The Legislature was then organized and was ready to proceed to business.
At the conclusion of the session, the House not only adopted a resolution complimenting the Speaker and thanking him for the able and impartial manner in which he had presided over its deliberations, but presented him with a fine gold watch and chain,--purchased with money that had been contributed by members of both parties and by a few outside friends,--as a token of their esteem and appreciation of him as a presiding officer.

On the outside case of the watch these words were engraved: "Presented to Hon.

J.R.Lynch, Speaker of the House of Representatives, by the Members of the Legislature, April 19, 1873." That watch the writer still has and will keep as a sacred family heirloom.
A good deal of work was to be done by this Legislature.

The seats of a number of Democrats were contested.

But the decision in many cases was in favor of the sitting members.