ANNALS OF CLEVELAND

Abstracts 1600
CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER DIGEST JAN. 1 TO DEC. 31, 1838
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS - Ohio (Cont'd)
the matter, and if the course I have taken, in regards to state improvements,
does not meet their approbation, to give me instructions
on the subject.
Your other charge against me is "treachery" towards Mr. Barr, but
you omit to state in what that treachery consisted. I am left to infer
this and here I am assisted by being informed that reports are industriously
circulated through the county, that on the morning of the Whig
convention of last year, I distinctly pledged myself to Mr. Barr, that
I was not, and would not be a candidate for the Senate. This report
is probably rather intended to enlist sympathy for Mr. Barr, than to
injure me; but with whatever motive it was circulated, I solemnly aver
it to be untrue.
These are the true facts connected with my nomination to the Senate
last year, as I know them to be, and which I am able to prove by more
than fifty witnesses - Some two or three weeks previous to the convention
last year, my name was inserted in the HERALD as a candidate.
A day or two afterwards I conversed with Mr. Barr, and he told me to
run for one branch of the legislature and he would campaign for the
other. I told him that I did not intend to become a candidate as my
affairs at home needed me thru the winter. The same day I directed my
name to be discontinued in the HERALD.
But after it was repeatedly stated to me that Mr. Barr was not as
popular in the county as he appeared, I made the following declaration,
at a meeting convened in Willoughby for the purpose of sending delegates
to the state Whig convention: That, if it was clearly ascertained that
Barr could not be nominated, or could not be nominated without a split
in the ranks of the party, the delegates were at liberty to make use of
my name.
On the morning of the convention in Cleveland, I repeated to Barr
and several others the declaration made at Willoughby. He made no objection
but seemed confident of a majority in the Convention. After the
convention I was informed that Dr. Dille of Mayfield had stated that I
had positively declined a nomination that morning.
He might possibly have inferred this from having heard part of a
conservsation in which, among other things, I stated that I wished Mr.
Barr to have the nomination.
The above is a true statement of the affair, and if it deserves the
name of treachery I must bear it. The publ ic, however, must decide.
(19)
1600 - H&G Sept. 29:2/4 - In a letter to the editor, "A Farmer" of
Willoughby says: I have been for some time past a careful observer of
the movements of certain men who seek office, believing that they have for
a long time cared more for their own advancement, than for the triumph
of Whig principles. The delegates of tbis town were instructed to vote
for a particular individual. James S. Kapple paid no regard to instructions
and voted for John Barr. Kapple said after the nominations were made,
that John Barr would be elected, notwithstanding he had failed of getting
the nomination. Soon after the convention, James S. Clark of Cleveland
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