USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 10
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It will be noticed that the lists to be sent in by the presid- ing officers "in each town as above specified," containing "the persons voted for and the number of votes given for each," would be affected in every case by the decisions that the presid- ing officer might make in admitting or excluding votes accord- ing to his view of their legality or otherwise; and it may have been on account of this liability that a statute law of the State
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had been passed, requiring these presiding officers to send to the Secretary of State, together with the certificate specified by the Constitution, "another certificate containing among other things enumerated a statement of the number of votes rejected, and the specific causes of their rejection."
These two certificates, constituting "the original returns of the presiding officers," were to be sent in by the Board of Canvassers, together with the "fair list of the votes" provided for by the Constitution, "on the first day of its session, to the General Assembly, which shall declare who are elected to said offices respectively."
When the General Assembly came together in January, 1891, with a Democratic Senate and a Republican House, and a disputed election to be settled by it within the first two days of the session, the conditions for trouble were rife. In accord- ance with their duty, the Board of Canvassers sent in the "fair list" of votes, and "the original returns of the presid- ing officers" for their appropriate action. The "fair list," representing the result in each town as declared by the presid- ing officers, showed with respect to the offices of Governor and Lieutenant-Governor and Secretary of State, a small majority for the Democratic candidate, and a much larger one for the Democratic Comptroller. As to this official there was no controversy made, and he was declared elected in due form.
With regard to the Governor and the Lieutenant-Gover- nor, the question at once arose between the two houses whether the "fair list" was to be regarded as final and con- clusive, or whether the Legislature under its constitutional power of "examination," prior to its declaration of the candi- dates "regularly chosen," had the right to inquire into the truth of this list in the light of the other returns by the pre-
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siding officers, and to take "extrinsic evidence" as to the votes received or rejected, as reported in those returns.
On this question, the two houses were at once in opposi- tion. The Democratic Senate insisted that the "fair list" decisively settled that Mr. Morris was elected by the popular vote; and the Republican House as inexorably insisted on refusing to accept the finding until after its correctness should have been investigated.
It will be seen, by referring back to the section of the Con- stitution previously quoted, that provision had been made in it for just such a contingency, by the requirement that the "General Assembly shall by law prescribe the manner in which all questions concerning the election of a Governor or Lieutenant-Governor shall be determined." Unfortunately, however, this plain requirement had never been complied with, and there was no legal chart or compass to guide the two obstinate contestants into a common understanding. Neither would yield, and the result was that neither Morris nor Merwin was declared elected.
To complicate the matter still farther, the Democrats, both in the House and Senate, insisted that Morris had been elected Governor by the people, and that Mr. Bulkeley, who continued to exercise the duties of the office, had no legal standing in it; and, regarding him as a "usurper," they refused to recognize him as even acting Governor of the State. They therefore refused to concur in the passing of any laws or the performance of any legislative functions which would require his co-operation and approval. This position they insisted on to the end; and the result was that when, after a session of some weeks wasted in a fruitless dis- pute over the election, the Legislature finally adjourned, it did so without having passed a single law, made a single
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appointment to any office, or arranged the slightest provi- sion for meeting the expenses of the State for the two years that must elapse before the next session.
In the meantime, the State had settled down to endure a dogged dispute ;- the rest of the country viewed the situa- tion with astonishment and curiosity, indulging in approba- tion or the reverse according to political sympathies.
A fierce conflict was waged over 126 Republican ballots rejected in Bridgeport on account of certain spots thereon, alleged to have been illegally placed there by the voters. It was afterwards proved, however, and is now universally admitted, that printer's ink, caught by a tiny rough spot, and repeated in exactly the same place on each of the 126 ballots, was alone responsible for the dark and despicable deed of implanting the suspicious mark. The incident cer- tainly gave disproportionate importance to this atom of a commodity which was employed so freely and promiscuously during this stress of affairs without apparently producing great effect.
Along the whole line, the war of words with tongue and pen raged with all the vehemence and bitterness of internecine strife; but the deadlock was as hard to cure as if it were a real political lockjaw. There was no power that could com- pel the two houses to agree on united action. If they would not go into joint convention, go they would not.
Each appeared to believe itself in the right; and in the heat of the excitement, it was only natural that neither should give up. It was evident that if the General Assembly failed to declare the election, disputed between Morris and Merwin, nothing else could take its place. The Supreme Court declined, as at other times when it had been asked, to interfere
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with the Legislature. Its business was to explain, not to make or enforce laws.
But how was the machinery of State government kept in operation ? The towns went on with the routine of town life almost automatically. The Democratic Comptroller, as has been said, had been declared elected without question. The minor State officers held over with the Governor and Lieu- tenant-Governor. The necessary funds for carrying on the State government during the succeeding two years were pro- vided by Governor Bulkeley on his personal responsibility. For this expenditure, the next Legislature reimbursed him.
