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The last time the House removed a sitting speaker during a legislative session was Wednesday, May 10, 1871. (Three weeks before Sine Die on May 31).

This was the Twelfth Legislative session, the first time the Republicans held the majority (which they lost a year later and wouldn’t regain until 2003).

That would be Republican House Speaker Ira Hobart Evans (those are two names I enjoy: Ira and Hobart) who was elected to office in 1870 at the age of 25 – then became speaker the very next session in 1871.

You know the freshmen are loving that part. Susan King? Anyone? A speaker in stilletos? How did Dan Gattis miss that boat in 2003?

He then had the nerve to join with Democrats to protest a new law pushing an election date back one year, leaving three years between cycles instead of two (are you kidding me?! Can they DO that?!).

The Republican Party of Texas took him to the woodshed in a caucus meeting and then, adding injury to insult, removed him from the chair with a vote of 47-29.

So, the Republican majority helped remove a GOP speaker. Just so you’re clear.

Here’s my paraphrasing of the journal entry from that day 136 years ago.

It started with “a matter of privilege” by a Rep. Butler, who offered up a resolution that said, “Resolved, That the office of Speaker of this House be now declared vacant.”

Someone moved to table. They lost. Then a call was placed on the House – which we last saw in 2003 at the redistricting flight – which the speaker granted.

The House, apparently annoyed, then voted 43-31 to remove it. Which they did.

Then Butler moved the previous question, and the House seconded it. Meaning, "Can we PLEASE go back to that whole Vacate-The-Chair discussion we started a minute ago?"'

House: "Oh yeah, right. OK, where were we?"

At that moment, Gov. Edmund Jackson Davis' secretary came over to the House, read the list of bills he had approved, interrupting the proceedings (Can you see Perry coming in to stall the House while they try to vacate the speaker? uhm, NO…)

Then everybody got their head back in the game and voted 47-29 for the resolution to “vacate the chair.”

This next part sounds familiar. Rep. Henry Moore, who had voted yes, apparently had a machine malfunction (I’m just guessing) – or the 19th century equivalent thereof – and asked to reconsider the vote.

I’m not kidding.

There were objections, and the motion was DENIED – on a vote of 45-30. Apparently Moore was the only one who voted wrong. Hate it when that happens.

Butler then made the motion to appoint Rep. George Slaughter as president pro tem (current incarnation: Sylvester Turner, D-Houston), and the House favored it

An apparent buddy of the speaker’s, a Rep. Franks, moved to adjourn the House until the next morning.

Love this part. The House REFUSED to adjourn with a vote of 46-31. I find that funny. No way in H-E-double-L would that happen today.

So they ratified Slaughter as speaker pro tem on a vote of 46-27.

Do you get the feeling that the speaker’s team was trickling over to the Cloakroom by this point?

House members then nominated eight people (including Evans, the ousted speaker), four of whom declined the nomination (including Evans, the ousted speaker). Then one of those guys closed the nominations.

So they voted and William Sinclair got 42 votes – the majority of the roughly 75-member House. Can’t figure out here if he was a Republican or a Dem. That would be interesting.

But it sure sounds like they had their ducks in a row on who Ira Hobart’s successor would be BEFORE they vacated.

Then the House adjourned at 11:30 a.m. less than three hours after it all started (presuming they opened at 9 a.m., which the journal hints at).

The next day, the House gave Sinclair permission to appoint a “committee of three” to notify the governor.

I’m guessing they did.

Try and imagine THAT conversation...