Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-10-19
B0LTERs FROM THE BEGINNING.
The Record Of the Madison Ring In Attempting the
Rule or Ruin Policy on Party Conventions.


Madison dispatch 20 the Mil. Republic
can-Sentinel:s- Henry c. Adams, the Re-
publican candidate for Assembly in the
Third District OF Dane County, who was
a warm supporter of Mr. Keyes in his
contest with Mr.. Hazelton for the con-
gressional nomination in this district.
told prominent Republican in this city
that he considered it foolish for the
keyes delegates to claim their conven-
tin as the regular Republican convention.
He said: They are boilers, and they
ought to acknowledge that they are bolt
ers and justify the bolt. .
That history repeats itself will occur to
any one acquainted with the action of
the Republican Congressional Conven-
tion in this distriet-then the Second
District and composed of Pane, Column
bia, Rock and Jefferson counties-on
Aug. 25, at WATERFOWL At that time
there were two principal candidates en-
deavoring to secure the Congressional
nomination with nearly equal strength.
They were /. G. Sloan, of Janesville,
and b. f. Hopkins. of Madison. The
Convention was composed of forty-four
delegates, one assembly district of Column
bia County being unrepresented. A mo-
ton to allow the delegates from Column
bia County to cast the two votes of the
absent delegates was carried. This
threw the convention into the hands of
Mr.. Sloan's friends, and secured him
twenty-four of the forty-six delegates,
leaving twenty-five delegates, most of
whom supported Mr.. Hopkins The
convention had stood a tie Until these
two delegates were admitted, and after
the resolution admitting them had been
adopted the minority retired and shortly
returned entering a protest against this
action of the Convention. There was
somewhat of an analogy between that
Convention and the late Monroe Con-
vention as Dane County led what nearly
resulted in bolt. Among the delegates
at that time from Dane County were Mr.
ID. X. Tenney, Col. E. w. Keyes, and
Gen. David Atwood. The GAINESVILLE
Daily Gazette of Aug. 20, 1864, said OF
the action after the passage of the vote
allowing the four Columbia County del
egates - cast the remaining two votes of
Sloan, were absent from the Convention,
at the 'ime il was supposed they had
been induced to remain absent in order
to defect Mr.. Sloan:
The Dane County delegates vehe-
mently opposed this proposition, but
the Convention, after patiently listening
to all they had TO say upon the subject,
resolved that the Columbia delegates
should EAST the votes of the absentees.
Here the tilibustering commenced, and
twenty-one delegates left the Convention
in extreme disgust, the chairman, Gen.
Atwooc, so far forgetting what was due
the Convention that honored him, and
what was due the dignity of his position,
as to vacate the chair without even call
ing some one to preside temporarily in
his absence. 1t is said the language
used by the boilers was quite similar to
that used by the army in Flanders, many
of them declaring with blasphemous
emphasis chat they would not return to
the Convention. Through the efforts of
Gen. Fairchild and one or two others,
they were finally prevailed upon to go
back and conclude their labors.