WRITINGS OF 5AM HOUSTON, 1861
291
Governor, until another be chosen at the periodical election and be duly qualified. SEC. 2. Be it further ordained that the office of Secretary of State, by reason of the said E. W. Cave having failed and refused to take the oath of office, prescribed in the above named ordinance at the time appointed, is hereby declared vacant, and that the said E. W. Cave be, and is hereby required to turn over and deliver to his successor in office, the great seal of State, all papers, archives, or other property belonging, or in any wise appertaining to the State Department of State, upon demand made by said officer." If the Constitutional vacancy really exists in the office of Gov- ernor, on account of the failure to take the oath, the Constitution itself prescribes the mode in which the vacancy shall be supplied; but the Convention acting upon its own usurped authority and without reference to the Constitution, not only deposes the Ex- ecutive and declares his office vacant, but proceeds to create an Executive and place him over the people, by declaring that the "Lieut. Governor, Edward Clark, is required and .authorized to exercise the powers and authority appertaining to the office of Governor." No allusion is made to the Constitution; but he is "required and authorized" by the Convention "to exercise the powers and authority appertaining to the office of Governor." Edward Clark is therefore created Governor, not by virtue of the Constitution, but he is chosen as the instrument of the Con- vention, who "require and authorize him to be Governor." In obedience to the act of the Convention, which "required and authorized the Lieut. Governor" to usurp the powers which the people had never confided to him, he took possession of the Execu- tive office at an early hour this morning, and before the accus- tomed time for the Executive to enter upon the discharge of his duties. He had already demanded the letters addressed to the Executive, in his absence. The Executive not only found his accustomed seat occupied by the Lieut. Governor, but was assured by that individual that he had commenced to exercise the func- tions of Executive. Determined not to inaugurate civil war by a forcible attempt to dispossess the usurper, the Executive con- tented himself by protesting against the usurpation and denying to the Lt. Governor any right to thus take possession of the Executive office. The same course has been pursued by the Secre- tary of State. It is due to the Lieut. Governor, to state that he declared that he had only performed that part assigned him in obedience to the requirements of the Convention.
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