St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-05

together with himself, and al. have pre-
| ceded him to the other world. Gov.
| Swift had been president of the state
senate, and by the election of Gov.
| Ramsey to The United States SELL
| ate and the election of Lieut..
| Gov. Donnelly to the house
he became governor, and with much
| personal reluctance allowed his name
| 10 be used as a competitor with Mr..
| Wilkinson. Gov. Swift had positively
declined to be candidate before the
| people for election to the executive
Office, but had been again chosen to the
| senate and was member of the caucus
which nominated Il senator, but did not
| advocate his own claim. The night of
| the Republican caucus was memora-
bic one in the political history of the
! state. Norton was a member of the
| house and also on the inside of the eau
| Gus TO fight his own battle. There was,
| therefore, the peculiar condition of two
| senatorial candidates in the caucus,
one active and the other passive.
There were several ballots. and
@NOA OII hOlC Tau QOMi W lbuls
one being cast by himself and another
by State Senator Cameron, of Hous-
ton county, who was a stalwart
Norton man. When the Norton vote
was at Its ebb he and Cameron be-
| sought the members of the caucus to
| give him (NOrtom a complimentary
vote Oh the next ballot with a view of
then dropping him, but saving him from
the modification of retiring with so
small vote. On the next ballot Norton
received eleven votes, and, with the pc
culiarity and uncertainty of politics.
| this sudden gain of seven votes led
many who wanted to be with the win
| ner to think that he was the coming
| man. Instead of Withdrawing, Norton
| and Cameron worked all the harder, and
the second ballot thereafter Norton was
the nominee. and his election as Mr.
Wilkinson'S successor followed as q
matter of course.
Mr.. Lincoln was very much grievcd
at Wilkinson'S defeat. and publicly
announced through the press that he
regarded it as national cal amity.
One of the exciting incidents of Will
kinScn's senatorial career was his bring
ing charges of disloyalty 10 the govern
ment against Jesse d. B right, then one
OF the Sc majors from Indiana. Though
the charges were not sustained by the
Judiciary committee, Mr.. Wilkinson led
the fight In open senate with such elo-
quenee and Yigor that Bright was ex-
PEELED.
AGAIN A SENATORIAL CANDIDA ATE.
In tie winter of 1869 Mr.. Wilkinson
was age. candidate tor the senate,
and agas.. the fates were against him.
though tie swerving of hair would
have given him the prize. 1t was the
end of Senator Ramsey's first term, and
he was candidate for re-elec-
ton. Tie fierce DonnelIy cam
paign of 1868 had been fought
with a view of making DonnelIy
the antagonist of Ramsey, and in. spite
of DonneIly's defeat for the House by 4
split in the party, he continued an ag-
gresslve campaign for the senate
against Ramsey. Wilkinson was
also in the field. and few hours
before the legislative caucus Donnelly
decided to withdraw and throw his
strength to Wilkinson, as next to secur-
ing it for himself the defeat of Ramsey
lay nearest to his heart. The Ramsey
forces were we'll in hand, he having
enough votes. positively pledged for the
first ballot, to give him the nomination
quite handsomely. Both Ramsey and
his opponents knew that it must be on
the first ballot or never. as quite num-
Der had been caught by the specious
pledge of lone vote" who would never
give second one.
In order to make sure of spotting
their men the Ramsey forces arranged
to have their tickets printed on red
cardboard. By some means the Wilkin-
son-Donnelly camp secured Ramsey
ticket short time before the caucus,
and one of the exact color and size was
printed bearing the name of Morton 5.
Wilkinson" The Ramsey forces were
too smart to permit even an Informal
ballot, as is customary in political
contests, lest some of their zone vote''
supporters might claim that they had
kept faith by the informal vote. By
rising vote. which compelled every one
to show their coors. the effort of the
Wilkinson men to secure an informal
ballot was defeated. and the first ballot
was therefore formal and binding.
When the roll was called the Ramsey
forces were confident of not less than
six majority, and as the roll call pro-
ceeded and they saw tue red tickets de-
posted mot knowing there were two
red tickets) they were joyous over their
expected victory. But the count showed
such result that they turned pale over
the narrowness of their escape One
member of the caucus took Ramsey
ticket and pasted the name of w. D.
WashbuTn over that of Ramsey. In
taking the ballots from the hat Wash
burns name came off, and the tellers
counted the vote for Ramsey and threw
the Washburn vote away. the one w il
kinson teller to two for Ramsey. appar-
emily not being shrewd enough to insist
on counting the Washburn vote also,
thus making the ballot informal by hav-
ing one more vote than there were
members of the caucus.
But in spite of all this there had been
sufficient shrinkage in the 'one-Yote"
promises to cut RamSey's vote, and he
was nominated by only one majority,
the single red ticket from which the
Washburn paster slipped doing the bus-
ness, and giving Ramsey his second
term.
But for this proverbial slip Mr.. Will
kinson would have had second term IN
the senate, as another ballot in that
caucus would have made him the NOM
inee.
HIS SUBSEQUENT CAREER.
When the anti-Grant, or Liberal-Re-
| publican convention was called to meet
| in Cincinnati in 1872 Mr.. Wilkinson was
| in sympathy with that movement 1t
was called as a mass convention, and
hence no state convention was neces-
Sary tn send dplppatpc nuita q MN,