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Chapter Eight CROwBAR GOVeRNOR Aa Since Bulkeley’s sights were set on the governorship, he wasted no time wining and dining the men who controlled his fate. In March 1888, he hosted an eightcourse dinner at The Hartford Club for the Republican State Central Committee. The men of the Gilded Age were world-class trenchermen. Rather than grab a quick bite on the way to some other extravaganza, they enjoyed a whole evening of food and drink, often entertaining each other with short speeches, humorous raillery, and verbal badinage between dishes. Although Bulkeley served Connecticut River shad as the main course for this particular Republican dinner, a typical feast would consist of oysters on the half shell, followed by consommé. Then, fried smelts, stewed terrapin, fillet of beef larded with mushroom sauce and finished with a side of vegetables, cheese sou√lé, canvas-back duck with black cherry sauce, lemon ice, fruits, cakes, and co√ee would be served. Port accompanied the oysters and soup; claret complemented the fish; Chablis was paired with the terrapin; champagne o√set the roast; and liqueurs, of course, were matched with dessert.∞ By the end of the evening, a stu√ed Bulkeley felt reasonably certain he would be the next governor of Connecticut. Although implausible, his certainty rings true for a curious reason: Since the legislature was overwhelmingly Republican, as long as neither candidate got a majority of the popular vote, the General Assembly would hand the governorship to Morgan Bulkeley. This was exactly how the two preceding Republican governors, Henry Harrison and Phineas Lounsbury , found their way into o≈ce.≤ As we saw earlier, the governor right before Henry Harrison would have been Billy Bulkeley had he been of the same mind as his successors. In the 1880s, the gubernatorial races were so close that almost any third party candidate could easily scrub o√ enough votes to prevent a majority. Moreover, during this period, the third party was always the Prohibitionist Party, the one group with whom the Democratic Party could never form a fusion ticket. Their ranks included so many hard-drinking Irish immigrants, that any combination with the Prohibitionists was unthinkable.≥ ∞≠∏ c r o w b a r g o v e r n o r So said, this ‘‘third party as spoiler’’ scheme of winning elections deserves a closer look. While the Prohibition Party worked like a charm for three Republicans in a row—Henry Harrison, Phineas Lounsbury, and later, Morgan Bulkeley— the Courant claimed ‘‘[T]his vote is almost exclusively taken from Republican votes.’’∂ Presumably, the Prohibitionists got their votes from people who knew the evils of liquor firsthand. Was this more likely to be Republican voters or Democratic voters? A good guess is the latter, making the ‘‘third party as spoiler scheme’’ something Republicans would have encouraged. In any event, because of the unchanging makeup of the lower chamber of the General Assembly, this little quirk in Connecticut’s election laws made it a wonderful time to be a Republican.∑ Other than speeches given in a few towns around Hartford, campaigning was a very muted a√air in 1888. The state’s newspapers carried little or no political advertising. Once again Bulkeley was up against a far more accomplished man, and though this 1888 race for the governor’s o≈ce didn’t present any obstacles he hadn’t encountered before, it turned out to be one of the most irritating races of his life. The agent of all this vexation was Judge Daniel C. Birdsall of Westport. How Birdsall ever became a judge is a great mystery, for his behavior was eccentric— even bizarre. To begin, he was arrested in 1874, along with Mrs. Ada Troubee, on a charge of adultery. Once the enchanting Ada was free of her husband, Birdsall married her.∏ On the business side of the ledger, by 1883 Birdsall’s heart had abandoned the law and he was itching to start a newspaper. He moved to Hartford , and in November, the first edition of the Democratic-leaning Hartford Telegram hit the streets.π Originally, Birdsall took the high road, turning out honest, high-quality journalism , but since the city already had a matched set of Democratic and Republican mouthpieces—the Times and the Courant, respectively—the Telegram had trouble attracting an audience. That’s an understatement. In no time at all, the paper sank $20,000 into debt. Birdsall quickly abandoned the high road and began to crank out the most salacious lies that...

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