The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-12-04

does hot contemplate certain changes winch
they specified. The statement in the protest
| is a lie. Take that out and there is nothing
left.'
| "Why, when Mr.. Bisbee yesterday, request
ed to see the Senatorial and Representative re-
turns from Oxford county, simply for the pur-
pose of examination, did you refuse?''
because by arrangement with the Repub-
lican attorneys ip the morning, the day had
| been set apart for the examination of returns
for county officers, and we had to abide by
this arrangement. If we had allowed him to
examine them, we should have to accord all
the same privilege, and we should never have
got through our work"
Thanking Mr.. Brown for his courtesy, your
correspondent next encountered Councillor
Fogg, who was sitting in the Secretary of
States office, with his feet ON the radiator.
Telegraph to the PRESS said he, "tele-
| graph to the PRESS that the Governor and
Council don't care for twenty Republican par
| ties and two hundred bells all drawn up in
battle array
Just to please Mr.. Fogg 1 have done it.
The Governor and Council have today been
engaged in the monotony of examining the
returns for county officers.
ITO the Associated Press
| Attorney Rounds Of Washington County
Offers to Prove Alterations Of Demo-
cratic Returns.
The following letter was sent to the Cover
nor and Council this evening by the Hon.
Charles B. Rounds, Coudty Attorney for the
county of Washington:
| AUGUSTA, Me-, Dec. 8, 1879.
! To the Honorable, the Governor and Council o f
| the State Of Maine:
| Your Honorable Board has repeatedly and
| now formally declined to permit any Republi-
| can Senator or Representative-elect to see the
returns affecting him. Your ground for this
| refusal is understood to be your conclusion, for
mally expressed by his Excellency, the Cover
| nor, that you have no constitutional power to
| make corrections in the returns in any in
| stance.
now offer, on behalf of the Republican
| Senators-elect from Washington county, if your
honorable board will open the subject for in
vestgation, to prove that in the case of returns
| from Democratic towns for Senators and Rep
| rssentatives there have have been changes
| made; that these changes were made to sup
| ply defects discovered by the surreptitious and
| premature opening of returns, and that they
| must involve in some form the collision or
| conniyance OF persons connected with the
state government.
And in the facts which think are suscepti-
BILE of proof will be found the basis of that
boast so widely made by certain persons that
the returns from Democratic towns are all cor
rect and that errors and omissions are found
only in the returns from Republican towns
l shall subject your honorable board if you
will order the investigation to very little
trouble and to an expense so trif1ing That if
You have no appropriation applicable to this
END OF lusti~~-I--; ll-t,rfJ .a-'oossary
funds.
The witnesses I shall desire to have sum-
moned are principal ypersons connected with
the State government officers In Democratic
towns and few others who have competent
knowledge on which to testify
Assuming that your honorable board will
gladly unite with me and with all others who
can aid in discovering and exposinga nefarious
plot to thwart the expressed will of the people
at the late election | await your commands.
Your obedfent servant,
(Signed) G. B. ROUNDS,
County Attorney of Washington.
Letter from the Hon. Geo. G. Wing De-
Ginning Certified Copies.
The following letter in reply to a message
from member of the Council was sent this
afternoon by Hon. Geo. c. Wing of Auburn:
AUGUSTA, Dec 8.
Hon. F. M. Fog, Erecutice Councillor.
Dear Sir:-Just before leaving my home
this afternoon 1 received the following tele-
gram from you:
.sYou can have copy of senatorial returns by ap-
plying to the Secretary of State. F. M. FoGG.
Considering your message in the light of
mere personal favor to townsman and an ac-
quaintance 1 hastily replied by telegraph that
you might send the copies. refrained from
giving it an official character so did not apply
to the Secretary of State. Upon further and
mature consideration l have concluded that
you need not send the copies. In my inter-
view with the Governor and Council yester-
day l was informed officially that you had con-
Guided that it was your constitutional duty not
to allow any changes or corrections in the re-
turn of Senators and Representatives. If you.
still adhere to this opinion am at loss to
know what advantage you think it would be
to me to get certified copies of returns which
YOU pronounce unalterable, especially as l IN
derstand these certified copies are peddled at
the State House at the rate OF $1 for each GER
tifcate 1 can well understand that this pro-
ceedure under public curiosity we'll stlnlu-
lated by official secrecy, might produce q con-
siderable revenue to the certifying officer, but
1 cannot see how it will benefit any man who
pays his money for the certified copy. The OBJ
ject of seeing the returns is to ascertain if
they fairly represent the town records
whether in furnishing the copy to the Secretary
in the ConstitutioD the town Off
GERS have made errors or omissions.
Your proposition is to subject the candidate to
the hazard of second copying with all the
danger of omissions and errors that beset the
original. Is not the clerk who does the copy
ing in the Secretary's office just as liable to
who sent in the returns? And If mistake
should be found in the certified copy, how can
the holder plead it against the original, or
upon whom will he have recourse for the
blunder? Who shall answer in damages?
These are few of the fatal objections to ac-
cepting certified copies as basis of correcting
errors and omissions in the returns, even II
you permitted such corrections. What have
demanded for my clients, the Senators-elect
from Androscoggin, is the immediate right to
examine the official returns of their election
and then if errors and omissions be found to
make such corrections as the law authorizes
persist in that demand. will not barter it,
nor commute it, nor modify it, nor retract 1t,
but shall maintain it and enforce it by every
constitutional and legal method to which I
can resort.
Yours very respectfully,
(Signed) GEORGE G. WING.
The Councils Reply to the Republican
Protest
To the Governor and Council:
The committee to which was referred the
protest received from Messrs Nahum T. Hill,
Andrew r. G. Smith, John S. Cutler and Guy
| C. Goss have had the same under considers
| ton and have the honor to submit the follow
| ing report:
| Your committee find that said protest con-
| tains several very important mlsstatements
| Neither Mr.. Cutler nor Mr.. Goss has ever
| made to the Governor ana Couicll of any
| members thereof any request to inspect any OF
| the election returns and we can see no reason
| why they should claim that rights have been
denied to them which they have never asked
| for We find that the committee on election
| returns were in session in the Council cham
| Der on Monday evening last, and Messrs Wing
| and Savage, Attorneys from Androscoggin
county had an opportunity before said com
| mittee to examine the returns for county OIL
| GERS from that county. When they had COM
| pleted the inspection of those returns the
usual hour for adjournment had arrived They
| then expressed desire to inspect the returns
| from their county for Senators and Represen-
| tatives. Their attention was called to the
| lateness of the hour and the committee in
| formed them that as the Governor and several
| members of the Council were absent they did
not feel at liberty to grant the request at that
| time but that the subject would be laid before
| the Council the next morning. No promise
was made to them that they should inspect
| said returns
! The next morning, as is stated in said pro-
| test, it had not then been determined in what
order the canvassing should proceed. At
meeting of the Governor and Council on
Tuesday morning it was determined to proceed.
first to an inspection of the returns forcounty
officers, and the parties in waiting were so in
| formed. The examination of the returns for
| off and continued uQlQ-