The Portland daily press., 1879-12-27
The Great Crime.

We believe no one denies that Gov. Gar
celon had the power and the right to give
certificates of election to those whom the
people had chosen by free, fair and honest
ballot. We venture to say that there was
never in this or any other State more free
and honest election than that of this year in
Maine, and the results of it were not doubt
full, but were marked and decisive in all our
borders. Gov. Garcelon cannot deny that
he had the right and power to give full force
and effect to this expression of the peoples
will.
Let Us ;lssu..e for a moment that Gov.
Garcelon is an honest, honorable and intelli-
gent man, and not a rogue nor cheat.
Here he is in his chair surrounded by his
Council, and the return from Portland is
opened. A clerical error is found in it, but
it is not of the smallest importance in any
way. No one has been harmed by it.; no
man has lost by it an opportunity to vote;
no wrong or hardship whatever has been
inflicted by it ON anyone in the smallest pos
sible degree But wide-mouthed, swearing
Councillor Fogg says with an expletive:
Yes, but we have the power to throw that
out because of that error" Gov. Garcelon
interposes and says: ''Yes, that's true, we
have the power to do that, in the same way
that a pilot entrusted with the care and
management of ship, has the power to run
her upon the rocks instead of taking her
safely into port. The constitution and the
laws relating to elections and the returning
e Ill 60. t1a
people against frauds in the count, so as to
render the verdict of the people sure, and to
carry it into effect There il, to be sure,
clerical error in this return from Portland,
but it is precisely such as has occurred
hundred times before in many other returns,
and has never been held to invalidate or
harm them. During all the seventy years OF
our States history there has probably not
been one in which this same error has not
been found in the returns of city or town
elections, and no one of them has ever been
rejected Oh account of it. What we should
inquire into, is the intent of the people Of
Portland What have they really done at
this election? Is there any mistake or room
for doubt on that point? No one pretends
that there is. The results Of the election
are so marked and decided that there is no
possible room for doubt about i. Is there
reason to suppose that the election was not
fair and honest? No one even suggests that.
Now Councillor Chase proposesto disfranchise
the large city of Portland, for no fault of its
people, for no wrong in the election, but be-
cause the city clerk happened to make a
clerical error, which has been committed by
many-pthers hundred times before, and
which has never been regarded as invalidat-
ing the returns.
Gentlemen of the Council understand that
free ballot and an honest count and pro-
found respect for the results OF an honest
election, are absolutely necessary to the very
life of Republic. 1t is not possible that
free institutions can continue without that.
We have the right and the power to count
Portland in and to respect the voice of her
people; we have also the power but not
the right to count Portland out, and to
trample the rights of her people under foot.
However much may regret the popular
verdict of that city, cannot consent as an
honorable, an honest man, and as custodian
Of the rights of the people, to that great
wrong"
That is what Gov Garcelon would have
done, if he were an honorable and upright
man: he could not have done otherwise. In
stead of that he searched carefully for
pitiful, technical, clerical errors in the re-
turns, for the express purpose of defeating
the will of the people and setting aside their
lawful and just verdict. What he did in the
case of Portland, he repeated in many other
cases, so as to reverse completely and abso-
lutely the results of an election which had
been determined by great majority. 1t is
not too much to characterize the act as an
Infamous crime, aiming deadly blow at the
life of the nation.
Is there q man in Maine of common INTEL
ligence who does not know that the result OF
the last election was an overwhelming ma
iority for the Republican ticket? There is
no such man; but by great villainy, which
has had no parallel in any Northern State,
Gov. Garcelon has reversed the verdict OF
the people and has set up his will in place OF
it. Those whom he has counted in will
show themselves to be without honesty or
honor, and should be abhorred by all upright
men if they accept the places to which the
people did not elect them, and which they
can occupy only by shameful fraud.