During the time the Common Council met in the City Buildings, Whigs and Democrats were very belligerent. The cause of the trouble grew out of the election for Alderman of the seventh ward. That ward then embraced the area of the present seventh, eleventh, nineteenth, and twentieth wards. The charter election was held in the public schoolhouse on Classen Avenue, between Flushing and Park avenues, on the 11th of March, 1843, and resulted in a tie between John A. Cross and Zebulon Chadbourne, the former being a Whig and the latter a Democrat. A protracted lawsuit followed. Albert H. Osborn, whose seat was to be filled, held over, and ever after the people declared that his initials, A. H. O., stood for Alderman Hold Over. The contention ran high, and bitterness and rancor marked the deliberations of the Aldermen. At a regular meeting of the Board, held at the City Buildings May 8, a separation took place between the Whig and Democratic members, occasioned by the fight between Cross and Chadbourne for the seat from the seventh ward. The Whig members retired to Hull's Exchange Buildings, whilst the Democrats remained in possession of the City Buildings, and made their appointments. The Whigs did the same. On the 15th of May a writ of mandamus was served on Alfred G. Stevens, who had been appointed clerk of the Common Council by the Democrats May 8. His election was secured by the vote of A. H. Osborne, without whose holding over the Board would have been a tie. On the 23d of May the mandamus which had been obtained by Worthington Hodgkinson, the clerk appointed by the Whigs, was argued before the Supreme Court. On the 9th of July, 1843, the motion to displace Stevens and substitute Hodgkinson was decided and denied by the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Nelson and Greene C. Bronson presiding. The decision did not suit the Whigs, and was carried to the Supreme Court at Albany, and argued October 21, 1843. Abraham Crist appeared for the relator, and John Greenwood for the defendant. Shortly afterwards the court decided in favor of the defendant. The matter was again argued November 24 before Judge Kent in New York, on a motion to obtain the books and papers of the Common Council in the hands of Mr. Stevens. On the 27th Judge Kent again decided in favor of Mr. Stevens. On the 1st of December the Whig Aldermen were arrested for misdemeanor in neglecting to perform their duty. The complaint was abandoned. On the 5th of December the grand jury found bills of indictment against the several Whig Aldermen for neglecting to serve as members of the Common Council. At this time Seth Low (grandfather of the president of Columbia College) represented the fourth ward in the Common Council. The indictment against the Whig Aldermen grew out of an effort on their part to indict Mayor Sprague. It was a case of the biter being bitten. The grand jury refused to indict the Mayor, and indicted his accusers. The indictment was, however, not pressed to trial.