While looking through Oregon Session Laws I came upon this strange note.
It immediately piqued my curiosity and I looked up 1897 Senate Resolution No. 30 to get the story – which turned out to be unexpectedly rife with scandal.
The Oregon Senate verbally castigated the House for failing to reach a quorum and declared that no business could be conducted. It dissolved itself in a huff and blamed the “high-handed and revolutionary tactics” of the house for the lack of legislation. What could have so upset the politics of Oregon that the House refused to convene? The resolution and it’s mention of the election of a United States senator brought to my attention the astonishing episode of John H. Mitchell and the Hold-Up Session.
[John M. Hipple aka John H. Mitchel Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpbh.04276.]
Section 11. Legislative officers; rules of proceedings; adjournments. Each house when assembled, shall choose its own officers, judge of the election, qualifications, and returns of its own members; determine its own rules of proceeding, and sit upon its own adjournments; but neither house shall without the concurrence of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which it may be sitting.—
Section 12. Quorum; failure to effect organization. Two thirds of each house shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may meet; adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members. A quorum being in attendance, if either house fail to effect an organization within the first five days thereafter, the members of the house so failing shall be entitled to no compensation from the end of the said five days until an organization shall have been effected.—
An amateur politician representing a wealthy Portland gentleman, with senatorial ambitions, thought he sensed a chance to set the ball rolling for his candidate. He gave a sum of money to a political associate who claimed he could land a couple of house members. This friend, not wishing to appear in the transaction, turned the money over to a temporary state house janitor (for the session only) for delivery to the two alleged prospects. The folding money looked so good to the janitor that he sunk it all deep in his pocket – peeling off just enough to buy a railroad ticket south.
This was all done without the knowledge or consent of Simon or Bourne. To make matters worse the amateur politicians swore out a warrant for the janitor’s arrest and had him returned to Salem where some of the money was recovered. The event, of course, gave the city a laugh. No one thought for a moment that any jury would convict a man who had decamped with money given him to buy two members of the legislature. The charges where, therefore, dropped – the janitor left free to walk the streets of Salem, and, by talking, make himself a political nuisance.
Although in no way responsible for this senatorial fiasco, the anti-Mitchell forces wished to get the janitor out of town – to stop his chatter. So, on a certain date, around about midnight, a messenger was sent for a Marion County man, who was asked to come to Bourne’s sleeping quarters in the Eldriedge block. Arriving there, he knocked on the door, and was told to come in. Entering the room he found Bourne, in his nightgown, sitting on the edge of the bed. In a chair near its head, sat Senator Simon. Bourne did the talking. He said he wanted that damn janitor taken out, and kept out, of the state, until after the adjournment of the legislature.
On the dresser, near the head of the bed, stood two of Bourne’s detachable cuffs. He reached and pushed one over – and out tumbled a roll of bills. He counted out what he said was $2,000 and handed to his visitor, stating that that should cover all expenses.
When he arrived home (as he told it to me) he found $2,100 in the roll. So, early in that day he rounded up the janitor, took him over to our neighboring State of Washington and, upon promising to keep going gave him $600 retaining $1,500 as his commission on the transaction. Thus ended another chapter of the hold-up session.
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