Evening journal., 1888-10-06
THE SALISBURY FIAT.
The Dover ssDeIawarean" Contains This
Declaration of Independence.

4
We are sure the Democracy of Kent
county appreciate the motives of most of
the men who are taking such deep in
terest in our affairs but at the same time
the universal opinion of our people is
that when gentlemen are not acquainted
with the facts and circumstances sur
rounding the politics of this county, that
wisdom and common prudence would, or
should, dictate and command silence on
their part No one can form a correct
| Judgment upon any question without
knowing the facts and the circumstances
surrounding the proposition. and strang-
ers not knowing what they were doing
when talking about it to Kent county
people, only intensified the bitter feeling
that already existed in the county.
Every question in dispute has two sides
to it, and the political muddle in this
county is no exception to the rule The
tale of one side was good until the other
was told.
For over thirty years the Democratic
party have held supremacy in this county,
never having failed to elect every man
on the ticket for each general election.
During that time they have been governed
in their nominations by fixed rules-rules
that had been adopted and approved by
the party. One of those rules was and is
that in nominating the county ticket
each hundred delegation should name the
man or men from their own hundred
This rule applied to the Legislative and
Levy Court nominees, and has never
been departed from by any Democratic
convention that ever assembled in this
county up to the Both of last August
when the minority in the convention
held that day were told in somany words
by those put forward as spokesmen, that
they had no rights, and that they should
have no voice in the convention They
even went further and said 1--WE are
going to nominate the men for your hun
dreds, and we do not want you TO vote
the ticket. This was what was told the
delegates rom Duck Creek, East Dover
and Milford hundreds. This was what
was said TO one-half Of the Democrats Of
Kent county, and said by whom 2
Why said by set of men,
some of whom in the past have
done their best to disrupt the Demo
cratic party, some of whom never voted
a Democratic ticket, and by one at least
who within the memory of the writer, was
paid to vote aud work for the Republican
ticket of this state and county We know
and 80 do others, just how the primaries
were carried in some of the hundreds of
this county. Take Little Creek. for ex-
ample, Mr. r. o. P Wilson called the
delegate meeting to order, and he de-
elared DIR. II. M. How elected chairman.
Now every person knows that DR.. How is
an honorable gentleman, who would
scorn to do dishonorable thing, under
any circumstances
He did not suit certain parties and they
raised row and kept it up until a tool
that was in the hands of dirty men was
agreed upon as chairman When placed
there protests against illegal voting was
Of no account Men voted who hailed
from Jersey men voted from every cline,
provided they voted to suit the powers
that had willing chairman, and the re-
suit showed that while there were not
more than 1870 Democratic voters present
at the meeting, that over 250 votes were
in the box The same thing went on in
North Murderkill, where men known not
90 be Democrats and men known to live
in another state, were allowed to vote.
The Democrats of Kent county would
have borne this, as bad as it was, if moth
ing else had transpired, but they will not
and ought not to stand the action Of the
County Convention They said not a word
when Bob Hill, of Duck Creek, was Sc
lected at the State Convention as eau
Gus nominee for elector when he had been
repudiated at home by the Democrats.
They accepted him for the sake of the
national ticket, notwithstanding they re-
membered his treachery in 1870 when he
voted with the negroes to defeat the Dem
Gratis. When two days after at the
County Convention insult was added to
injury, lifelong Democrats proclaimed in
convention and out of convention that
they would not submit and would not
support a county ticket nominated in de-
iiance Of all party rules and regulations
They propose to show these men that
this was no idle threat They know their
rights and win not be backward in main
tanning them.
There is no party rule or party obi ga
tions that compels any Democrat to
support such ticket. The
fact is it is not Democratic
ticket. 1t is a ring caucus ticket. 1t
promulgated from caucus composed Of
only part Of the delegates to the
county convention. A Democratic ticket
would have been Of the people, for the
people and by the people, through their
own delegates, while this ticket is by
ring. of ring aud for ringsters. That
part of it was, and part is the mere die
tum Of one or two men without consulta-
tion with any one. Part of the ticket as
published never was heard of in the con
vention from any member thereof Part
Of the ticket, for instance that part
placed on the ticket from East Dover,
was against the protest Of three-fourths
of the East Dover hundred Democrats.
We go still further. and say that no
honorable man would accept nomina-
tion from a hundred where he had been
beaten for the position on direct vote of
the members Of his party At our prima-
ries we spoke as to nominees, and the
voice Of the people were not Needed and
ticket was nominated by such methods
as made it a stencil in the nostrils of the
Democracy of the county, and put it out
Of the power Of all honorable men who
were not in accord with the successful
faction to vote such a ticket To do so
would make the man worse than slave
and place him in the position Of cring-
ing sycophant at the feet of power
Honorable men viii not condone the in
suit at the bidding of place hunters.
and at the polls viii teach as corrupt
and dishon0rable crew as ever
plundered or sought power for the sake
of plunder. that no unit rule caucus
ticket can receive the support of the hon
est voters of Kent county. A few men.
not governed by principle, who cringe
around power that thrift may follow
fawning, may waver and support a ticket
conceived in sin and born in iniquity, but
they are only following the line of their