The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-07-26
KINGS CHOICE.
The Greenback Delegates at Lerge.

The Greenback delegates from the
several wards met at the Greenback
headquarters Saturday evening to choose dele
gates at large to the Congressional convention
1t was King crowd, and proposed to elect
only King men, and to head the list with
King himself. "Our noble King as the New
Era used to call him, started "to clean out
Turner" as one of his ff3ends said, and he
made successful job of it.
Mr.. G.. W. Rice called the meeting to order
and Mr.. W. III. Sargent was chosen Secretary
He declined, having another job to attend to,
he having been intrusted with the distribution
OF the King ballots, written, it is said, by Mr.
King. Mr.. Rice consented to act as Secretary,
and MIR. 1. d. Cushman was elected chairman,
and on taking the chair remarked that he was
much obliged for the honor" 1t wasn't
much of an office, to be sure, but Mr.. Cush-
man is in the mood to receive small favors
with thanks this year. Mr.. Spencer Rogers
moved that the chairman and secretary be a
committee to receive and count votes, and the
motion was carried, and Immediately Mr.. w.
H. Sargent moved that all the delegates be
voted for at once. Perhaps Mr.. Sargent's
jack-knife was little dull, or it might have
been that the heat of the weather made him
shrink from doing unnecessary work, and that
he objected to cutting the King ticket into
five pieces. Anyway the motion was adopted
and Mr.. Sargent distributed his votes, but right
there slight hitch in the arrangements came
in. Mr.. King had calculated only on the at
tendance of eleven delegates, and had prepar-
ed but eleven ballots AS it was twelve dele
gates attended, and, as Mr.. Sargent explained
afterwards he "hadn't votes enough to go
around, and SO he skipped one." The gentle
man voted on subsequent ballot, and left
thereby painful impression ON the mind of
Mr.. j. f. Turner that there had been an over
production of voters.
The ballot showed that Mr.. Elliot King the
venerable John M. Todd, Mr.. Charles Mer-
rill and Mr.. Thomas P. Beals had been elected
sure, while eight votes had been cast for ed
ward Pickett" and three for 81. F. Fickett.'
The presiding officer said that he presumed
that all the votes were intended for Mr.. James
e. Pickett, and believed that it was safe to put
the entire eleven down for James E. Pickett
Mr.. Sargent ventured to express the opinion
that under the ruling of the Supreme Court
the intent must govern, and Mr.. Spencer Rog-
ers wanted to know who was meant by the
gentleman who prepared the ballots. This
was rather an embarrassing question to Mr.
Sargent, but he said that he circulated them
and meant to have them James E. Fickett,"
and to settle the question a second vote was
taken on the fifth delegate, and as twelve votes
were cast for j. e. Pickett, Mr.. Cushman con
cluded that was all right and SO declared Mr..
james E. Pickett elected and the meeting adj
journed, Mr.. j. F. Turner adiourning some
little time before the meeting did. and so FL
hot King, the venerable John M. Todd Chas.
Merrill, James E. Pickett and Thomas P.
Beals will act as the delegates at large, and as
the Sunday Times remarks: "These gentle
men are in favor of Elliot King for nominee
for Representative to Congress-" Mr.. King
being unanimously in favor of the candidate.