Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1884-07-16

Meeting of the Territorial Commit .e to
Formulate Call.
st. Paul Pioneer Press.
The republican territorial central com.
mittee of Dakota was called to meet yes
terday at Lake Park, Minnetonka, but
the metropolitan instincts IF the mem.
bers from the great frontier induced
them to change to st. Paul. and the
session was held last evening at the
Metropolitan hotel. There was present
the following representation: E. P.
Wells, chairman; e. w. Caldwell, secre.
tary; George w. Hawcs, w. 81. Skinner,
". NJ. Cuppett, w. F. Steele, @. T. Nc.
Coy (by proxy. to J. H. Drake), J. H.
King 10y proxy to r. ". Evart), A. J.
Plowman and II. NJ. Gregg (by proxy to
+. +. Pettlgrew), H. +. Miller and B. W.
Benson (by proxy to A. W. Edwards),
lver Larson (by proxy to Charles Ii.
Derneley), John Fadden (by proxy to
p. =. Wells). A. Boland (by proxy to v.
D. Prentice). The purpose of the meet.
ing was to arrange for holding the next
convention for nomination of q
candidate for congressional delegate,
and over it all was to be seen the
blister of that sectional fire which has
burned between north and south Dako.
to. The particular complexion of the
committee, which is south Dakotaian by
nine to six, is an Inheritance from the
Grand Forks convention of 1882 and
was determined as recompense made in
the trade which resulted in the nomina.
tion of Delegate Raymond. And as a
result of this the members of the south
ern half were in position to put
through such measures as to them
| seemed proper. The first contest was in
regard to the location of the proposed
convention, and i'll this the gentlemen OF
the north endeavored to do some dicker.
ing by uniting with the represen-
tatives of one or the other of
the towns which desired the distinction.
They threw the largest part of their force
to Aberdeen, making her six votes,
the ballot resulted: Aberdeen 6, Pierre
8, Mitchell 8, Brookings /, Big Stone
City l. Three others with slight changes
were had, and the fifth resulted in the
choice of Pierre, the vote being: Pierre
s. Aberdeen 5, Big Stone City 1. The
time for holding the convention was de.
termlned without much difficulty, the
choice being Wednesday, Sept. II, the
only question being as to what would
least interfere with the harvest in the
matter of holding its primaries.
The tug of war was on the matter of
apportionment of the delegates of the
several counties. Mr.. Pettigrew, of south
Dakota, introduced resolution that the
delegates additional to those given nomi.
nally to each county be chosen not upon
the basis of the number of votes given
the republican candidas for congress in
1857, but upon the basis of population as
shown by the total vote given the candi.
date of both parties. This was de-
nounced by the northerners as fire.
brand and led to protracted discussion
engaged in by all, which was something
of mixture of bitterness, jocularity and
hard horse sense. The southern majority
stated its purpose and its justification
for the innovation as follows: The vote
of the northern counties for Raymond.
the republican candidate, was tremen-
dously large in proportion to the total
because he was citizon of north Dakota.
SO that to allot the delegates upon the ba.
sis of his vote would be paying o
premium for sectional fealty instead
of for straight republicanlsm.
It would give to north
Dakota IN the coming convention an un.
due advantage, not because of there
being larger average of republicans
there but because she had the candidate
two years ago. Furthermore, in the
meeting of the committee held two years
ago, when northern Dakota had the ma.
lority, the representation allotted to
northern counties was arbitrarily incress.
ed thirty. five votes the justification being
that in the campaign previous, the demo.
cratic candidate was ! resident Of north.
! en Dakota, and this had reduced the