Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1877-09-27

So'~'y oi"hNu vi the PUBIC stlNlCet DtuOndl dUA
otate, and to that end we hold these requirements
and practices Just
FIRST, no needless Office or officer or public
! agent should exist.
Second, compensation for official service should
be ialr and Just, but in case excessive.
Ihrd, nj men and no others should hold public
trust.
Fourth, every official, high or low, should be
required at I'll times to faithfully perform his duty
and the whole of it.
Fifth, no official or office holder should be sub
Ject TO political or partisan assessments or to in
tertere in any way with his political rights or ac-
ton, and plain laws should forbid all attempts to
make or enforce such assessments to control OF
abrldge IN any respect the absolute freedom in
political action which in this country belongs to
all voters alike.
In connection with this subject we recur with
satisfaction to that position OF the letter of accept
ance OF Mr.. Hayes, wherein he declares that the
founders OF our government meant that the officer
should be secure in his tenure as long as his per
sOnal character remained untsrnished, and the
performance of his duties satisfactory.
In furthersnce of this view, we commend as
worthy of consideration legislation making Off
GERS secure IN limited fixed tenure, and sub
lected to removal only officers under the State
laws are removable in this State. on charges to be
regularly and openly preferred and adjudged.
We hold honest service or labor the best and
highest exettion for American citizens. Those
VINO labor Tor others, whether for the government
OF lor private employers, are fully entitled as
and cltzen be TO absolute freedom In all political,
civil or religious affairs. They owe the full ser
vice they agreed to render to their employers.
They owe nothing more. The Constitution OF
the l nted states and of the State of New York,
and the laws, establish equal rights for all citizens
and all voters and we deprecate as unwarrantable
and hurtfu all attempts by employers, whether
representing capital or political power, to en-
croach upon or coerce others in the enjoyment of
any OF their rights the exercise of any of their
duties of citizenship.
In the State OF New York the whole number Of
national Office holders, including clerks and sub
ordlnates OF every degree, is 1865. This is one
national official or subordinate to l52 voters OF
state, county and town officials there are in this
state l33,0l3. his Is one State, county or town
othcial to every eight and one-half voters. When
The potential functions Of local officers are taken
INTO account, their nearness to the citizen, and
their power over his property, taxes and interest,
their relative influence becomes even greater than
The numbers indicate.
The exclusion of public servants from political
action would dlsfranchise a great body of our
fellow citizens. The laws make no such eyclu
sion, and we deny an imputaion upon the peo-
pie OF New York, that they have been dom mated
by the national subordinate officials, and we can
conceive oil no condition OF affairs short of the ex-
uncton OF MANHOOD and patriotism, in which
postmaster or clerk could subdue to his parti-
san VIII o2 other electors, exert any other in
huence beyond such as his character might give
him.
Public faith, honest industry and the general
prosperity demand a sound currency of coin and
paper convertible into coin, and the already near
appioach TO specie payment enforces the wisdom
and duty faithfully pursuing the necessary steps
TO a full resumption within the time now fixed BY
law.
We oppose any further land grant or subsidies
10 corporations and Inonopoles, and hold that the
public domain should be reserved for free homes
for industrious settlers.
We regald with alarm and disapprove the de-
mands coming from promoters of various schemes
that appropriation and grants shall be made and
the national credit used to carry on works of var
lous local and sectional character, and not of ur
CANT national Importance.
New York, with ne-tenth of the popu lation is
tue source OF about one-quarter of all national
revenue and we call upon the burdened tax pay.
els of this State to watch and defeat all attempt.
however specious, TO increase the public debt OF
10 Obtain their money for remote and questionable
purposes which if feasible, appeal to State action
and private enterprise. Such attempts are the
more indcfensible when sustained by votes Of sec
uonal minoritIes adding to the burdens of the
more heavily taxed portion of our country.
We recognize equally the rights of property
and the manliness aud dignity of labor deprecat-
ing any resort to violence in the name of either.
We insist at all times upon the supremacy of the
Jaw and the maintenance of public order. The
advancement OF American industry and enterprise
depends upon the harmonious CO operations OF
capital and labor, and the adj ustment of their ma
terial relations whether left to the reason of par
ties or affected by legislation should be governed
by conslderate regards for the rights of and
for the just claims of the other.
In the affairs of our great State always vital to
the people and at this time of paramount impor-
lance. we declare the republican party the only
hope of thorough reform and frugal government
and arraign the democratic party for false pre-
fences, for perpetratng existing abuses, and for
the slsvish subservence 10 most corrupt and dan.
gerous influence.
In support of this declaration we appeal to these
facts. that republican rule by extinguishng the
public indebtedness ensured the large reduction
which has been effected in State taxation that
the constitutional amendment carried by republi-
licans, enforced and secured by large decrease
OF the expenditures that the recent unparalleled
delinquency frauds and robberes in state, city and
public Judiciary trusts have imposed high duties
upon the prosecuting authorities of the st ate and
the most thorough aud adequate laws have armed
them with full powers, yet the Official report of the
present Attorney General made in obedience to
The call Of the last Legislature shows that his Office
besides its regular costs has expended nearly forty
thousand dollars in extra fees, prosecutions, in
which one offender has been punished. Not one
dollar has been recovered, and no return Of any
Kind has been made to the state, a record which
merits public rebuke and demands that the trusts
ne placed in more capable and successful hands
That because the present executive found his will
unable to place a conspicuous resident of another
state in the high public trust of superinte of
public works, IN defiance equally with the law,
which contemplates that all officers shall be chos-
from among our own citizens, and of the con-
sttutiton, which devolves the appointment upon
co ordinate branches, he has assumed to disregard
and still nullifies the great constitutional reform
in canal management, which the people adopted
year ago by an overwhelming vote. That in the
last legislature the republican majority passed two
constitutional amendments and other important
measures of municipal retrenchment and reform
reducing salaries, abolishing sinecures, simplify
ing the administration and affecting the annual
saving of hundreds Of thousands of dollars-every
one OF which measures of the law resisted by
the democratic minority and vetoed by the demo-
cratic executive, at the behest of Tammapy Hall,
thus wituly continuing oppressive abuses of local
administration; that the Tammany government of
New York has increased the debt Of that city four
fold, until it exceeds the enormous sum of $780,
DOC, 600, and is three times as much for every cit
under its burden as the national debt, and the
same grasping ring" expects through the control
of Governors and Legislatures to extend over the
State the baleful rule which imposes these glaring
denominations on the metropolis.
With these decisive truths attesting the high
purpose and fidelity of the republican party, and
proving the democratic party unworthy of conf
dence. we meet the questions which address them
selves to the people of this State. We waver an
equitable approprlament just to all parts OF the
State, and giving undue preponderance to none,