The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1890-11-28
'rotbe Republicans of the Eighth District:

the Republicans of the Eighth District:
A number of my friends have written
and called upon me- TO express their indig-
nation at the high-handed manner i'm which
the Democratic canvassing board of Sagi-
nav county had counted Mr.. YOumans in
as congressman from this district, and have
asked me what intended to do. / have
thought the matter over carefully and have
decided not to make a contest, believing
a Democratic House of Representatives to
be poor place for Republican to seek
Justice. The nomination came to me this
year entirely unsolicited and my personal
friends know that was averse to accepting
it, and only decided to run when l was as
sured that it was for the best interests of
She Republican party. My personal affairs
dictated different course, but was pre-
vailed upon to accept the nomination and
went i'm to win, with every assurance of
success, based upon the magnificent record
of the present congress. During the past
session lstried to do my duty as l saw it,
and of course l should have been pleased to
have received an endorsement but we seem
TO have been the victims of Over-cOnfdence,
and instead OF receiving majority APP
tproaching the one of two years ago,
enough Republicans stayed at home to bring
my majority down to a very slight margin.
'UnscrupulOus men have taken advantage of
1.-THE closeness of the vote to count me out by
methods that rival for audacity the bOldest
FRAUDS of Mississippi or Detroit. My at
tOrneys advise me that such frauds cannot
stand the scrutiny of the courts, but am
confident that Democratic House that will
coudone the shooting of Clayton and the
ballot box stuffing of Mississippi will well
come with open arms the clever amateurs
from Michigan. The only point l could
gain by q contest would be to impress upon
the people of Michigan the danger threaten
ing the purity of the ballot in this State.
1ut that can hardly be more strongly inn
pressed, judging from the newspaper COM
Rnents and from the letters received.
Another reason that deters me from MAX
ing contest is that my sphere of usefulness
tn this district would he considerably
abridged, sitting in House with 40 hostile
majority.
The shady tactics resorted to to defeat
me were not confined to efforts after cleo
> ton In Midland county was deprived of
over 20 votes by the action of the election
boards in refusing to allow legally qualified
men TO register or swear in their votes after
registration bad been denied. At Coleman
she foreman of one of our camps who has
been resident Of Michigan over so years,
and has been numbering for me in Midland
county several years, came out of camp
with IS men. all legal voters, and the board
refused to allow them to register or swear
an their votes. The same treatment was ac-
corded Kimballs men at DORIS Station,
headed by Foreman John Whitney, who
stlas lived there thirteen months. All these
men were required to swear that they in
tended TO live there permanently in the
future. This was an illegal question and
was propounded for the purpose of disfran-
'chising voters.
Another trick resorted to in Saginaw,
east side, was to put Washtenaw county
Republican tickets in the booths. The
tickets being regular and having the Repub-
'lican state ticket at the head were calcu-
lated to deceive the unwary voter and cause
shim to lose his vote on congressman and all |
Offices below. These tickets were removed |
from the booths i'm one ward three times |
and three times others were substituted. |
This is reported to me on good authority. |
Under the familiar ruling of the Supreme |
Court the 20 votes cast for Henry M. YOU |
Smams in MOntcalm could be thrown out II a |
technical fight were made, but do not care |
20 resort to this. The BuckhOut committee |
res0rted to every means to throw out my |
votes in the recount in the several wards |
and townships before rcsorting to the whole |
sale theft of the Eleventh ward. A notable |
Instance of the narrow partisanship and UNI
scrupulous actions of this committee was |
when they counted as blanks my sticlSers |
placed over Mr.. Youmans name, because |
they were trimmed little fine and the bot |
tom of some of the letters were clipped.
AZ there is any honor attached to a GER
lifieate obtained by such methods, | hope |
my successor may reap them. i shall not |
contest his seat i'm Congress-.
A. Il. BLISS