Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 March 1887 — THE RECORD. [ARTICLE]

THE RECORD.

[lndianapolis Sentinel, Tuesday] At last night’s session of the Senate Mr. Fowler offered the following resolution -which was adopted: Resolved, That the following memorial, as an address to the people, is adopted by the Senate as being true, and that the same be spread at length upon the journal of the Senate. The following is the memorial, which recites the facts of the most extraordinary legislative session ever known in the history of Indiana :

THE MEMORIAL. On the 2d day of November last a general election was held in Indiana for the clioice of certain officers of State, and of members of the General Assembly. Within three days after the election was held the result as to the Legislature became known, and the Indianapolis Journal published that the Republicans had seventy-four (74) members in the two houses, and the Democrats had seventysix (70) members therein, leaving the Democ ats two majority upon a joint ballot. In this way it wap acknowledged by the leading Ilepublican n ewspaper of the Stat , that the will of the people expressed under the form of law, had declared that some member of the Democratic party should, be elected Senator of the United States to succeed the Republican then holding that position. This statement with respect to the number of the two parties in the Legislator?, and the Democratic! majority of two, wps published day after day in the

Indianapolis Journal, and the fact of the majority, of two, and tlie effect it would h*ave upon.the Senatorial election, were as well known to every voter in Indiana at that time as they are to-day. Neveitheless, within a few weeks before the meeting of the General Assembly, the Journal, giving tone to the Republican press and politicians of the State, asserted with the utmost confidence that General Harrison was to he re-olected to the Senate of the United States notwithstanding there was a majority of tw<3 against him in the Legislature; and Mr. Huston, a State senator from the county of Fayette, Chairman of the Republican state central committee, repeatedly made the same declaration, and had interview’s published * in which he made the same statement. Nothing v’as said about how this result was to be accomplished. There were some intimations that Democratic members, one or two, might absent themselves or refuse to vote for tHe nominee of their caucus, or that the Independent Labor mem) ers actually preferred Harrison to anyone els 3 for the senate; but this, as will appear in the sequel, w T as a mere blind to conceal the real purpose which the conspirators, to defeat the popular wall, had alroady formed and prepared for execution. How they proposed to accomplish their design ** as unknown until soon after the meeting of the General Assembly. The General Assembly met pursuant to law on the 6th day of January, 1887. The House of Representatives was republican by ten majority. Cornolius Meagher a democrat, had been elected representative from the county of Yigo, by an unquestioned majority of twenty-one votes. Such election had been regularly, certified and returned, aud he had taken his oath of office and had been assigned a seat in the House of Representatives.

On the 14th day of January, 1887, four days before the first vote in the Senatorial election, the House by a strict party vote, passed a resolution unseating Mr. Meagher, striking his name from the roll, and declaring that one Dickerson, his competitor who had been defeated t y the people of that county,was the representative from the county of Vigo, and entitled to act and vote as such. This was done upon die flimsy pretext that Mr. Meagher had been elected, some time before Inspection to the House, a Justice of the Peace, an office which had been abr lished before his election to the Legislature, and none of the duties of which lie had ever exercised. As soon as Dickerson, the minority defeated candidate was seated in place of Meagher, the plan began to develop, the plot thickened, the cons Jrators became bold and confident. It was announced, both publiclyfand privately, that General Harrison should * certain 1 / return to the Senate of the United States, and that the way to do it was to unseat enough Democrats in the House, by whatever methods, to destroy the Democratic majority of two on joint ballot, so as to give him at least seventysix votes for United States senator.

This shows very clearly that the Republican House of Representativesthuß made a breach and struck a fatal blow at the freedom of elections, deliberately setting aside the will of t e people and lending themselves to the purpose of that dark, lawless clique and cabal which had conspired, at all hazards, regardless of law and regardless of right, to return their friend and favorite* to the Senate id the Lnited States. It became now very apparent, although plain people have not before understood it, how these plotters i might el - ct a Unitefd States Senator, a 1 though ther •* was a Democr die' maj ority of ,: two in the General Assembly opposed to his return, and the mask being now thrown off and concealment no longer possible, they*

stated publicly and pri. ately that their intention was to unseat a sufficient number of Democrats it. th 3 Houst? to enable them to succeed in the senatorial election. Ai tli*- same time, Mr. Kercheval, Republican chairman of the committee on elections in the House, to whom the contests in that branch had been referred, publicly declared that he had nineteen cases of c mtestsbe ore the committee, and when incpiiry was made of him what evidence there was m support of such contests he answered: “What’s the use of hearing evidence when our minds are made up already as to the course we shall take in thes cases.”

The Senate was Democratic by e even majority. Some week before the meeting of the General Assembly til. election of Wdliarn N. McDonald, a senator declared to ! e elected|from the counties of lackson and Lawrence, had been regular 1 * contested by his competitor, Frank Branaman. and testimony taken in support of the reasons filed, which which reasons were bribery —notor’ous, open and corrupt— used by McDonald at said election. The crime of McD maid was one of pecu ia • infamy. The use by him of money for the purchase of votes was cleariy shown —so clearly that he himself has never publicly, either wit or without catli, ...ade any denial thereof, although ho was specially invited by the committee to go upon the witness stand and make such denial. Upon this state of facts and proof, the Senate of Indiana declared him unfit, incompetent for an not entitled to a sea*; in that body, and iiis acts of bribery having been shown to have been publicly known and notoriously bruited among all constituency, both before the time of his election and at the time ■hereof, the Senate declared his competitor, Frank Branaman, lawfully entitled to the seat, and Senator Branaman as sworn in and took his seat as a membor of that body on the 17th of January, 1887. This action of the Senate in the McDonald case succeeded the action of the House in the Meagher case. The conspirators paused; t he, felt that th y were taken by the throat; they came to the conclusion that it would not do any further to interfere with the members of the House of Representatives as the people had chosen them.

