TILE STORY OF THE NOXPARTISAN LEAGUE 



government. The place selected was Minne- 

 apolis, but so great was the outcry of the 

 loyal part of the population there that the 

 governor of Minnesota forbade the gathering, 

 after many of the delegates were already on 

 the ground. 



The projectors of the meeting, thus baffled, 

 planned now to adjourn to some neighbor- 

 ing state Wisconsin on the east or North 

 Dakota on the west. They telegraphed the 

 governor of each of these states, asking If they 

 could expect there to be protected in their 

 constitutional rights. Each of the governors 

 responded in about the same terms, which 

 were, in fact, the only terms possible in reply 

 to such a query. Each said that the inquirers 

 would be protected in their constitutional 

 rights, but that those rights did not include 

 the right to preach sedition, and that any 

 seditious utterance would be promptly dealt 

 with according to law. Governor Frazier's 

 reply was particularly clear and pointed about 

 sedition, but by many of the newspapers this 

 part of it was omitted and nothing published 

 except the undertaking that constitutional 

 rights should be respected, and this was 

 twisted into an invitation to hold seditious 

 gatherings in North Dakota. 



On this the cry went over the country that 

 the Nonpartisan League was furthering dis- 

 loyal conventions. The attacks upon it re- 



238 



