The age-herald., 1898-02-15
THE ALDRlCH CON WEST.
MT. PIowman's Case Reviewed From the Point
 of Justice and Right.

Ul JuotlCc anu HiShh
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald.
 The contest of W. F. Aldrich which seated him in the Fifty-fifth congress last week ought to be well understood by the people. Examination of the entire proceed ures, within and without the law, exposes so many of the absurdities of our system of elections and so much of the diabolism of the courts of final resort which we "elect'' and to which we vauntingly ap- peal, in the outraga1 name of personal liberty and civic freedom, that honest men must stand aghast and thank God alone for the interpretation of Providence between the measure of security we actually enjoy and the combination of base neglect and most dastardly performances which environ US and threaten to enguf us.
 The last election in the Fourth district for member of congress was held early in November, 1S96 Between that date ana February S. 1898, every member of the fed eral house of representatives has been on full pay, aggregating in all the items between six and seven thousand dollars a year. The house Is the court or iihti resort in the contest. This court met i'll April, 1897, ari5 remained in session ohree or four months. Aldrich and PloWman were both drawing the rich salary and in addition to the specific salary each were entitled to 5000 cash as partles to Pne contest. While the court set the fouren Alabama district was deeply lnvoIVeo II. the legislations transacted, the passage or the Dingley bill, for instance. Why was the district denied representation and yet reuured to pay both Aldrcih ana FioWihdh each a sum of money hhree-fo.d greater in volume than average men or their cfdse of society at home were earning mean urhileq Why was not this case heard ana determined as soon the house organ ized last April? Why has every young lady stenographer in the land, every cierh, every laundry hand, every soul aiiVe, III short, mostly the poor, Tn aii Aineiiua, an to of taxed to make up each her or his quota oI inc extravagant salaries of two claimants for a seat in congress from the fourt" Alabama district?
 Rut the palpable dishonesty of one claim or inc other and the demonstrated parti- sanship. and revengeful spirit that con trolled the tribunal constitute disgraceiui trayesty on our institutions. The case turned on the legality of the returns rom Dallas county, giving Plowman large ma iority The returns Of most or the poio were impeached by Aldrich because the in spectors and clerks at these were all dem ocrats. contrary to the election laws or Alabama At one or two polls, where FLOW man had a majority, and where Aiufich had an inspector, allowed the vote 10 pass. Was Aldrich candid in contestlng the re-
 
 because the law of Alabama apportioning officers of election between the political par ties to the elections had not been observed. Two circumstances seem to cut MT. Ald- rick off from a contest for Piowmans seal, based on such a p lea. One Of these IS that H. A. Wilson was the republican candidate opposed to Plowman until about October lO, when he retired, leaving Plowman, demo- crat; Dryer, Clevelandie, and Aldrich non descript in the field Under the law of thls state the officers of election for the congress sional election of 1896 were appointed before Wilson withdrew. Wilson was the regular nominee of the republican party and the of ficers of election were assigned to the -re- publican candidate and could not be with drawn to suit Aldrich's piebald and un- classified political position. No complaint had been made by the regular republican party nominee in the district against the republican election officers appointed be- fore he withdrew, in Dallas county. How could he complain in full view of the list of names appointed by and for his party?
 Selma is by far the most important box. The republican marker there was the negro Crocheron. Crochern has been delegate from Dallas to every republican convention. state and national, for many years He is the grand pollywog of the tribe, the via media of "the word saunt' In all that re- zion round about. Aldrich used trumped nm plea He knew the negroes at the Sel- ma box where so great a republican of their own race as Crocheron was in position to represent them and to protect them-he knew the negroes of this, the principal box in the county, generally failed to vote, and he knew Crocheron had asserted that many negroes who did vote had come to him to mark for Plowman and had so marked to at least the number of 100 tickets for me- groes Mr. Aldrich further alleges that at several polls where he claims only democrats were made, officers, plowman only received one single vote at each poll. Plowman had three inspectors, two clerks, one returning officer, several markers, all there in his interest, and fraudulently in- clined toward Aldrich, yet at Cahaba, for example, Plowman actually received but one vote to 24O cast for Aldrich.
 The remaining circumstances, which ap- pear to estop MT. Aldrich from the sole ground of his contest on the plea of vio- lated Alabama election law in the matter of appointment of inspectors, clerks and markers, is this, to-wit: In the two counties actually and undeniably carried by Mr. Ald- rich, Chiffon and Shelby, the negroes gem orally did not vote in these two said coun- ties of Chiffon and Shelby the officers of elections were well known republicans. MT. Aldrich accepted thankfully and calmly the majority acceeded to him in two coun- ties where precisely the same conditions existed that he alleges to have existed in Dallas, but impeaches the Dallas returns, contests Plowmans election on the Dallas