The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1879-12-27
Governor GarceIon and Coun-
Gil make a Clear and Con-
else Statement of the
Case!
IT rs a FULL vINDIcATIoN 10
ALL SENSIBLE PEoPLE!!!
But the Horde Of Sleek-Faced Stall
wart Leeehes want the Spells
and urge an Appeal to Arms!
Governor Garcelon is undismayed
However, and will not be Driven
from obeying the Law by the
Republican RevoIutionists

BosToN, Dec. pa Portland speci;
to the Ir0UelteT says: The sentimer
amoug the better and leading class of tn
Democrats OF that vicinity seems to be tha
Mr.. Morrill's proposition will be accepted
and that the difficulty will be settled with
out trouble of any sort. There is bette
feeling in consequence.
A special to the Herald from August
says the following is an abstract from tn
re port OF the committee on the Maine elec
tion returns made, in council: Your com
mittee, in submitting this report, deem i
necessary to state specifically certain fact
connected with the returns from many o
the towns. cities and plantations which
have materially affected the result of th,
caDvassing of votes returned. There ar,
many returns which owing to fatal defects
cannot be counted, but we shall specify
only those which have affected the result
| The constitution regulates the manner Of
electing the state Senators and Repre-
sentatives, and provides that in the case
of towns and plantations, the municipal
| officers shall IN open town and
| plantation meeting, at the close OF
election day, sort, count and declare the
votes cast, aud form list of all persons vot-
ed for, and after the name of each person
thusvoted for shall write the nun Der of votes
received by him. This list shall be recorded
in open meeting by clerk. and copy of
the recorded list shall be signed by
seiectmen and attested by the clerk and
sealed up in open meeting This copy
of the recorded list thus attested is
to be deposited in the office OF the state
within thirty days thereafter. The sec
ton of the revised statutes requires that
IN addition to the foregoing specific and
mandatory provisions of the constitution.
the returns shall state the whole nun Der
of ballots cast at the election The same
section OF the constitution requires that
the Governor and Council shall open and
compare the returns thus transmitted and
from them determine who appears to be
elected, AMI the Governor is to issue to
such persons as thus appears TO
be elected summons to take seats III the
Legislature OF course, the first require
ment is that returns shall be made aud
sealed up in open town or plantation meet
ings. We understand this is required in
order that the electors may be present and
see that the returns are made ia accor-
dance with the facts, and we are of the opiu
ion that the returns which are not made up
10 open meeting are not legal returns aud
cannot be counted, and we haze acted
upon this belief il making our tabuIations
Several protests. accompanied wiki afIida-
vss 10 support them have been considered
by us. These protests ailege that said
returns should oot be counted because
they were not made up in open town
meeting. but made after tho meeting clos,'
ed 10 some private Office or store when no
one was present but portion of the muDi-
cipal officers, and 10 some cases only the
clerk. The condition of things in several
cases have beea proven to our entire sstis-
faction and we have rejected the returns
thus detective in our foundations. 10 the
case of the town of Sloneham an affidavit
signed by two seiectmen established the
fact that they signed the returns in blank
aud the Town Clerk took them home aud
fitted them up and The selectmen have no
knowledge OF what the returns contain. For
the foregoing reasons we have rejected in
our tabulati2ns the representatives returns
from the towns of Jay, Stoneham. Lisbon.
w ebster and Harrington. The returns
from the town OF SearspoEt have also been
rejected because they were not sealed up
in an open town meeting By means of
these reflections five persons will receive
seats in the Legislature who would not
have been thus seated had the returns
from the aforesaid towns been made up as
the constitution requires. The Supreme
Court has held that the municipal officers
shall sign the returns with their own hands
or make their marks. otherwise the returns
cannot be counted. We have found sew
eral returns fatally defective in this parti-
cular, and have accordingly rejected them.
By this rule laid down by the court, we re-
iected them BY this rule laid down by
the court. we rejected the New Sharon
The rejection affects the election
OF one Representative We found several
fatally defective because they were
not attested by the Town Clerks. The
Supreme Court held that such are not
legal returns and we have rejected them.
They are quite numerous but we shall
specify only such as affect the result of the
election. The representative returns from
the town of Lebanon is one of them. Its
rejection affects the election of one Repre-
sentative. Vanceburg and Albany are
like cases, and the rejection OF the returns
from these towns affects the election of two
REPRESENTATIVES In the full Christian
names of candidates, some have been
used some times. or only in cities. and
we hesitated as 10 whether we could count
initial names with full names, On
examination of the law we found the Sup
RENE court has held that the Gov
erpor and Council must count them
as distinct and seperate persons.
By adopting this rule, laid down by the
court, the election of five representa-
tives seems to be affected, The revised
statutes require that in the case OF planta-
tions, 10 addition to the forms required by
towns, a list of the voters OF the planta-
tions be sent into the Secretary OF State,
otherwise that the returns from such plan.
tations, shall not be counted. We found
the returns FROM seven of the plantations
irregular in this particular, and we have
specified them in our tabulatioD. 1t will
there appear that the rejection OF these
returns affect the return of two represen-
tatlves. The state requirement OF setting
forth iu the returns. the whole number OF
votes in many cases was not complied
with. We find it has been the practice OF
the governor aud council for many years
to reject such returns. and We have not
deemed it safe to deviate from this long
established interpretation of the law, SO
fully recognized by our predecessors; ana
in making our tabulations have omitted all
such returns. 1t will be perceived that
these reflections affect the election OF sew
eral representatives 10 the county OF
Washington. One candidate for the sem