The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1906-09-17

saw fit The minutes of the COM
missioners' court furnish complete
proof of this fact, and the citizens
of Starr County have always prided
themselves upon their honorable
record in this respect and general
lly in regard to the fairness and
legality of their elections.
But I am particularly concerned
in having you retract the statement
about myself and my remarks at
Austin, "a statement which. if you
knew me personally, 1 could not
regard as other than a malicious
and wilful falsehood. Whatever
your ignorance of the facts, it does
you little credit to print, without
investigation, a charge implying
moral obliquity and brazen in
science in one who is a stranger to
you. Had you read the daily pa
pers last spring, you would have
seen, under headlines, in all of
them a report of my remarks on
this subject delivered on the floor
of the House, and would have
known that they were directly the
reverse of what you state them to
have been. They were reported
in the Galveston News, > of March
IS, 1905, as follows:
Mr.. Seabury left the chair, and
was recognized from a point of the
floor. ........-...-. He said that all his
amendments were adopted two
years ago, and that he fought that
provision governing the inside work
at the polls because it did not pro-
vide for the officials to be of differ
ent political parties. He said that
four counties in his section were
Republican, and that he wanted
the Democrats there to have a fair
opportunity to vote for the Demo
cratic candidates. -
And in the same paper, in its
routine matter as follows: He
said he was a friend of the bill,
though he opposed the present law
which permitted so much fraud if
the presiding officers wished to run
the risk of going to the peniten-
tiary.'
The same remarks were reported
in the Houston Post" of the same
date as follows:
My objection to that law, as to
this one, lies in the fact that it
makes no provision for watchers in
polls nor requires the officers of
election to be of different political
parties. This has been a fruitful
source of fraud. In my county,
which is partly Republican,"
(read: In certain counties in
my section, which is partly Repub-
1ican,") have known numerous
voters to be disfranchised by parti-
san election officers. This bill pro-
vides that the officers of election
shall be of different political parties,
as far as practicable" 1 know
that in my county" (read: in
those counties") it would never
be practicable to appoint any but
Republicans.
Consequently on Saturday, l
drafted a number of amendments
to correct the pending bill i'll this
and other important particulars.
In this speech, and on numerous
other occasions on the floor of the
House, its committees and else
where, I protested against the
unfairness of the Terrell Election
Law of 1905, against the opportu-
mites for fraud it afforded, and
specifically and continually against
its elimination of watchers from
the polls and its permitting all the
election officers to be of the same
political party; and l pointed the
moral by reference to the manage
rnent OF elections in certain Repub-
lican counties in Southwest Texas.
l personally drafted amendments
y--------' - $3.50 -