But necessarily, great inconvenience was caused in many directions by the loss of appropriations to benevolent institu- tions and public enterprises ordinarily assisted by the State. And at times, the abnormal situation was a serious misfor- tune; as when a judge of the Superior Court died in office, and, the Legislature refusing to act jointly, the Governor could not present a candidate, so that the vacancy existed for more than a year. Governor Bulkeley had great business responsibilities pressing on him, and his official duty kept him in office against his private wishes.
In 1892, the following year, the question as to by what authority he continued to hold office was taken to the Supreme Court of the State in the quo warranto case of Mor- ris vs. Bulkeley. After six weeks of careful consideration, the decision was given by Chief Justice Andrews. It was to the effect that Morris had not proved his alleged majority as a fact; that the General Assembly was entitled to investi- gate the "returns" of an election; that the Constitution clearly demanded that the result should be declared on the second day after the election, and on no other; that "an election that was not declared was as good as no election at
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all;" and that if Morris had not been legally elected, it was the business of Bulkeley to hold in office till his successor was qualified.
Governor Bulkeley managed public affairs very skilfully while they were in this delicate and critical condition, when a blunder would have plunged the State into still greater diffi- culties. In adjourning the Assembly at the end of two years, he used these significant words :- "The experience of the last two years has demonstrated the law-abiding character of our people, and the strength and stability, under the severest test it has ever sustained, of the constitution and government un- der which the old commonwealth has existed for so many years." So the long-drawn contest ended; but the wounds were long in healing. In 1892, Judge Morris was elected governor by an unquestioned majority, and peace reigned in the land.
During the deadlock, the ability of the people of the com- monwealth to act independently and wisely was proved by their behaviour in regard to the World's Columbian Exposi- tion at Chicago in 1893. In 1891, the natural time for the General Assembly to appropriate a suitable sum for repre- senting the State at the exposition, it was impossible for the State Board of Trade, which preferred such a request, to get a dollar. There was no lack of personal interest in both houses, but theywould not break their self-imposed agreement not to have any joint action, lest they should establish a dan- gerous precedent. With true Connecticut adaptability, the citizens decided that the lack of a legislative appropriation should not prevent them from arranging for such a share in the great exposition as should "fitly celebrate and show the history, industry, ingenuity, enterprise and progress of the State."
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The press was unanimous in urging an appeal to private en- terprise; and Governor Bulkeley promptly responded, Feb. 8, 1892, by a letter inviting representatives of all corpora- tions, trades, societies and institutions, as well as individuals who were especially interested , to meet at the Capitol on Feb. 22, 1892, to provide for a creditable exhibition, and to raise the requisite money by popular subscription, with the hope that such money would be refunded by the next Legislature. The meeting was full and enthusiastic; a committee made provisions for organizing work, and more money than was called for was at once raised by popular subscription. State pride was aroused, and it was soon shown that it would take more than a legislative deadlock to prevent Connecticut from equipping herself for her place among the sisterhood of States.
The Board of World's Fair managers and that of Lady Managers were equally divided between the two leading political parties; and the governor's appointments for them were eminently judicious. The members planned so wisely, and worked so earnestly and harmoniously, that the result of their labors was a lasting credit to the State. They all took part in the imposing dedication ceremonies in October, 1892, accompanying Governor Bulkeley and his staff and escort to Chicago for that purpose. Then it was that the Governor made his reply to objections to admitting the Foot Guard to the procession because a military body would not be appro- priate in a civic procession :- "The Foot Guard is as much my escort as my staff. Where I go, they will go. I brought them here for that purpose."
That closed the argument. In the imposing procession of Governors, the Foot Guard, unique in its brilliant and his- toric uniform which has come down from colonial times,
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escorted the superbly mounted Governor, and marched to the music of Colt's Band, amid applause so continuous that it was asked to take the place of honor in the next day's procession.
Thus Connecticut began early to atone for the unavoidable delay in starting at home by the good impression made on the Fair grounds. While lack of space and delay in granting allotments prevented many intending exhibitors from carrying out their plans, and thus much that was interesting in the pro- ductions of the State did not appear at all, a vast array was collected, and the crowds who lingered around the costly pavilions with their brilliant displays of silver and steel and brass, of the treasures of the loom in cotton and wool and silk, were evidently satisfied that the Connecticut workmen had not lost his skill, and that Connecticut's share in the charms of the "White City" was quite worthy of her posi- tion as one of the old thirteen, as the home of the first joint stock company, and as, in proportion to size, one of the most populous and wealthy States in the Union. Since she has been the leader of the country in patents for a hundred years, it was not strange that three-fourths of the mechanical part of the fair came from her borders. As a detail, it may be said that all the medals for the final awards were sent from Connecticut, where they had been made.
