The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-28

| goes to the bank anu TStufns to flnd InaU
| the Mayors vote lssosciared before o.lo.
thing And Harper and his clerk actual
" co1,nted. according to this return, 1850
/ VOTES inside of forty-fve minutes. SpliJs
were numerous. you know. Let us do
| an example in arithmetic, and to give
| the respondent every favor, allow him
sixty minutes to SORT, count and declare
! the votes. More than twenty votes a
/ every three seconds Can it be done?
| Every man who sits on this panel who
| has had any experience in counting votes
knows that the thing is impossible. Z
And 1 assert here and now, that it is a
| physical and mental impossibility for
| man like this Harper, even with some as,
| sistance from his clerk to sort, count ana
| decide any such number of votes as this
record discloses 1t cannot be done gen
| tlemen, it cannot be done 1t was not
dome nv Thomas r. Harper on the slxtn
| day OF March last And in giving the
| declaration he did, in the time he gave
| it, and on the facts in the evidence here
one of two things absolutely foil9Wsh,
! either the respondent made count whlcn
| he knew to be false; or he did not count
all the votes. And if understand the
| law, either horn he may grasp of that
| dilemma is equally fatal to. him. II man
whose business it is to count does MOB
count, and pretends to give a result, ne
| is equally guilty with one who has de-
| liberately miscounted. In other woros'
No Count Is False Count.
AS matter of fact, 1851 votes alone
| were cast, and this honest, innocent re-
spondent only made mistake OF eight
per cent on such a matter in his count.
He was acquainted with the politics OF
the ward, had been active in ward politics
for years, and had even been warden be-
| fore. He knew the usual closeness OF the
| vote. and that an excess of twenty-five
| for either party was O. normal majority
| for that region. Therefore when his
figures showed that p. 81. 1ngraham mad
| 748 votes and majority of over TWO
hundred and forty that fact alone. as,
thing 70 do. should have showed him he
| had made an egregious blunder.
| But neither the abnormal total nor tn e
tremendous excess of harper's man had
| any lesson for him 1t was because.
gentlemen, he knew it was false as
matter of fact, it was because he mad
| merely done what he had determined 20
do that be threw judgment to the winds
and impudently, brazenly announced
the vote, following it in a short ten
minutes with an equally false announc-
ment of the vote for alderman. Having
once made his standard he had to follow
!. it; peruse this return and see how the
other votes keep up with the Mayors
total, and despite the fact SO common as
| to be universal experience that the vote
always and everywhere falls off on the
minor offices. Even ward constables had
| the same magnificent total, and the same
enormous excess. This man knew all
these things better than you or !, put
| blindly shutting his eyes to the obvious
fact, he rushed madly on, winning the
| willssaccord him. | digress moment to
touch one point which may disturb your
minds. He could'nt have intended this
| they say because it was so plain that ne
would be found out. What is meant is
| that an examination of the check list
would disclose the fraud.
| An examination of check list? Yes,
but suppose the check list had been de-
| stroyed, or the city clerk had refused TO
permit them to be examined, or had not
kept the return ballots, tor this was not
| Septem Der election when the laws re-
quire check lists to be preserved, but
municipal election. Then we could not
have known the fact save by sum- nonlng
| in the entire number of electors of Ward
| into court and ascertaining how they
voted The exposure is Largely due to the
| honesty of the man who was then city
| clerk.
| Gentlemen, much has been said by the
respondents counsel of the part which
| the former city clerk Mr.. John Russell,
| took in the transactions which lmme-
diately followed the declaration of the
vote on election night, and sarcastic
| illusions are made to him rejecting up
| on his standing as q citizen and his repu-
| tation as man. And although that for
| mer honest public servant and myself
differ widely in politics, | am averse to
| let the opportunity escape of making a
| cealment went / do not care to treat it
| lightly. But feel convinced that when
| he had yielded to the momentary inn
pulse to gain temporary advantage he,
| personally, set himself to work to rectify
| the wrong and SO far as he could to
right it, Surely an honest, upright life
as boy and man in this city for more
| than fifty years is of more account then
| the sneers of counsel. On the whole his
conduct in this matter does not give fair
ground for cruel censure. And laying no
| claim to prophetic vision / am assured,
| that when the part you and play in this
| case has ended, and the case itself is for
gotten, the people OF this city who come
after us will remember with respect and
| gratitude the name Of the man who in
| the distressing political exigency of the
party to which he belonged refused to
| place party politics above the duty he
| owed the people and scorned to dishonor
| his manhood
Harper is not particularly brilliant
| rascal, will allow. But there are stupid
| criminals as we'll as bright ones, and
| many of both classes are caught, and the
| most stupid part of Thomas e. Harper
performance lay in his believing that he
could obtain assistance from the city
clerk to cover up his fraud.
And SO the farce went on, and as If to
make his ruin more completely splendid,
| he reserved his browning act of bare faced
fraud for the final act of the drama,
when he pretended to count and declare
| the vote on the question Of the revision
of the ward lines He returned 1924 as
voting on the question. Unfortunately
for the respondent six hundred and thirty
ballots were returned and are in this
case, and ON eighty-four of that lot no
vote at all on the question was given
Fifteen per cent of the votes we have are
unmarked at the question, and if the same
per cent should hold true on the other
ballots, less than thousand men voted
upon it. Remember, Harper wanted
"yesn votes to win, and his returns
show the same enormous preponderance
that way as appeared in the vote for
Mayor. But that is not all. When we
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