Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1889-12-13
NO.. 19.
THE STORY In A NUTSHELL.
Exploding the Infamous Republican
Scheme in Montana.
Their Claims Have Not a Particle
of PlauSibility.
The Leaders Guilty of Il Deliberate
Shameful Crime.


republicans to steal the state of Montana
would shock the moral sense Of all people
who still respect the law, believe in otfiCia
oathS, and that the elections should be re-
spected. and the will Of the people never
defeated by fraud The following Is Z
true statement of the case as it stands
now: The deadlock is due to disputed
results in Silver Bow county and the claim
of both parties to control the lower branch
the upper being equally divided, This
situation has been produced by resort to
the returning, board methods in use il
certain southern states in the rcconStruc-
tion period. The difference is that these
methods were in certain sense sanctioned
by law in the southern states, but had nc
legal justification in Montana.
The election of Oct | made it evident
from the unofficial returns that the demo-
Gratis had a very small majority in the low
er branch of the legislature, giving then
assurance of the two United States sena-
tors. Before the official canvass was
made it was discovered by the republican
leaders that III one precinct of Silver Bow
county the democrats had III votes out OF
a total of IA. and if this vote wert
thrown out the result would ht
the election of republican representa-,
tiveS in that county. and complete
change of control III the legislature. \
cry of fraud was raised, on no ground eN-
cept that all but 3 of the votes were re.
turned as democratic. There was nothing
strange about this, as ut Craig every vote
was republican, and at Banner the repub,
hcanS had $50 ont of l52 This precinct,
No. 81 of Silver Bow county, was simply
a camp of railroad workmen. The vote
was taken 10y the Australian method, and
there was the result l7l to ;. The evi-
dencG of fraud produced before the
board of county canvasSers. who
were republicans, consisted of what
purported to be an affidavit signed 10y eight
men declaring that they had voted for re-
publican candidates i'll precinct No "a.
These were obtained by man hired for
the purpose, who had been convicted of
murder in Washington Territory. OF the
eight men whose names Were signed to
this paper, four have sworn that they never
signed it. and tile other four disappeared
and could not be found Companions OF
one of these have declared that they were
asked to sign this affidavit and promised
a reward if they would do 50. and that
they knew of the signature of one man be
ing got Wllen ne was drunk.
Not only was this trumped-up evidence
worthless, but the county canvas 'erS had
no power in regard to the returns of votes
except to make abstracts of them and
ascertain the result Indicated by their face.
They had no right whatever to reject them
on any ground. One of the republican
lawyers who argued before them that they
could reject the return of a precinct for
fraud had previously as a Judge ON the
bench explicitly decided in similar case
that nothing of the kind could be done,
1t is plain from the territorial law
under which the election was held
that the canvassers had no such
power. They gravely decided to throw out
precinct No. "a, and a writ of mmdamus
was at once served on them to show
cause why they should not be compelled to
include the vote of that precinct and re-
straining them from proceeding with the
count until after the decision. Neverthe-
less they made up and signed a return
without including that precinct. A howl
was made for the removal of Judge De
Wolf because he granted the mandamus.
The state canvass was hurried up to fore
stall final decision III the case, and the
presidents proclamation admitting the
state and putting an end to the territorial
court was issued III hot haste before the
official messenger reached Washington.
The state board of canvassers, consisting
of the governor, secretary and chief justice
of the territory acted with as much pre-
cipitation and disregard of law as the
county board There had been a decision
in the Silver Bow case against the return
ing board action of the canvassers, and an
appeal was pending when the state board
met on Oct. 81. 1t had nothing to do uu-
der the enabling act of congress except to
canvass the returns on the adoption of
the constitution and certify the re-
suit to the president. County returns
were certified to the secretary of the
Territory by the clerks of the county com
missiOners, and the clerk of Silver Bow
county was a democrat, and sent up the
returnes including the vote of Precinct
No. "a. The state board would not have 1t,
and could get no other. though a messen-
ger was sent for 1t TO Butte. But
without waiting for a deterna-
alton of the legal controversy, they
hurried off their certificate to Washington
including the vote of Silver Bow county
without sPrecinct No. "a. In spite of the
headlong haste of the state can
vassers their messenger could not
reach Washington soon enough, they
feared, to forestall the action of the court
and the president. in response TO telegram
and without consulting his cabinet. issued
his proclamation admitting the state be-
fore the messenger arrived, though other
kilograms were sent asking for delay.
Without his aid the returning board
scheme might have miscarried
But this was not the full extent Of the
returning board methods of the state can
vassers. They had legally nothing to do
with declaring the election Of state officers
or members of the legislature. This was
not provided for in the enabling act and
was regulated entirely by the election laws
of the territory. These required the clerk
of the board of county commissioners to
issue certificates Of election TO such per
sons as appeared TO have a majority oi
votes for the Legislature, which certificates
were made prima facie evidence of the
right of the holders to seats in the
legislature. But the political control
of the legislature depended on the
Silver Bow county vote, and
that democratic clerk was sure to follow
the decision of the court and certify
the election of democratic representative.
with the aid Of precinct No "a. Accord
ingly, although Chief Justice Blake, him
self member Of the state board, had few
weeks before, while Judge, grant
ed a mandamus in another county,
compelling a county clerk 10 issue
a certificate to the person who on
the face Of the retnrns before the local can
vassing board had majority Of votes, this
very board of state eanvassers assumed TO
decide who were elected TO state offices and
to the legislature and to issue certificates
of election. This they did. still counting
out precinct No. "a and giving the Silver
Bow county representative TO the reputil-
cans. This is how it happened that there
are two bodies claiming 10 be houses ofrep-
resentatives at Helena, Gov. Toole having
summoned as members those who held GER
tifeates from the clerks Of the boards Of
county commissioners. More high-handed
proceedings In counting out and counting
III for the purpose Of controlling legisia-
ture and electing United States senators,
in spite of the popular vote, were never
known in any southern state.
Many criminals less guilty thar these
usurpers have been hung in Montana.
The democrats will be recreant to duty if
they do not stand to the end for their
rights.