Violence broke out in Indiana when we did what North Carolina is doing

The news tells me that, in a fit of strong arm politics, the North Carolina legislature is ramming through legislation to strip the governor of a lot of power before a Democrat takes office. The North Carolina legislation was described as:

a flurry of bills during a surprise special session this week to undermine Mr. Cooper by stripping him of his ability to make key appointments to state and local boards and mandating, for the first time, legislative approval of his cabinet.

There is, as it turns out, some bipartisan precedent for this in Indiana from back in 1883 and 1894.

In 1883, the Democrats swept into control of the General Assembly following a poorly received effort at Prohibition by the Republicans. The Democrats promptly stripped sitting Republican Governor Albert Porter of a number of his appointment powers. When Democratic Governor Matthews was elected, the General Assembly promptly restored the appointment powers. But the Democrats failed poorly themselves in the 1894 election. The Republican General Assembly promptly passed legislation stripping Governor Matthews of the appointment powers.

Gov. Matthews vetoed the legislation and did so minutes before the General Assembly was set to adjourn — in an effort to delay the Republicans’ ability to override the veto. However, the House Republicans blocked the governor’s messenger from reaching the House Speaker. This resulted in fist fights between Republican and Democratic lawmakers that lasted about a half hour. (A good round up of the newspaper coverage of the incident is here.) The governor’s private secretary, Myron King, was apparently in pretty rough shape after the beating.

“Revolvers were flourished and blows struck with such articles of furniture as the combatants could lay hands on conveniently.”

The Democrats apparently finally got King with his veto message to the Speaker’s desk, but moments after the Speaker declared the session adjourned sine die. The members of the legislature involved in the assault of King apparently left the city quickly thereafter to avoid arrest.