Southern Christian Advocate

The Case of Senator Stockton.

This gentleman, as is well known, was ejected from his seat in the Senate of the United States, by the votes of the Sumner-Stevens faction, on mere party grounds. The occasion was sought in the unusual mode of his election. It seems that there was some difficulty, on the part of the Legislature, in electing a Senator, to obviate which, it being deemed important that the State should be immediately represented, a plurality rule was offered by a Republican member at a joint meeting of the two Houses of the Legislature, and it passed that body by Republican votes. At the first ballot, John Stockton, a Democrat, received a plurality vote, and was declared elected by the President of the joint meeting. After he had taken his seat an adventure was made to oust him, on the grounds of the illegality of his election. The question was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, and his claim to the seat was sustained by six of the seven members composing that Committee, but in the face of these facts, he was ejected by a Republican Senate.

Another name has been somewhat mixed up with this case, in the papers, namely, that of James M. Scovil, the President of the New Jersey Senate. His connection with the affair was about this: he was in the joint meeting at which the plurality rule was offered, opposed it bitterly, protested against its adoption, and retired from the meeting. But when the election was had, as a man of honor and a lawyer, he thought himself bound by it, and that Mr. Stockton was legally entitled to his seat. This gentleman, owing to the position of parties in the Legislature, having in his hands a sort of balance of power, and entertaining these opinions, it is thought that Mr. Stockton may, by his influence, be returned to his seat in the U. S. Senate. Scovel is a Republican, and not originally one of the friends of Stockton.