Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-02-06


duty as men. to hew to the line ,er right
principles and let the chips fall wbere
they will. r &s osfk
/ Now. all this rhurly- burly abontyT
rotten election down in Lewiston from
the moment that the polls closed on
the night OF the election, has not all
been for nothing. The fact is, and il
is patent to everybody that there is q
rotten spot in the body polite down
there and that medicine needs to be
applied here to cure the patient if pos
sible. If we cannot as honest men
| put ourselves down upon the founda-
| ton and bed rock and decide this case
| as it ought to be decided. / will not
complain on the ground that the Jour-
nal takes that it ought to be decided
on moral grounds. do not know
whether my brother thinks it ought to
be decided on immoral grounds or not:
say let us decide it upon moral
grounds if we can
| cannot tressDass upon your time to
go into the details of this matter. but
l take it that there is no question that
there We're Illegal ballots cast in Ward
6 and that there were fraudulent ball
lots cast in Ward 6. All the courts of
proven, where a general connivance
and conspiracy of the election officers
is shown-athough would call atten-
ton to what the gentleman from Lew
iston tMr. Morey) alludes to, that al
though this miserable devil who is
proven here to have cast 26 ballots in
to that box in the face and eyes of the
warden of that ward could not be in
a Ora nd ir,rxr in,
gin county. the poor miserable Repub-
lican who undertook to mark one bal
lot which did not get into the box
could be indicted. Oaughter) / ask
you gentlemen what kind of COM
mentary is that upon affairs in Lewis
ton and Androscoggin county where
Lewiston holds the balance of power
upon the grand jury? Fraud and cor
ruption have been allowed to dwell
there in that city. and we have an OBJ
portunity here and now to exercise our
God given right to put the seal of our
condemnation upon it, 1t is of more
Importance to the people of this State
that We pronounce verdict which
shall give every man in the State of
Maine 70 understand that we believe
in honest elections and fair counts,
than it is to seat any man or any num-
Der of men in this House. That is
really the thing in issue here. The law
upholds and has upheld by every de-
cision that can find fairly considered.
that when the election officers of pre-
cinct or ward or town are shown to
be in collusion and in the exercise of
corrupt practices at the polls. in con-
spiracy in carrying out fraud that the
only remedy is to throw out that ward
and tell the people, IF you cannot put
in officers who are above those things
you must stand the penalty and you
must lose your ballot"
1t is shown here that this city clerk
who was resident of Ward g. and
whose tool was Gravel by name. who
had the charge of that ballot box that
day-that this man had distracted co
ballots from the allotment of that
ward before the polls opened in the
That of Nitself indicates
fraud. What good could it have done
to that man or his party simply to abb
stract go ballots unless they were to
be used for some purpose? And my
Brother Morey undertakes to throw
the burden of the abstraction of those
ballots upon poor Costello a renegade
traitor. Judas Iscariot Republican
who turned up there that day working
10 harmony with the Democrats and
who carried that ward by fraud NV
brother says Costello was the man who
stole the ballots, but ask YOU gentle
men. who put the &c ballots in? Did
Lambert have to steal them back from
costello in order to get 26 ballots to
throw into that box? daughter and
,pplause.)
Or was he the legal custodian Of those
'allots and the man who stole them and
lad them in his possession to work out
lis sweet will with them all day long?
say 1t Is a fair presumption that those
'allots were Intended to be usd de,iring
sed. ana this committee has a right so
0 infer and so have YOU They have
lever been found since. These &c that
Continued on page 81