The Reluctant Candidate

Inasmuch as my name has been presented to the people of Fairhaven as a candidate for mayor by the convention assembled last evening to nominate officers for our new city, it may not be improper for me to say a few words through the columns of the HERALD concerning the matter. I was not, and in the ordinary sense, am not a candidate for the mayoralty or for any other public position, and it is with the greatest reluctance that I have yielded to the pressing importunities of friends. It was represented to me that there existed in the city a certain want of harmony which it was impossible to reconcile by the nomination of any other person. I authorized a friend to say that if it should be the final decision of the convention that my name alone would bring a harmonious election, I would permit its use. If elected, I would qualify and faithfully perform the duties of the office. My desire is to have a unanimous election and a wise and progressive administration of the city government. We are first to make a system of government and then to administer it; the duties of succeeding administrations will be light as compared with this first one.