Short Excerpt from CHAPTER FIVE
Nineteenth Century History of Political Corruption in West Virginia
The year after the Faulkner-Lucas United Senate seat battle, Governor Wilson again found himself in the middle of a quagmire as the election of the West Virginia Governor was so tumultuous it became a story that even today is simply too perplexing to imagine. The result of the November 6, 1888, gubernatorial election, sometimes referred to as “A Tale of Four Governors,” remained in limbo until February 6, 1890. The gubernatorial contest began as a contest between candidates Aretus Brooks Fleming and Nathan Goff. Before it was over, no fewer than four men claimed the Governor’s Office, including two men who weren’t even on the ballot running for Governor that year. This infamous election included West Virginia Legislature intervention, State Supreme Court decisions, and the calling of the National Guard as E. Willis Wilson, A. B. Fleming, Nathan Goff, and Robert S. Carr claimed the Governor’s Office. As “Goff took [the] oath of office, claiming election by 110 votes, Fleming [also] laid claim to the governorship, [while] Carr insisted that the Senate president should be in charge, and the outgoing governor, Wilson, refused to step out of office until his successor was legally determined.”. . . .According to William MacCorkle, who four years later became West Virginia’s ninth Governor, sixteen men were placed in the vaults in the Governor’s Office with loaded rifles protecting Governor Wilson, while “[t]hree or four hundred of Goff’s friends were there armed, and it looked like a clash, where many men would be killed, but better counsel prevailed.” The Beckley Post-Herald, reported that: “Wilson called out the West Virginia National Guard and stationed the men in the Capitol with rifles and live ammunition. They had orders to resist attempts of any man or group of men to take forcible possession of the governor’s office.”To read Chapter Five in its entirety, get your copy of "Don't Buy Another Vote. I Won't Pay for a Landslide." today!
