The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1899-11-28
Political Nte-

adYiSedly, Decanse no one IN any Nlht
conversant with the orditlons under
which this FIST battle was tonight Will
| think fur m ment thst O'ngres-man
Jones will allow any snth rebels against
his sway 20 escape condign punish
meLt. and there is 10 reason 10 d ubt
that he viii use every effort to add the
| corpus dehcu 20 his plliucfl grave.
yard And it is oq1slly certain that
W. Mcdonald Lee viii fight II out TO
the erd with ell the vigor hepcss -s'es,
and these who know hlm Will not for u
IN ment doubt the & g'mene's Of his
staying qualities. II Is tine that the
Oongressn an holds. or appears 20 hold. 4
full hand If trumps bat the editor
may prove 60 be IN possession of the
Joker which sometimes plays the mis-
cnlef with The game Richmond
county. which IS apparently only syn
onym for Jones. had everything too
utterly unanimous fer anything Il
looks very much like he or they, ad pt.
ed the unit rule in this case. and EN-
powered those present tO cast the en-
tire vote for Wellford. willy-nilly.
Nov. in little LlucIster Of the big
vote, where the people. other than the
fegular politicians, wanted - name
he candidate; had regular old
timey rough and ready fight. possibly
as severe as the screpplng matches Lee
had when he was wrestling the county
from the Republicans, and fixing It
firmly within the Democratic fold r.
By the way, it seems hard u have
those who "stayed by the stuf AZ.
tempt to get possession Of oil the sp lis
# the battle, instead Of sha .. How
ever. in this part Of the fray, Lee Wa
victorious. and by three hundred ma
jlrity gained in spite Of tremendous
odds against him He has a right TO
be proud, although his candidate was
defeated, for he did his share, and
.hould not be held responsible for. the
fact that the pocket borough crawled
into its owners vest pocket e..
Some of the Warsaw dispatches 70
the newspapers style Pinckard as an
independent Democrat, and the y n.
News proves it. 10 its own satisfaction,
at least. IL couldn't do otherwise. or
the legal gentlemen who own and edit
1t, would be mighty poor specimens of
the fraternity. II they could not make
a plausible argument 1t has been said
that any good lawyer could drive a
coach and four through any law that
ever was made, much less fail in max
ing a goodc Sc out Of anything. b.
that as it may, there is said to be on
rec jrd in s;neighboring State legal
case. where the attorney for the defense
proved to the satisfaction OF jury. by
twelve repnt able witnesses. that a
white heifer with long horns was a
black. buffalo bull. What chance could
Pinckard have against talent like that?
Plnckard being independent, it fol-
lows tnat Wexford was not he was
only regular Wexford. it seems, did
not desire the nomination, but evident.
ly considered 1t his duty to respond to
his cJuntry's call.
One little item appears TO have been
overlooked, or it may have been quiet
ly ignored as immaterial The State
Committee decided that the voluntary
absence Of the Towles faction from the
precinct meeting at Ourrotoman. after
the election OF Senatorial delegates and
during the election Of the House dele
gates, gave that faction right TO con-
test the delegation. and that in conse.
quence Pinckard was legally nomi.
mated.
Following out this course Of reason.
ing. Richmond county, in convention
assem- bled with the Litwston quintette,
decided that the contest Of the Curroto-
man quartette went by default. but in
a burst of generosity and good feeling,
they took only half, so as to have a
duet when the meeting began. This
was probably dons In spirit Of fair
ness and to attain harmony. without
any thought of the majority it would
give. When it was Accidentally dis
O vered that this duet added to the
quintette, and both combined with the
unit rule. gave a majority. they in
dulged in a Highland fling. and pro.
ceeded. amid the greatest enthusiastic
hnmony to unanimously nominate.
1t will be observed that all Of the
Plnckard men we're conspicuous by
their absence. and that while the de-
cision Of the State Committee was
good enough, until after the
nomination. they contended that the
absence of the Pincksrd men did not
effect the regularity Of the nominations
1t looks TO the initiated like the doc
LIlub ldlu III OhO OuoO Oo
appliable TO another. but, of course,
they don't know anything about the
matter.
The Virginia Citizen publishes a card
from one of the Richmond county dele.
gates, who says that but for the unit
rule, forced upon them. that be and
several others would have voted for
Pinckard, and that they did not attend
the second convention. This substan-
tiates the claim Of the Martinites that
Pinckard would have been the nominee,
II anything like fair show had been
given him. These delegates, II left un-
trsmmeled, would have given the Mar
tin men control Of the convention and
the nomination. without the contested
delegation. Thus it appears that
Wellfords nomination Is due sole.