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| S. S. Knox |
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| Grip's Historical Souvenir |
The Cortland Democrat, Friday, November
1, 1889.
Judge Knox as Partisan.
Under the
above caption the Standard renews the statement which it produced six
years ago with no apparent effect whatever. The sum and substance of the charge
is that Judge Knox with "seventeen Democrats of more or less prominence," signed a protest
to the Board of Supervisors against counting the Republican electoral
ballots cast in some of the towns in this county in 1880, and
thereby attempted to disfranchise the Republican voters of those towns.
Now let us
analyze this nonsense a little and show just exactly what there was of it. A
day or two after election, Mr. Kellogg, chairman of the Democratic County Committee received a dispatch from the Chairman of
the Democratic National Committee, stating that the committee had been informed
on what it considered reliable authority that there had been glaring frauds
committed in counting the votes in Kings [Brooklyn] county, and asking Mr. Kellogg to
prepare and serve a protest on the Board of County Canvassers, against counting
the Republican electoral ballots in this county pending an investigation of the
facts.
This
action was requested simply to preserve the rights of the party if fraud of
sufficient magnitude to defeat General Hancock should be proved. Mr. Kellogg
hastily drew up such a protest and among others presented the same to the editor
of this paper, at the same time showing the telegram from the National Committee.
The editor
of this paper readily signed the same, the more so because of the fact that in
1876, Tilden's majority in Kings county was 18,490 and in 1880, four years
later, Hancock had only a beggarly majority of 9,311. It looked very much as
though there had been some crooked work there and we signed the protest simply
to give an opportunity for an investigation and to preserve our rights.
The
committee on further investigation found that the proof of fraud was
insufficient and the matter was dropped. No honest Democrat wanted Mr. Garfield
counted out if he was fairly elected. But the editor of the DEMOCRAT in common
with thousands of Republicans was well aware of the fact that Mr. Tilden was
counted out four years before, and he thought that the parties who cheated the
Democrats in 1876 might do the same thing in 1880.
We ask
any fair-minded republican if he would not have done the same thing if he had
been in the same position. Judge Knox signed the protest under precisely the
same circumstances. Judge Knox is a Democrat and he never denied that he signed
the protest. He never yet was guilty of trying to take advantage of any
technicality in any political proceeding.
If the
returns next Tuesday evening show that a majority of the people of this county
prefer to have Mr. Eggleston for Surrogate, he will bow to the will of the people
and no technical objection will be raised to prevent the will of the people being
carried into effect. He does not want the office unless it comes to him honorably.
He in common with the other seventeen Democrats who signed the protest in 1880,
had no thought of disfranchising any one.
If
Hancock was fairly elected they wanted it so recorded and if Garfield was
elected without fraud every one of the signers were satisfied with the result.
No one knows this better than editor Clark. These are the cold facts in regard to
the bugaboo of disfranchisement that our neighbor has been engaged in peddling
about the county both by word of mouth and through the columns of his paper.
PAGE
TWO/EDITORIALS.
- Peck's course in the legislature last winter shows that he cares very little for the working man. He is recorded as voting against every bill calculated to benefit the working men. Mr. Wright, the Democratic candidate is a laboring man himself and can be relied on to stand by them in the Assembly. See that the name of William W. Wright is on your ticket.
- If the laboring men of this county desire to be represented in the State Legislature they should vote for William W. Wright for Member of Assembly. What can they expect from Peck? Simply a repetition of his past record. He will do no more for the working man next winter than he did last winter, and then he voted against him every time. Look a little to your interests and vote accordingly.
- It is of the utmost importance to everybody, to have an honest, reliable, careful and painstaking man in the Surrogates office. Such a man is Judge Knox. There is not a blemish on him. His record is spotless as all admit. Can the voters of this county safely hazard the risk of a change? Do not condemn the bridge that has carried you safely over but look out for the one you have not tried.
- Judge Knox makes no mistakes. His papers and records are always kept in apple pie order and ready for the inspection of all who have a right to see them. Important papers are never missing. Ask for a paper in any proceeding and he can produce it at once. He is very careful and methodical, consequently his office is always in order. This fact is very important as some men are continually misplacing and losing important documents.
- The DEMOCRAT has no desire to injure Mr. Eggleston, the Republican candidate for County Judge in the least particular. He is a clever fellow and a pleasant gentleman to meet, but there are lots of clever fellows that would not make good Surrogates and we believe Joe to be one of them. We do not believe in electing men to office because we like them personally. They should possess all the qualifications necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of the office and that is why we believe Judge Knox should be elected. He has shown that he has every qualification that can be desired.
