The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-15
INVESTIGATING VOTEa
CoLoNELCY or SECOND MEAN
 TRY NOT DECIDED.
Governor Jelks Held Court of In- quiry in His Room Last Night and Witnesses Were
 Examined.

The vote for a colonel of the 2nd infan- try. Alabama Nationa. GGa:d. 10 secceeu Colonel Henry B. To. ger Nas opened at j2 o'clock yesterday bs ,sV ,ier Jetks m the presence of the fri,les of the two candidates; Colonel A. A. N Hey ana Ma jor E. H. Graves, but as seven Of the votes
 were challenged, the result is not yet In his room at the Exchange Hotel last night Governor Jelks heard testim my and argument by counsel concerning tne contested votes. It was lz:So ciock wnei, sss | the lawyers concluded their argument ana | the Governor announced that he woatd l reserve his decision in the matter until | today.
 It developed from the evidence last | night that the three votes of the Tuskegee officers did not reach Adtutant-General
 until yesterday evening. Captain Hart swore that he sealed the vote in an en-
 velope on Aug. 7th and gave it to a negro
 to take to the train. The envelope bear ing the official vote showed that 1t was mailed at the Montgomery office .yester- i day morning at 1:3e o'clock and could
 not have reached the Aajutamt- General
 before the vote wss counted. The result | of the official vote was. however. made kLown to Governor Jeiks by the afsitrvft ! of Captain Hurt. although it was con-
 'estea CsptsiS IS olSns Stern of Montgomery rep
 resented Colonel Wiley at lhe opening or
 the votes and Major irAvos was repre-
 scnted by Colonel c. s. McDoweii Of Eu- faula.
 | Captain Stern for Colonel Wil,y agreed | to Is votes for Major Graves and So:onel
 McDowell for Major Graves agreed 10 '3
 votes for Colonel Wiley. This left three
 votes from Prattville, three votes ifGm Tuekegee and one vote from Luvernc in
 By order of Governor Jelks, the AdIu- tant- t-General summoned he officers of l the Tuykegee and Prat.v;ile corapauies 10
 appear last night and give testimony ts'n- l cerning their votes
 l There was distinguished party in the | rOom Of the Governor when the :nvesttsa- l ton began at s:30 o'clock. Tbero were l two Congressmen-Coionel Wiley and his l friend Colonel Thompson of Tuskegee- the Governor of Alabama. several dele gates to the Constitutional Conyentfon | two of whom. Messrs. Merrill of Barbour and Stamford of Pike. were engaged as attorneys, respectively. for Major Graves | and Colonel Wiley; Colonel w. w. Bran don. Adjutant -General; number of TO- | cal and out-of-town officers and newspa-
 per reporters. | In addition to Meesrs. Merrill and | Graves. Messrs. Harmon and St1rn of
 Montgomery appeared for Colonel % waey reared AS counsel for Major Graves.
 After considerable legal diseussio on or | the ease. the officers of the Tuskegee com pany. Captain Hurt and Lieutenants mt wright and Boyd, were sworn and tsstfed | as to their vote. They howed that 1t had been agreed that one vote should he cast for Wiley and two for Graves.but l Boyd and Cartwright both claimed that l trey understood that they were casting | the one vote. although both of them ad-
 mitted that they had signed inc official
 returns which reached here yeste: day
 elt ming showing two votes for Graves | ana one for Wiley.
 | The Prattville officers, Caprain Ward | and Lieutenants McC0rd and Archibald. were then examined. There was consid- | CT able discrepancy between the .tate- | mt nts of these officers and disp ltes as | to how they voted McCord admitted he | had taken one vote from the ballot box Il and chewed 1t up in his Ino1-h so as to I make 1t appear irregular. 1t WIS shown. boweS CT. that the three officers signed a .tetement that Frattville officially cae | two votes for Graves and one for Wiley. | Later in the absence of Lieutenant 1rchi- | bald a supplemental report was made in \ which 1t was shown that three votes were | cast for Wiley. The name of Lieutenant Archibald was signed to this report Lieutenant Archibald said that he could have been reached by telephone il the officers had desired to give him ar opportunity to sign 1t. The two reports to the Adiutant- General were submitted in evidence.
 | Counsel for Major Graves ann )rnced that the Luyerne vote would be conc 4ded to Colonel Wiley.
 | The case was argued at some length | bI the lawyers and at 12:30 o'clock the Governor said he would reserve his de- cision until today.