The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-25
Petition of Mr.. o,NeaI.


Petition of Mr.. O'Neal.
Hon. Emmett O'Neal who is u member
of the Committee, then presented a petit
ton asking that the State Committee di-
rect the County Committee of Lauder
dale Couny to take evidence in the in
vestigation of charges of fraud which
he made in the primary in I-auderdale
County for the Legislature, in the race
between himself and Captain r.. T..
Simpson.
In his petition Mr.. oNeal declared that
"A. H. Kilien had received 1,0SS votes, K.
r. Simpson, 976 votes, and Emmett O'Neal,
e6s votes. The petition asserted that more
than 800 fraudulent votes had been cast
In the primary, which, If eliminated.
would give him a majority of the DEM
ocratic votes cast.
Mr.. ONeal further set out that he
brought the contest before the County
Committee of Lauderdale County, but
that the Committee declined to go into
the evidence Of fraud except as 1t reiat-
ed to challenged votes He therefore
asked the State Committee to instruct
the County Committee to hear evidence
as to the fraudulent votes which mad not
been challenged.
Mr. Simpson Protests.
Captain Simpson took the floor in his
own defense. He protested against the
manner in which the contest had been
brought. He said that he had only
Jew minutes before been served with no.
tfce Of the contest. He moved that the
contest be dismissed. first, on the ground
that the committee had no jurisdiction
IN the matter and second, that there was
no law which authorized the setting up
of any such contest. He read the DELL
milton of the word executive" and ap-
fa Z
tee. declaring that it meant perfecting
or carrying out.
The Executive Committee. he declared,
meant simply a committee to carry out
the will Of the party.
He argued that the basis Of all power
OF the committee came from the Tomp-
kins resolution which was adopted in
1892 He read a portion of this resolution
which declared that any and all contests
should be settled by the lower commit
tees Of the territory affected by the con-
test. The lower committee, he salo' 1oi-
lowing the rule laid down by this and
other resolutions of the committee, had
investigated the contest and dismissed 1t.
Captain Simpson argued further that
4here was no way of investigating the
charges of fraud except by those iald
down by the statutes. II the charges were
investigated in this manner, he salo'
the Investigation would occupy all the
time between now and the election and
a Republican would be elected from Lau-
derdaIe County.
SIS it possible" asked Captain Simp-
son. that a man comes here while the
committee is assembled and springs
contest that will keep us busy unit 1.-The
election?'
'ECorpse of His Contest"
He described Mr.. O'Neal carrying the
CORPSE of his contest around under his
arm for a month or more to finally lay 1t
before the committee
In reply to Captain Simpson. Mr. o Neal
said that he proposed to show that there
mad been 800 fraudulent votes cast in
fhe primary in Lauderdale County. The
men who cast these votes, he said, had
not been registered nor had they paid
shair poll tax. He declared that the ques-
fion before the committee was whether
A. had the right to revise the action Of
4 County Committee.
AZ this juncture it was suggested that
Rhe committe adjourn for dinner.
Mr.. O'Neal said he was quite willing 70
v,ostuone his remarks until after dinner
and an adjournment was taken until $3.50
U'clock.