St. Paul daily globe., 1888-02-09
A Square and Open Fight
Between President Cleve-
land and Gov. Hill.
Brooklyn and the County
Said to be Solid for the
President.
Both Sides Claim Tammany,
The Leaders Of Which
Keep Quiet.
Gov. Hills Friends to Carry
the Contest to the State
Convention.
Special to the Globe.

ALBANY, Feb. SIT is formally an
nounced by his friends that Gov. David
B. Hill is candidate for the Democratic
nomination for president. What was
spoken only in secret fortnight ago is
now openly discussed. AT the meeting
of the Democratic state committee to
recommended a successor to Hubert D.
Thompson as a member of the national
committee for the state of New York,
all concealment was first dropped by
Gov. Hills friends, and there has since
been as square and open fight between
the friends of the governor and the
friends of the president as there has
ever been at state committee meeting
on any question. 1t had not been in
tended by the friends of the governor
that the fact of his open candidacy
should be so soon made known. But
circumstances fastened its disclosure.
The state committee had been called on
less than a weeks notice. Congress-
man Roswell p. Flower was the candi-
date of Tammany hall and the friends
of the governor. 1t was expected by
his friends that he would be recommended
without any great dissent, as he was
candidate for the Democratic nomina-
tion for president III 1884, and as he is
not one of President Cleveland'S warm
est friends some of the friends of the
governor were prepared to claim his
success as rebuff to the president by
the Democratic committee of his own
state. The leaking out of this intention
in advance of the meeting prevented
Mr.. Flowers selection. AS soon as it
was known that the friends of the gov
ernOr might claim Mr.. Flowers selec-
tiOn as an Endorsement of Gov. Hill the
people in Washington bestirred them
selves. Congressman Tracey, of Albany,
came to the committee meeting with the
proxy of the committeeman from Buffalo
and instructions from the president.
He was also credited with bearing let
tiers to different committeeman express
ing the wishes of the president.
THE OPPOSING HOSTS
were marShaled. Commissioner of Claims
William l.. Muller, and AsSemblyman
William F. Sheehan looked after the
Hill forces. and Congressman Tracey
and eX-Mayor w, X. Grace attended to
CIeveland's interests. Thirty ballots
were taken and each was tie, seven
teen votes for Roswell P. Flower and
seventeen for William j. MOWry. of
Syracuse, whom the Cleveland men had
selected to hold the vote of the Syracuse
committeeman. Both the Cleveland and
the Hill men claim this for victory.
The Cleveland men will not concede that
Tammany hall faVorS the nomination of
Gov. Hill fer president, though all the
Tammany hall committeeman voted for
Mr.. Flower. The Hill men claim that
they would have had victory if any
other man than Mowry had been made
the candidate of the Cleveland men. as
the Syracuse committeeman would then
have voted for Flower and given him a
majority. The claim is half reflection
on Col. Daniel Lamont, private secre-
tary to the president. He lives in the
Syracuse congressional district. and the
Syracuse committeeman would be sup
posed 10 be Lamont man. From this
fight there have been many develop
ments. Brooklyn and Hugh McLaugh-
lin, head of the Democratic organization
there, have come out for the president.
Ocracy. This fixes the main strength OF
the president in the large Democratic
cities of New York and Brooklyn. The
committeeman who voted with the pres
ident's friends were mainly from dis
tricts that go Democratic, while the
committeeman who voted with the gov
ernor's friends, except Tammany hall,
were chiefly from Republican districts.
Judging only from the votes of their
committeeman the prepOnderance of
Democratic sentiment is with the presi-
dent. But as the system of convention
representation in the state convention
Is based
ON ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS,
noch Of ,,,hioh hoe 4I,roo joIoco@oc ...l
as the Republican congressional dis
tricts average a larger number of as
sembly districts than the Democratic
congressional districts, the committee
men who voted for Mr. Flower repre-
sent majority of the delegates to the
last Democratic state convention. OF
course this estimate refers only 10 the
Democratic state organization on its
present basis. The present committee
will issue the call for the state conyen-
ton which will elect the new state COM
mittee. Its term will then expire and
there will be new committee in which
there will be more than the usual num-
Der of changes. 1t is but fair to the
friends of the president to say that they
claim at least twenty-three of the thirty
four committeeman, should the issue be
drawn personally between President
Cleveland and Governor Hill, as they
assert that Tammany's four votes would
be given TO the president. That cannot
be told until Tammany expresses a
more definite decision than any of its
leaders have yet announced, but it is
hard to see how the issue could have
been made more clearly than it was
made. Since the announcement of Gov.
Hills candidacy his friends have been
active all over the state to advance his
cause They will endeavor to secure as
many delegates as possible TO the state
convention that will be called as soon
as the national committee has decided
Oh the time and place for the national
convention. The contest will be car
ried
INTO THE STATE CONVENTION,
and it will not be settled until the dele
gates to the national convention are
selected, if il be settled even then. If
the governor has Il ma jority of the del
egateS his friends VIII favor unit rule
Ii he has not majority his friends will
oppose il. Still, all this is done without
any attack ON the president except the
necessary opposition of the governors
candidacy. The intention of the efforts
made in Gov. HIS behalf is to show
the Democrats of other states that Gov.
Hill is the candidate of the New York
Democrats, and that he would poll a
stronger vote if nominated than would
the president. 1t is not so much 0ppo-
sitiOn TO the president as support of the
governor. There is the argument that
the national Democracy is bound to
nominate the man who can carry New