The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-04-26
THE PRESS.
Tuesday Morning, April 26, 1870.


from the First District.
Whether or not Mr. Lynch is to be can.
iidate for reelection to Congress we are not |
informed. We judge from appearances that
be has left it entirely to the people of the First
District to decide whether thew
have any further use for his services. and that
he will decline resort to even the ordinary
and legitimate methods of directing public
opinion Tor the purpose of securing renom-
lnatlon. Such course is the only proper one
Tor him to take alter over five years of service
In the national legislature. The people know
now, as well as they ever can, whether he IS
able, honest and efficient. If they have found
him to be so, they will return him by ther
suffrages in September; for it Is now wen GO
tablished by precedents furnished III a'no''
every other State, as well as in Name, tnat
REPRESENTATIVES. having these characteristics
have their general usefulness increased in d.
rect ratio to the length of their term of SER
vice, and that such Representatives are by no
means to be set aside in order that other less
capable asplrants, belonginglto the same party,
may take their turn" or that equally well
qualified but inexperienced gentlemen NAV
prepare themselves for usefulness at Wash
in yton by three or four years of study and re-
Election In that city.
The claim TO representation in Congress
based on locality, any further than such bas-
is is recognized and precisely defined by the
constitution and laws of the United States,
which have established Congressional districts
merely as a convenient way of apportioning
Representatives among the States in proper
ton, to their population, is so unphil-
osophical that not much reliance is plac.
ed upon it even by the most frantic Of
fce-seeker, if he happens to be gifted with or
binary intelligence, and had taken pains to OBJ
serve the reaction from the rotation plan
which has followed its absolute failure. The
claim is so easily susceptible of reductio
ad absurdum that only smatterers in political
science undertake to supportit it. For instance /;
if in this district it be conceded that Cumber-
land County has been represented as long as
usage authorizes 1.-THE article we published the
other day shows that it has not, in fact, even
conceding the claims of locality,) then there
is manifest absurdity in the presence of DEL
egates from its several towns in the next
district convention. Let York County
alone, then, make the next Republican nom
ination. Our representatives in the con-
vention are impertinent intruders who
interfere with the freedom of the choice
of those to whom the nomination be.
longs. But if it is essential that representa-.
ton should pass from place to place within
the limits fixed by law to the territory en-
titled to the same, like county schoolmas.
ter boarding round" what is there in the
county lines that constitute them the nat
ural subdivisions? OF all political di visions
the county is the most arbitrary. 1t is not
often the result of the natural conformation
Of the country; it does not spring from any
natural association Of the people living in it;
only few MINOR political functions are per
formed by it alone, while for the more i'm.
portant ones the State, as matter Of con-
venience, makes use Of the arbitrary divisions
OF itself which are called counties. There is bu
one county court in the State the State court
merely remove from place to place; there i.
no such office as County attorney,"-there
are only States Attorneys for the different
counties. The town is more properly a DO.
litical unit than The county-the school dis
trict has certainly equal right TO be considered
90. II this claim for the representation of To-
calities within Congressional districts is to be
admitted as valid the only logical course is to
begin with school district number one in
Harrison, and elect John Smith this year, if
he lives there, gradually working through
Cumberland County during this and the next
century, and finally bringing up at the close
of the year of our Lord POO with Richard
Roe, the efficient highway surveyor of dis
trict number ten in Kittery!
So far as Mr.. Lynch is concerned the ofsico
of Representative does not belong to him,
but to the people. Ii they can find better
man than he is all things considered, they are
. fools if they do not send him to Washington
In Mr.. Lynch's place, hether the worthiel
individual lives in York or in Cumberland
county. But it ought not to be supposed by
any one that the people of the district have
lost their right to tree choice by reason of any
bargain or agreement of politicians. Mr.
Lynch was never presented as candidate for
Congress on local grounds and was never
elected because he lived in Portland or Cum
berland county. He has thrice returned be-
cause Of his supposed value to his constitn-
ents and to the country at large. If it is
found that his constituents have been thrice
mistaken in the ground Of their favorable con-
sidcration let them make haste to make such
PREPARATION as they can by sending a better
man to the national capital.