Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-18

that strikes me as being the fouleSC ana the
 meanest, and the man must be ''verily
 another Daniel come to judgment" before he can dare to say that he knows better
 than the people what they are doing, or that if he had the power he would do 1t bet
 ter. These accusations are unjust; they
 are wrong; they are insulting; they are humiliating. ] venture to say, in my judgment, that no man in Alabama would
 undertake thus 10 herald the infamy of his state upon his own accusation unless he had an intention to raise mask between
 him and public expectation behind which he could hide when he comes to do the very things he has charged upon us. Applause The old cry of "stop thief' the fellow. that is crying the loudest being the man that has the swag and is running off with it. Laughter. There Is no
 ground for that. do not care what may have been mans personal history. He may have been as pure man as old Dr. Manly, who once presided over the State
 university, or he may have been a man who sometimes has boasted that he was raised and brought up in the business of stufing ballot boxes, and knew exactly how il was,
 and had done it as matter ot self defense. It doesn | make any difference what sort Of man 1t was, how are you going to believe him? 1 am not, by any means, going to
 follow him after that, because he says VI have been an expert in ballot box 5tuhhng, but have been converted and have joined the new church-lhe church of the latter day saints of democracy, and henceforward
 and forever my clean hands will be held up for the people to look at [laughterl and see
 whether or not an not actual redeemer Of this state-of the morals Of this state.'' THE FRAUD ISSUE.
 Fellow citizens, they say that is the issue in this campaign. The chairman of the
 executive committee, the committee, they
 call it, of the Kolb party-he calls it the Kolb party-the Jeff4fsonian democrats or the Kolb party-the chairman of the execu tive committee of the Kolb party, in writ
 ing letter addressed to the people of the northern states, expressly addressed to them, proceeds to inform them that the issue in this campaign is to be ballot box stuifing. Well, if that issue had been made fifteen years ago down in Barbour county
 there might possibly have been some req son for it, but when we undertake to make
 that an issue in this state campaign, and you find the gentleman who was 10 lead the hosts of purity, the redeemed and disen- thralled who have escaped from sin and
 abomination and iniquity of the old demo-
 cratic party l think you had better find some
 one else besides Reuben. Loud and long applause.l That an issue In this cam
 paign? When did it become an issue and how did it become an issue? What do they
 mean by it? After you have voted, and the vote has been certified to and counted by
 the legislature, your representatives take
 Are you going to disobey the laws
 because MT. Kolb says he was hereto fore elected by 1000 majority, and was
 counted out? When does the issue come up? Not until the election is over. It is the duty of every officer in this state con- nected with the elections to watch every other officer and to see that the ballots are
 fairly given and fairly counted, aud when that is done he then makes a certificate.
 THE CONTEST MATTER.
 Then a contest must be instituted if it is a matter of a member of the house of repre- sentatives. You ask why he did not con- test for governor. l will tell you why. Your state constitution does not so pro- vide, and your constitution is exactly right. The constitution of the United | States does not provide for a contestation | of the right of the president of the United | States to his commission by the judiciary. Suppose after the house of representatives and senate have met in joint convention and declared man to be elected president
 of the United States contest were fled.
 If all contestants had the right or
 power to appeal to the judiciary
 to decide the case as to whether the con
 testant was entitled to his seat or not, you
 would see that the great political depart
 ment of the government-the two houses
 of the legislature-would be subordinated to the judicial power of the country. You
 cannot make judge of the supreme court without his being confirmed by the senate;
 you cannot make judge of the supreme
 court of Alabama without his being elected
 by the people and certified and commits
 stoned by the governor. So you can under
 stand perfectly that the system in our
 state which makes the decision of the leg
 islature final upon questions of this kind
 when they have met in joint assembly is
 precisely like that of the United States,
 and it is for the safety and peace and citi-
 zenship of our state government that it should be just exactly it is. But that does not apply to members of the legisla-
 ture.
 I want to test MT. Kolb's statement that
 he, was elected governor by 45, 900 votes,
 and want to test 1t by the facts and not
 by declarations. l never had the slightest
 idea of the truth of it, for have been told
 over and over again by the best informed
 gentlemen in this state that there vas not
 a word of truth in it. Now, if he was
 elected governor by 45,000 majority, as
 matter of course his party must have
 elected a majority in the legislature. The
 contestation of seats before the legisla-
 ture by members of the house or of the
 senate, or persons claiming the right to
 membership in either of those houses, is
 perfectly open under the law. Why didn't
 these men in the different counties in the
 state come forward and contest the seats of
 democrats who were seated, and oust them
 by showing that there had been fraudulent
 counts? There was, l believe, but one
 case of that kind that was brought to final test, and that was from the county Of Pike, where the legislature admitted that there had been fraud or wrong, or miscount, and they seated the Kolblte, turning the democrat out. lAp- plause1 And so that body of sworn legis
 lators would have done in regard to every
 man who could have proven rightful ti-
 tie to an office and had been excluded from
 it by false count. Then what is the con-
 clusion? These men who are scattered
 over the state that wanted to be in the
 legislature and sought the votes of their
 friends were voted for and certified, said
 he was not really elected aud would make
 no contest, that the gentlemen whose
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