The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-05-05

but a. soon a the pair would give D,nnelly
a majority, then 1t was no pair. And he
aSsented to nv declaration, tina. the man
who would be guilty Of such duplicity, was
AN imposter in the ranks of gentlemen"
Even at the last moment, not five min
utes before the Committee proceeded to
take tie final vote April 1st,) upon the
question Of seating Donnellv. I had q con-
versation with him. in which l told him
that I was hopeful that we would VIM that
/ the member of the Committee CLARK was
absent and likely to remain away indefn-
itely. This left but fourteen members pre-
sent that the resolution was that 'Donnelly
/ j. not entitled to the seat" and that
the vote would stand seven to seven,
/ those in the negative being Springer, Arm
I field, Beltzhoover, Sawyer, Colerick,
/ Weaver, Gas | hoped, and Manning; ana
that the resolution that Donnelly was nat
entitled to Aj- seat fails, because of the lack
of majority vote, it would follow that
Donnelly lras entitled to his seat. He
Springer, a-sented to this statement and
did not audeceive me even then.
Within half an hour after this conyersa-
ton he voted in favor of the resolution that
Donnely was not entitled to his seat.
then said
1T j. due to myself that | should state in
Mr.. Sprnger's presence, that which | have
said in his absence at the previous meeting,
to wit that Mr.. Springer has repeatedly as
sured me that he would vote with his Demos
cratic brethren to seat Mr.. DDuuelly.' Mr..
Springer replied that he had never meant
10 impress me with any such idea" re-
piled, that Il could not accept that state
ment as true; as he had not only repeated
ly given me that assurance, but had made
similar declaration To the Clerk of the
Committee. (Mr. Etter) then present. Mr..
Etter concurred in this statement by his
silence, and he has not since contradicted it
30 far as | know; indeed he subsequently
assured me that was entirely correct.
Mr. Springer then said that he chad
never said to any one that he would vote to
seat Mr.. DonnelIy;" to which | responded,
"when the Chairman of the Committee
makes that statement ne we'll knows that he
utters falsehood." This language was
objected to as supplementary and | with
drew it 50 far the meeting of the Com
mittee was concerned.
As the Committee was acting, at that
time, under an injunction of secrecy (since
removed As to these matters), and as | felt
that | owed it to the members of the
House to speak of Mr. Springer's duplicity
as it deserved, for the purpose of prevents
ing imposition upon the House when the
case itself came to be tried upon its merits
and as / did not wish to speak of Mr..
Springer as he deserved without giving him
fair notice of my purpose, | sent him let |
ter of which the following is a copy:
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, L. :, J !
WAsHNGToN, ID. c., April l, 1880. ! |
Hon. Igas. ~ Springer, House Representa-
tires:
DEAR SIR: l deem it just to you that l
should inform you that | regard it as my
duty and shall perform it on all proper
occasions during the further progress of the |
Donnelly- Washburn contest to speak of
your condnct in that case as dishonorable; |
that your dishonor consists mainly in
duplicity and also in failing to bring to the !
attention Of the Committee the fact that you
had received an anonymous letter in which |
i've thousand dollars were offered to induce |
you to oppose Mr.. Donnelly.
1t IS also proper to state that | will com
municate to the Committee at its next meet |
ing the facts on this subject as far as they |
have reached me-
Respectfully,
[Signed,l VAN II. MANNING.
After this letter was placed in Mr. |
Springer's hands, occasionally l spoke to
members of the House of his conduct in |
such terms rs | thought it deserved. | did |
not do this from passionate motives; | was |
solicitous that when the Donnelly-Wash- |
burn case came up in the House it should |
have a fair hearing, and should not |
be overcome by the opposition of Chair
man who might be believed to be honest |
and impartial in his opposition to Mr.,
Donnelly's right to his seat. l thought l |
owed it to my Democratic brethren in the
House that they should know precisely |
how Mr.. Springer had acted.
Ny criticisms, of course, soon found their
way to the reporters and correspondents Of
the newspapers, and soon after, the Daily
Post of this city, published a statement of
the case which, while correct in the main,
charged or insinuated that Mr.. Springer
had received money from Mr.. Washburn
or his friends for his course in the matter
| made no such charge, because | had no
proof that he had received any money.
The charges | did make are clearly set
forth in my letter above quoted.
Not desiring that any injustice should be
done to Mr.. Springer or that l should APP
pear to father charges that l had made, |
rose in the House, April 9th, to a personal
explanation, and while disavowing any pur-
pose to charge Mr.. Springer with having
received money, l left wholly untouched
and unmodified the accusation | had made
that Mr.. Springer had been guilty of gross
duplicity and dishonorable conduct.
Mr. Springer followed me. He COM
menced by perpetrating the unmanly act of
undertaking to raise an issue of veracitv be-
tween the reporter of the Daily Post and
myself, in the face of my positive state
ment, just made, generating him, Sprin-
ger, from the charge of having received
money. He then selected for his victim the
contestant Donnelly, who had no voice upon
the floor and whose case, in common de-
cencv he should not have attempted to
prejudice or PREJUDICE, unless it was his de-
Hberate purpose, in the language of the
anonymous letter, ''to keep Washburn in
his seat in spite of the Democrats" by con-
signing Donnelly to infamy. In this at
tack Mr.. Springer discloses that he was
guilty of palpable outrage upon his
brethren on the Committee of Elections,
upon those who had sustained