The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-06-27

made that every contested delegate
would be almost certain. OF account
o. his own seat besng n ssopar1Y. 70
Join with all other contested dele
gates IN voting TO seat the one nAn
or the two delegates from she one
Congressional District that wAs first
voted on. and do the same OF each
succeeding case or district. aud thsy
did.
II gag further pointed Out that II
was the fundamental law % the land
that no Juror should be permitted to
sit on his own case. and besides that
no man who had q case in court. any
where IN Christendom. was permitted
10 serve as q juror at that term OF
court, even on the case Of another
man whom he did not know, who gas
no kin 10 him, and whose case was
entirely different TO his in every re-
spect. This known and unquestion-
ed law. that applies In all civilized
countries, was put up TO Senator Root
as a great lawyer. and he was asked
20 apply the same rule 10 the organ
ization OF this Convention: but
strange TO say, Senator Root prompt
ly overruled the point and declared
that every delegate. though contest
ed. could vote on every other ones
contested case.
This ruling caused a tremendous
howl of indignant protest in the con-
vention, that lasted for fifteen or
twenty minutes Many delegates
threatened to leave the hall and not
sit any longer in a convention that
was dominated by dishonest votes,
seated by such dishonest methods.
The Fourth North Carolina District.
Two of the illegal delegates seated
by such methods were Harris and
| Matthews from the Fourth North
| Carolina District In that district,
| when the Republican Convention
met, there were fifty-four uncontest-
ed votes and only thirty-seven con-
tested votes. The majority in that
convention instead of making up a
temporary roll by deciding on the
contests in advance and seating the
thirty-seven delegates on one side or
the other and then permitting the
thirty-seven delegates to vote on the
contested cases, as has been done
here, declared that the fifty-four I'M
contested delegates being majority
should pass upon the contests.
In that convention, the thirty-sev-
en- votes on each side were told to
stand aside, and the uncontested
votes heard the facts and passed on
the contests. When this was done
the Duncan boiling contesting dele
gates, who were from counties that
had thirty-seven votes in all, but who
represented much less than half that
many votes in the contested counties
bolted and held a separate convention
and named Harris and Matthews.
These facts are unquestioned ana
not denied, and yet, in the face o.
these facts, Harris and Matthews
who had no more right to sit in the
convention than a man from Austria
} liza, were seated by the National Com
! mittee and were again seated by the
Credential Committee, as we have
above described.
, If the National Convention had fol
lowed the same fair and just rule
which was adopted by the Roosevelt
= people in the Fourth North Carolin;
District, by making the contested
= delegates to pass upon their right
Roosevelt would have been nominal
! ed by over sixty majority in the Con
vention, in spite of the delegates from
the Territories and outlying islands
and from the rotten borough State
of the South which never cast Re
publican vote, all of which were 70
Taft.
= After this action of the Convention
: in permitting these illegally contest
| ed delegates to vote, the Roosevelt
! delegates refused to vote on any 9th
/ er question, and 1t was in this wa,
/ that Taft secured his SCI votes.
Colonel Roosevelt's Statement.
] AS soon as the news of the seatin
l of the illegal contesting and permit
4 ting them to vote on the contest
s reached Colonel Roosevelt, he issue
a the following statement:
"A clear majority of the dele
gates honestly elected to this
e Convention were chosen by the
e people to nominate me. Under
n the direction and with the en- =
= couragement of Mr.. Taft, the
e majority of the National Com
n mittee by the so-called steam
: roller methods and with scan
d dalous disregard of every prin-
t ciple of elementary honesty and
e decency, stole eighty or ninety
dnIa the n