Buffalo County, Nebraska - Chapter 52: Capital Relocation County Option the Campaign Issue Capital Removal, 1916

County Board Of Supervisors Capital Removal

In the political history of the county, no incident, for a brief period of time, created more intense interest than the vote on that so-called capital removal bill, known as House Roll No. 246, in the 191 1 session of the Legislature.

The leading issue in the political campaign in the state in 1910 was county option. S. C. Bassett as candidate for representative in the Legislature from Buffalo County had publicly pledged to do all possible to secure the passage of county Option legislation.

A bill looking to the relocation of the state capital had been drawn and published during the campaign and James Dahlman, a citizen of Omaha, candidate for governor and supported by the liquor interests, had publicly announced himself in favor of such a measure and in the light of subsequent events there is little doubt that capital relocation was instigated and encouraged by the liquor interests, to be used in the legislative session, should occasion offer, to assist in the defeat of county option legislation.

It is not questioned that the people of Buft'alo County, who advocated the relocation of the state capital, who assisted in the drawing of" and introduction in the Legislature of such a measure, were honest in their intentions, which were, to secure a relocation of the capital and if possible at Kearney. It is not believed they were advised of or in any manner a party to the plan of the li(|Uor interests to use the measure to help defeat temperance legislation - county option.

The City of Lincoln had abolished the open saloon which greatly angered the liquor interests of the state. The County of Lancaster had sent to the Legislature a county option delegation with one exception. Both branches of the Legislature were about equally divided on the question of county option. To help insure the defeat of county option legislation, the liquor interests conceived the i)lan of using the capital relocation bill as a club to punish the people of Lincoln for driving out the open saloon and to compel the Lancaster delegation to defeat county option.

If by any possible means tbe capital relocation bill could be passed in the house, the people of Lincoln would be offered the choice of defeat of county option or relocation of the state capital.

In the campaign preceding the legislative session and during the session, there was no pronounced public sentiment in the state in favor of capital relocation. When the liquor interests, as represented in the house began to advocate the passage of House Roll No. 246, the people of Buffalo County became greatly excited, being led to believe that the relocation of the state capital at Kearney was practically assured in case the bill passed the House.

Delegations of citizens living in Kearney, in autos, canvassed the county to secure signatures to a so-called petition urging Representative Bassett to support the capital relocation bill. And just as the roll was being called in the house on the final passage of House Roll No. 246, one C. E. Oehler, a transient resident of the county, handed to Representative Bassett, so-called petitions containing, as he stated, the signatures of more than one thousand citizens of Buffalo County.

The official records of the 191 1 session of the Legislature, as disclosed in the house journal, make plain the full intent and purpose of the liquor interests in supporting this measure. The county option members in the house realized that a vote for House Roll No. 246 was, in effect, a vote to defeat cotmty option legislation.

In this analysis of the vote on the capital removal bill and on the county option bill, those members who voted for county option are listed "dry" and those opposed to county option are listed "wet."

Legislative Record of the Capital Removal Bill, House Roll No. 246. - The capital removal bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 26, the sixteenth day of the legislative session.

The house records seem to disclose that of 703 bills introduced in the house no one of these bills required so brief a length of time from introduction to a vote on third reading as did the capital removal bill with the exception of bills introduced by standing committees and a very few bills to which there was no objection or opposition. On page 236, house journal, can be found the record vote on the capital removal bill. On page 458 of the house journal can be found the record vote on the county option bill.

The record discloses that in the vote on the capital removal bill, thirty-eight votes were in the affirmative, fifty-eight in the negative, excused and not voting four, a total of 100.

The records disclose that of the total vote cast for the capital removal bill, more than 23 per cent, all "wet," came from counties adjoining the County of Lancaster in which is located the capital city.

The records disclose that of the total vote cast in favor of the capital removal bill, 58 per cent, all "wet," came from counties having territory within fifty-five miles of the City of Lincoln.

The records disclose that twenty-seven members were introducers of the capital removal bill. Of this number fourteen were "dry" and thirteen "wet." Of the fourteen "dry" members, four voted FOR the bill; of the thirteen "wet" members, twelve voted FOR the bill.

The record discloses that in the House of Representatives fifty votes were cast in favor of the county option bill, Roll No. 392, and of this number seven voted for the capital removal bill.

The records disclose that the county option bill was introduced in the House on the twenty-seventh day of the legislative session and was placed on third reading on the forty-fourth day, a period of seventeen days from introduction to the final vote.

As ours is a representative form of government it seems pertinent, and not out of place to call attention to the somewhat divergent views entertained as to the duties of a representative in matters of legislation. There are those who believe the greater obligation of a representative in our Legislature is to the larger interests of the state even when they seemingly conflict with the comparatively smaller interests of his district. In short, that the interests of the state are paramount as compared with the interest of any one locality.

There are those who deem the interests of their district or locality as paramount to any or all others as a claim upon the time, efforts and vote of their representative.

There are those who deem it the duty of their representative to secure for his district or home town, the location of a state institution or an appropriation for one already located, but are not concerned as to any means he may use therefor.

There are those who believe that pledges made during a political campaign are binding on both the candidate and the people who accept the pledges by electing the candidate to ofiice; that party platforms, and campaign pledges are not simply "hot air" to secure votes or mere "scraps of paper" of no binding force.

County option represented a moral principle; the candidates for the house, in Buffalo County, who had publicly declared in favor of county option, and pledged to support such a measure, had been elected by substantial majorities. The principle of county option was the leading issue in the county and in the state.

