Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-02-20
THE TENNESSEE sENAToRsHIP.
What a Nashville Man Says About 4

NASHVILLE, Feb. 15-The severe
contest over the election of Senato of
the United States from Tennessee has
ended, but find among the Repubii.
cans y feeling over their defeat that
will not soon be forget en-. The whole
country watched the struggle with
deep interest. The conloi of the
Senate by the Republican party was
Known to depend upon If, and while
the State-credit aud low-tsx Demo-
Gratis togtther OutDumbered the Re-
publicans, it wss known that the
breach between them COL tiuuaily
widened aud deepened.
/ have taken great deal of care to
find out just how 1T happened that we
were disappointed, ana have learned
much of the iusids history of the Fl yht
from men whom [ know 10 have been
active and we'll posted throughout,
aud / take advantage of the absence Of
your able orrespOodent, CJionel Ba-
ker, to tell abnut it.
L. toe first place feel safe in Eating
that to an eternal certainty r -pu o'i-
can Senator could baVe pesn eiectef,
II Is equally certain to noe t!6t t..
Republicans Of The legisiSt are ma !; all
VI { ID for Maynard on the decisive
morning that he would bave been tt 9
Senator, and that, toe, wi hout re-
proach and by an honorable ei'c ion.
che dispatches she w-d how, Ill the
IA 90 of tle evident cnnIce of eli over
whelming M jority of tre Republic AIS
of Tennessee for Maynard, u f. w scat
tering votes continued TO be given TO
other candid at9s. All this was o. liz
lie COnst queuc3 until 1t the last.
Whole days OF bal'otiDg were of 10
earthly significance, but every one was
waiting for the decisive time
Late publications in the NV York
FINES, Cincinnati G ,mmerciai aud
OF er papers in the West and South,
evideI tly inspired by friends Of hon.
FL. e. Harrison, a member OF The leg
isiatuTe, who was one of the Repubii-
cau candidates, ge It ng few Of the
scattering votes, nave appeared TO be
Wri t n m show how very selfish it
was in Maynard, when the supreme
hour of the batrle came. and when IL
YES known, | mean kn0Wn. that
solid Republican vote ~ou.d elect him
not TO ihiOW away the only cnance
for r. publican victory aud turn over
the almost solid party support TO Hsr-
risoD, who had but three woes, and
could only command twOof those, ana
who never saw the moment that ne
could command any votes excerpt .his
handful with one Greenbacker, and
perhaps one Democrat
The Tennessee legislature has one
hundred members. There were forty
seven Republicans, one GreeDb CHER
and fifty-two Dem Ocrat', nearly equal
Iy divided bel Reeu the Shattered
and Iow-:ax factions. TIE Republi-
cans were encouraged by victory, and
in possession Of the il fiasnce of the
Stat and national administrations.
The Democrats were discouraged with
defeas aud divided bitterly among
themselves, and the tuation WAS
favorable t. tne Repubncaus. The
proloDgaton of the bailoting deepened
the epmity of the Democratic fa' tons
for each other, and wore out and dis
que ed several Of their members. They
began with B alley, Ba g and Savage,
aud with a small and scattering vote,
and were them out. The Republicans
began with about forty votes for May
nard, aud 8 few sea t=riDg votes for
Judge Muse and Me-. Harrison.
They made mistake, to begia with,
in not holding a caucus, bt cAuse there
was hope that 1t would b. easier to
get Democratic votes without q party
nomination. But for this feeling
caucus would nave been held, aud
Maynard nominated by acc nation
a. the r publican candidate.
The Republicans needed four votes
besides their own to elect. They
worked msgnificently for them, ar
gued, begged, expostula'ed and en-
treated. They had reason TO nope toi
final success. There were several
Democrats in the legislature Who had
been elected by the help of Il publ
can yotes over other Democrats, aud
some of them had oegun t. open their
ewes, as many more in the South are
beginning to do, to the faults OF tleir
party.
Finally an informal conferences of
about twenty out of ,hs forty-seven
Repu bticans in the Legislature, em-
pracing friends OF all tnf Republican
caudidat.s, was held in one of the
commit ee rooms. Most Of it seems
that those who were most active liz
working for MIR. Maynard were net
notified of this meeting, w nlch WAS
got-n up almost imprOmp u. This
conference voted to give the ent re
flity-seven r publican VT s t. MIR.
MAYNARD for five successive ballot,
when, if he were not el-ct d. they
should be gwen tt some other Repub-
lican not then defermlu ed upon.
This vote, of course, bound none of
those Composing mure than half of
me Republicans Of the legislature)
wLo were mt present nor advised OF
the meeting. 1t was, nevertheless,
carried out for four bal!O,s, but broke
on toe fifth. When the fifth bolt
was taken some Of the May
nard man who had not been iu
the conference nor represented in
| 1t refused to make the fifth
ballot solid. Harrison's friends then
charged bad faith, and some feeling
was excited, but some of Maynard's
| friends who had not been parties To
| tle conference refused absolutely t.
allow the plan to bs carried out. A
great deal of hard feeling stu exis s
over this. bnt It seems that tbs reason.
able view # it 10 that srnall meeting
| like this had no right t. attempt TO
make such programme, aud that
those who refused tt let it be carried
Out ware true to their convic ions, and
acted with the best motives; tut the
| fact that one or two Of MaS nard .
prominent friends t,ok the response
bility of acting in the mes ting, IN
| fortunately gave some excuse for the
I talk that this mater excited
| A few days later second conference
| ohn.,f tho aanna pnrn hcr nj