erations thereof. Four of the Republicans-elect had not at that
time arrived at the seat of government. The two Independents from
Carroll refused to attend the caucus, but this did not necessarily mean
that they would not vote for the candidates thereof in the organization
of the House. But since we had sixty votes,--two more than were
necessary to elect our candidate,--we believed that the organization
would be easily perfected the next day, regardless of the action of the
members from Carroll County.

In this, however, we were sadly disappointed. The result of the first
vote for Speaker of the House was as follows:

Lynch, Republican caucus nominee 55
Streeter, Democratic nominee 47
Chandler, Independent Republican 7
Armstead, Independent Republican 1
Howe, Regular Republican 1
Necessary to elect 56

Judge Chandler of Noxubee, who had been elected as a regular Republican
with four other white Republicans,--all of whom attended and took part
in the caucus the night before,--refused to vote for the nominee of the
caucus for Speaker but voted instead for Chandler. It will be seen that
the vote for Streeter, the Democratic caucus nominee, was two less than
that party's strength; thus showing that two Democrats must have also
voted for Chandler. It will also be seen that if every vote that was not
received by Lynch had been given to Chandler or to any other man, that
man would have received the required number of votes and would have been
elected. The Democrats stood ready to give their solid vote to any one
of the Independents whenever it could be shown that their votes would
result in an election. But it so happened that Chandler and Armstead
were both ambitious to be Speaker and neither would give way for the
other, which, of course, made the election of either impossible. The one
vote cast for Howe was no doubt Mr. Armstead's vote, while the one vote
for Armstead was no doubt cast by his colleague. In the nomination of
Hon. H.M. Streeter, the Democrats selected their strongest man, and the
best parliamentarian on their side of the House. The refusal of the
so-called Independents to vote for the Republican caucus nominee for
Speaker produced a deadlock which continued for a period of several
days. At no time could any one of the regular Republicans be induced
under any circumstances to vote for any one of the Independents. They
would much rather