He had no sooner left the Transvaal than the -old Lydenburg party, headed by Cornelis Potgieter, landdrost of Lydenburg, protested that the union would be much more beneficial to the Free State than to the people of Lydenburg, and followed this up with the contention lions' that it was illegal for any one to be president of the South African Republic and the Free State at the same time.
This led to a protest (in 1870) from Montsioa, which he lodged with a landdrost at Potchefstroom in the Transvaal, threatening to submit the matter to the British high commissioner if any further attempt at taxation were made on the part of the Boers.
The duchy received a constitution of its own, and was governed for the elector by a marshal (Landmarschall, after 1480 Landdrost) who was also stadtholder, and presided over the Westphalian chancellery.
He had by this time rendered himself somewhat unpopular, and in the evening the Transvaal flag, which flew over the landdrost's house, was pulled down.