Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-01-31
The Great Contest.

In the West Virginia Legislature
at Charleston last Thursday Hon. w.
! p Hubbard, counsel for General Golf
i'm the gubernatorial contest, made
! his argument. After a few introduc-
| tory remarks he said that the contes-
| tee had been informed that the con-
| testant had case that that case
was based upon the report of the
majority of the contest committee !;
that to the report is added all the
| thought of trained and skilled think
ers. But what is the report at last
At most, at best it is only an apology
| for its own existence. The report
laws down the reason and facts in the
case as seen only by the majority :;
but shall Fleming take his seat by the
| dictates of partisan returning board?
| The 46 Democrats are invited to put
themselves in the position of the
! famous electoral commission that
| seated Hayes. There were s to OF
! il. and i'm this instance there are 40 to
As. one Democratic majority. Shall
! il be his fraudulency, a. Brooks Elem
| ingr
Mr.. Hubbard referred to the fact
that the time for taking dispositions
i'm the contest case was up May 10 last
and he asked that all evidence taken
after that date be rejected, as there
is not and never has been any evil
dence produced by the majority TO
| show that there was illegal or fraudu-
| lent voting in the State, and III Mer-
! Ger and Mcdowell counties in partic-
ular.
Mr.. Hubbard then took up individ-
ual cases of voters against whom
! fraud is claimed i'll the majority re-
port. and endeavored TO show the
court why they should not be cast
out. He dwelt at length on residence
! and domicile, and closed by saying
that he did not believe, as Others do,
| that his matter is fixed without arSu-
ment. II So he would not be here.
Gen. Nathan Golf appeared before
the Joint assembly of the two Houses
of the last Legislature on Friday and
! spoke in behalf of himself as contes-
| tee in the famous gubernatorlal con-
test pending before the Legislature
between himself and \. b. Fleming.
Gen. Golf spoke the full five hours
which had been allowed him. He
pleaded that the cause was not his
! own cause, but that of the 10000
voters in the State who, he said,
| elected him Governor. He asked the
Legislature to act carefully and TO
commit no error. Other courts err
and there is remedy; other judges
NAV 20 wrong and may be corrected {;
! bat from the decision of this legisla-
! tive court there can be no appeal.
! The Judgment is final. The ques-
! ton to decide is not who they want
or would vote for as Governor, but
who was elected in November 1888.
! He referred to the frauds said TO have
been committed at the election, and
said that all the charges made may
| be true and still show no great NUM-
Der of fraudulent votes. He referred
TO Mercer and Mcdowell counties
where most of the illegal votes alleged
| by Democrats were east. He spoke
of the development of the counties by
new railroad and coal mines. Here
large numbers of votes had been de-
Quoted from COTS vote. Those
| whose votes were cast out, he said,
are not myths or residents of Nlr-
ginia they aretherea at work earning
an honest living"
Gof1 then took up the list of votes
which had been rejected as illegal by
majority of he committee, and dwelt
on individual eases. He had plenty
of time to go over the entire list of
votes rejected and object to each, but
out of 400 votes rejected by the com
mittee, he only took up 20. If all OF
the 20 were wrongly rejected by the
committee still Fleming would have
over 300 majority Here the weak
ness of the argument was shown.
The argument was closed by Colonel
st. Clair, counsel for Judge Fleming,
on Monday. His winding up was Il
general reply to allegations made by
General Golf and his attorney. In
reviewing the evidence he showed
that hundreds of non-residents voted
in Mercer and Mcdowell counties,
that many of these voters were resi-
dents of Virginia and North Carolina,
who worked in the collieries in Mer-
Ger and Mcdowell counties in the
winter and returned TO their homes
in the summer and raised crops, that
Judge Fleming did not nor does he
wish to be seated on technlcallty
because his party has u majority III
the legislative court. Col. st. CLAIR
said that the majority of the commit
tee had made some mistakes in sitting
out the evidence, but where 1t had
made one mistake the minority had
made two, if not many more.
Il have been" said Col. st. Clair,
lin Mercer and Mcdowell counties,
where the Republicans boast of vast
developments, and there i find the
most abject poverty among the ne
groes who are at work in the cOlieries.
They are half clothed and almost
starved. Ii is worse than any land L
have ever been in, and it is caused by
the low wages paid by these Republi-
can operators.
The members of the Legislature
have been discussing the question this
week, and will display their oratory,
probably, until to-day, when ii Is
| thou,,b+ N 1-ota will no ken