A student of history is inclined to question: Had the people of Buffalo County, a substantial majority of them, been fully advised that the liquor interests of the state were using the capital relocation bill in the Legislature as a club to help defeat county option, would they have supported the capital relocation bill and paid as a price for support the defeat of county option^

As a result of his opposition to the capital relocation bill Representative Rassett received hundreds of letters from constituents, a few commendatory, a large majority condemnatory.

As a matter of history, representative of the expressed views of individuals as to the duties of a representative in our State Legislature, herewith are included three communications bearing on the question :

"Dear Sir: If you had been in Kearney the day the message came that you had defeated the capital removal bill, I fear you would have been mobbed and roughly handled.

'T was as indignant at you as anybody, but on a sober, second thought, I tried to put myself in your place. Knowing your strong temperance sentiment, knowing that all good laws must be made at a place as far removed from the saloon influence as possible, I could not be honest and vote to take the state capital from a dry town and put it in a wet one. Now that the conditions are likely to change, Lincoln wet and Kearney dry, perhaps in this case you would have voted different. (Signed) E. P. Courtright."

In the political campaign of 19 10, as an officer of the County Option League of Buffalo County, in company with Candidate Bassett he campaigned the county in support of county option.

"You have made the big mistake of your life in opposing the capital removal bill. That mistake is now blighting your standing and reputation among your old friends and neighbors. You will never recover from its awful effects, unless you speedily, while there is opportunity, do all in your power to correct it.

"You have made this terrible mistake because you do not understand your duties as a representative and your relations to the people of this county and the people of the state. This is plain talk, Mr. Bassett, but I speak the sober truth when I say it. You have acted from a mistaken understanding of your duties, if you are correctly quoted in what you said in defense of your action.

"You are not entitled to act on your own judgment in the matter. You are not sovereign, but only a servant. Your own judgment should be subordinate to that of the people of Buffalo County. Herein lies your mistake, that you think you should be governed by what you suppose the people of the state will approve. You do not represent the state. I repeat, you do not represent the state.

"You have no right to represent Douglas County or to speak for Douglas County on this question or any other that comes before the Legislature. Douglas County has its own representatives who are commissioned to speak for them. So with every other county in the state. Each representative represents the people who elect him and he speaks for them. He knows their sentiments, or is supposed to and he is, therefore, in position to be their agent, their servant and carry out their will. You can not know the will and demands of the people of other and distant counties like you know it of Buffalo County.

"Here is the foundation of our legislative system. The state is divided into districts and each district given a representative, or sometimes more, in order that each man elected may be close to the people who elect him and in position to carry out their will. The aggregation of these men thus elected, sitting in the Legislature, may thus speak for all the people. Each man speaks for the people of the district he comes from and all acting together speak for the entire state. Jkit whenever any man refuses to obey the will of the people of his district he deserts his trust, he betrays the people whose servant he is, he assumes duties belonging to the representatives of other districts.

"Moreover, in your case you have opened the way for a vicious attack upon yourself, to the eft"ect that you are controlled by a few personal friends in Lincoln. Nor can you escape the effects of this attack. No matter what excuse you give, how much you try to hide behind the claim that the state does not want capital removal, you can not escape from the effect of this action. In other words, the accusation is that you have forsaken your people, deserted them, and betrayed their interests for what seem to you your personal advantage.

"This is a terrible accusation and no man can hold his head up under it very long. I do not make it, but the people of this county do make it. It behooves you to retrieve yourself by undoing all you have done so far as may be possible. You can either move a reconsideration of the vote and then advocate the bill or, you can support a new and amended bill. I shall do what I can to have another bill introduced with some important changes in it. Just what the new bill will contain I do not know. But if one is introduced it stands you in hand to su|)port it and do all in your power to get it through.

"You need not doubt that the people of this county want the question of capital removal submitted. I undertake to say there are not a dozen voters in the county against it.

'Tf you really want to represent the people of this county there is but one .thing for you to do and that is to do your utmost to pass the l)ill. Remember, as I have said, that you are only an agent of the people of this county ; you are selected as their servant to do their will and you have no right to set up your will against theirs.

"This is plain talk, Mr. Bassett, but I want you to understand, that I am just one of the people who sent you to Lincoln. In what I say I do not speak for myself alone. I know I speak the sentiments of the great majority of the people who voted for you. I know what they want and what they expect of you. I know they expect you to stand by their interests and obey their commands, to be their servant, not their master, nor dictator.

"It is better for you to take some plain talk now, even if it does hurt your feelings, than for you to go down to disgrace and oblivion here among your old friends where you have had an honorable standing all your life.

"You can redeem yourself if you will, in large measure. But if you refuse to make the effort the results upon yourself will blight and perhaps shorten your life. Act at once before it is too late.

"The board of county supervisors of Buffalo County, Nebraska, in session the 15th day of February, 191 1, desire to express the unanimous opinion of the board that Representative S. C. Bassett, in opposing the capital removal bill, known as House Roll No. 246, has voted contrary to the sentiment of practically all of the voters of this county; and we further believe he is no longer qualified to represent this county in the Nebraska Legislature now in session and should resign at once.

"Moved by Higgins that the clerk be instructed to send copies of the foregoing resolution to State Senator C. F. Bodinson, Representative S. C. Bassett and Representative Willard F. Bailey. "Motion carried."

The members of the board of supervisors adopting the foregoing resolutions were: John Conroy, J. W. Higgins, Pat Fitzgerald, Phil Bessor, Jacob Sitz, E. L. King, Charles Grassman ; J. H. Dean, county clerk.