The Portland daily press., 1879-08-09
The Sale of the Islands.
Another Fusion Falsehood Exposed.
Honest Truth I

Honest TRUTH
The little State House clique that spend all
the days of the week, and especially Sunday,
in digging and delving among the official ar
chives and records to see if they can get any
issue against the Republicans, have lately
been joining their mighty intellects together
| to raise concentrated howl over the sale of
the Islands. They assume that great mys-
terry and great wrong will be uncovered
| there We kindly anticipate them with
fuller and better history than they will give Of
the whole subject.
| The coast of Maine, especially to the east OF
! Cape Elizabeth, is dotted and beautifed with
islands. In the early settlement of Maine
very few inhabitants sought the islands be-
! cause of their loneliness and general sterility
of SOIL But after the Revolutionary war,
! hardy and adventurous settlers, who wished to
unite fishing with agric ulture, began to select
the islands for settlement, choosing, of course,
the best on the coast. These selections began
in 1885 and went on quite rapidly till the close
of the last century, and continued with greater
rapidity during the early part of this century
before Maine was separated from Massachu-
sets. The few islands of any value remain
ing were taken up shortly afters Maine became
State.
To such an exhaustive degree had these
islands been selected by early settlers, that
from 1880 up to the time the State ordered the
sale of the small and scattered islands along
her coast in 1876, only eight islands in all were
purchased-the very last one for which the
State had an offer being Mark Island between
Camden and Fox Islands, sold to James Smith
May Sd, 1874. 1t contained II acres, and the
State received the merest pittance for it.
There remained, however, in the ownership
of the State q large number of very small
islands, many of them being mere rocks OF an
acre or two in extent, some few containing sew
eral acres, and ffty-one of the whole number
of 124 islands containing each less than one
acre-being mere specks on the water. The
124 islands, all taken together, contained about
750 acres-making an average of about six acres
to each island. But in the long course of years
"a whole generation having passed away since
the State had sold an island-there grew up
disputes as to the ownership of these little dots
on the water. Some were good for fishing sta
tionS some contained a little herbage and
would pasture few sheep, some contained
trees that might furnish a few logs for mills on
the nearest mainland. In many cases these
disputes of ownership led to litigation wherein
the titles of the best were found only to be
squatter rights. Upon the representation OF
all these facts being submitted to the Legisla-
ture, that body in 1876 passed the following:
An act to authorize the sale of Islands belonging to
the State.
Be it enacted, &c.,
Sect. l. That the land agent, under the direction
of the Governor and Council, Is hereby authorized
and required to sell all the islands on the coast be
longing to the State. at public auction after suita
BILE plans and examinations shall have been made
and proper notice given Of the time and places of
such SALE in such newspapers as may be deemed nee
Sect. 2. All laws in any way conflicting with the
provisions of this act are hereby repealed.
Approved February IL, 1876.
This act passed the Legislature unani-
mously-every Democrat and every Republi-
can voting for it. And in the Legislature of
1876 the Democrats were stronger and more
numerous than they have been since the an
cient and goodly days Of Samuel Wells twenty
years before. The Legislature of 1876 stood in
the Senate-Republicans 20, Democrats, IL;
in the House of fRepresentatives-R Republicans,
So; Democrats, &C. 1t was in this Legislature
that the act to authorize the sale Of the islands
passed unanimously, seventy-seven Democrats
in both branches approving its provisions and
consenting to its enactment. The joint Com
mittee ON State Lands, which unanimously re-
ported the bill, contained six Republicans and
four Democrats. Among the latter were such
widely recognized local leaders as Albert Gray
of Harrison, and Benjamin Alexander Of Lin
neuS.
Under the above act sixty-six small islands
were sold, aggregating an area of 663 acres
averaging between nine and ten acres to each
island. The sale was by public auction in the
city of Rockland, after widely extended adver-
tisements in the papers of Maine and in the
papers of Boston. The aggregate amount real
lied after open and public bidding, was
81 ,109.15. All the facts were we'll known at
the time, and were reported with great precis-
ion by the Land Agent in his annual report,
and laid before the Legislature Of 1877.
There remained still unsold 58 small islands,
with an aggregate area of less than 90 acres
averaging less than two acres to the island and
AZ OF them having only small fraction OF an
acre of territory each. In the judgment of the
Land Agent it would not pay to sell these by
public auction with extensive and expensive adj
vertisment. The facts being submitted to the
judgment of the Legislature, the following ad-
ditional act was passed by a unanimous vote,
every Democrat in both branches voting for it:
An act authorizing the sale of Islands belonging to
the State.
The land agent, under the direction of the Gov
ernor and Council, is hereby authorized nell eth
at public auction or private sale, am Islands on
the coast belonging to the State.
Approved February 7, 1877
The result of selling these small islands was
that S251 was received for them. Thus the
whole of the islands with their $50 acres of
rock, were sold out for S1,36O.15, nearly two
dollars per acre, higher price than wild lands
in Maine are generally sold for.
The truth is the property in these islands had
for nearly fifty years been regarded as worth
less. Few persons even knew that tho State
still had an lota of title in any of them, and it
was the vigilance and care of Gov. Connors
administration that looked up the States title,
made the claimants for these islands bid for
them at public sale, and settle the ownership
by a State deed
And now Pillsbury, Cove & Co., are attempt
ing to cry out that some great fraud was per-
petrated on the State by the sale of these 'val-
liable" islands. Not one of the demogogues
who join in the cry even knew that the State
owned an island till the sale was advertised
under their very noses
If Cove, Pillsbury & Co. were so impressed
with the immense value of these vast Islands,
why did they not purchase the whole lot?
They wilfully neglected q great opportunity
for fortune-on paper. But stay the oppor-
tunity is not gone! it is only postponed. For
trifiing advance on what the State sold them
for, nay, possibly at a discount from that price,
Pillsbury, Cove & Co. can buy all the islands
back from their present luckless owners, and
hold them for rise! But perhaps the only
thing they would ever find to "rise" about
those Islands you11 ha tho tide