Mayoralty and A.D. Stewart - 1894-1895 (Part 2)


 

Monday morning, December 31, 1894, Hamilton City Hall was the scene of nominating meetings for the municipal election, to take place on January 7, 1895:

“When 10 o’clock sounded on the big city bell, several hundred people filed into the City Hall Council chamber, and in five minutes every available space on the floor and in the gallery was occupied. Mr. James Dixon was the first of the candidates to appear. He was greeted with applause, and a yell met Mayor Stewart, who entered a moment later.”1

1 “Dixon-Stewart : Two Candidates in the Contest For Mayoralty”

Hamilton Times.   December 31, 1894.

It was a comparatively orderly meeting, although many of A.D. Stewart’s supporters certainly made themselves heard:

“The crowd seemed about equally divided, but the Stewart part of it was very demonstrative, being composed very largely of young fellows who make too much noise to think much.”1

The mayoral candidates had to be officially nominated. Those who did the nominations for James Dixon and A.D. Stewart also made short speeches in support of the candidate.

Then, next on the agenda were speeches by the two candidates:

“ “Mayor Stewart, being the first nominated was the first of the candidates to speak. He was greeted again with loud applause. A year ago, he said, he faced the electors of Hamilton, and outlined at length the policy which he proposed to follow during the year. He had undoubtedly made mistakes, but he had tried to do his best, and no man could do more.

“Week in and week out during the year, he congratulated himself upon having done his duty, and now at the end of the year, he found that he had to meet an opposition and be put to the inconvenience and expense of an election.”

When it came time for James Dixon to speak, he lacked, perhaps, the loud oratorical skills of Mayor Stewart but he did manage to garner many cheers as he attacked his opponents’ record as mayor in 1894:

“Mr. James Dixon was greeted with applause when he got up, and a lot of Mr. Stewart’s boy ‘rooters’ in the gallery began their disturbing tactics.”

Again and again, James Dixon tore into A.D. Stewart’s behavior and failures as mayor. While some of Stewart’s ‘boys’ heckled and generally tried to shout down Dixon, he managed to hold his own.

The mayoral part of the meeting was followed by official nominations for each of the aldermanic seats.

All the needed business being transacted, the meeting was declared to be over at 12:45. The Council Chamber and the City Hall generally were soon vacated by all except those staffers who needed to be there.

 

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