The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1907-10-23

L
majority. They further Endorsed that
action in the election of 1903 by elect
| ing our state ticket with nearly q coo
majority. That question has been set
tied by every possible earthly tribunal,
settled in every instance in our favor
He has the hardihood to boast of his
| action in using the militia at the polls
, in 1899, and yet he could not spend
his remaining years with better grace
| than in the continual effort to apollo
gize to the people for that crime
against free elections, and that blow
at civil liberty. He spoils his arsu-
ment by undertaking to refer to the
election of 1905 in the city of Louis
vile, which was declared void by the
court of appeals last spring. The his
tory of that case shows that remedies
for fraudulent elections may be found
in our courts, and not by the use of
military at the polls. His reference
to that case was most unfortunate for
there it was shown that a Democratic
court would remedy such evils even
where Democratic officials should lose
their places, and in the opinion of
the court in that case it was held
that the use of military at the polls
would invalidate an election.
His attempt to make fun of the
election in he Baily's Mill precinct in
Franklin county, where it is claimed
there were 1O4 votes fraudulently
counted for the Democratic tickets
amounts to little. The Democratic
party condemns fraud IL elections, and
when this matter was brought to light
a Democratic court and a Democratic
grand jury promptly indicted the gull
ty parties.
One fraud does not justify another.
and yet it would be possible, if worth
while, to show in that same election
where far greater frauds, especially
in some of the Republican counties,
were committed against the Democrat
ic ticket.
Might Have Averted Calamity.
When he undertakes to repudiate
Taylor and his administration we con-
front him with his own bad record
at that time. No man in Frankfort
during those dark days did more to
stir up the angry passions Of the mob
and bring about lawlessness and
crime than did Governor Bradley, the
friend and attorney of Taylor, in his
violent and infammatory utterances.
In his sworn testimony as a witness
in one of the GOebel assassination
cases he admitted that he had been in
formed several times of the plot to
murder William Goebel, and yet, al
friended him, he failed to go and
warn him of his danger. He cannot
excuse his failure to do so by saying
that two or three of the fellows who
were in the plot came and told him
there was nothing in it. He cannot
excuse it now by denouncing that as
SasSination as an infamous outrage.
With the information which he receiv-
ed, and which subsequent develop
ments have shown to be correct, he
might have averted that calamity and
saved the life of the man who had
once done him such great favor. He
was in the convention, his friend,
Mr. Wilson, and other Republican
candidates were in that same Repub-
lican convention which Endorsed.
without reserve the resolute and patri
otto conduct of w. S. Taylor"
He bewails the fact that Democrat
ic leaders in this campaign refer at
all to the events of that dark and
bloody period. We Democrats regret
that it is necessary. to refer to them,
but we would be recreant to our duty
to the people if we failed to call at
tention to these matters that happened
less than eight years ago, and which
illustrate, more than words can pic
ture, the character and results of Re-
publican administration in this state.
l state a fact that every citizen knows
to be true, that the period from De-
cember, 1895, when Bradley became |
governor, TO February, 1900, when |
Taylor was unseated, was the blacklist |
and gloomiest in the history OF the |
state, with the possible exception OF |
the Civil war. The record Of that adj
ministration is as barren as a desert.
There was not a single good deed in |
it, nor a single event that marked |
advancement and progress for our
people, From the gloom of such 4
disastrous record it is natural that |
these Republican candidates should |
turn in disnay and seek, by a resur-
rection of exploded ISLANDERS, forgeries
and falsehoods, to mislead the minds |
of the people, and prevent them from
considering the real issues of the |
campaign. If time would permit me