Arizona weekly enterprise., 1882-10-07
PORTER'S FITTINGS
To a Small and Quiet Audience. His Speech a Great Dis-
 appointment.

furSuanC to announcement, the non. De Forest Porter, republican candidate for congress, delivered an address at the Court House hall, Thursday evening. There were seventy persons present, by actual count, and majority of this sev- enty were democrats.
 Col. Levi Ruggles was called to the chair and introduced the speaker, in eulogistic strain. The Judge came to the front smiling, and murmur of applause ran through the audience But it was evident from the start that there was no sympathy between the orator and the auditors. The speaker began by paying a deserved compliment to Florence, dwelling upon the beauty and advantages of her location and the promise of her future, then proceeded to discuss, in desultory manner, what he was pleased to denominate the issues of the campaign. The speech was disappointment to both his friends and opponents, who had been
 
 yond the ordinary standard of campaign oratory. It was lacking i.. force, thought and logic, while his phraseology was awk- ward and his manner hesitating. His ar gument,-so called by courtesy,-was disconnected, his sentences were broken and he passed from one question to another with an abruptness that almost took ones breath. There was no body to his remarks. They were all shadow and no substance. He touched brihy on the Indian question, but offered nothing new on the subject, repeating what has been repeated a thousand times, namely: that the interests of the Territy demand their removal beyond its borders; that their people and check to our prosperity But he did not say that he could secure their removal, nor that Delegate Oury would have succeeded i'll having them dis armed but for the interference of the re- publican governor, who, to make politi- cal capital against Mrs. OurY, went be- fore the committee and declared that an attempt to disarn them would cause a general outbreak and bloody war He also made a brief reference to our public schools and intimated that delegate, by proper efforts, could induce the govern ment to donate land to the Territory to be held in trust till we become state, and then sold to endow our public schools, forgetting, perhaps, that land has already been set apart for that purpose. In this connection he stated lands had been do- mated to Nebraska, while Territory and that after it became a stats these lands had been sold and gave the state pub lie school endowment fund of $2O, 900, 900 That is mistake A portion of the lands have been sold and the balance leased for period of twenty years. Tn: revenue, thus obtained, is very small, and the people there maintain the public schools, the state university, the norma school and the agricultural college by di rect taxation, the same as we do here only they pay, by far, a larger per cent on each $1O0 than we do. He further stated that delegate might induce thu government to build penitentiaries, assa! offices and other public buildings in thi Territory, as they had done so in othe Territories. He did not say ill what par ticular Territories these improvement had been made by the government anC we don't know of any Territory that ha been so favored, except Wyoming, an, large portion of the cost of its Territor ial prison was borne by the Territory.
 In conclusion he defended himsel against charges of official corruption an
 denied that he had been removed. H
 admitted that charges of some characte
 had been preferred against him. but sai
 he had never been permitted to see them
 He might have added that he refused t
 see and answer them when the depart
 ment invited him to do so, and that
 was because of his refusal to meet then
 that the department asked for his resie
 nation. In this connection he made
 personal attack upon delegate Oury an
 accused him of being the moving spiri
 in this matter of charges, influenced b
 the fact that he (Porter) was possibl
 candidate for congress This at tack wa
 not only in bad taste but was misrepre
 sentation of the facts. The ''movln spirit" in those charges was the San Frar cisco Board of Trade, who presente
 charges through Senator Miller, and aske for the removal of Mir. Porter. This is fact too we'll known to be successful contradicted The Judge did not gai any votes by his assault upon MT. Our, Both men are well known here, and tl faith our people have in the honesty an manliness of Mir. Oury cannot be shake by anything that Judge Porter might sa, At the close of the Judges remarks, u chair called for "three cheers for Pc ter" and dead silence reigned. He r
 peated the call and finally six men, |
 actual count, arose and gave few fail
 whoops. The audience seemed to fe
 the impropriety of making a noise at