Shepherdstown Register

A special from Washington to the Wheeling Register of a recent date contains the following:

Your correspondent met a Jefferson county Democrat at the capitol to-day and asked about the state of feeling out there with regard to the Senatorial contest. He replied:

"It is very high. Our people are about ready to hold a mass meeting of Democrats for the purpose of calling on our Representatives to resign. They feel some kindness for Mr. Chew, for he is a fair man, and it is believed that when he learns that he is not representing his constituency in his action he will do differently. Jefferson Democrats are pretty evenly divided on the Camden and anti-Camden issue. The lines were drawn in our primaries last summer and the difference in the two votes did not amount to two hundred. Mr. Camden's manly course throughout the entire contest has won him many friends, and he would carry the county at another primary election. We all expected Lucas and Chew to vote against Camden, but when the news came that they had not only refused to enter a party caucus, but had refused to support a majority composed of nearly three-fourths of the Democratic members, our indignation knew no bounds. I can safely say that one-half the Democratic members of Jefferson county favor Mr. Camden's return to the Senate, while the other half, though he was not their first choice, regard him as the nominee of their party and consider his right to the election. They all severely censure the course of their delegates. As an evidence of the unanimity of the Democrats of Jefferson on this point I will mention to you that in one precinct (Shepherdstown) where at the election about 410 Democratic votes were polled 380 or more than nine-tenths of them have signed a petition to Lucas and Chew to stand by the caucus nominee. I think the other kickers will find that their constituents are about as nearly unanimous on this proposition. These men in the Legislature are not representing the sentiment of the Democrats who elected them. Do you suppose Democrats are going to elect men to office whom they know to be opposed to one of the most sacred principles of Democracy, the recognition of the will of the majority? What would be the use of a party organization without this cornerstone?

"Democrats throughout the eastern Panhandle are catching on the significance of the fact that about all the encouragement they ever receive comes from the Republicans. But one Democratic newspaper in the State endorses their action, though several were opposed to Camden. On the other hand the Republican press and managers are flattering them into the belief that they are performing a great service to the State. If we had thought it necessary to send some one to the Legislature to assist the Republican party in its efforts to disorganize the Democracy we would have sent a straight Radical instead of the men who have always professed to be Democrats and whose party fealty we had never until now doubted. I hope the caucus men will remain true to the last to their nominee. To yield an inch now would be to succumb to the foolish minority's wishes. They should hold out until the minority is made to feel the force of the party sentiment in their counties. A majority of their constituents may not hold Mr. Camden as their first choice, but an overwhelming majority do not want to see the usages of the party violated, and they regard Camden as the regularly and fairly nominated candidate of the Democratic party. I believe I reflect the sentiments of nine-tenths of the Democratic party in Jefferson and every other county."