Before leaving the upper hall the following protest, signed by all the Democratic members of the House, was read by Mr. John C. Sheppard:

We, a majority of the House of Representatives elect, protest against the refusal to admit us to the hall of representatives. We protest against the military power of the United States barring the passage into the State House of members-elect of the Legislature. We protest against the legality of the proceedings, and especially against the army of the United States being placed for the purpose of this exclusion under the command of John B. Dennis, a partisan of Governor Chamberlain. We protest against the said Dennis' instructions to the guard to admit no one to the State House except upon his own pass or a pass of A. O. Jones, the former clerk of the House, who may thus exclude all except his own partisans, and who, by the Republican program, is to organize the said House.

We have presented ourselves with the judgment of the highest court of South Carolina, certified to by its clerk, with the great seal of the court attached, as to our right to participate in the organization of the said House. We are refused, by the orders of the said Dennis, admission into said hall except upon his pass, the pass of said Jones, or the certificate of H. E. Hayne, Secretary of State, who is now under condemnation of said court for refusal to issue certificates in accordance with its judgment and mandate.

In protesting against this barefaced usurpation, this trampling on the laws and Constitution of the State, this defiance of the highest tribunal of the State, it is our purpose to offer no resistance to this armed intervention, but to make our solemn appeal to the American people, without distinction of party. Our veneration of law and our respect for the Supreme Court and the usages of all legislative assemblages forbid our participation in such unprecedented and revolutionary proceedings.

During the excitement an immense crowd had assembled in front of the State House, when the Federal officer in charge approached General Hampton, who was in the building, with a request to prevent the crowd from pushing in. General Hampton immediately appeared upon the front steps and addressed the crowd as follows:

My friends: I am truly doing what I have done earnestly during this whole exciting contest, pouring oil on the troubled waters. It is of the greatest importance to us all, as citizens of South Carolina, that peace should be preserved. I appeal to you all, white men and colored, as Carolinians, to use every effort to keep down violence or turbulence. One act of violence may precipitate bloodshed and desolation. I implore you, then, to preserve the peace. I beg all of my friends to disperse, to leave the grounds of the State House, and I advise all the colored men to do the same. Keep perfectly quiet,

leave the streets, and do nothing to provoke a riot. We trust to the law and the Constitution, and we have perfect faith in the justness of our cause.

The crowd promptly and quietly dispersed.

The Democratic members repaired to Carolina Hall-a building diagonally in rear of the Richland courthouse. The House then proceeded to organize. The members having been duly sworn in, William H. Wallace was elected speaker, John T. Sloan, Sr., of Richland clerk, W. B. Williams, of York, reading clerk, and John D. Browne, of Barnwell, sergeant-at-arms. Immediately after these elections two colored Republicans left the Mackey body, joined the lawful House and were duly sworn in-J. W. Westberry, of Sumter, and W. H. Reedish, of Orangeburg. Two days later Thomas Hamilton and N. B. Myers, of Beaufort, and J. S. Bridges, of Newberry, were sworn in. Immediately afterwards John Gibson and Daniel Bird, of Fairfield, were received, but these two very soon rejoined the Mackey body. The number of members sworn into the lawful House, excluding those from Edgefield and Laurens, was a majority of the number holding certificates of the Secretary of State, issued in accordance with the action of the Board of State Canvassers.

In the so-called House of which Mackey claimed to be speaker resolutions were soon adopted which purported to unseat the Democratic members elected from Abbeville, Aiken and Barnwell and seat the Republican claimants. These latter were duly sworn in-including a negro personating Silas Cave, of Barnwell. A few days later Cave himself turned up, and he, too, was solemnly sworn in.

THE SENATE ORGANIZED.

The Senate met promptly at 12, noon. The names of the senators from Edgefield and Laurens were omitted from the roll as called by Josephus Woodruff, who claimed to act as clerk, and their credentials were referred to the committee on privileges and elections. The other new senators were duly sworn in.

S. A. Swails (colored) was elected president pro tem., Josephus Woodruff, clerk; R. A. Sisson, reading clerk; and J. E. Green (colored), sergeant-at-arms.

The usual message was sent to the House-the Democratic senators objecting and afterwards entering upon the journal the following protest:

In accordance with notice given, we, the undersigned senators of the State of South Carolina, beg leave to place upon record this our solemn protest against all proceedings by this body which in any degree recognize the legality of a body calling itself the House of Representatives of South Carolina, over which E. W. M. Mackey claims to preside as speaker, and which met on the 28th instant and claimed to organize in the hall of the House of Representatives. The Constitution of South Carolina makes each house the judge of the "election returns and qualifications of its own members.' The Supreme Court of this State has by formal judgment decided that the members from the counties of Edgefield and Laurens who received the highest number of votes were entitled to seats. These members have been refused admission to the hall and all participation in its organization by the armed soldiers of the United States, who barred with bayonets the door of the hall of the House of Representatives, and acted as judges of the "election returns and qualifications of its members."