The two parties by this action were left in the same condition as at the commencement of the session, with a Democratic majority of two on joint bobot. \\ hen the S. nateof Indian met on the 6th day of January, 1887, it had been publicly known for many months that General Mahlon D. Manson.who had been elected Lieutenant Governor of the State -in 1884, had, in July, 1886, accepted the appoin ment of the Collectorship of the Seventh .i dstric* und' r the Government of the United States, and so had become incompetent to fill + he office of Lieutenant Governor. In the absence of the Lieutenant Governor and his inability to discharge the duties of pr siding over the Senate, the Senate was organized by the Hon. James H. Rice, Auditor of State, and by the Hon. Alonzo G. Smith, Senator from the counties of Jackson and Jennings, who, at the request of the Auditor of State, occupied the chair during the organization of the Senate, while that officer called the roll ca the new senators, who were sworn into office by one of the J udges of the Supreme Court, whom the Auditor bad also requested to attend for that purpose. The senate then proceeded to the election of officers, and chose Webster Dixon as Principal Secretary, John.D. Carter as Assistant Secretary, and Frank iirtchett as Dum keeper, and also elected Hon. Alonzo G. Smith, one of their number, President of die Senate in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor.

Both parties had, at the November election, 1886, voted for their candidates for the office of Lieutenant Governor, notwithstanding •the fact that the Governor had not proclaimed a vacancy in said office, and made no appointment to fill the' same. Many citizens of the State believed that no vacancy existed and that no Liputenant-Gov-ernor could be elected at that among whom was President Smith, of the senate, who was, howevei, at fill times itiiling to submit the

question of his rights as President of the Senate to the Courts of the State, and had, in the first instance, before the meeting of the Legislature, inst tuted a suit against W illiam R. Myers, S cretary of State, t.i enjoin him from delivering to the speaker the returns of the election, which suit Mr. Smith prosecuted both in the Circuit and Supreme Courts, but was beaten therein in both the courts upon the ground that ihey had no jurisdiction to determine the question or to grant the injunction prayed by him. Afterward Mr. Smith instituted another suit in the Marion Circ .it Court, the object of which was to test the question as to whether the person who claimed to be elected I ieuteus nt-Governor at the

November election, 1886, was duly elected as such and could, therefore, preside over the senate, or whether the senate had the right to select its own President. Mr. Smith was then, under his election had on the 6th fcay of January, 1887, acting as President of the senate, having been elected to said office by the senate, and has ever since acted, and is now acting as such. Beside the principal suit insti tuted to try the question of the title of the office of President of the senate, Mr. Smith had applied, in his case, for an injunction to prevent the person claiming to be elected Lieutenant-Governor, in November, 1886, from disturbing or interfering with him in the present discharge of his duties as President of the senate. To this application for an injunction the pretended Lieutenant Governor made bu one defense, and that was that lie lived in Allen county, and could not be sued in Marion county. Hon. A. C. Ayers, Judge of the Marion Circuit Court, after full hearing and argument, decided against this defense; that there was no lawful election holden for Lieu-tenant-Governor in November, 'B6, and granted an injunction against the claimant of that office to prevent any disturbance by him of President Smith in the discharge of his duties as such. This injunction was issued and in force on the day before the two h uses met n joint convention, aud it became a question between the two houses as to how the joint convention should be held. The House claimed that the pretended LieutenantGovernor should preside over it; the Senate claimed that it should

be presided over by the President of the Senate, the highest legislative officer present. Under these circumstances an agreement was mad*, by way of compromise, substantially providing that the joint convention, when its session was held, should be called to order by the President of the Senate; that the i. resident of the Sen .te sho’d direct the call of the roll of the senate in v ting; that th Speaker of the House should direct the call of the mernb 'rs of the house in voting; that the procsedings of the joint convention otherwise sho'uld be conducted by the Speaker; that the result of the vote sho’d be announced by the President of the Senate; that the joint convention should be adjourned by the Speaker; that this agreement sho’d be in force until a United States senator was elected; and the joint convention of the two houses was held each day when in session, under the terms of this agreement, from the 19th day of January until the 2d day of February, on which day David Turpie was elected Senator of the United States, and the joint convention then adjourned sme die. In tiie meantime the pretended Lieutenant-Governor had appealed the casein which he had been beaten upon the application for an injunction be lore the Judge of the Marion Circuit Court, to the Supreme Court of Indiana, and the case was ther pending. The court, after full agreement and advisement, decided that tlib suit was improperly brought into Marion county, and should have been brought in Aiien county, where the claimant of the office of Lieutenant Governor resided. — This decision was rendered on the 23d day of February, 18-7. The J udges also delivered separate j opinions, two of the Supreme Court Howk ‘and Mitchell, deciding that no election for Lieutenant-Gover-nor flcould have been holden lawfully in November, 1886; three of the J udges holding that the court had no jurisdiction of the subjectrmt'er of the suit; one of the Ju ges, Niblack, deciding expressLj that the senate had the tight, as

between two adverse claimants, to determine for it-elf who should be its presiding officer. Thisopinion, and these opinions, were hurriedly certified to and distributed at large by the clerk of the supreme ceurt, who was a republican, among members of the Legislature. The House of Representatives, on the direction* of its republican speaker, Mr. Sayre, took up and made a special order ot w hat he might have called, “This message frome the supreme court.” It was made the special order. — I Concluded next week ] A New* Light-Running Sewin g Machine, cheap for cash or trade. Inquire atthG office. Rev. "W. H. Hickman will deliver a lecture on the subject of Temperance, H this place, on . ueeday evening next, 15th. Everybody invited.