The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-18
REPUBLICAN, MEMBERS MEET
.4LDERMEN AND COUNCIIMEN HOLD
 dJOINT CAUCUS.

A Committee Appointed to Confer With
 Major Lincoln and to Ask Him to With
 draw--Another Caucus on Monday Even-
 ing.
 The republican members of the court
 of common council met last evening in
 caucus to consider the advisability of
 reconsidering the vote by which Major William A. Lincoln was made the eau
 GUS nominee of the party for the office
 of sealer of weights and measures.
 The meeting was presided over by
 Alderman Hamilton, and Councilman Dewell acted as secretary. This eau
 GUS was in consequence of the failure
 to elect a sealer of weights and meas
 common council held for that purpose on Monday evening, February 10 which
 adjourned without an election, the re- publican members failing to agree upon
 a candidate.
 | The proceedings of that meeting were 1 made public in the press on the morn
 ing following. It was clearly demon l Strated upon that occasion that time
 would be necessary for the members of
 the majority party to get together up-
 on a candidate, and it was during re
 cess of fifteen minutes that it was
 agreed upon by them to stand togeth-
 CT for recess of two weeks and thus
 gain time in which to agree on a plan l of action.
 1 During the weeks intervening there have been moves and counter-moves
 galore, all of which so far seem to have
 availed little so far as solving the prob
 lem is concerned.
 So apparent was the situation un-
 changed last evening that there were
 few members of the caucus who went
 there with any hope of arriving at the solution of the question. Reporters were not admitted-a fact which the
 members deplored CD when they were
 asked to give the public something of
 what they had done.
 The Lincoln men went into the eau
 GUS as resolute as they have been at
 any time in the history of the fight
 The bulwark of their strength appeared
 to lie in securing committee to in .
 quire into the fitness of their candidate
 for the office and in establishing the il l legality of any vote to reconsider the vote by which MT. Lincoln was nomi-
 mated. They courted free and open dis
 cusslon as to the character of their can-
 didate and invited the closest inspec- 1 tion as to his fitness to fill the office. It looked at one time as if such g. i committee would be raised. There was considerable parliamentary entangle- | ment, however, and talk as to the ad- visibility of making such a committee, etc, until it was lost. A motion to in- 1 definitely postpone the whole matter met with a similar fate. It was at this 1 juncture that the opponents of MT Lin- | coin moved to have recess for ten
 minutes, This was lost and the eau
 GUS proceeded to discuss the matter l several members taking part in the i debate Who the speakers were could not be learned, but what they said
 would occasionally float out into the
 hall, where the reporters were patiently
 waiting to hear of Major Lincoln's fate. | The anti-Lincoln men were advised to ! get together and agree on candidate l There was no doubt as to the position l of their opponents, and if the same uni | ty of thought existed as to who should 1 be candidate among them, there would
 be no difficulty in settling the matter,
 and in order to further this plan it was
 moved that recess until Monday be 1 taken. Then came another series of
 moves pro and con, though for and against what it was hard from the newspaper mems point of view i'll the 1 corridor of the aldermanic chamber to l tell. Another attempt to get a ten minutes recess was made and this time | it was successful This intermission. 1 however had no effect upon the situa- | ton.
 l When the caucus reassembled the
 same line of action was kept up and it was decided that a committee be ap- pointed to wait upon Major Lincoln and prevail, if possible, upon him to | withdraw, and also to consult the cor poration counsel as to the legality of withdrawing his name by vote to re- consider The committee which was raised by vote of the members and l not by the president are: Aldermen Belden and Nicoll, and Councilmen White.
 A motion to take a recess until Friday evening was put and carried A few of | the members immediately departed for l their homes, but there were those who wished to settle the matter last night Chairman Hamilton's gavel again fell and the members resumed their seats Interesting events were looked for, and
 one member got the privilege of the floor just long enough to say that he had come there to settle the candidacy of MT. Lincoln in some way. He wanted the committee to go out and hunt up MT. Lincoln and have him come before the caucus and withdraw. At the same time this member placed himself on record by saying that he, would not vote for Lincoln. Thewaters threatened turbulency, but happily oil was poured upon them and calm reigned just lons enough for a motion to be carried to take recess until Monday evening next at o'clock. So far as could be learned last evening the only way to se- cure an attendance upon the caucus
 was to take a recess until this date to
 an hour just previous to the joint con
 vention Of the court of common coun- cil.