The Tupelo journal., 1910-07-08

Gus, Speaker Street writes the
following letter to the Meridian
Dispatch:
On January II. 1894, Gen. 4.
C. Walthall resigned his seat in
the United States senate. Gov.
Stone received the resignation
and sent it to the legislature jan
uary 10Th. The fight opened at
once. The candidates were
Stone, Lowry, Campbell, Taylor.
Allen and McLaurin. Stone was
recognized as the strong man and
the one the others feared. The
silver question was just Begin
ming to loom up. 1t was known
Stone favored sound money. In
order to handicap him a resolu-
ton was introduced in the caucus
requiring the candidates to ans
wer the question, do you ap-
prove Georges and Walthall's
course on the silver question:
Or. Kern offered to amend by
asking, do you favor the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to II" This pro
duced some CONSERVATION in the
ranks and DR.. Kern was per
suaded to withdraw the amend
ment on the grounds that it
would be defeated and result in
injury to their cause. A subsri-
tute was then offered by Stones
friends making the question
read, DO you favor the free
coinage Of silver at a ratio that
gold and silver dollars will be of
equal value in the markets of the
world?" This substitute was lost
by a tie vote and the original
resolution adopted by a SMALL
majority. When the time came
to answer, Stone declared for
sound money and withdrew from
the contest. The caucus of
course included none but demo-
c ats, C. M. Williamson, Judge
Wiley Potter, Judge Roane. Col.
Falkner, Dr.. Broyles. w. w.
Heidelberg. B. D. Simpson, Col.
J. R. Binford, James K. Varda-
man, and others of less note, in
GLIDING the writer, were there.
The voting in caucus was all
done by ballot. My recollection
is that no otker method of voting
was proposed. Failing to nomi
nate before the day for voting
for senator by the legislature, a
resolution was introduced and
adopted to scatter the votes in
the joint convention so as to pre-
vent an election until a caucus
nomination was made. Some
members continued to vote for
their favorite candidate while
others followed the caucus rule.
| broke over once and voted for
the beloved and lamented Robert
Lowry. Gov. Vardaman voted
seven times for six outsiders and
was absent once. He received
his first vote for United States
senator under this caucus rule.
John Allen withdrew before
the first vote was taken in the
legislature. 1t was then the
field against McLaurin. Every
effort was made to unite the OPP
position but without success.
fractional lines were not as tight
ly drawn as now, and McLaurin
was nominated by a secret bal
lot, receiving a majority of six
teen votes.
Gov. Stones friends protested
against the tactics used against
him but they recognized the prin-
ciple of majority rule and grace
fully accepted the situation.
The only difference between the
caucus Of 1894 and that Of 1910
was the printed ballot in the
letter. In 1894 each man wrote
his own ticket.
/ have been more or less in
politics for forty years and have
never seen a fairer caucus than
the one in Jackson last winter.
It was not a secret caucus. All
newspaper men were admitted
and the galleries were open to
all. The voting was by ballot as
was the case with every senate