We have seen armed forces of the United States overriding the plain declaration of the Constitution of this State. We have witnessed the solemn mockery of the corporal of the guard reviewing and revising the judgment of the highest court. We have seen the spectacle, humiliating in the last degree to every right-minded American, of the halls of the Legislature occupied at the hour of midnight and held against the ingress of the law-making power-and this at a time of profoundest peace, and when not a single act of violence furnished the slightest pretext for the usurpation. We have seen the still more humiliating spectacle of the United States troops. having been placed under the immediate control, and receiving orders from, a citizen without authority and a partisan of the present administration. We have seen this citizen assuming absolute control over the capitol of a commonwealth, and admitting through the lines of armed sentinels his own partisans, upon his own edict or the written pass from another citizen who was selected by his partisans to organize a House of Representatives. We have seen this body of partisans, thus admitted, claiming to organize the house, but without a quorum, in violation of law, in defiance of the Supreme Court and under the protection of the United States troops.

We therefore enter this our protest against any recognition of said body pretending to be the House of Representatives of South Carolina, and for the following reasons:

1. The said body having organized without a constitutional quorum, there being but fifty-nine members present, as shown by its own journal, whereas a majority of the entire representation is requisite to a quorum, to wit: sixty-three members, as set forth in the journals of the House during the past eight years, and as confirmed by the immemorial practice of legislative bodies in every American State; and we do further allege, on our responsibility as senators,

that the said body is still without a constitutional quorum, and therefore wanting in the organic character of the House of Representatives of South Carolina, and ought not to be recognized as such.

2. That said resolution was adopted by the Senate before_any announcement was made of any organization by any House of Representatives.

3. That in fact and in truth no legal and effectual organization of a House of Representatives was at that time made.

4. That the body of men claiming to be a House of Representatives, and from which the announcement of said organization came, has not organized and cannot organize by reason of the nonexistence of a quorum.

5. We further and finally protest against the adoption of the said resolution [communicating with the Mackey body] for this reasonthat we have since received official notification of the organization of the House of Representatives, now sitting in Carolina Hall, where a quorum of legally constituted members does exist, and of which body the Hon. William H. Wallace has been elected speaker and John T. Sloan clerk.

Mr. Cochran, of Anderson, submitted the following protest, to be entered on the journal:

As senator, I do solemnly protest against any further communication with the House of Representatives sitting in the further end of this building until it be ascertained whether or not the said body is composed of a lawful quorum, as well as the causes preventing the same.

At the close of the day Governor Chamberlain made the following report to the President of the United States:

The House and Senate organized today. The Democrats on the refusal to admit the members from Edgefield and Laurens Counties withdrew, leaving sixty members in the House, a quorum of all the members chosen. The Senate organized without delay. General Ruger has preserved the peace and acted with perfect impartiality and great good judgment.

THE LAWFUL HOUSE IN THEIR HALL.

On the morning of November 30 the members of the lawful House left Carolina Hall and proceeded in close column to the State House. On reaching the lower entrance they passed the sentinels-who, it' seemed, had received new instructions. Ascending to the Representatives' hall the head of the column was soon at its very door guarded by a United States marshal and a man claiming to be an official of the Mackey body. The members bore their certificates of election. Those in front entered before the official seemed to realize

what was going on. The doors were then pressed back and all the members entered without difficulty-these taking seats, the speaker and the clerks occupying the stand and the sergeants-at-arms stationing themselves at the door.

About this time General Hampton reached the door and proposed to enter, when Mackey's sergeant-at-arms objected, and bloodshed was narrowly averted-this by General Hampton's declining to press his demand and going away.

In a few moments Mackey, followed by most of those who recognized him as speaker, entered the hall.

Mackey ascended the stand and demanded that Speaker Wallace should vacate the chair. The latter refused and made a brief statement of his claims as the presiding officer of the lawful House.

Mackey: "I claim that I was elected speaker of this House by a legal quorum of members legally sworn in. We do not recognize that any others than those sworn in here on Tuesday last are members of this House, and these men who are visiting this hall without our consent must keep order. I must again demand that you, General Wallace, leave this chair."

Speaker Wallace: "I have already declared that I am the lawfully elected speaker of this House, and must ask you to retire."

Mackey: "The sergeant-at-arms will please step forward and enforce my order."

Speaker Wallace: "The sergeant-at-arms will please step forward and enforce my order."

The two sergeants-at-arms came forward and ascended to the stand. At the same time a number of men, Democrats and Republicans, crowded around the speaker on one side and Mackey on the other. The excitement was intense and bloodshed seemed imminent. Both parties stood firm.

A Democratic member moved the appointment of a committee of six to adjust matters. The committee (all members of the lawful House) was appointed-Mackey ordering his men to take no notice of the speaker or of his acts.

The danger of bloodshed was over for a time.

There were various motions, suggestions, protests and questions, but they were heeded only by the side from which they came.