Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-01

| State election for the different candidates for
the several offices to be filled. met at the office
of the secretary of state at the capitol yester-
day, and discharged the duty devolved upon
it. Under the law the board of canvass
consists of the secretary of state, two judges
of the supreme court and two judges of the
district court. As constituted yesterday the
board consisted of Secretary of State Irgens,
Chief Justice Gilfllan, Associate Justice Berry,
Judge A. Il. Young, of the district court Of
Hennepin county. and Judge n. r. Brill, of
the district court of Ramsey county.
The board was called to meet at lOA. NJ, but
it was twenty five minutes later before it was
| ready to proceed to business. The proceed
ings, though instituted to guard the most
| sacred right of an American freeman, his bal
lot. are very simple. As conducted yesterday.
the returns in sealed packages, were opened
by Capt. Jacobson. con: missioner of statistics
who passed the returns to the secretary of state
who read the vote cast for each candidate in
the county. the vote being kept by two tally
clerks, that duty, yesterday, being performed
by Sam H. Nichols, clerk of the supreme court,
and V. Hjortsburg. The four judges provided
for acting in semi-iudicial capacity to pass
upon dis puted points, as, for instance, the
counting of vote cast for candidate with a
wrong initial, his name spelled wrong, or any
other question that might be raised.
| At the outset of the meeting yesterday such
disputed point, and very important one,
| was raised, but so far as its settlement the
judges might as we'll have been attending the
Pinafore performance at the Opera House.
/ PROTEST AGAINST aILMAN's ELIGIBILITY
Before the board had come to order, MIR. II.
F. Mesterson, an attorney of this city, placed
a legal-looking document in the hands of Sec
at the time was Hon. Seagrave
| Smith, also an attorney from
Minneapolis, and Hon. @. H. Nash, also of
Minneapolis. As soon as the board was or
ganized, which was done without any formali-
ty, the legal-looking document was read by
Secretary 1rgens. proving to be protest from
MIR. E. P. Barnum, the Democratic candidate
for lieutenant governor. against the count of
| che vote cast for his opponent, Hon. G.. A.
Gilman. The grounds upon which this protest
was made is fully set forth in the document,
| which is in the following terms:
To the Board of State Canvassers of the State
of Minnesota:
GENTLEMEN:-I hereby notify you that
Charles A. Gilman, who was the candidate of
the Republican party for the office of lieuten-
ant governor of this State at the general cleo
| ton of November. 1879, and who was largely
voted for at SAID election for said office by the
electors of this State, was, at the time
of said election. and is now, ineligible
and disqualified to fill said Of
fee of lieutenant governor, for the
| reason that he had previously been elected a
| member of the House of Representatives in the
Legislature of the Safe, and the time for
which he was so elected had not expired at
the time he was SO voted for for the office of
Lieutenant Governor, and has not yet expired,
and will not expire until the 31st day of De-
Gem Der, 1850. That the evidence Of his said
election is matter of record in the archives of
this State.
1 therefore, being citizen of the State of
Minnesota, and the same person who received
large number of the votes of citizens of the
State Of Minnesota for the office Of Lieutenant
Governor of said State, at
the 49,. last election, do hereby
| for said Gilman any of the votes that were 81
cast for him aforesaid for said office of lieu
tenant governor. E. P. BARNUM.
By HENRY F. MAsTERsoN,
SEAdRAvE SMITH,
His ATTORNEY
Dated Nov. Goth, 1879.
Upon concluding the reading of the protest.
Secretary lrgens read the law constituting
the canvassing board, from which he
advanced the opinion that the board
was simply empowered to canvass the votes
as returned, and had no power to 20 behind
the returns, or in any way pass upon the le-
gallty OF any vote returned, or the eligibility
OF any candidate, such matters pertaining ex-
clusively to the judiciary.
MIR; Masterson being permitted to address the
board, suggested that the question raised was
an important one. and ought to be definitely
settled. he was prepared to present and dis
cuss the grounds upon which the protest was
based, but as Mr.. Gilman was represented. and
as it was understood he had secured Hon. @.
n. Davis to look after his interests if the issue
should be raised, he thought it would be prop.
er to 20 on and canvass the votes where there
was no dispute and give an opportunity for
MI. Davis to appear, and then have the argu-
m mr. rknl H. -lns 1xL-
of the board were not merely ministerial, but
partly judicial. The foundation principle of the
protest here presented is that Mr.. Gilman.
under the constitution, is ineligible to the Of
ice of Lieutenant Governor, and therefore that
all votes cast are void, just as much "a they
would have been had they been cast for citi-
zen of Illinois or unnaturalized citizen.
We have no personal feeling in the matter, but
the minority party represented by this protest,
and large number of the majority party be-
lleve there is principle involved here that
ought to be settled. For these reasons 1 think
there ought to be full discussion of the issue
involved, and therefore the request made.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Masterson's re-
marks, Judge Gilfllan suggested that the
board could 60 on and canvass the votes at the
present time, and that action could be had on
the protest at any time before declaring the re-
suit, if deemed advisable. This suggestion
was acceded to by the other men,
bers and the canvass commenced,
but though MIR. Masterson was present several
times thereafter during the day, the matter of
the protest was not again alluded to during the
sitting, and the result ut the conclusion was de-
clared and certified to, including the vote for
Mr.. Gilman just as if no protest had been
made. A short time before the board con-
cluded its labors Mr.. Gilman put in an appear
arce, but he did not seem at all alarmed. for
after passing the compliments of the day he
wendell his way elsewhere.
THE TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.
Another question raised during the sitting,
and one which has attracted considerable atten.
ton, came up when the vote of Fillmore county
was reached, which contained the vote cast for
j. Z. Farmer and Sherman Page for Judge of
the Tenth Judicial district. In recognizing
the law to fit the biennial meetings of the leg
| islature, the law makers failed to provide for
| the canvass of votes cast for judicial officers
leaving that duty with the legislature itself.
This year there is no legislative session, and
| the question was, who should canvass the vote
for Farmer and Page for the judgeship in the
Tenth district Unlike any other official the
| term of a judge expires with the term for
which he was elected, the proviso, ''or until his
| successor is elected and qualified" being omit.
ted. The constitutional expiration of Judge
Pages term of Office made a vacancy, and the
! electors of the judicial district had named his
| successor by over thousand majority but the
| question with many was to how that success
| sor was to be clothed with his robes of Office
until the meeting of the legislature in January
of 1881. The board solved the conurdrum by
deciding to count the votes, and they did, and
the figures of the wave by which Sherman Page
was retired to private life are given below.
ERRORS, ETC.
The other questions requiring tho attendance
of the judges to pass upon, are the mistakes of
names, etc., usual t. returns, but the multi.
plicity of inexcusable errors that were devel.
oped yesterday, were something astonishing
Life is too short to attempt to enumerate them
all, but the necessity for Law that shall re-
quire competency in a public official and at
the same time inHlct a severe penalty for
gross negligence will be generally
| recognized by the statement that
the electors Of Watonwan county,
| Republicans and Democrats alike-though
| there were not many of the latter-were dis
franchised by the carelessness of the county
auditor, who mailed to the secretary of state
| two c"pies of the vote cast for county officers.