The land of clocks, which had sent the Seth Thomas clock. to Philadelphia, could find room for only one now; but that was the Century Clock, from Ansonia, a work of art that had required twelve years and $60,000 for its construction, and was in mechanism the equal of the wonders of the old world. And the Columbia bicycles, in their splendid brass pavilion, outdistanced everything among the thirty-five other exhibits of the "iron donkey", as the African called it. What could have been done without the ponderous "electric traveler"
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from Stamford, that, running the length of the building on an overhead track of its own, had lifted from the freight cars and deposited in its own place every part and piece of heavy machinery, handling masses weighing many tons as easily as a child tosses a ball? The sumptuous carriages from New Haven had an added interest from their neighbor in the Transportation Building, the "Nancy Welles wagon", from Hartford, 125 years old, and doubly precious because Nancy Welles was a descendant of Miles Standish.
Far and wide went the story of the legend over the agricul- tural exhibit, "Connecticut's best crop, her sons and daugh- ters." Of that crop the fine specimens there present were too numerous to be catalogued in the most voluminous report. The grains and grasses showed variety but not quality, as compared with those of the great west; but there was no one to even compete with the State in magnificent working oxen, for nowhere has so much attention been paid to the raising of superior oxen as in Connecticut. Each of the four pairs ex- hibited took prizes and medals, and won almost extravagant praises from the judges. So, too, in choice Jerseys, she kept her high rank as a dairy State.
To the Forestry Building, she contributed eighty-three specimens of native woods, and six superb pillars, tree trunks, each twenty-five feet high, selected from the forest monarchs of Cornwall and Canaan.
Of minerals and metals, the State has always shown to the man of science a rich and brilliant store, second in variety to Colorado only; but to the promoter of mining syndicates she has been ungracious, and from him she has locked her treas- ures far behind the bars of difficult and expensive working. Accordingly, she took little space for such products. Her justly famous iron from Salisbury and marble from Canaan
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were absent, although she did show blocks of her granite in all its shades of color; and she tantalized the visitor by the flash of almost a hundred gems, exquisitely cut by Tiffany,- tourmalines, garnets, and beryls, golden, aquamarine, blue, canary, and light green,-all from the quarries of S. L. Wil- son of New Milford. From these the chief of the depart- ment begged some specimens as souvenirs.
Mr. Morris Steinert of New Haven sent his collection of rare old musical instruments, one of the notable collections of the world, and since presented by him to Yale University.
The fair at Philadelphia was a revelation; that at Chicago was the full enjoyment of the results of the lesson. The State houses, with their spacious and even luxurious arrangements, had more ambitious plans than those of 1876, and were regarded as important tokens of prosperity rather than merely as wayside resting-places. Perhaps no "exhibits" from Connecticut redounded more to the credit of the State than the Connecticut House, and the Connecticut Room in the Woman's Building. The former, designed by Warren R. Briggs, a Bridgeport architect; built by a Waterbury firm, Tracy Brothers; of solid woodwork, with real nails and plaster, and furnished with loving care and fastidious taste by ladies who spared no fatigue to secure the loan of choice pieces of antique furniture or characteristic relics, was so thoroughly admirable for its purpose that one of Chicago's best architects said that he had gained more professional inspiration from it than from any other State building; and a practical reward came to architect and builders in important commissions.
No such reward was available for the ladies who so unsel- fishly and devotedly labored to make the house and its fur- nishings express the character of the State, past and present.
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Three of the rooms were decorated in honor of the three oldest towns, Windsor, Wethersfield, and Hartford; the first copying on the walls the decoration of the guest room in the Oliver Ellsworth house; the second that of a noted house in which Washington had been entertained; the third having a design in oak leaves in memory of the Charter Oak. In the two parlors were silk hangings given by Colonel Cheney from his silk works; built into two corners were cupboards from old houses; in one room was a fine old mantel lent by Donald G. Mitchell.
The heavy mahogany sideboards, inlaid tables, four post bedsteads, fiddle-backed chairs, the chair in which each Pres- ident from Washington to Grant had sat, the portraits, china, samplers, the warming-pans, candlesticks, curtains, and valu- able relics of all kinds, filled an express car. One of the most praiseworthy achievements of the land of steady habits was that, of all these miscellaneous objects, precious and not to be replaced, fragile by their nature and by age, the only article that was lost was a small reel for winding silk, every- thing else being returned in absolutely perfect condition to the hands of the owners in Connecticut. It was to this house that all the children of the State turned with glad steps; and thither came great crowds to greet the new chief magistrate, Governor Morris, when he gave his address on Connecticut Day, crowds that exceeded, according to the local papers, those of any special "day," except that of Chicago.
