Hence, impeachment proceedings were immediately instituted against the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor,--not in the interest of reform, of good government or of low taxes, but simply in order to get possession of the State Government.
The weakness of the case against the Governor was shown when it developed that the strongest charge against him was that he had entered into an alleged corrupt bargain with State Senator Cassidy, resulting in Cassidy's appointment as one of the Judges of the Chancery Court.
Cassidy had been elected a member of the State Senate as a Democrat.
Notwithstanding that fact he voted for Mr.Bruce, the Republican caucus nominee for United States Senator, and subsequently publicly identified himself with the Republican party.

Later his brother, William P.
Cassidy, and his law partner, Hon.

J.F.Sessions, did likewise.

In 1874 Sessions was elected to the State Senate as a Republican to serve out the unexpired term of his law partner, Cassidy, who had resigned his seat in the Senate upon his appointment as a Judge of the Chancery Court.
Cassidy was a brilliant young man, and an able lawyer.

That the Governor should have selected him for an important judicial position was both wise and proper.