The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-07-24
THE GOVERNORS POWER.

There is one solid fact in connection
with the recent controversy concerning
the appointing power, which some OF
our Radical friends seem to have lost
sight of. They are fond OF denouncipg
the legislature for having, as they all
lege, stripped the Governor OF his pre-
negatives and reduced him to the posi-
ton Of "a mere figure head" OF the
State government, and thus placed the
resources of the State "at the mercy OF
a plundering ring" and all that sort OF
thing. Well now what is this fact ?
What has the legislature done? 1t has
simply taken from the Governor alone
and vested in the Board OF Public
Works (of which the Governor is
member.) the pOver to appoint nine Di'
rscsors of the Hospital for The Insane !!
Only this and nothing more.
The Governor has never had, and
never before assumed, authority to ap-
point Superintendent OF the Peniten-
tiary; he has never had authority to
designate a Board Of Directors OF that
Institution; neither has he ever had or
assumed to have power, OF himself, to
appoint Superintendent OF the Cum
berlaud road. All OF these appoint
ments have heretofore been made by
the Boa ID of Public Works in its COL
lective capacity, and they are
80 made still, in accord
ance with existing law. The only
officers heretofore appointed by the
Governor alone, but now appointed by
the Board of Public Works, are, as we
have stated above, the Directors OF the
Hospital for the Insane, and this was
taken from him solely because OF his
manifest purpose OF appointing Beard
pledged to the removal Of Doctor CAM
DEN, the present Medical Director OF
that institution, competent and ex-
perieuced officer and brother of Gov
ernor JACOBS opponent in the late gu
bernatorial campaign. 1t was to pre-
vent the consummation Of this piece OF
petty spite work, and to prevent the
Governor from gratifying his personal
revenge at the expense of the Hospital
for the Insane, that it was deemed most
prudent by the legislature to let the
united Board OF Public Works make
. the appointment.
Was there anything in this sole
change as 10 the power Of appointment
to justify the hubbub that has been
made? Is there anything in this to
show that the State is more now "at
theomercy Of a pluuderiug ring" than
heretofore2 Is there anything in this
to show the existence OF "a conspiracy
against the treasury" or that the Gov
ernor is stripped and disarmed at all
points"2
All this talk about the Governors
excessive "honesty"; and that he is
engaged in fighting plunderers and
corruptionists" &c. g., ad nausean,, is
the merest nonsense in the world.
Radical editors who resort to it laugh
when they think how they are deceiv.
ing the people, and when they speak Of
His Excellepcy's honesty" they
chuckle over it as a very good but
somewhat threadbsre joke.
The Governor has all the power be
ever had, with the single exception of
the appointment of nine Directors Of the
Hospital for the Insane. This is the
only appointment that has been taken
from him by this dreadful Legislature.
He has as much right as he ever had
TO fight thieves and corruptionis;s, come
they from what quarter they may, and
il he don't do it, 1t is his own fault. He
has recently assumed greater author
ity than that ever exercised or ever
claimed BY any former Governor Of
Virginia, or of West Virginia, or, so
lar as We are aware. Of any other State
in the Union. This extraordinary as
sumption has been pretty emphatically
rebuked by the highest legal tribunal
to which the question could be brought
and we presume that Governor JACOB
will be careful not to place himself
sgsin in so humiliatipg a position. He
has nearly the same power OF appoint
ment be enjoyed before. 1t is as great
as any former Governor of Virginia
or OF West Virginia ever enjoyed. Let
him he content.