The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-18

~''eliu ~ tAe caucus, majority may wish
10 remain under cover few days longer
anc SO order a secret ballot
HOW 1T HAS BEEN
| AS rule, when there have been sharp
| senatorial contests the ballot has baan
secret. This has generally been becane.,
| the faction thinking 1t had the ma iorit,,
| ala not trust its followers as 1t had Sc
cured surreptitious pledges from men
VINO they knew We're also pledged To-
the other fellow, and they preferred 10
| rely upon the men proving true to them
the secret rather than the possible ex-
posure Of their deals.
THE CAUCUS OF 1875.
Perhaps the most notable Illustration
of this was in the senatorial contest os
lSFo when Senator Ramsey was a candi-
date Tor reelection. and Gov Davis was
| MS ch1ef opponent That was really
more like the present, a quadrilateral fight
as eX-Gov. Austin and w. D. Washbu-n
were also candidates and all were pres
ent at the state capitol on the night OF
the caucus. AS soon as the caucus Or,
gamzed. +. F. Drake, of St Paul IA
ramsey NAM, offered three resolutions:
Elrst-That the ballot should be secret
+o7 S7econd-Ihat five ballots should bs
taken, unless a nomination should he
sooner made, before the chair shoGld en-
terIaln motion to adjourn
Ihro-Inat the motion to adjourn
Sf-ouId be by viva Voce vote
This was a cunning scheme though In
the end it proved fatal to Ramsey The
Davis men protested loud and long for
! an hour or, two, some of them declarine
that they would wax cut of the caucus.
7 bur the resolutions were finally -adoDtad.
fhe first ballot was informal and stood:
ramsey, SO; Davis, 21; Washburn, is,
Austin, IL. This was eight votes less
than had been promised to Davis and
the Davis men were mad clear through
but they were caught in secret ballot
trap. On the first formal ballot Ramsey
gained and Davis 1. 1t took 42 to nom
mate, and on the third ballot Ramsey
had 80; Davis lost 2, having 20; Wash
burn, IA Austin, g. Just then hell
reigned. The Davis men demanded an ad-
Journment without taking the other two
ballots, but this was voted down by a
viva voce vote. That made it sure that
if there was another ballot Ramsey
would receive the needed 2 votes, while
Davis needed o. and could not hope to
win. Instead of forcing the fighting
when the motion to adjourn was voted
down, the Ramsey men granted the op-
position ten minutes recess. That re-
cess cost Ramsey the senatorship The
Davis men consulted with their friends
on the outside and came back to the
caucus foaming at the month. They de-
manded a viva voce vote or an adjourn
ment, coupled with the threat that with
or without an adjournment they would
walk out if another secret ballot was at
tempted. The Ramsey men knew that
with viva voce vote they could not hold
their forty secret supporters, and rather
than concede that, they reluctantly cen
sented to an adjournment until the next
night.
The next night fifteen men were abb
sent and seventeen who were present re-
fO of n order induce them
TO vote the Ramsey men consented that
there should be another informal ballot,
and that stood: Ramsey, 81; Washburn,
s; Mcmillan, 3; Davis, 2; Drake, l. This
showed 81 present, or 80 less than the
Republicans in the legislature, and as
but Is were absent, II who were present
did not vote On the last ballot Ramsey
had 42, Washburn II. Total, "a. If
Ramsey could have scored AZ, with 50
voting, he would have been victor, but
AZ, under the circumstances, was ike one
Of RiD' Van Wrinkles reform drinks,
which didn't count that time OF course
it was made unanimous by the %, four
teen sitting in sullen silence and refusing
to vote
The Ramsey men did not know what
kind OF prize they had gotten, and the
Davis men did not know where they
were at while Washburn and Austin had
gone n glimmering. The capitol that
night was a reflex of the joy which per-
vaded Mudville the day Mighty casey
struckout'' To add to the ominous char
acter of the occasion those proceedings
occurred on Friday.
VIII history repeat itself tonight?
This threw the fight into the open leg
islature 1t took seventy-four to elect,
and Ramseys highest vote was sixty
one. After voting in the legislature from
Jan. 10 to Feb. 10, Mcmillan, the dark
horse, was elected
Ramsey was hoisted by the petard OF
a secret ballot, but he was between the
devil and the deep sea, for. if q viva voce
vote had been granted in the caucus, the
Davis men would not have dared to
betray their pledges.
The secret ballot nearly proved
Ramseys undoing in the caucus of 1869.
Then it required twenty-eight to norn--
mate
At p. m. Of the day of the caucus
tbirty-six men assembled at Ramsey's
hotel headquarters. and each one stood
up and solernnIy pledged himself to
Ramsey first, last and all of the time.
When the caucus met in the evening
eight voted the pink tickets bearing VIII
kinscn's name, leaving Ramsey just
twenty-eight. That was enough, but 1t
was close enough to induce nervous pros
tration.
All of which proves that white men,
when they get into the legislature, are
mighty uncertain rams blNpy 1ounu
this out when he called the Third dis
trict together a day or two ago and
got votes out of 15 And still Tams
has hopes, though he is vowing that
he will go back to Indian Territory
and practice taking scalps until he Is
sufficiently expert to come back and
take Joel Heatwole's to wear as a SOU
venir just to show there are no hard
feelings.
Capt. NJ. r. Brown, of Crookston. was
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