The Portland daily press., 1882-03-01
DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION.
JOHN w. DEERING NOMINATED FOR
MAYOR.
Hon. L. D. M. Sweat Wants Straight
Democrat.

The delegates duly chosen by the Democrat
ic ward caucuses Monday night met at Demo-
cratic Headquarters, at 8 o'clock last evening,
to nominate candidate for mayor. Mr.. A. l..
Farnsworth, the secretary, called the meeting
to order. NJ P. Frank was elected chairman
and A. L. Farnsworth secretary.
The roll was called and the vacancies filled.
Among those who did not respond to their
names were Sullivan G. Andrews, Charles
Mccarthy and N. B. Noble.
A motion was made that the convention pro-
ceed to ballot and nominate candidate Tor
mayor.
At this point Hon. L. D. NJ Sweat asked to
be allowed to say word. He had not come
here, he said, to throw in firebrand, but he
had, unsolicited, been appointed delegate
and it was useless to disguise the fact that IL
was the intention of the convention to nomi
nate man not identified with the Democratic
party. He would make q motion, If in order,
that in proceeding to ballot the convention bal
lot for straight-out Democrat He had been
accustomed, for forty years, to abide by the
matured Judgment of the majority of the DEM
ocrats with whom he had acted. He did not
propose to change that course. Shall we pro-
ceed to nominate a man, said he, as candi-
date for mayor who is, and of, the Democratic
party, who is, has been, and will be with us?
1t is the Democratic organization that mas
brought our country to the great eminence 1t
has attained. The Democratic party was new
er in as good condition as now. 1t therefore
seems necessary that the Democratic party
should maintain its position as party in the
country at large, and in the towns throughout
the State. The Democrats have nearly ma
jority in Congress, and the party is about
equal to any other party in the State of Maine.
In the city of Portland / am not inclined to
denounce any man who has been named for
mayor but the question here is shall the Dem
ocrats Of Portland approve the nomination OF
Ames, Deering (yells of ''that's the MANI,
Littlefield, or Libby (cries of moi All oil
these gentlemen, understand are Repubh
cans. (Mr. Springer cried out that Ames nev-
or was Republican, Mr.. Sweat then re-
ferred favorably to each of the candidates in
turn, speaking of Mr.. Libby as man OF well
balanced mind, good education, firm and de-
cided, man against whom the Dow faction
had made an especial onslaught, and thought
he would, no doubt, make good mayor. As
Democrats, said he, shall we put in the front
man like many we could name from our own
party and if we go down do SO with flying
colors, or go off in squirt. If you adopt Capt
Deering as your candidate and go to the polls
and throw your usual vote and then you are
whipped what will you gain? think you will
fail if Capt. Deering is nominated here to-
night, and we ought to be in as firm an atti-
tude as possible in the fall; as firm as we
should be if you nominate Democrat like
Mr.. Davis or Mr.. Emery.
Mr.. B. F. Andrews, in reply, said that in his
opinion when the Democrats accomplished
anything they did it by means of fusion. He
thought all the towns in the State were nomi-
mating fusion tickets and Portland by follow
ing their example might succeed. Capt. Deer
ing had stepped out of his party to accept
citizens nomination (he omitted to state what
political complexion the vast majority of the
citizens caucuses was composed of. We want,
he said, to go into the fight in tie fall with en-
thusiasm.
The question was called and Mr.. Sweat
moved his motion as an amendment to the mo-
tion to proceed to ballot, so that the motion
would read ITO proceed to ballot for straight
out Democrat for mayor" The chairman
ruled the motion out of order. The motion, as
made, was then put and carried.
Edmund Dana, Josiah Chase, Jr., and B. +. |
Chadbourne were appointed committee to |
cast votes. They reported as follows:
Whole number of votes. ............,48 |
Necessary to choice. s,-........ ...........25
John W. Deering had ...... .....-..,..40
5. c. Andrews ws........ .,.....-.......
". G. Davis. ............... ........... z