The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-08

ter dissenting from the majority re-
commentator. At the conclusion of
the reading Mr.. Lewis, chairman of the
elections committee, moved the adop-
ton Of the majority report. Mr.. Mans
field, of the minority Of the commit
tee. moved as a substitute the edop-
ton Of the minority report. Thus was
the business of the evening launched
before the committee of the whole and
Mr.. Lewis arose to open the debate for
the majority.
LEWIS SPEECH.
Mr.. Lewis spoke for over an hour
He took up the evidence and read
therefrom in an effort to prove the
theory adopted as q conclusion that
Bringhurst gained two votes from
state tickets having been deposited in
city and county boxes which were not
counted. He then read the evidence
with reference to z. e. Robertson, E.
S. Crowley, ]. ". Pike and Emil
Maeser to show that their votes were
illegally cast Deducting these four
ballots from Mr.. Lemmon's vote and
adding the two first mentioned to the
vote of Bringhurst the latter had a
majority Of one or sufficient to seat
him. Mr.. Lewis cited numerous au-
thorities to sustain his position and
closed by urging that personal regard
for the contestee should not be taken
into consideration when the house
should decide which of the gentlemen
was entitled to a seat upon the floor
Mr.. Mansfield opened the argument
for tie minority. He hoped the house
would not decide the case upon techni-
calities. The purity Of the ballot box,
the right of majorities to rule was at
ha
served Mr.. Mansfield took up the
case as Mr.. Lewis had reviewed
it. citing supreme court decisions
to prove his point in each
instance. Mr.. Mansfield had prepared
himself very carefully and had de-
cision to support every phase of his
argument. BY these decisions and
frequent references to McCreary and
every other authority on elections he
could procure, he established clearly
enough that the two fallots cast at
Lehi in city and county boxes and
counted by the majority for Bring
hurst. could not be so counted with
any semblance of Justice.
He then took UP the four ballots
claimed by the majority and proved
by the evidence taken by the majority
itself, in the light of the decisions he
had ait his command, that they were
with reference to the two Lehi ballots
mentioned Mr. Mansfield cited Nc
Creary, who holds that the presump-
ton must be that the judges per-
formed their full duty in counting bal
lots. and therefore that votes thrown
out and not counted must be con-
strued to be Illegal in the absence Of
any evidence to the contrary. There
had been no such evidence introduced;
IL. md
evidence did not even show that Bring
bursts name was on the ballots, and
in the absence of any such evidence
the ballots should not be counted. He
sustained his position in this regard
by reference to the ninth Utah report,
which aDDar4ntly demonstrated beyond
room for doubt the accuracy of his po-
sition.
Mr.. Mansfield, having admitted these
points. admitted for arguments sake
that the four ballots were Illegal,
which were claimed TO be so by the
majority report He went fur
Their and supposed that they
voted for the contestant and ad-
ded them to the total vote cast
for Pringhurst. which was 2.56S, making
a total of 2.572 or an even tie of Mr..
Lemmon's vote. He then showed that
even granting all this Mr.. Lennon
was entitled to his seat for by the evil
dence which he quoted five illegal votes
had been cast for the contestant. He
cited each separate case and showed
by the evidence introduced that they
unouestionably were Illegal but throw
ing these all aside and admitting the
illegality of the four votes which the
majority claimed should not be count
ed for Mr. Lennon, the contestee still
had a majority of one upon the theory
of the Republicans; for reasoning from
their theory, there was one vote not
counted at Provo which should have
been counted for the contestee. Mr..
Mansfield closed with q strong perora-
ton uDon the upholding Of the princi-
pies Of republican institutions, assert
ing the belief that if the members all
voted according to their convictions he
had no fear that the great injustice
would be done which would deprive
Mr.. Lennon of his right to sit on the
floor.
Mr.. NYE CLOSES.
Mr.. Nye consumed the remainder of
the session arguing forcibly from the
majority standpoint but able as was
his effort he was unable to Offset Mr..
Mansfield's presentation of the case.
At the conclusion of his argument he
moved the committee rise and report
progress, which was done and adjourn
ment taken until Monday.