court, a circuit court judge should be called in to take his place. Nat. Harrison made it convenient to attend at many of the sessions of the Court of Appeals and was frequently called upon to sit as one of the judges of that high tribunal, and in that capacity participated in rendering some of its most obnoxious decisions. In January, 1866, Col. Hounshell, who had been in the Confederate service, went to the seat of Government, at Wheeling, where the Legislature was sitting, with formal charges against Harrison, accusing him of disloyalty to the Government of the United States, maladministration of the duties of his office and perjury. The charges were presented in the House of Delegates on the 7th day of February by Col. Dan. Johnson, a gallant and honorably discharged soldier of the Federal Army, who offered a joint resolution for the impeachment of the accused in the manner provided by law. So indignant were the members that an ex-Confederate officer, who did not come 66 with bated breath and whispering humbleness," should be permitted thus "to rail upon the Lord's anointed," that Col. Hounshell, who was in the lobby of the House, was violently assaulted by three or four stalwart individuals and forcibly and unceremoniously kicked, beaten and thrust down the stairs and out of the building. On the next day the following resolutions, here copied verbatim, were offered and adopted under a suspension of the rules:

"Resolved, That this House deplores the disorderly scene that occurred in the hall immediately after adjournment last evening, growing out

of the introduction of a paper which was deemed by this House & malicious attempt to publicly slander one of the circuit judges of the state, aggravated by the haughty bearing and insulting language of the author of said slanderous paper towards the members of this House while in the hall. The sergeant-at-arms is instructed to be vigilant in the preservation of the peace, and ejection of all improper persons from this hall in future."

"Resolved, That no farther action be taken in the subject of the said slanderous paper, but to return it to its author, if to be found, through the sergeant-at-arms."

The first attempt at the impeachment of Harrison having thus tragi-comically failed, he went back to his circuit with some new revenges to gratify and more firmly seated than before. He owned an interest in a little weekly newspaper called the Monroe Republican, and he required all legal advertisements from all the counties in his circuit to be published in that paper. He advised litigants to employ

a particular attorney whom he favored and from whom he received a share of the fees. He appointed a receiver of the circuit courts of Greenbrier and Monroe, and allowed him a commission of two per cent. more than was allowed by law, and this two per cent. was believed to be the perquisite of the judge. He borrowed for his own use, funds officially held by the receiver, and gave no security. He signed in his official capacity, the petition of an ex-Confederate to the President of the United States for a pardon, and received three hundred dollars therefor. He took jurisdiction of cases in which he was himself a party interested. He advised the defendant in an action brought by a plaintiff whom he hated, to bring the case on for trial at a particular time promising to have a special jury summoned for the purpose of finding a verdict for the defendant.

All this and more. He was openly intemperate and lewd; wherever he went he sought the society of prostitutes, and at nearly every place of holding court he had a negro mistress.

By the grace of the registrars he was elected in 1868, his term of appointment having expired, and he then began to punish those who had opposed his election. A clause of the Constitution provided that, "No person except citizens entitled to vote, shall be elected or appointed to any state, county or municipal office." Accordingly Judge Harrison

directed "Old Scratch" to erase from the list of registered voters the names of Joel McPherson, clerk of the circuit court of Greenbrier County; Wallace Robinson, sheriff of said county; G. A. Lewis, recorder, and Alexander Walker, a supervisor of one of the townships. He then declared the offices of these several gentlemen vacant, and proceeded to make appointments to suit himself. The outraged officials immediately appealed to the Supreme Court and were reinstated, but for some time after the order of the Supreme Court had been sent down, Harrison refused to recognize the officers thus restored.

Alexander Walker who was a Northern man, a Republican, and a member of the bar, at last resolved to aid in a new attempt for the impeachment of the judge. He was collecting some evidence in relation to the matter when, on the 12th of January, 1870, Harrison came into court with a rule already prepared summoning Walker to show cause why he should not be disbarred for unprofessional conduct, in soliciting affidavits concerning the judge's personal habits. Walker accepted service of the rule, and asked that he be allowed twenty-four hours in which to procure an affidavit to be used in his defense. The judge would listen to no delay and directed the clerk to enter at once an order which had been prepared beforehand, disbarring Alexander Walker, and revoking his license as an attorney. Walker went to the Supreme Court of Appeals and the order was reversed and annulled.

By this time the Republican party in the state found Judge Nat. Harrison a pretty heavy load to carry. He had become a stench in the nostrils of decent people all over the state and his infamies could be no longer winked at or brazenly ignored. In the Legislature of 1870, the storm burst. Articles of impeachment with specifications, only a few of which have been referred to above, were adopted in both Houses, and the judge was summoned to appear for trial on the 25th of February. Harrison was in Wheeling, where the Legislature was in session, when the joint resolution was adopted, but he fled from the state in order to escape service of notice until it would be too late for the Legislature to proceed with the trial at that session. He was followed to Pittsburgh,

where he was found in a brothel ; the notice was served upɔn him then and there; he returned to Wheeling the next day; handed to the Governor his resignation of the office of Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, which was, perhaps too promptly, accepted; and his name appears no more in the history of West Virginia. A few years later he died in great destitution at Denver, Colorado, and his body was buried by the charity of the members of the bar.

At the fall election in 1870, the Democrats elected the state officers and a majority of the members of each branch of the Legislature. A constitutional convention was called, which met in 1872, and the new constitution framed by it was ratified by the people, in October of that year. The era of proscription having passed, an era of prosperity began.

O. S. LONG.

W. L. WILSON.

IT

CHAPTER X.

RECONSTRUCTION IN MISSOURI.

may be fairly assumed that the era of reconstruction, so called, began in Missouri, on February 13th, 1864, when an act of the General Assembly providing for a convention to amend the State Constitution went into effect. By the terms of this act the convention was authorized to adopt such amendments to the State Constitution as might by them be deemed necessary to emancipate the slaves; and also to preserve in purity the elective franchise to loyal citizens; and such other amendments as might be deemed essential to the public good.

Under this grant of power the convention proceeded to frame an entirely new constitution not excelled for proscription, injustice and inhumanity in the annals of civilized

countries.

It was known as the Drake Convention from the fact that Charles D. Drake, one of its members, and now ex-Chief Justice of the Court of Claims, was the controlling spirit, and absolutely dominated his timid and inferior colleagues. The third section of the organic instrument which the convention adopted, was as follows:

Section 3. At any election held by the people under this constitution, or in pursuance of any law of this state, or any ordinance or by-law of any municipal corporation, no person shall be deemed a qualified voter, who has ever been in armed hostility to the United States, or to the lawful authorities thereof, or to the government of this state; or has ever given aid, comfort, countenance or support to persons engaged in any such hostility; or has ever, in any manner, adhered to the enemies, foreign or domestic, of the United States, either