City Council Tries to Oust Civil War Veteran
A local editor slams council members for attempting to remove a poundmaster who served in the Union army and lost his son in the Philippines.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It is doubtful whether the formal election of a poundmaster by the city council comes under the head of a 'motion' as used in the city charter, and it is, therefore, doubtful whether the council has any right to reconsider the vote by which E. R. Harding was elected at the last regular meeting of the council. Mr. Harding has qualified and filed his bond and is entitled to the office. In the opinion of the Statesman it will take a two-thirds vote of the council to remove him legally and then only for good cause. The law recognizes no such thing as 'complimentary' votes. Every member of the council is supposed to act in good faith in casting his vote. This attempt to remove a duly elected poundmaster without cause is on the same line as the attempt of the mayor last spring to name a chief of police regardless of the provision of the charter. The council may reverse itself if it chooses on its choice of a poundmaster, but if the question is tested in the courts it is not at all certain that its right to crawfish will be sustained. Mr. Harding's services as a defender of the Union in the Civil War and the loss he suffered by the death of his gallant son, Sherman, who was killed at the battle of Santa Ana in the Philippines, should entitle him to more than ordinary consideration at the hands of the council.
“This attempt to remove a duly elected poundmaster without cause is on the same line as the attempt of the mayor last spring to name a chief of police regardless of the provision of the charter.”
This story highlights the perennial tension between municipal administrative power and veteran loyalty, a theme that echoes in contemporary debates over local government appointments and patronage. Even in 1903, the paper frames local government as a battleground between public duty and the 'political machine.'
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.