Arizona republican., 1891-05-10

less fit man is he today to go to thi'
 Constitutional Convention and assist ir framing a Constitution under which al
 the laws of this Territory when a State
 if we be so, must be made and tested
 If he was an unfit man then, his as sociates since have certainly not made
 him more fit today.
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, just one more then 1 am through; and now come to a personal proposition, par
 tially.
 want to know whether the time has come in the Territory of Arizona when man must be false to his friends, when a man must deny his personal friends or be relegated to oblivion. William
 II. Barnes, ever since he has been of the bench, has been demagogue
 When William H. Barnes can set noth. ing else up against man, when he can find no flaw in mans character or record, and mine are both open to him God knows, he can come here and talk as much as he pleases on my record and on my character, and especially on my record as land-grant man. challenge him to discussion of the records we have respectively made upon the ques, tion of land grants; but I was about to say that when he can find no flaw in a mans record or in his character, and car think of no other way in which to down him, he says: Look out, boys he is friend of Brewster Cameron, '' and If he has not been seen lately with Brewster Cameron, he has been with a friend of his or with friend of friend of his. have not yet heard man point to any corrupt act of Brewster Cameron's, and I am Cameron's friend and am proud to admit it, and l will remain the friend of Brewster Cameron so long as he remains as true and as good man as have found him to be Applause. And if that means that l can have no recognition in the Demo- cratic party, then l say to my Demo- cratic friends: "You can't drive me out of the party; I am with you to stay" l am as good a Democrot as any one of you dare be, and l will discuss princi- pies with any one-with any Democrat in the Territory at any time; and l will ever be found zealously laboring to ad- vance the principles of the Democratic party while It's time serving bosses are prosttuting our party welfare to their personal ends. Mir. Barnes says am a friend of Brewster Cameron, and what does that mean? There are lot of people living up here on a so-called land grant, who feel that they are being injured by certain men claiming these grants. Cameron stands as the expo- nent Of land-grant claimants in Arizona to these people. These people have a grievance, and it is that somebody is trying to take their homes and their mines away from them. They are right and it is natural feeling, and they not only have my sympathy, but they have my active interest and support.
 Five years ago began my public re- cord on the land-grant question. John Dunbar, who, by the way, thinks 1 am making mistake here tonight, was then running the Epitaph in Tom bstone. l abandoned my business and took a blackboard and couple of horses and rode around the country, in the interest ot the settlers upon these grants, at an expense to myself of several hundred dollars, as gentlemen here present to- night can testify. l addressed people at Benson, Saint Davids, Charleston, Tomb stone and Bisbee, on the land-grant question, and tried to stir them up, and did It. l made them understand that it was necessary to do something to pre- vent their homes from being taken away. At that time the Tres Alamos land grant had been recommended for confirmation by the Surveyor-General of Arizona, by the Commissioner of the Land Office and by the Secretary of the Interior, and had got into Congress, and bills had been introduced in both the House and the Senate for the confirmation of this grant, and the Private Lands Committee Tn the House and Senate had reported tavorably on the bills. l thought it was time to take action. I owned ranch out there, and own it yet, and it is as- sessable too, and 1 thought it time to take action, and l went around the country and made addresses and got the people stirred up, and got every man on the Tres Alamos grant to sign a petition that this grant be sent back for re-hear- Ing. Every man, l say, on the grant signed it, and besides that, put down the amount of land each one owned, what kind of a claim he had to it, how many lived on it, and how many dollars worth of improvements were on it, and by this petition showed the exact con ditlon of the Tres Aamos land grant. I sent that petition to Commissioner Sparks, and through his active agency the Tres Alamos Grant was sent back to the Surveyor-General of Arizona for re- l consulted time and agaln with Surveyor-General Hise, both when getting up this petition and after wards, and he reported the grant fraud ulent. That IS the only successful piece of land grant work ever done in the Ter ritory ot Arizona. [Applause.l
 And for that the people of Harshaw ought always to work against me. No doubt of that
 Marcus A. Smith was elected as Dele gate to Congress and he took the correct position on the land grant question. to-wit: the settlers must retain their homes; no settlement any other way. That was always my position. All my letters published in the Epitaph, as well as the letter which wrote in answer to Creed Raymond, the railroad attorney. when he attempted to defend Senator stanford for his action in the Tres Alamos Land Grant bill, all demand that the settlers shall be secured in the peaceful possession of their homes. That letter was telegraphed in full to the Chronicle, of San Francisco, and occu- pied three-quarters of a column of tele- graphic news. Creed Raymond never answered it. When Mark Smith was elected, l was one of his warmest advo. cates and am today. When he came up for the second term 1 wanted to be a delegate to the Territorial Convention Tor the purpose of supporting him there. mentioned my desire to the Democrats here and l got the promise of majority ot the County Committee to vote for me, went out of town and they voted for