Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 20.pdf/131

 THE GREEN BAG The report of these two lawyers, both of whom were Democrats, concluded: "In view of these repeated failures to secure indictments for plain and aggravated breaches of law, and in view also of the position taken by the Commonwealth's Attorney, we have concluded any further efforts on our part to prosecute election offenders in this city will be useless." To correct these intolerable conditions, citizens of all political affiliations organized the City Club, the same month that this report was made. The Club was formed to stop dishonest elections, to restore the ballot to the people, to allow the people to elect their own officers, to see that every man who had the right to vote, and who wished to exercise that right, voted, and that his vote was counted as cast. In resolutions adopted July i4th — an historic date, the fall of the Bastile — it is set forth that the Club's purpose was "to secure a fair and honest election ... to correct and suppress the one great abuse which had been the prolific source of so many others — to put a final stop to theft of office." The Mayor, Council, County Sheriff and nearly all the City and County officers were to be elected in November. The Republi cans nominated a Fusion ticket containing both Democrats' and Republicans. The City Club indorsed this ticket. It was op posed by a Democratic machine ticket nom inated at a fraudulent primary. The elec tion was held on November 7, 1905. On the face of the returns the Democratic ticket was elected by majorities ranging from 3373 to 5280. The Louisville Contested Election Cases challenged the validity of the election. The election itself and the registration of voters that preceded it were marked by fraud and crime of appalling impudence on the part of the Democratic machine and its creatures. Brutal assaults by police men and armed thugs on Republicans and Independents and crimes of fraud and force were so extensive and done with such

insolent boldness by Democratic politicians, office holders and tools that the public was stung into indignation. Private citizens organized a "Committee of One Hundred" and raised the money necessary for a con test of the election, amounting in all to about $35,000.00. It had taken all of the summer of 1905 for the Fusionists to raise a campaign fund of $22,000.00, but the events occurring on election day so aroused the community that at a meeting on Nov ember 10, 1905, three days after the election, it only took an hour and a half to raise the $10,000.00 necessary to start the contest. On November 23, 1905, forty-five contest suits, involving about 70 offices, were filed to annul the election under the statutory and constitutional provisions above re ferred to. Ten lawyers practicing at the Louisville Bar were engaged to prosecute the cases, and for three and one half months the depositions of about 1800 witnesses were taken simultaneously, and practically continuously, at three different places. This evidence was all printed in ten large volumes as fast as it was taken. On March 10, 1906, the Republican cases were completed; on April 14, 1906, the evidence closed and the cases were ready for sub mission, but the Chancellors of the Jeffer son Circuit Court required that all the testimony (over 15,000 pages) be read aloud to them in court, and all the other court business was practically suspended. On December 5, 1906, this reading was finished. The cases were argued December 10-21, 1906, and were submitted. The Chancellors held the cases under submission for three months, and finally, on March 23, 1907, delivered a 18o-page opinion in favor df the Democrats. The judgments were immediately appealed from, and although the record in the court below was about 40,000 pages, the cases were prepared for the Appellate Court within three weeks and were argued on April 16-20, 1907, before the Court of Appeals of Kentucky.