Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-07-04
MAFFITT TO FARRIS
Chairman of the State Central Com
mittee Replies to the Laclede
County Chairman.

Headquarters state ~ehhocIati
Committee, St. Louis, Mo-, June ~,
1881. W. Farris, Esq, Chairman OF
the i.aclede County Democratic Com
mittee, Lebanon, Mo-: Dear Sir
read in the public prints to-day your
letter of the 2Sth inst, and several
hours later received a copy of the
same by mail. In reply have to say
that / sent to you, as l did to the
chairmen of every other County Com
mittee, a copy of the circular publish
ed in Wednesdays Republic and a
blank form for the vote of the County
Committee on the question of recon
vening the State Committee. APP
parently without consulting your COM
mittee, and apparently without re-
gard to their wishes, you decline to
call them together, and decline to give
an opportunity to express their pres
emit views, and this upon the ground
that your county had already acted.
If | proceed in the same spirit might
answer that the State Committee have
already acted and that, therefore, |
would do nothing more.
The State Committee acted accord
ing to their best judgment in declin-
ing to call a State Convention. Still,
if a majority of the party desire it, l
agreed that the committee should be
| reconvened to again consider the mat
ter.
You assume to say that 73 counties
have acted on the question, either
| through conventions or through COM
m~ittees, and that more than GO of
these have determined in favor of a
call. I repeat that the State Commit
| tee have no such evidence, and they
have every a to believe that the
Democrats of this State would not
hesitate to convey their wishes di-
| rectly to tine committee in respect to
any matter concerning which they
desire the committee to act. You
have no authority to speak for the
| Democrats of the State, save what
you have conferred upon yourself,
| and the State Committee cannot take
the responsibility which rests upon
them to ascertain the will of the party
in this matter and leave it to you to
determine, nor will it do so.
AS to what occurred in the inter
view with you, 1 have only to say that
it is not fairly nor truthfully reported
by you. 1 said to you that if a ma
jority of the State Committee request
| ed it, l would reconvene the commit
tee. A majority of that committee
have not requested me to do SO, and,
therefore, l have not reconvened
them.
I said to you further that if a ma
jority of the chairmen of the county
committees advised me that their
counties desire the State Committee
to be reconvened l would call it, and
in pursuance of that suggestion and
to give effect to it, l stated that ]
would on Saturday send out a circu-
lar letter with a view of collecting this
expression of party opinion in that
manner and that if your representa-
tions with respect to the wishes of the
party in the State e. correct, the
responses to that circular would SO in
dieate.
Now, in what respect have / de-
waited from what l then stated l would
do? In just one. Owing to sickness
of which you were advised at the time
l was unable to formulate the circular
at as early a date as | had stated anc
hoped to be able to do, and you tool
advantage of that opportunity to fore
stall the action of the State Commit,
tee and sem out a circular calling fol
returns to be sent, not to me, o tC
any member of the State Committee,
but to Mr.. Earl r. Britt, of st. Charles
Mo-, who is certainly no more thar
yourself the authorized medium Of
communication between the State
Committee and the party of the State
Furthermore, / wish to say that you
surely did not understand me to say
that the question of calling a specia,
convention Or reconvening the COM
mittee was to be RENTED to the chair
men of the several county committees
individually for settlement. My let
ter, as you know, was to be sent to
the chairmen al the representatives
of the committees to ascertain the
views of the committees.
You have been charging me with
arrogating to myself the whole power
of the committee, but your objection
to my curse and your refusal to con,
vene the committee of your county
in my judgment, shows that you pos
sess the disposition which you attrib.
ute to me.
You are mistaken in supposing thai
l am calling for any new expression o
views. The State Committee had re-
ceived no instructions, from conven
tions or committee save, in II coun.
ties. Acting upon their judgment they
declined to call a convntion. The
JuuShlOht hdo DOSh ShdbCuSCd DO hO
representing the party's wishes, ant
the committee now appeal to th'
party in the State, through it's county
organizations, to learn whether al
extraordinary convention is desired
by the party. The emergency is to,
grave and the danger to party integ'
rity too great to act upol
any less authoritative assurance thai
has thus far been called for. 1t il
more than the right of the State Com
mittee; it is their duty to ascertain
the wishes of the party for themselves
and they have no right to delegat,
that duty to you or to Mr.. Britt. 1t i
the duty of the committee to be them
selves assured that the counties ar
fairly represented, and that those witt
are said to speak for them are author
lied to do SO and have in fact done so
With silver men as silver men O
with gold men as gold men the com
mittee have nothing to do. Thei
business is with Democrats, and it i
with them that the committee vii
deal. You seem less concerned 70
| theDemoeratic party than for yourself
and the succe of the movement
| of which you to be the head.
shall have no more to do with yol