Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-04-05
The Field Dean COntestcd Election


The FieId-De Contested Election
Case.
The contested election case of BENJAMIN
Dean against Walbridge A. Field, each claim
ing to be the legally elected representative
from the third Massachusetts, (Boston) dis
trict, was decided last Thursday by vote of
the House giving the seat to Dean by one ma
jority, Speaker Randall casting the decisive
vote The case was one of the longest and
most closely contested of its kind on record.
and there seems to be no room for doubt that
the Democratic majority in the House, on a
| purely partisan basis, with the aid of Ben But
Ter, have given the seat to n man whom the
| people of his district did MT elect to the
| place. Tho facts are these: The district
| was very close. and when the votes were
counted at the closing of the polls November
| Z, 1876, it was announced that there was to-
tai of 93OS for Dean against 1901 for Field
| There was no charge Oh either side that it
was not fair election. but Mr. Field alleged
that clerical errors had been made in count
ing the ballots and that these errors changed
the result of the election Accordingly re-
count was made by the mayor and aldermen,
as directed by the Massachusetts, law, and the
result of this recount verified the allegations
of Mr.. Field, and disclosed clerical mistakes
which changed the result and showed that
Field had received 1920 votes against 08l5
for Dean. That these were the facts in the
case was not disputed by the Democrats, and
the only issue which they could raise lay in
the fact that, on the day of the election, a
United. States Supervisor had, under the
United States law, and upon application of
the Republicans, been present at the count
ing of the votes, while at the recount this Of
fetal was not present, and only those officials
which the Massachusetts, state law provides
for participated. While. therefore, not deny
ing the correctness of the second count of
votes, the Democrats set up the claim that,
the United States law having been appealed
to i'll the first instance, the first count, ut
which the United States official was present.
was the legal one, while the recount was to
be regarded as n count made in private by
private individuals. Forgetting their tradi-
tional championship of state rights, the DEM
ocratic majority seized upon this fimsy pre-
text and, with the aid of Gen Butler, under
an outrageous stretch of the federal govern
ment's prerogatives thrust a Democrat into
the seat which the people of Boston, under
the state laws of Massachusetts,, awarded to a
Republican.
The case was investigated by the House
committee on elections, first by sub.com-
mittee, which decided in favor of Field by
one majority. Then the full committee de
cided in favor of Dean and two reports were
made to the House. The first vote was taken
on Wednesday upon the proposition that
Field was entitled to the seat, and resulted in
l2O affirmative votes on Republicans and
Democrats) to 10 negative Gall Democrats but
Butler, when the speaker joined the minori-
ty, making tie and defeating the resolution
Buffers vote was therefore all that kept Field
out of the seat. Had he voted with the 9TH
er Republicans and the nine Democrats, the
result would have been 121 yeas to 1ls nays
had he refrained from voting, the totals
would have been 100 to lis. In either case
and whether Mr.. Randall voted with the mi
nority or not, Field would have won. This
practically settled the question, aud on Thurs
day a resolution that Dean was entitled to the
seat went through, 124 to 1928 Jones of Ala
bama DemocraD having changed his vote
from Field to Dean, one Republican absent
on Wednesday having joined the Field side
every absent member being paired Speaker
Randall casting the decisive vote, and every
one of the 292 members of the House being
thus accounted for.
The nine Democrats who threw of their
party trammels and voted with the Republi-
cans, took the ground of state rights-that
the states are the proper authority to regu-
late elections of members of Congress- and
that Field having been duly elected under the
state law, was therefore legally entitled to
the seat. The rule which obtains in legisla-
tive bodies that such bodies are the sole iudg-
eS of the qualifications Of their members NAV
be Legitimate one under proper limitations
but Ill view of partisan exhibition like this
there will be II growing number of people
who will agree with the Springfield RepubL-
can that 1T ought not to take many more ex-
periences of this sort to bring about the re-
form that has long been demanded in the de-
cision of contested election cases. The uues-
tons they involve are judicial questions, and
belong properly only to judicial tribunals
The scandal of leaving them to the arbitrary
rule of partisan majority in a Legislative as
sembly must be abated."