The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1865-08-26
The Finale of the Convention

We publish elsewhere the proceedings of
the Lee County Soldiers Convention, held at
Des Moines on the 23d, as we find them in
the Chicago Republican. We find in the Des
Moines Register the continuation of those
proceedings during the evening session.
During the day it will be seen that resolutions
were adopted condcmning the prohibitory
liquor law. By the time the Convention met
in the evening and agreed upon their candi
dates, 1t was discovered that the candidates
and the platform did not fit well together, for
Col BENTON assisted TO draft "the odious
Maine Law and VAN ANDA was one of its
warmest advocates in the Legislature. Hence,
strategy was in order, and the Convention
''went back on their friends,' the Liquor
Dealers Convention, in the following clumsy
somersault:
Somebody said that after q good deal Of
cognition and consideration and a great deal
of talk there was great deal of uncertainty
about who would be the nominees and what
they should do, and therefore he moved to
appoint a committee of FIVE persons to select
names, to present TO the Convention for their
consideration as nominees. Four or FIVE per-
sons seconded the motion
I3allinger. of Lee, after pause of five
minutes, put the motion, and il prevailed un-
animously-forty voting for it.
Edwards, of Lee, Clark, Bryan, Trimble
and O. Donahue were appointed committee
to tell the Convention what to do
A fine looking man, with black nous
tache, made motion to reconsider the vote
by which the sod corn plank was stuck in the
,atform. Said some of the members did not
know what it meant when they voted for it.
Another man said he had been informed since
adjournment that the kind of n liquor law, the
fifth resolution recommended, was unconsti
tutional and the courts would mt uphold 1t if
there was such law made. Thereupon the
vote on the sod-corn plank was reconsdered,
aud the question on that plank was pending
for half an hour, when Balinger, of Lee,
asked the Convention what they would do
with the whisky plank.
Rev. A. j. Barton, one of the Dubuque
HerdiTs Shell Hounds of Zion.' moved to
strike out the sod-corn plank.
An old gentleman said he didn' know what
was best He thought at first it would do no
harm. But it might be a two-edged sword,
cutting both ways. In some places it would
go one way aud in other places it wouldn't.
There had been great Convention last week
which represented a good many people, and
they were going to require written pledges of
the candidates on the whisky question. They
would have to meet the question land perhaps
the whisky when they got home, and he
seemed to have desire to have the eonven-
ton hit the nail on the head in some way.
Brother Barton's motion to strike out the
sod-corn plank prevailed unanimously
six voting for it.
The committee appointed to inform the
Convention what to do went out and after
long silence, the Convention, Quaker-hke,
waiting for the spirit to move them, Jaeger of
Lee county, moved that the sod-corn question
be referred to the county conventions.
Jaeger of Lee, made a few slight remarks
in favor of his resolution.
One man wanted to know it could not be
submitted to the people this fall. The old
gentleman said the county conventions had
not yet been held, for the most part.
Jaeger of Lee, called for the question, and
Ballinger of Lee, put it, and then said he
could not tell how the vote stood, and tried
the vote over again, and it was carried unani-
nously-forN-six voting for ii.