Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1897-10-19
WHY HE'S FOR BUSHNELL.
Governor Was a Part of Famous
Underground Railroad.
MISCHIEF MAKERS ARE REDUKEI
Some Impertinent Questions That Were
Most Pertinently An
swered.

Inc IOllOWlnS letter Will De OF IN
terest to all voters, and especially col
ored men, because one shows the des-
perate processes of those working in
the interest of the Democratic side
show and the other exhibits the we'll
deserved rebuke given by Mr.. Nelson
Cant, one of the most popular colored
men in the state and a citizen of Zanes-
vile, who is the peer of any:
Columbus, O., Oct. 2, 1897.
Mr.. Nelson Cant, GAINESVILLE, O.:
Dear Sir-Hoping that you will not
consider us inquisitive, we desire that
you send us an answer to the following
questions
is to blame at all in the Urbana affair?
If SO, are you willing and ready to
take an active part Quietly in oppo-
siticn to his ambition?
Don't you believe the wrong COM
mitted at Urbana should be rebuked
by defeating those officials of the law
who are candidates for reelection and
ere in any degree responsible for the
violation of law and order al Urbana
June 4, 1897?
We are not fighting the Republican
party, therefore we are not in favor
Of the Negro ticket. We are opposed,
first, last and all the time to Bushnell
being reelected governor. The law
and order element in the Afro-Ameri-
can League of Republican Clubs Of
Franklin county, Ohio, are at the head
of this movement.
Hoping that you will assist us and
that we may receive an answer by re-
turn mail, we main,
Yours for justice,
j. j. LEE, Chairman.
w. T. THOMAS, Sec'y.
Mr.. Gant's reply was as follows:
GAINESVILLE, o., Oct 7, 1897.
j. ]. Lee, Chairman, etc., Columbus, O.;
Sir-I am in receipt Of your circular
letter of Oct. 2, and in reply to your
first question will answer: l do not
hold that Governor Bushnell is to
blame at all in the Urbana affair.
IN reply to your second question will
say: Il will take no part whatever in
arg effort to defeat Governor Bush
nell; on the other hand, l will do all
in my power to elect him to the posi-
ton for which my party has nominat-
ed him.
To your third question will say: am
not informed that the sheriff and city
officials and people of the city of Ur-
bana are candidates for reelection. Il
they are, l think they should be de-
feated.
may state further that 1 possibly
have given the whole Urbana matter
more attention and investigation than
many so-called Republicans who pro-
pose, by their actions, to defeat Gov
ernor Bushnell and thereby defeat the
party that has been the only real po-
litical friend my race ever had in this
country. Besides, l find by impartial
investigation that Governor Bushnell
has all his life been real friend to
my kind, from the time when the un-
der ground railroad, Of which he was
part, was the only way we had to
liberty; also that he has been one of
the few white men in this great coun-
try that has stood by my kind. giving
them equal chance with the whites to
earn livelihood By employing them
in his workshops.
No, gentlemen, would be migrate.
ful to the party that you say you are
not fighting, ungrateful to my Crea-
tor, ungrateful to my race and would
deserve the severest condemnation that
my kind could put upon me. God for
bid that should so much as turn my
hand over TO defeat our real friends.
May ] say further that when you
gentlemen play into the hands OF our
enemies, as l take 1t you are doing,
you are fighting me. you are infiicting
injury upon yourselves and upon your
race. Let X 4. beg Of you TO cease your
effort or you will see the day you will
regret 1t. Yours In justice,
.,. N. T, CANT.