Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-08-31
IS MAYOR BELLS REQUEST
 FOR REPRESENTATION.
The Election Commissioners Address an Open and Insulting Let ter to Mayor Bell and
 His Supporters
Pine Bluff, Aug. 31. 1898.

CSAt MI " ' QGSliS tO tChuO WI- edge receipt of your communication of the 27th inst, requesting the Board of Election Commission CTS to appoint the persons named by you, as judges of election at the severa voting precincts of this county. At the same time you also filed with us a petition, purporting to be signed by 164 persons of which the follow ing (omitting signatures) is a copy,
 (Here follows Mayor Bells peti- tion and letter, recently published in this paper.)
 We have given your letter and the above petition that careful and de. liberate consideration which the inn portanee of the subject deserves and we desire to say in reply,
 1st-That lest our silence be con strued as an acquience, we desire to repudiate and deny the statement of fact contained. h the first sen tenee of said petition, we do not hnose or admit that both the candidates f4r the office of sheriff "are of the same political faith.
 We do know Maj. H. A. Mccoy, the nominee of the democratic party of Jefferson county, to be 8 demo- erat, but, as to yourself, we only know that you are fighting the reg ular democratic organization as an independent candidate, and it is a matter of common notoriety that you have been endorsed" (which is equivalent to nomination) by the republican committee of this eoun- ty; that Ferd Hayis, Middlebrooks, Jeffesson and other notorious negro republican leaders of the county are among the loudest in your support aud that your only hope for success s, to be elected by negro votes over buOoG Ol eh0 WuibS dcllONi3 tbu tax payers of the county, lu our opinion a democrat is one who sup ports the ticket, advocates the prin- ciples and labors for the success of the democratic party, and we see nothing in your present course which would bring You within this definition.
 2drYour petition from beginning to end bristles with uncalled for, unwarranted and gratuitous insults to the democratic party of this county. It assumes in almost every sentence that unless yoa are allowed tc appoint judge and clerk of elec- tion at every voting precinct in the county, that fair and honect elec- tion cannot be had. When and how your supporters become the custo- dians of all the political honesty and virtue in the county does not ap- pear; and we respectfully dissent from such a conclusion. We know of nothing in the history of our county democracy, since it rid Itself of some of it's old "compromise" leaders and assumed sole control of the county government which would warrant your or your supporters in assuming that a fair and honest election will not be had on the 9th, prox., under the management ot the regular democratic authorities. For six years past no such charge has ever been made by any decent re- publican in the county, and certainly not by any democrats.
 3d-We have no power to appoint clerks, but the law makes it the duty of this board to appoint three judges of election for each voting preclnct. The only limitation is that they shall be qualified electors; "dis- erect persons able to rean and write, and s'shall not all be select ed from the same political party if competent persons of different poli- tics can be found" We fiud noth- ing in either the letter or spirit of the law which gives to any cande- date the right to select judges in his own interest. Political parties only are to be considered-not per- sons. Hence, if you are, as yot claim, Democrat. the appointment lof two reputable Democrats, pos