To Uncle Sam

When you’ve captured Aquinaldo, when you’ve pacified Luzon,

     When you’ve taught the blooming Tagals how to work instead of fight;

When you disinfect Hawaii so it’s safe to land upon,

     Won’t you go to old Kentucky with your “arguments” for right?

When you’ve thrown down Richard Leary from the little isle of Guam,

     When you’ve sent another duffer out to fill the Cap’n’s chair;

When you’ve changed the laws so often that they do not care a damn,

     Won’t you stop in old Kentucky, for you’re sadly needed there.

When you’ve fed up Puerto Rico, which is starving by your door,

     When you’ve helped to bring prosperity unto that blighted isle;

When you’ve carried to your “nephews” work and happiness once more,

     Won’t you think of old Kentucky and go tarry there awhile?

When you’ve settled things in Cuba, that fair flower of the sea,

     When you’ve kept your Golden Promise, made so many months before;

When you’ve taken Yankee Doodle back to where he ought to be,

     Won’t you camp in old Kentucky, where your army’s needed more?

March 26, 1900

Pub. Globe,

March 30, 1900

Kentucky

   William Justus Goebel (January 4, 1856 – February 3, 1900) was an American politician who served as the 34th Governor of Kentucky for four days in 1900 after having been mortally wounded by an assassin the day before he was sworn in. Goebel remains the only state governor in the United States to be assassinated while in office.

  A skilled politician, Goebel was well able to broker deals with fellow lawmakers, and equally able and willing to break the deals if a better deal came along. His tendency to use the state's political machinery to advance his personal agenda earned him the nicknames "Boss Bill", "the Kenton King", "Kenton Czar", "King William I", and "William the Conqueror".[4]

  Goebel's abrasive personality made him many political enemies, but his championing of populist causes, like railroad regulation, also won him many friends. This conflict of opinions came to a head in the Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899. Goebel, a Democrat, divided his party with self-serving political tactics at a time when Kentucky Republicans were finally gaining strength, having elected the party's first governor four years previously. These dynamics led to a close contest between Goebel and William S. Taylor. In the politically chaotic climate that resulted, Goebel was assassinated. Everyone charged in connection with the murder was either acquitted or pardoned, and the identity of his assassin remains uncertain.

  Democrats, who controlled the General Assembly, felt that county election commissioners had been unjust in selecting local election officials, and that this injustice had contributed to the election of Republican governor William O. Bradley in 1895 and Republican president William McKinley in 1896. Goebel proposed a bill, known as the "Goebel Election Law", which passed along sharp party lines and over Governor Bradley's veto, created a three-member state election commission, appointed by the General Assembly, to select county election commissioners. This system proved to be just as easy to manipulate as the one it replaced, allowing the Democratically controlled General Assembly to appoint fellow Democrats to the election commission.

  Many voters decried the bill as a self-serving attempt by Goebel to increase his political power, and the election board remained a controversial issue until its abolition in a special session of the legislature in 1900. Despite rising to the office of President Pro Tempore in 1896, Goebel became the subject of much opposition from constituencies of both parties in Kentucky after the passage of the law.

  Three men sought the Democratic nomination for governor at the 1899 party convention in Louisville – Goebel, Wat Hardin, and William J. Stone. When Hardin appeared to be the front-runner for the nomination, Stone and Goebel agreed to work together against him. Stone's supporters would back whomever Goebel picked to preside over the convention. In exchange, half the delegates from Louisville, who were pledged to Goebel, would vote to nominate Stone for governor. Goebel would then drop out of the race, but would name many of the other officials on the ticket. As word of the plan spread, Hardin dropped out of the race, believing he would be beaten by the Stone–Goebel alliance.

  Goebel took a calculated risk by breaking the agreement once his choice was installed as presiding officer. Hardin, seeing that Stone had been betrayed and hoping he might now be able to secure the nomination, re-entered the contest. Several chaotic ballots resulted in no clear majority for anyone, and Goebel's hand-picked chairman announced the man with the lowest vote total in the next canvass would be dropped. It turned out to be Stone. This put Stone's backers in a difficult position. They were forced to choose between Hardin, who was seen as a pawn of the railroads, or Goebel, who had turned against their man. Enough of them sided with Goebel to give him the nomination. Goebel's tactics, while not illegal, were unpopular and divided the party. A disgruntled faction calling themselves the "Honest Election Democrats" held a separate convention in Lexington and nominated John Y. Brown for governor.

