Morning journal and courier., 1891-07-17
in drafting the verbal and technical form

in drafting the verbal and technical form
of such o report.
As to pledging myself in advance to
support your vieWs--which I did not then
know in detail-or those of any other one
man, the idea is absurd. How does it
tally with yonr former reference to me as
being unwilling to have my views con-
trolled by any mana
This is what really took place that after
noon. You urged the committee to adopt
your views and proceeded to draft what
you then seemed to think would be the
right sort of report for the members to
sign. certainly did not, nor do believe
that any other member Of the committee
there present for an instant believed that
we were committing ourselves to final
adoption of your views, though you your
self seem to have left the committee under
the egotistical impression that the whole
| thing was settled and that any change
from your work would be Conspiracy"
or 1cheating." -
The idea is preposterous. frequently
among ourselves the committee had draft
ed portions of reports, voting pro or con,
informally, to see if we could arrive at o
conclusion. In this particular case, as
several of my colleagues know, had ex-
pressed q doubt whether any report what
soeYer could be made to the house on the
following day. Most emphatically, there
fore, do I deny your statement that I
drafted a final report which was afterward
changed.
You, Mr.. Harrison, expressly claim in
your letter that at no time since last Novem-
Der have you changed your opinion (which
has always been expressed, to wit: that
General Merwin is entitled to the Office of
governor and that the democrats elected
their candidate for at least three of the
other state Offices" Now, please explain
how, holding such an opinion, you could
have drafted and brought to us, marked in
pencil, stcopy of suggestionsssto house COM
mittee on canvass of votes, type written
| draft of a report endorsed and interlined
in your handwriting, from which I quote
| the following paragraph. The document
| in full is also hereto appended, your en-
| dorsement and interlineations being itali-
| cized:
eff the report of your committee Is &C
| cepted, and the investigation is as thorough
and complete as is required by the resolu-
| ton of Mr.. Hotchkiss, your committee are
| of the opinion, from an examination of the
| returns laid before them, and such inform
| alton as has been received by your commit
| tee from other sources, that it is impossi-
| BILE at this time to arrive at an intelligent
| conclusion concerning the true state of the
vote for all or any one of the candidates
| for state officers who received ballots at
| the recent election"
| Was this document which you prepared
and submitted to the committee, merely
| theoreticala or hypothetical? or was it
hypocritical? Did you believe when you
drafted it that it presented the right ground
/ for the republicans to take? And yet q
few days after you came before the COM
mittee and advocated totally different
course, and now you revile others and i'm
| pugn their motives because they did not
follow your latest advice.
| We come next to what you term the
"influences" which led the committee to
"change" from the report which you say
that had "drawn with SO much care on
the afternoon of January 9th" You ex-
| pressed your views to the committee and
requested me to put them in writing
| Your draft was not finally adopted, be-
| cause, on reflection, it did not commend
itself to the judgment of the committee;
and no influence, excepting that attempted
| by you, was exerted upon them, but that
of the evidence in the case.
The rough draft of the report was made
| several days previous to our meeting on
the 9th Of January. Messrs. Green, Jud-
son and myself had prepared speeches
which were put in type in my office several
days before the report appeared, all bearing
out the conclusions which it contained.
| You must be egotistical indeed if it causes
you to be nettled and excites your indig-
nation that an hours work of your own
with the committee would not easily enable
them to reverse the views which they had
been more and more in favor of adopting
the more deeply and critically they studied
the defective nature of the "face of the re-
turns"
You state in commenting on the report
that it was Exceedingly surprising to
you. How could this have been so, since
Mr.. Greene, the chairman of the committee,
told you on the floor of the house on the
morning of January 9th that the commit
tee had practically decided to report that
from the evidence, they did not find that
any of the democratic candidates for state
officers had been elected, excepting Mr.
Staub?
You, yourself, as I have already stated
were, from all can find out, the only per
son endeavoring to bring pressure" OF
"infuence" upon the committee in making
| up their report. So far as Governor Bulk
, eley is concerned-whom understand yor
are about to charge with having 'threat
ened" the committee-he never attempted
to exert any influence upon me personally
or upon any of my colleagues, 80 far as
know. He never suggested plans and mo-
tives for keeping himself in Office, or 9th
ers out of Office, but once or twice he re-
marked to me, casually, that having had
; the honor of the Office and being interested
in developing new branch of his private
business, he would ~ glad to retire when
ever his successor was duly chosen and
qualified.
This furnishes my specific answer tc
your "open letter" But, Mr.. Harrison,
have not done with you quite yet. Surely
: gentleman who cultivates publicity as
you have done, who courts morality with
such eagerness, cannot logically object te
. my pursuing this interesting theme ever
, to its, to you, bitter end.
A conference of number of prominen
republicans was held, at your invitation
at the Hartford club, some time after the
adoption by the house of the committee'l
report, at which were present, among 9th.
ers, Messrs. Herbert E. Benton, Allan w
Paige, Gardiner Greene, jr., Milton A
Subway; and afterwards, Messrs. Will
liam G. Case, Morgan G. Buckley, and 9th
ers. On this occasion you, Mr.. Harrison,
who before that time and since have re-
peatedly stated and boosted, both person
ally and in the editorial columns of the New
Haven Palladium, that Ito quote the words
of your 'sopen letter'O at no time ''since
last November have changed my opinion
that General Merwin is entitled to the Office
of governor; who have all along posed
and still pose as his (self-constituteD spe-
cial champion, stated to me that, Gin your
opinion the right thing to do, to stop all
the wrangle and delay, would be to seat
Judge Morris at once, without furthe jur-
dieial or legislative examination" This can
be verified by other gentlemen who were
present and heard your remark.
Of course there was nothing necessarily
reprehensible in your protesting belief
that Judge Morris was entitled to be seated
without further investigation, though it is
to be specially noted that you we're undoubt-
eddy the only republican in the state of
Connecticut who professed to hold such an
opinion. But, can you offer any explana-
ton why you should have favored these
two radically different plans at the same
time one in public and the other in pri-
Yates Do you, in the light of the recent
legal decision, now believe that Judge
Morris is entitled to the Office of governors
If your wish-if, at least, what you were
then willing to do-had been carried out,
the latter would now be in possession of
his Office beyond shadow of dispute.
At the meeting at the Hartford club you
advised the calling of meeting of promi-
nent republicans at the Allyn House the
following week. This meeting was accord
ingly held. Those present were largely of
your own selection. You state that the
effect of the action of the committee was