The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1896-07-08

Mr.. Lane, .tne democrats Wdut oh
free silve& platform The only
trouble with Bland" he added, "as
far as you men from the South are
concerned, is that he is called a
Southern man and you are afraid to
vote for him You're political COW
ards. and that's what's hurts you.
If Illinois can afford to give Bland
43 votes, as she will do, the Southern
delegates ought to have courage to
second her efforts in his behalf.
There the discussion ended
Senator Tillman arrived at the
head or the advance guard of the
South Carolina delegation He
comes with little State boom for
the Presidency, but at the first op-
perfume moment, it is understood, he
viii! turn his vote over to Bland.
The caucus of the Missouri dele
cation, which was held last night,
resulted in no positive action further
than the selection Of Senator Cock
rell as member of the committee Oh
resolutions. The candidacy of Mr..
Bland and the policy to be pursued
in order to make the work in bis be.
BALI as effective as possible, was dis
cussed from 10 o'clock until almost l
O'Clock in the morning, number Of
enthusiastic speeches being made.
Congressman De Almond advocated
the endorsement by the delegation of
the caucus of the silver men which
has been proposed for the purpose of
determining who shall be the silver
candidate. This was antagonized by
Senator Vest. Not for the reason,
however, that he was opposed to
anything that Mr.. Bland's friends
wanted, but because he considered it
bad policy at the present time. In
one of his Characteristic speeches Mr.
Vest called attention to the fact that
MIR. Bland was the leading candidate
and would in all probability be the
choice Of the convention. If the
Missouri delegation were to take the
initiative in this matter, their action
might be construed, Senator Vest
said, as an effort on the part Of Mis-.
sour to unduly hasten matters and
take snap judgment in favor of its
Candidate. 1t might also, he feared,
be unacceptable 10 delegations from
other States who had candidates to
come before the convention Sena
tor Vest believed that the first steps
with respect to this proposed caucus
should be taken by the delegations
pledged to no particular candidate,
and declared that as soon as this was
done Missouri could properly partici-
pate in it's proceedings This adj
vice was followed, aad no action was
taken on the subject.
All the members of the Illinois
delegation have not yet reached the
city, but those who are here-a
majority of the whole number--held
conference this morning at the
Sherman house The question Of
the Endorsement of candidate was
formally discussed, and it was sub
sequently asccrtained that very
large majority of the whole de!ega-
tion was favorable to the nomination
of MIR. Bland The delegation will
not be complete until tomorrow
morning, and while another confer
~ence will be held tonight for the
purpose of comforting with those
who arrived on the afternoon trains,
the formal action of the delegates
will not be had until the conference
of tomorrow At this time, Mr..
Bland through the operation of the
unit rule, will be formally indorsed,
and members of the various conven-
ton committees will be selected
The Teller men to day began to
define their policy They are grow
ing more as the convention draws
near and are making definite claims
as to the strength Of their candidate.
They have prepared a statement
showing the number Of electoral
votes which they claim will be OBJ
tanned if Teller is made the choice
of the convention. This statement
is being used to influence Teller
sentiment among the delegates.
Congressman Bailey of Texas, del
egate at large and Que of the Bland
leaders, has also prepared statement
giving the number OF electoral votes
the Democrats may hope to secure, but
bis Ggures fall below those prepared
by he Teller faction. The two state.
ments have been compared and the
Teller people are saying toat the Bland
men and supporters of other candidates
pledged TO free silver are very much
impressed with Teller's alleged
strength