The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1878-02-21
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.

the Republican Territorial Central
Committee, and in answer to the pub
lished statement of the Clarke County
Republican Committe, says:
We have not had a chance to communicate
with the members of the Republican Central
Committee and, therefore, do not claim to
speak for them, but it is natural suppostion
that Seattle, Olympia and Walla Walla were
chosen as the places to hold the three conven-
tons on account Of their being the chief
towns in each of the three districts. Had geo
graphical considerations been uppermost,
some point in Columbia or Whitman county
would have been designated instead of Walla
Walla, which is as far to one side of the dis
trict as is Olympia. There is no law on the
subject but custom has always permitted the
Central Committee to select the place for the
meetings of conventions, and now that this
has been done it is certainly inadvisablc and
really revolutionary for the chairman of the
Clarke county committee to attempt to usurp
the authority of the Territorial Committee.
If they have any material over that way that
they think would make good delegates to the
convention we feel sure that this region will
be ready to accord to them even the lions
share in the selection of candidates.
That is just what we think over this
way, that the editor of the Courier as
member of the Central Committee
not only did not have chance to COM
municate with the other members of
the Republican Central Committee, but
did not Oant chance to communicate
with any of that committee except
with the one who could write the word
''chairman" after his name. Knowing
that the Columbia River members of
the committee would not consent to 90
to Olympia to hold the Convention, and
having determined that Olympia should
be the place of meeting, it was not his
policy nor the policy of the Chairman
of the committee to consult anybody
in this part of the Territory We don't
live in either of the other Judicial Dis
tricts, and do not therefore know what
the "natural supposition" may be there,
but we do know that the natural sup
position" in the second District is, and
always has been, that conventions be
held at some point on the river. When
a Delegate to Congress is to be elected,
this principal town" dodge is never
thought of; then the convenience of
the people is considered and not the
relative Importance of towns. At such
time Mr.. Bagley would not dare to
ask two-thirds Of the people in the
second Judicial District to dscommode
themselves to pay homage to the met
ropolitan Importance of Olympia.
There may be mo law on the subject"
and "custom" may have "always per-
mitted the Central Committee to select
the place for the meetings of conven-
tions," but that is dodging the ques-
ton, for in this instance the Central
Committee did not select the place of
meeting. Does the editor of the Cour-
Ter pretend that as one member of that
committee from the second District, he
had the authority to designate Olympia
as the place of meetingl And what
right had Daniel Bagley to say,-"By
order of the Republican Territorial Cen
tral Committee" his call for such
convention, when no member of that
committee, and nobody else, in this part
of the Territory had been consulted }
He should have said-"By order of
Daniel Bagley and his son the Olympia
member of the Central Committee"
Talk about ''usurping authority" if
ever there was signal instance of
cheek exhibited in the politics of the
Territory, it was when Daniel Bagley
and the editor of the Courier usurped
the authority of the Central Committee,
and without consulting their fellow
members Of the committee in the second
District, called convention Of that
District to meet at Olympia, greatly
to the inconvenience of fully two-thirds
Of the people in that District. The
J Cowier's suggestion that. "if they have