The Woman's Building was the first so set apart by any government at any exposition; and Connecticut, New York, and Ohio were the three States which had the privilege of decorating and furnishing each a room. The decoration of this Connecticut room, by Miss Elizabeth R. Sheldon of New Haven, was so charming in design and color that it
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won instant praise, and eventually an "international reputa- tion" for the artist. In order to have it all the work of woman's hands as well as woman's brain, Miss Sheldon her- self strained, colored, and spread three hundred pounds of white lead for painting the frieze. This room was reserved for the use of the Foreign Commissioners, and it was the repository of many especially interesting objects; as the golden nail from Montana and the jeweled hammer from Nebraska that were used in the dedication ceremonies of the Woman's Building. The ladies of New Haven gave the money for a mantel; the Cheney Brothers, the satin damask for its furniture coverings; and it was further beautified by six carved wood panels, a stained-glass window, busts, reliefs, and pictures, all the work of Connecticut women.
In the library was the largest and choicest collection sent by them-their books. There could be seen two hundred books collected from the works of one hundred and fifty women born in the State, and a very interesting volume com- piled for the occasion, "Selections from the Writings of Con- necticut Women," a limited edition, handsomely bound in a cover designed by a Connecticut woman. They were fortun- ate in being able to point triumphantly to the works of Mrs. Stowe, undoubtedly the most noted American authoress, and to the unique collection lent by her, of forty-two translations of Uncle Tom's Cabin in as many different languages.
Thus in the fascinating sights of the great exposition our State played an honorable part. Like the rest of the country, she showed great advance in the scope of both labor and luxury since 1876, and it was clear that her progress on her own lines of mechanical arts, of the invention and production of labor-saving machines, and appliances that add to the com-
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fort of life, entitled her to a prominent place as an industrial State.
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CHAPTER VIII THE SPANISH WAR AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVEN- TION
I N 1892, a great wave of enthusiasm carried the State for Cleveland by the same election that placed Judge Morris in the Governor's chair; and the Democratic party was in power again.
For several years the financial depression that affected the country was severely felt in Connecticut, many large and hitherto flourishing manufacturing establishments being unable to pay dividends at all during a large part of the time. Had the trouble been confined to one State or to New England, it might have been possible to apply a remedy or find a compensation more speedy than waiting for the slow motion of underlying forces. During this trying period, O. Vincent Coffin of Middletown was called by a large majority to administer the State government; and in 1896, Lorrin A. Cooke for Governor, and Mckinley for President, received a sweeping majority. The rejoicings at the prom- ised return of business prosperity were enthusiastic, and work- men paraded the streets in the utmost good humor at the pros- pect of having work again. Industry began once more to weave her precious webs, and the State basked in the glow of prosperity; but soon came up the cloud of the Spanish war.
In spite of the conservative policy of both President Cleve- land and President Mckinley, the friction in Congress over Cuban affairs waxed greater every day; and in 1897, the relations between Spain and the United States became so strained that the country was ready to fly to arms, when the tragic fate of the Maine, on February 15, 1898, electrified the world. Diplomatic relations did not end till April 20; but death and war, however clearly their warnings have been given, always seem to find mankind unprepared; and the government was at once plunged into the harassing whirl of
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hastily fitting out an army and navy for immediate offensive and defensive measures. The bill introduced by Senator Hawley had added two regiments of artillery to our force; and the navy, having been in the gradual process of invigora- tion, was better prepared than the army; but an overwhelming amount of work had to be done at short notice.
In doing her part, Connecticut was engaged busily through the spring of 1898, and Governor Cooke had scope for all his administrative ability. The strain was not long, like that of the Civil War, but from the blowing up of the Maine to the sensational victory at Santiago, it was necessary to prepare for the worst; and during the succeeding months there was need of vigilant care of the soldiers in camp.
The response to President McKinley's call for 125,000 volunteers from the country, April 28, was prompt and patri- otic. Even before the declaration of war, all the Connecticut State organizations had offered themselves for any duty deemed necessary. Each one of the four regiments begged to be first on the field; but it was decided to make the choice by seniority of colonels; hence the First, Colonel Burdette, was designated. The order called for one light battery and two heavy batteries in addition to this regiment. Under the sec- ond call of May 25, the Third Regiment was sent. The First, as a regiment, was mustered into the U. S. Volunteer force, May 18, at Niantic, and became the First Connecticut Regiment U. S. Volunteers. The Third had been the Third Regiment Connecticut National Guard before the war, and has since returned to that designation. The men enlisted for two years unless discharged before. The First Regiment Volunteer Artillery was not a U. S. Volunteer regiment, with the exception of Battery A, Light, which enlisted as a part of the regular army, and was known as the "Yale Battery,"
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because a platoon in it-commanded by Lieutenant Herbert T. Weston, one of their number-was mostly composed of young men from Yale University. Of this regiment, Battery B had been infantry before the war, and after its close it returned to that branch of the service. Battery C existed only during the war; but the other batteries have continued as militia organizations. Thus it will be seen that the volun- teers served under varying conditions.
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