The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1896-08-14
A Trsvesty on Fairness.


was declared the nominee of tn
Convention held at the court hous
on last Wednesday.
John +. McFall was chosen ten
porary chairman, and as soon as tn
roll was called on the selection Of
permanent chairman, a row wa
precipitated among the Lawrenc
county delegation over the vote o
that county being cast as a unit.
seems from the reports of two coun
ty conventions held in Lawrence
that the first one called for the pur
pose Of appointing delegates to tn,
various conventions, when the ques
ton OF instructions to vote for Mr.
Willard as unit for Representative
candidate was up, the convention
adjourned in some disorder, without
adopting any resolution of instruc
tions-thus leaving each delegate
free to use his own judgment, and
vote as he deemed best. The Sec
ond convention assembled some
months later for the purpose OF
nominating county ticket, but
which had nothing to do with APP
pointing delegates, assumed to in
struct the delegates to the Repre-
sentative Convention to vote as a
unit for w. A. Holland as its choice
for a candidate. Of course these
last instructions had no validity.
But as it seemed, with part OF
the delegates present, to be "any-
thing TO down Willard, (" and as they
found that but nine of the ii dele
gates from Lawrence were present,
and that Wizards opponents had
five Of them, these five called eau.
Gus Of the delegation at the Indiana
hotel on Wednesday morning, and
after the four had been persuaded
TO attend, Mr.. Finks offered reso-
luton that Lawrence county vote as
unit on all questions coming be-
fore the convention. The four then
picked up their hats and walked
out-seeing the trap that was set to
tie their hands, and refused to have
anything to do with the caucus. or
be governed by it. As these four
were for Willard, and with the 10
votes Of Dubois county, which he
had won regularly at the primary
election, would have made him the
nominee, the rule or ruin five adopt
ed the unit resolution, and when
the first vote by counties was called
interposed an objection to the other
four delegates having any voice in
the proceedings. Chairman McFall
d cided that the caucus unit reso-
IN ion was binding, and that Law
renee county must vote her IA votes
as unit. From this decision an
appeal was taken, but of course the
chair was sustained, as he refused
to recognize nearly one-half Of the
delegates from Lawrence, and in
the meantime, some one had per-
suaded Perry Mozart, a delegate
from Orange county, to enter the
race, SO as to mix things up more.
1t was rumored that j. l.. Bretz was
the moving spirit in this affair, but
Of that, of course, no one knows
who will "tell the truth" publicly,
but Lawrence and Orange counties
cast their % delegates votes to sus-
tain the chair, while Dubois cast its
IS against. During the tendency
Of the appeal number of speeches
were made by various persons, but
the takers had as we'll talked to a
stone wall, AS it was evidently to
be cut and dried carrying out Of a
prearranged program.
Then Mr.. j. o. Finks, Of Law
renee county, was put in the chair,
and J. 4. McFall made Secretary,
and the Chairman read the call, and
announced that nominations were
in order.
Perry Mozart and Jas. II. Will
lard were put in nomination, but
MI. w. A. Holland had been en-
tirely forgotten by the Lawrence
delegates, thus showing that they
did not regard the instructions Of
their last county convention as val
id. The vote resulted for McCart-
Lawrence IA, Orange IL; for Will
lard, Dubois 10. When the vote of
Lawrence was announced the four
Willard delegates protested, and de-
manded call Of the delegates, an.
nouncing that part OF the five
casting the IA votes, were not dele
gates, and were not entitled to rec
ognition by the convention. To
this protest the chairman paid no
attention. r. M. Milburn, a dele
gate from Dubois county, also pro-
tested, and demanded an appeal
from the decision Of the chair, but
the chair paid no more attention to
him than he would to a gnat if he
were in a bumble-bees' nest, but
declared Mozart the nominee, and
ols-..~-1 A.