Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-02-05
THE KENTUCKY SITUATION.

1t is a matter for proud reflection
lucky that the Democracy and it's
leaders in these trying times in the
Blue Grass State have not, from the
beginning of this embroglio to the
present time, departed one iota from
the path marked out by a conscien-
tious regard for the legal proprieties.
In all their actions since the cleo
ton they have steadily and carefully
observed the strict letter of the law.
1t is the Republican usurper who
has persistently and repeatedly vio-
lated the law before and since the
election-before by sending troops
composed of party henchmen to the
polls plainly for purposes of intimi-
dation, and, not content with this, by
afterward filing the Kentucky CAPT
tai with moonshiners from Republican
mountain counties-men whose occu-
patton is breaking the statutes of the
United States, notorious outlaws and
desperadoes, uncouth and grossly 1g-
norant, save of how to handle rifles,
revolvers and bowie knives in the de-
tense of their Illicit occupation by as
sassination from cover. These thugs,
mainly from Usurper Taylor's own
county, were brought to the Kentucky
capital and protected and cared for
openly by Taylor for the purpose of
preventing the Legislature from doing
it's duty by force-by wholesale muir
der, if need be-to carry out the usur-
per's lawless plans. We have seen the
logical result in the cowardly as
sassination of the rightful Governor,
duly declared elected by the Legisla-
ture in legal session in accordance
with the law
Even after the assassin had fired his
fatal shot, practically in the presence
of Usurper Taylor, that person, after
finding that the bullet had not killed
his political adversary, and that Mr..
Goebel might yet live to be sworn in
as the lawful Governor of Kentucky,
added the last touch to his anarchistic
work. He ordered the Legislature adj
journed, to meet in a mountain county,
where they would be at the mercy of
his mountaineer assassins, and then,
the legislators refusing to obey this
illegal order, he prevented them from
;r1o ho1
ular lawful session by the bayonets of
his partisan henchmen in the militia.
Let us hope the death of Governor
Goebel completes the last act to this
mad carnival of partisan crime, but
the hope is slim, for the Republican
leaders seem determined to brazen it
out on the line of lawless force.
On the side of the Democracy and
backing the title of Governor Beck
ham, who takes the murdered Cover
nors place. are the law and the courts
of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
On the side of Usurper Taylor are bay
onets in the hands of party henchmen
and his bands of mountain assassins.
The Democrats of Kentucky, who
have so splendidly vindicated the pur-
ity of their Democracy by standing in
all things, at all times and in tie face
of the utmost provocation, by the law
and the rights of the people, should
10 nought at this stage to alter the
relative positions now occupied by
them and the rewolutionists opposing
them. There should be no more talk
even of organizing a militia to sup
port the lawful claims of the legal
Governor 1t would only complicate
the situation by additional violence.
The claims of the rightful Governor
are recognized by the law and the
courts and by the intelligent and law
abiding people of Kentucky and the
whole nation. That is sufficient. The
right and the law will prevail in the
end, and force would only tend to
weaken a case otherwise impregnable
in its strength. The Kentucky Democ.
racy should leave force to their law
less political opponents. whom, it is
significant. evon an INSCRIPTIONS and
part1san n1k1onal administration re-
l>5E q 81 s Il Il u sa .EE Z s & III