- Judge Knox has no friends to reward nor enemies to punish. If elected he will be able to hold the scales of Justice evenly between all suitors. No one can claim any advantage over another. All will be treated alike. The law will be administered without fear or favor and Justice will continue to prevail as it has during the past six years in our Surrogate's Court. Possibly another candidate might follow in his footsteps, but it is not probable. You are taking chances when you vote for any other candidate, no matter how good a man you believe him to be. Hold fast to what you have and do not risk the chance of a change.
- The Standard undertakes to say that the clerk in the Surrogate's office draws all the papers required in the settlement of estates. The Standard editor's quill gets the start of him occasionally and when it does it generally makes our esteemed friend appear rather ridiculous. The clerk fills out some of the preliminary blanks and copies some papers, but he never undertakes to draw up a decree or any other original paper because he don't know how and because Judge Knox does all this work himself. He never entrusts any important duty to others and never shirks any duty. People who have business to do in the Surrogate's office in this county, will find the Surrogate there to attend to their wants.
- The first year of Judge Knox's term he paid the salary of his clerk out of his own pocket. At the end of that year he asked the Board of Supervisors to pay the salary of the clerk and although a majority of the Board was composed of Republicans they readily complied with his request. Why? Simply because they knew that he could not do all the clerical work alone and because they had discovered that he was saving hundreds of dollars to the people of this county by doing the work that lawyers had charged large fees for doing in other years. The lawyers admit that they have had very slim pickings from the Surrogate's Court during the past six years. What they have lost the people have gained.
- Honest men are the exception and not the rule. The man who has been tried and found to be honest, competent and reliable, is pretty sure to hold fast to his record and reputation. If you were going to employ a man in your own private business, you would much rather give the place to a man whom you knew to be honest, competent and reliable, than to take the chances on one who had not been tried. Remember that you are directly interested in the man who shall be chosen Surrogate of this county. No one can tell how soon his estate will come into that officer's hands for settlement. Every estate that has come before Judge Knox for the past six years for settlement has been disposed of promptly and to the personal satisfaction of the parties interested. The estates have not been swallowed up in expensive lawyers' fees, but have been distributed among the heirs in the most economical way possible.
- The Standard is not willing to give Judge Knox a particle of credit for saving thousands of dollars to the people of this county during the past six years, for the reason that a clerk was furnished him by a Republican Board of Supervisors at a salary of $400 per annum, and in the very same article the Standard admits that it would be "a physical impossibility for any County Judge and Surrogate in this county, to draw all the papers in his courts and attend to his other official business." Why then shouldn't he have a clerk provided him? If it would be a physical impossibility for him to do the work, isn't it very plain that he should have assistance? The people of the entire county have paid the clerk's salary by a tax that no one feels and the business has been conducted to the entire satisfaction of everybody but the lawyers. In former years, we have known lawyers to obtain in a single case, a larger fee than the entire yearly salary paid to the Surrogate's clerk for a year's services. And this was not an exceptional case. Judge Knox has brought about a reform in the Surrogate's office that is saving thousands of dollars to the tax payers every year and they will be called upon to say at the polls next Tuesday whether they appreciate his services or not.
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| American balloonist ascends in 1851. |
FROM
EVERYWHERE.
The body of Walrath, the balloonist who was
lost in Otsego lake September 24 was found this afternoon, 20 feet from where the
parachute was found and 600 feet from the shore. The body is badly decomposed.
Harry Spiez, who fatally shot Ruby Nelson in
a Buffalo house of bad repute last June, and was convicted of manslaughter in the
first degree was yesterday sentenced to the Erie county penitentiary for twelve
years.
The old rebel horse "Charlie" that
was captured in Georgia by Henry H. Spencer, of company A, One Hundred and
Twenty-third N. Y. Volunteers, while on "Sherman's March to the
Sea," died last Friday at Thomson's Mills, on the farm of Samuel T. Payne.
It was supposed to be about thirty years of age. Spencer frequently rode the
old horse at Washington county veteran's reunions.
Recommended:
Otsego Lake history: http://www.otsegolakeassociation.org/documents/newsletter/2013%20Winter%20Newsletter%2014Mar13.pdf
New York genwebnet:
“Ed Walrath was a daredevil balloon-ascension
artist. Although a one-man specialist in this field of sport, he had scores of
enthralled witnesses. He exercised on a platform connected to the second floor
of a house on West Hill as crowds assembled to watch. Walrath made his first
ascension in the late 1880's, from Ilion, landing in Little Falls. A harness
was placed around him and a parachute hung to the side of the gas balloon,
which opened with his weight when he jumped. His final flight cost him his life
in Otsego Lake, ending an individualistic sport.”
2geeks3knots (Otsego Lake): http://2geeks3knots.com/tag/otsego-lake/
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