Year: 1860

| having decided the new Common Pleas act
| Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick,
to elect Judge for that Court at the COM
ing October election and it therefore be-
comes important that they should be ap-
prised of the truth as to the action of the
delegates from those counties at the Prince
ton Convention, when it was proposed to go
into a nomination for the Judgeship.
You are probably aware that, since the
adjournment of the Convention, the re-
port has been industriously circulated that
but for the uncertainty then existing as to


the validity OF the law re-districting the
State, the delegates from the district COM
posed of the four counties named would
| have made a nomination, and that Ben.
Stinson of your city, in that event, would
have been the nominee.


| was delegate to that Convention, and
| know that this is not the truth. On the


contrary, | know it to be utterly untrue


When it was proposed by portion of the
delegation of your county to go into nom


inaton, and the delegates from the other
three counties were invited to meet with
| them for that purpose, we of Posey coun-
! ty positively and almost unanimously re-
! fused to do any such thing. l believe
heard but a single delegate from this county
| say he was willing to go into a nomination.
! We opposed it generally, almost unani-
mously, as | said before, and for no such


reason as that reported but some for the
reason that they were unwilling to make
the Judgeship of the Common Pleas Court
the subject of u partizan nomination, and
others Constituting decided majority of
the delegation for the reason that as between


Judge Pitcher and Ben. Stinson, or any
other person who had been named for the
office, they intended to vote for Judge Pitch
er, and that their constituents would do the
same: And these latter gave the special
friends of Mr.. Stinson to understand dis
tinctly that even if they secured the nomi-


nation they desired, we would vote for Judge


Pitcher against such a nomination.


know, too, that many of the delegates
from Warrick county strenuously opposed


nomination upon these and other grounds
personal to themselves. They said their
people had too long and seriously suffered


from having an incompetent Judge upon
the bench to have another such foisted upon


them now. One of them remarked in my
hearing that, with its present divisions, the
Democratic party had load enough to carry
without the burthen of an improper nomi-


naticn for Judge; and that if such a nomi-


nation was made, ii would not only be re-


pudiated by the people in his neighborhood,


but, he feared, it would injure the rest of
the ticket of the party.


did not hear any of the delegates from
Gibson county speak upon the subject, but
l understood there on the ground that sew
eral of them, as also some of the Wander
burgh delegation, were opposed to nomi-
I


unless a suitable Democrat became a can
didate.


1t was owing to the prevalence of this
feeling among the delegates, and not for the


reason reported, that no nomination was
| made. So general and notorious was this
| sentiment, that have reason to know that


it made decided impression upon the par
ticular friends of Mr.. Stinson. I was in
formed that evening on the cars that a gen.
tleman of Evansville who had been instru-


mental in bringing him out, took him aside


before leaving the ground and frankly ad-


vised him that in his opinion he had better
withdraw from the race-that he found the
Democracy would not make a party issue of
| the Judgeship, and that he feared that too


many were going for Pitcher to leave any
prospect of success against him.


Now sir, all this may look like telling





mentioned are notorious. They were spoken
of freely among friends and in the presence


of political enemies. Every body, Demo-


crat and Republican, who was at Princeton


that day, knew or might have known, that


they constituted the true reason why NOM
| ination was not made. And, besides, /


hold that the election of Ben. Stinson over


Judge Pitcher to the Common Pleas Judge


ship would be disgrace and a great injury


to our people, and | do not intend to stop


short of any fair means to defeat such re-
suit l have known Ben. Stinson all his life,


and, among other things l know of him,
know he has no capacity for the Office be


aspires to; and l know, further, that he has


no claims, political or otherwise, over Judge


Pitcher, or anybody else, upon the party l


have the honor to be a life member of. He


was always Whig until defeated as Whig


candidate for the Evansville Post Office un-


der Fillmore. He then became Democrat


only to get the Post Office from Pierce, and
| because President Buchanan would not con-


tinue him in that Office, he ceased to be a
| Democrat, and became Douglasite and re-


viler of the President.


| Pardon my long story, but print it.
I Pho R0Nn DURITrA