Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-29
IT'S A GROUND SWELL.


Only two more weeks of the campaign.
Next Saturday week will settle the con-
test. There will be no one left in doubt
after the results of that days work are
known. The first convenient train to
Washington after that date will bear the
congressman from the First district. He
will have the opportunity of resting up.
He can then get ready to return to Ala
bama and urge the election Of Captain
Johnston in August. OF course the de-
feat will be overwhelming, and. it being
the first real good drubbing the blue
eyed boy of destiny has had placed upon
him, it will naturally go hard with him,
but it cannot take him by surprise. He
evidently sees it now. He saw it many
days ago. He has had ample time to pre-
pare to take it. His leaders everywhere
see it. One does not have to be q close
observer to see in the faces of the Clarke
leaders that they fully realize that their
man must go down before the constantly
rising Johnston tide. A careless reader
can find in every Clarke organ album
dant evidences to establish the fact that
their editors see the handwriting on the
wall. Only one of them has had the te-
merity to undertake to point out how 1t
is possible for Clarke to avoid defeat,
and that one says Johnston will gain
twenty votes, enough to nominate him,
in counties that he failed to carry in
1884, and then exclaims that Johnston
will lose five votes in Wilcox county.
Following UP this startling declaration,
it then says that half a dozen other in
stances could be cited If good politics"
required. Well, if good politics. re-
quired the citing of Wilcox it will appear
to any one at all posted that 1t would
suggest the citing of almost any other
territory that lies within the borders of
Alabama. Johnston will carry the solid
vote of Wilcox as sure as the day of cleo
ton comes. He carried the county in
1894, but for the sake of harmony was
prorated out of half the delegation. 1t
is really amusing that the same good
politics" that required the claiming of
Wilcox for Clarke did not require the
startling announcement that Jefferson
would line up for Clarke.
The cold, plain truth is that Clarke is
not in this race. He is already woefully
defeated, and every day from this day
until the primary is over Clarke will grow
weaker His campaign has been a COM
Dlele IdlluFe. lie was Drought out by the
Advertiser. after several others had fiat
ly refused to lend themselves to that pa
per in its wild effort to thwart the will
of the people simply because it possessed
a whole lot of pent up hatred for Cap
tain Johnston. He was made to believe
that the democratic party in this state
would down at the bidding of a dis
gruntled newspaper, which has long
been controlled by powers not in Ala
bama, but in New York. Mr.. Clarke was
simply misled. He has been buncoed by
the Advertiser and the influences be-
hind it. There viii be 504 delegates in the
next convention, and Captain Johnston
is now morally certain of $50 of them.
He will probably get more than that If
the tide continues to rise he will, in all
probability, go into the convention with
400 of the 5O4 delegates composing the
convention. News to hand makes it al
| most certain that Johnston will carry Mo-
| bile county. Montgomery and Dallas are
| no longer spoken of by informed Clarke
men as even fighting ground for the Mo-
| bile man. They are conceded to John
ston by the well informed.
1t is simply a ground swell all along the
line. Johnston will be the nominee by
the largest majority any man ever re-
ceived in Alabama for the same place.
Clarkes name will not go before the
convention.