The Portland daily press., 1869-01-14
The Present Statue of the Senatorial
Question ah

question
A new and very important contribution to
the discussion of the Senatorial question is
furnished by Hon. Josiah Fl. Drummond,
Speaker of the House, in letter to the Ken
nebec Journal. Referring to the document
purportng to be statement of Mr.. Morrilrs
friends, he says:
Inc plank piece OF paper was not recognized
by the committee as ballot, and no one of
them pretended it aoas ballot.
Col Lang did not state that "Mr. Perry of
Mars Hill had informed him that he had
thrown the blank ballot ~ mistake" &c. COL
l.. did not state by whom it was cast, and de-
cined to give his name, and when reouested
by DE- Brickett OF Augusta to have the man
who threw the bank come forward and make
his nj! statement sta to the caucus, Col L. again de-
made no such motion as that "Hannibal
Han,n De declared the nominee OF the conyen-
tloni tne ballot had already done that. Nv
nlos,on was That Hannibal Hamln be declar-
GU sne UNANIMOUS nominee of the convention"
h.u inns molten was made before Col L. made
ms statement. .fe ~ -
Mr. Thwing made no motion to proceed to
ballot, but expressed his willingness to have a
new ballot H'l-la -. II
Col. Stone moved to adjourn till the next
evening; my motion was to amend his, so as to
adjourn without day.
The chairman made no ruling, and no state
ment in my hearing, that "the caucus would
adjourn without making any nomination.
His language was: Neither the chair nor the
convention has declared any nomination." l
replied that the nomination of Mr.. Hamln
had been fairly made, and would be sustained
by the Legislature and the people e the State
and insisted upon my motion TO amend. Col.
Stone thereupOn accepted the amendment
and the chairman declining to allow further
debate, put the question, and an adjournment
was carried. ..- .. ..-r -... ,.
The caucus was regularly called to nominate
candidate for U. S. Senator; was organized
| commettee was appointed to receive. sort
and count the ballots for such candidate; the
ballots were collected, sorted, counted, and
The committee reported 149 ballots, of ,chich Mr.
Han,Lin had IS, Mr. Morrill, "a, and there ioas
one blank; and this report ,cas accepted and the
count Of the committee thereby affirmed.
The ballot makes the nomination: the other
proceedings are merely to oct at the result of the
ballot. If had moved that Mr.. Hamlin be de-
clared not the nominee, and the motion had
been adooted it wonld not have affected the
result of the ballot, or prevented the ballot
from having its effect. A declaration could
not change the fact Aud 1 cannot help re-
garding refusal to support the nomination
OH the ground that no nomination was form
ally declared by the chair of the convention as
no more nor less than boiling a nomination
regularly and fairly made.
80 u.1 JOSIAH H. DRUmMoND.
The supporters of Mr.. Morrill, have had the
pretexts upon which they relied for revolt
taken from them one after another till they
haze nothing left but to submit, like honest
men, to the decision of the caucus in which
they participated, or cease to make any claim
to be regarded as Republicans or honorable
men. They first held that the Aroostook
member made mistake; this is disproved by
his own card and by mountains of evidence
beside. They have held that blank piece OF
paper is vote; but they have failed in the
week that has elapsed since the caucus to
show the remotest trace of reason or prece-
dent for that doctrine. They have conteuded
that the chairman of the caucus declared that
mo nomination had been mads." Mr.. Drum.
mond says that this is not true. If it had been
true it would have been of no more conse-
queDce as affecting the nomination By the eau
Gus Of Hannibal Hamln than declaration of
Plus Ninth to the same effect. This fac. is
made so clear by Mr.. Drummond, one CT the
most expert parlamentarians in the State, in
whom the Republican members of the Legis-
lature have such confidence as to give him a
unanimous nomination for the position he
holds, that no one hereafter can have the eff
frontery to question it. a.aa. e-l.s.a Hsg-.,'
- Now, Messrs. supporters of Morrill,, what do
you propose to do-break up the party? Do
you imagine that your preposterous claims can
be conceded, after you have been driven from
one subterfuge to another-after you have
been forced to abandon every position you
have taken in your desperation? Do you sup
pose that the people of Maine will support
you? The glorious struggle for civil and po-
ltical rights that the Republican party has SO
valantly carried forward almost to consumma-
ton is not yet over. Will you disband the
patriot ranks in Maine and throw into the
hands of the enemies of our country the con-
troll of the State? Pers 'stence in the course
you have marked out can have no other effect.
Bolt the nomination if you wi1, but make no
further claim to membership in the Republic
can party.