During the Reconstruction era, the court's membership was dominated by Republicans, though as the era waned in the latter portion of the 19th century, conservative Democrats became a majority on the court. In 1876, the constitution was amended to shrink the court's membership to three justices. This burdened the court's members with a heavy workload, and after the apparent death of Justice Thomas Samuel Ashe from stress, the constitution was amended to restore the court to its previous size in 1888. Beginning that year, the Supreme Court met in buildings located along the periphery of Union Square in Raleigh. In 1900, the Supreme Court ruled a law passed by the 1899 Democratic-dominated legislature was unconstitutional. In response, in 1901, the North Carolina House of Representatives voted to impeach Republican Chief Justice David M. Furches and Associate Justice Robert M. Douglas for issuing a supposedly unconstitutional mandamus directing the state treasurer to disburse money. The Senate failed to convict them with the two-thirds majority necessary to convict and remove them, leaving them to serve out their terms in office.
