The Portland daily press., 1873-09-25
Edward Emerson Bourne.


York County and widely known throughout
the State. He died yesterday, the oath inst,
of disease of the heart, which has long
troubled him. He was born at Kennebunk,
then part of Wells, March 10, 1897; was ed
ucated at the Academy there and at Bow
doin College, graduating in the rlass of 1916.
with the late Judge Tenney, r A. L. Cod
man and others. The names of all his class
mates, except that of Alpheus Spring Pack
ard, are now starred in the college triennial;
may the honored professor, who has seen so
many classes flow into that institution and
ebb away into the world, and into the I'M
known world that lies beyond this, like sue
cessige waves upon the shore, long continue
to be the exception. "Seru in coalum re
DEATH
After graduation Mr. Bourne studied law
at home, in the Office of te late George w.
Wallneford ESQ.,, land was admitted to practice
at the bar OF his native county IN 1919 He
tried his fortunes few months at Albion,
Name, and few weeks at York, and then
returned to Kennebunk where he has ever
after resid d. This part of Wells had jast
been set off from Wells into town by itself
the first act of The kind passed by the Legis-
lature of the young State. Judge Bourne
represented the new town in the Legislature
for six years-from 1926 to 1881 ,inclusive-and
held various minor municipal offices; but his
political associations precuded him from oc-
cupyng any more important position till Gov.
Kent was elected in 1888, who nominated
Mr. Bourne for County Attorney, and reap
pointed him, after his own reelection as gov
ernor, in 1910. Upon the organization of
the Republican party Mr.. Bourne early
became member of it, as he had
long been devoted to its princi-
pies and ardent and outspoken--as was
the nature of the man-n their support. He
had taken deep interest in the temperance
question, lecturing upon that subject and us
ing his personal influence to enlist others in
support of the cause. In 1855 the Office of
Judge Of Probate was made elective and
Mr. Bourne was the first nominee of col =
vention in York County for that place, to
which he was chosen at the September cleo
ton of that year, anil reelected in 1860. 1864
aud 1868, his last term expiring Dec. 81, 1872,
since which time his enfeebled health has led
him to devote bis time to literary pursuits and
socialintercourse. His administration of the in
dicial Office was highly satisfactory, as his re-
peated elections demonstrate. In 1865 he
succeeded the late Hon. VIM. Willis as presi-
dent of the Maine Historical Society, OF
which he had long been an active member
and the next year 1885, was elected Trus-
tee of Bowdoin College, in the affairs and
prosperity of VIII CHI institution he had felt a
deep interest from the time of his graduation;
and in 1872 he received from it the degree of
Doctor of Laws. Whenever he could divert
his attention from professional pursuits he
gave large portion of it to the investigation
of historical questions, concerning his OVID
immediate locality, as well as the State at
large. He had written n history of Kenne-
bunk, in the form of lectures TO the Sunday
School, of which he was, for long series OF
years, Superintendent; and toward the
close of life, had devoted much time to its re.
vision and enlargement so as to include thai
of Wells. 1t may be presumed certainly, it
is to be hoped-that this is left in state
ready, or nearly so, for publication.
Judge Bourne was twice married. His
first wife was Miss Mary Fitzpatrick, the
mother Of his children, Edward E., now
practicing law in Kennebunk, and Elizabeth,
who died upon Mount Washington-at the
spot, near the railway, where her monun emf
is now seen-durng the night of Sept. 10,
1SSS. 70 ha inolamapou of which ba xuoc nv
posed by reason of having lost her way while
seeking to return, with her uncle and cousin,
to the Tip-top House. Judge Bourne's Sec
ond vile was Mrs. Susan H. Lord, who sur
wives him.
Ardent and active in disposition, he imme-
diately and deeply concerned himself in every
movement fer advancing any and every inter
est-of whatever nature-of the people
among whom he lived and by whom, accord
ingly, he will be greatly missed and much la
mented.
Judge Walton on Capital Punishment.
Judge Walton is one of the most learned
and acute en- who occupy the Maine bench.
But his well-known inclination toward Sc
verify win impair somewhat The effect of his
recent extra judicial opinion favoring re-
turn to capital punishment, which he pro-
mulgated at Auburn last week. But in the
general alarm at the extraordinary number
of homcides that have occurred during the
present year, his words will still have great
weight, for although lie is one of the sternest
Judges fore whom a Maine criminal was
ever arraigned, yet he has not, like one Of
our former judges, who anticipated him in
demanding the gibbet, passion for extreme
penalties and philosophy that regards the
infection of pain on a culprit as an end in
itself. To make and execute rigorous law
Is to his mind one of the conditions of social
happiness and prosperity, not one of the
chief recreations and the highest moral sat-
isfaction of the unco guid.'
But notwithstanding the usual cleamess
and calmness Of JUICE Waltons views and
his eminent position as jurist, he seems to
have been governed on this occasion by
momentary impulse, and to have Ignored
those severe principles of reasoning a, d that
exacltude of statement which are cha acter-
istic of his profession. We may say, indeed
of his charge to the grand jury that it was
emnently sensat onal, however obnoxious
that word may be to man of Judge Walton's
studiouo and thoughtful character
The statement that there have been "more
murders IN the last twenty months than in
any previous twenty years Of the States ex-
istence," is grosser exaggeration than the
most imprisoned stump orator would com
monty venture upon in a political speech.
For ii our count is correct there were but
three technical murders committed within
the limits of the State last year and ten or
eleven in the first eight months of the present
year. This IS surely an appalling exhibit,
and it is much more so if there be added the
various unaw ul homicides below the grade
of murder; but in neither case is there that
vast disproportion alleged by the Judge. The
five or six years Immediately preceding the
period of which he speaks would nearly or
quite make Up as black total. But there
was no need of this exaggeration to establish