Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-30

light. Never before in the histo-
Try of Maine was q party in
interest refused q full hearing before the
governor and council, aud q full opportuni
ty to examine the election returns. An &C.
curate search into the records shov that in
fhy-nfne years there have been just sixteen
cases in which the governor and council
found the official returns 80 fatally defective
in form as TO deprive a candidate apparently
elected of his certificate, averaging one case
in a little less than every four years. Gov
ernor Garcelon and his council find thirty
seven fatally defective returns in q single
year, and by one Of those providential dis
pensations or happy accidents, which only
come to bless the just and encourage the
righteous, every one of those thirty seven
fatally defective returns was declared BY a
democratic council to exist in districts that
had chosen republican senator's or represent
tatives.
One of the eravest charges brought against
! George Ill. BY our revolutionary ancestors
was that he had refused them the right to
choose representatives to their local legisla.
ture; but his majesty was informed in the
immortal declaration that the legislative
powers of a free people fare incapable of
annibilation." Ii Governor Garcelon and
his council had, in imitation of George ILL.,,
refused us the right to choose a Legislature,
the outrage would not have been half 80
g~revious AZ that which they are now at
tempting to inAict upon the people OF Maine.
They have gone tar beyond George ILL.,,
for they have refused TO grant certificates OF
election to those who were chosen by the
people. and not stopping ever at that point
they declare that VIZ must submit to and,
accept q legislature whose members they
specifically and personally rejected. Mr..
Jeferson's recital Of all the grievances that
led to the overthrow Of the British power
in the thirteen colonies presented none that
we're 90 CALLING and intolerable as those
which Governor Garcelon and his council
are now seeking to fasten on the people of
Maine. Let it be specially remem oered
that Governor Garcelon and his council do
not even claim that they have knowledge of
a single illegal vote in any one of the nu-
merous towns .whose returns they have
rejected. They do not claim to show that
any vote vas cast without being counted, or
counted without being cast, or that people
anywhere voted differently from the returns
made.
They only claim that certain returns are
defective on technical points, narrow and
immaterial in themselves, and easily cor.
rected under the laws Of the state, and then
they claim the right to set aside and disobey
those laws. They hold towns accountable
for not complying with the ~strictest letter
and last exaction of one statute, and then
defantly proclaim their right 10 nuliify other
statutes in the same book on the same sub.
jects. In other words, they claim that the
statute regulating the duty Of tow officers
shall be fulfilled to the uttermost and minut-
est point, while the statute prescribing the
duty Of the governor and council may be
set aside by a sort of plenary power of dis
pensation extended to them alone.
1t has taken centuries to educate the An.
glo-Ssxon race TO submit to q majority of
one, and the moment we refuse 10 submit
and attempt to overthrow popular election
on any pretext whatever, republican gov
eminent IS imperiled if not lost. The na-
lions OF Lstin origin would have suffered
reproach Of not being able to maintain the
republic because the party beaten at the
polls would resort to the sword; but terri
BILE and calamitous as this ecource is, it
has in it an element of manly daring tina,
places it far above the despicable measures
Of cheating the people by q false count
made by the men who are solemnIy sworn
to perform that duty faithfully, impartially,
aud houorably. Maine hitherto has been
blessed with an honest government, no
matter which political party was in power,
and when the people decreed a change,
the state administration has always shown
a ready and cheerful acquiescence 10 the
popular will. The Adams men yielded to
the Jackson men, the democrats to the
whigs, the wings to the democrats, the
democrats 10 the republicans. and the re-
publ,cans to the present dynas,y-no,
merely with readiness. but with a chivalr,c
courtesy and good feeling that did much to
remove the asperity OF the preceding con.
:est.
For the frs, time in history the party
popular decree. soils the record of the state
with fraud, and invites the reign of anarchy.
1t ia for the people whose will is deied t.
find their remedy aud vlndicate their sover,
eighty.
AT this very point, while the pen is in
my band and the ink is not dry on the las,
paragraph. the letter Of Governor GArcelon
reaches me. l beg you to read it with care,
aud see with what emphasis the governor
dwel.s upon all the minute directions for
the town officers, and how he entirely avoids
stating that equally minute directions are
prescribed by the same law-makiDg power
FOR the governor and council. Had these
directions been followed the technical de-
fects In every return would have been cured
But the governor and council chose to dis.
obey them, and went SO far as to usurp tue
functions Of the judiciary in declaring
them unconstitutional. In his letter 10 the
public Governor Garcelon remembers to
forget all reference to this,
the controlling fact In the whole
case. l cannot withhold my admiration of
the GOODNESS and complaisance with which
the governor refers rejected republican
members to a packed house aud senate.for
a final adjudication Of their rights. After
impaneling the sworn twelve with the ne.
cessary pre- judgment of the case, the mer.
ciful governor turns to the innocent man
who i, %wrongfully and ~wickedly accused
and %harangues him upon the virtues of trial
by jury.
1t will be further observed that Governor