The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-01-31
The Unseating of Tisdale.

The Unseating of Tisdale.
The unseating of JOHN N. TIsDALE
from from the Senate of Wyoming was a
great surprise to both Democrats and
Republicans. It was hailed with salts
faction by nearly everybody except the
active supporters OF Senator WARREN in
his struggle for reelection. TIsDALE
was WARREN man from first to last.
His election lost the Senator one vote,
and made his candidacy almost hopeless.
After deciding that Mr.. FooTE was not
entitled to the seat, it was thought that
TIsDALE was secure in his position. But
there were Republicans in the Wyoming
Senate honest enough to act on their con-
viction and the laws OF the state.
The supporters of Mr.. TIsDALE rested
on the provision OF the State Constitution
that a Senator or Representative shall
have resided for twelve months next
preceding his election within the county
or district in which he was elected. It's
DALE had fulfilled this requirement. But
the election law provides that elective
offices shall become vacant, among other
reasons, if the incumbent shall
cease to be an inhabitaut of the
state, or of the district, town, ward, or
precinct for which he was elected.
Another provision, which was not cited
in the argument for election, is this:
Sec. 6. No person shall be eligible to
any Office who at the time he is chosen
and during his incumbency therein is not
qualified elector and an actual resident of
the district, county. town, ward or pre-
cinct, as the case may be, in which he
holds such Office
At the last election Mr.. TIsDALE could
not have voted because he would have had
to swear that he had been actually and
not constructively bona fide resident of
Wyoming one year and in the county
sixty days preceding the day OF election.''
eligible to the office for which he was a
s'hold-over.
Five Democrats and four Republicans
voted to unseat him, on the ground that
he had made affidavits to the effect that he
was resident of Albany county, Wyo-
ming, and also of Salt Lake city, Utah,
while he was holding the Office of Senator
from Johnson county. Six Republicans
voted to keep HIM in his seat. The action
of those members of his party who joined
the Democrats in the vote is loudly ap-
plauded and has helped the Republican
party in public estimation more than any
thing it has done in the state for long
time.
The proper thing for the Senate to do
now that it has purged itself of that
wrong, is to seat Mr.. FooTE, who at the
November election was chosen by an over
whelming majority to fill the vacancy
which the people OF Johnson county un-
stood existed. AT present that county is
without representation in the Senate.
There was a calinformality in the
election. The law requires the governor
to notify the county clerk of vacancy in
legislative Office, SO that proper notice
may be given before the election. In this
case the county commissioners notified
the Secretary of state that in their opinion
there was a vacancy through the removal
of TIsDALE from the state. The Secretary
replied that they had sent no statement of
facts. The acting governor did not de-
clare the vacancy. But at the November
election, due notice having been given by
the county clerk of the officers to be
elected, ROBERT FooTE was elected to fill
the vacancy, receiving 7O4 votes out of
about 800 in the county.
Wyoming will be in much better stand
ing before the country through the eject
ing from the upper house of its assembly
man who, without doubt, engaged in
the invasion which has caused so much
indignation, and in which cold blooded
assassinations were perpetrated and
wholesale murders were intended. It is
always best to do what is right.