Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-01-24

The following y the commentary
of the New York World on the
Maine tropeles, and is worthy of
serious consideration. Our own OBJ
Iectios to the whole matter Is that
it viii give the Federal Executive
an excuse for interference; and
there can be no doubt that Mr..
Hayes win gladly avail himself OF
the pretext sooner or later, and thus
establish a much desired precedent
for the future:
The Republicans have taken pos
session of the State-I1ouse of Maine
and counted in such of themselves
as have no certificates "on the face
Of the returns" Occupying the
legislative chambers was in itself a
sharp and, SO far as we can see,
perfectly legitimate man@uvre.
The only wonder is that the Repub-
licans did not see ana resort to 1t +,
and the Fusionists foresee and guard
against it, before the Legislature
met. Tt would have been very
much less discreditable and very
much less dangerous to the State
than it is now. For consider under
what circumstances it is now done.
A Major-General Of MALTA, exactly
following the precedent set in Mex
leo three or four years ago by Diaz,
has assumed in Maine the functions
of the Governor and of the Canvass
ing Board. He has notified the
legal Legislature, by which we
mean the Legislature which has a
lH'imd fdcie claim to legality in the
Governors certificates of election.
that he will not recognize their
choice of a President of the Senate.
Now the President of the Senate,
whatever his claim may be worth,
certainly has a far better claim to
be recognized as the acting head of
the State of Maine than MajOr-Gen-
eral Chamberlain, who has indeed
no claim whatever, and whose as
sumption Of power is sheer and I'M
cOlored usurpatiOn. Our Republi-
can contemporaries may consider
this state of things which Mr..
Blaine and his subOrdinates have
brought about in Maine, and which
has been aggravated by the folly OF
Mr.. Eugene Hale in giving the Flu
siOnists a quorum which they could
not have had without him, to pre-
sent an attractive and satisfactory
spectacle. Ifs0, our contemporaries
are considerably more concerned
for the success of the Republican
party than for the security of repub-
lican institutions. Government by
Major-Generals has been found in
ffraaElE 1v.A EoSr Il
States highly conducive to the for
mer object, but it has never, al
though frequently tried, and in
many countries beside our our own,
been found consistent with the lat
ter. Before the debauchery of the
public conscience by "reeonstruc-
tiOn," the monstrous usurpatiOn OF
Chamberlain, conducted without
color of law, would have been much
more shocking to Americans than
the usurpatiOn of the Governor and
Council under color of law. Gar
celOn's action is not without rem
edy. 1t would have been remedied
before this if the Republican lead
ers in Maine had shown sense, mod
Grafton and courage. The remedy
for it which, in the absence of these
qualities, they now propose and
have i'm part applied, is not much,
if at all, less dangerous than the
disease. The Republicans who
voted each other into seats son the
face of the returns" and thus
uslirped the functions of the State
canvaSSers, did as bad a thing as,
and far more illegal thing, than
the canvassers who prOstituted their
functions to the success of their
party. 1t is better from the point
of view of the perpetuity of free in
stitutiOns that canvaSsers under the
law should cheat the people of a
State out of the control of it than
that a State Government should be
run" even for a single hour by a
man who has no more legal claim
to run" it than he has to seize the
throne of Spain.