  Republican William S. Taylor defeated both Democratic candidates in the general election, but his margin over Goebel was only 2,383 votes. Democrats in the General Assembly began making accusations of voting irregularities in some counties, but in a surprise decision, the Board of Elections created by the Goebel Election Law and manned by three hand-picked Goebel Democrats, ruled 2–1 that the disputed ballots should count, saying the law gave them no legal power to reverse the official county results and that under the Kentucky Constitution the power to review the election lay in the General Assembly. The Assembly then invalidated enough Republican ballots to give the election to Goebel. The Assembly's Republican minority was incensed, as were voters in traditionally Republican districts. For several days, the state hovered on the brink of a possible civil war

  While the election results remained in dispute, Goebel, despite being warned of a rumored assassination plot against him, walked flanked by two bodyguards to the Old State Capitol on the morning of January 30, 1900. Reports conflict about what happened, but some five or six shots were fired from the nearby State Building, one striking Goebel in the chest and wounding him seriously. Taylor, serving as governor pending a final decision on the election, called out the militia and ordered the General Assembly into a special session, not in Frankfort, but in London, Kentucky, a Republican area. The Republican minority obeyed the call and went to London. Democrats resisted the move, many going instead to Louisville. Both groups claimed authority, but the Republicans were too few to muster a quorum.

  The day after being shot, the dying Goebel was sworn in as governor. In his only act, Goebel signed a proclamation to dissolve the militia called up by Taylor, which was ignored by the militia's Republican commander. Despite the care of 18 physicians, Goebel died the afternoon of February 3, 1900. Journalists recalled his last words as "Tell my friends to be brave, fearless, and loyal to the common people." Skeptic Irvin S. Cobb uncovered another story from some in the room at the time. On having eaten his last meal, the governor supposedly remarked "Doc, that was a damned bad oyster." In respect of Goebel's displeasure with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the governor's body was transported not by the L&N direct line, but circuitously from his hometown of Covington north across the Ohio River to Cincinnati, and then south to Frankfort on the Queen and Crescent Railroad.

  With Goebel dead, tensions began to ease. The idea of Goebel's lieutenant governor, J. C. W. Beckham, as governor was more palatable to much of the opposition than civil war in the state, though many of them may have preferred war to a Goebel governorship. After a lengthy meeting, a bipartisan compromise was drafted which would have ended the matter. The terms called for Republican recognition of Goebel's rightful election (and Beckham's subsequent right to govern). Republicans would also remove the militia from Frankfort. Democrats would, in turn, extend immunity to any Republican official found to have ties to the assassination, stop contesting elections for other state offices, and work to pass a nonpartisan election reform bill. The agreement needed only Taylor's signature to become effective. Unwilling to relinquish his office, Taylor balked.

  Compromise having been exhausted, both sides agreed to litigate the matter. The Kentucky Court of Appeals found that the General Assembly had acted legally in declaring Goebel the winner of the election. That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Arguments were presented in the case (Taylor v. Beckham) on April 30, 1900, and on May 21, the justices decided 8–1 not to hear the case, allowing the Court of Appeals' decision to stand. The lone dissension was that of Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan, a Kentucky native.

  During the ensuing assassination investigation, suspicion naturally focused on deposed governor Taylor, who fled to Indianapolis, Indiana under the looming threat of indictment. The governor of Indiana refused to extradite Taylor, and he was thus never questioned about his knowledge of the plot to kill Goebel. Taylor became a successful lawyer in Indiana, and was pardoned in 1909 by Beckham's successor, Republican Augustus E. Willson.

  Sixteen people, including Taylor, were eventually indicted in the assassination of Governor Goebel. Three accepted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony. Only five ever went to trial, two of those being acquitted. Convictions were handed down against Taylor's Secretary of State Caleb Powers, Henry Youtsey, and Jim Howard. The prosecution charged that Powers was the mastermind, having a political opponent killed so that his boss, Governor Taylor, could stay in office. Youtsey was an alleged intermediary, and Howard, who was said to have been in Frankfort to seek a pardon from Taylor for the killing of a man in a family feud, was accused of being the actual assassin.

  The trials were fraught with irregularities. All three judges were pro-Goebel Democrats, and at one point the juror pool of 368 people was found to have only eight Republicans. Republican appeals courts overturned Powers' and Howard's convictions, though Powers was tried three more times, resulting in two convictions and a hung jury and Howard was tried and convicted twice more. Both men were pardoned in 1908 by Governor Augustus E. Willson.

  Youtsey, who received a life sentence, did not appeal, but after two years in prison, he turned state's evidence. In Howard's second trial, Youtsey claimed that ex-governor Taylor had discussed an assassination plot with Youtsey and Howard. He backed the prosecution's claims that Taylor and Powers worked out the details, he acted as an intermediary, and Howard fired the shot. On cross examination, the defense pointed out contradictions in the details of Youtsey's story, but Howard was still convicted. Youtsey was paroled in 1916 and was pardoned in 1919 by Democratic governor James D. Black.

  Most historians agree that the assassin of Governor Goebel will never be conclusively identified.

                                           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Goebel

   Luzon is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines.

  

 Richard Phillips Leary (3 November 1842 – 27 December 1901) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served from the American Civil War through the Spanish-American War. During tension with Germany over Samoa, Leary commanded Adams at Samoa from October to December 1888. In the Spanish-American War, he commanded San Francisco (C-5) off Havana, Cuba. From 1899 into 1900, Captain Leary served as Naval Governor of Guam. Retiring in 1901, Rear Admiral Leary died 27 December at Chelsea, Massachusetts,                 . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_P._Leary