The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-09-13
The Court and the Consn;ro+ors

me Court and the Conspirators.
one Oh the most solemn features of the po-
lltical situation in Maine at this time, is the
attempt which has been so persistently made
ny LIE tapulators and the leaders of the fusion
party as well as by their party journals, to ira
duce and Willy the members of our Supreme
Court.
Inc Court is the only tribunal to which we
can appeal for protection of our lives, our lib
ertles' and our property, and the security of
our social and domestic relations; and any at
tempt to lessen the confidence of the people in
the honor and integrity of Judges of the Court
IS to be deeply lamented.
NO thinking man of any political faith can
credit the charge which these men m ake-that
the Court were influenced by any improper
motive to render partisan decision. The SAL
airy attached to the position is less than the
income which either of the judges could de-
rive from the practice of law and the labors
are far more onerous. To judge or lawyer,
his professional reputation is of far more i'm
portance than official tenure or perquisites
The suggestion that the Court would join in
rendering an opinion which they deemed I'M
SOUND In law, in order that they might retain
their seats upon the bench is therefore but pu-
Grille in its weakness.
Nor can it be claimed that the Court were
parfizans, because Judge Lbbey, lifelong
Democrat, concurred in all the opinions rem
dered; but the conspirators seek revenge
against him who thus sacrificed his political
bias to his professional convictions by the con-
temptible charge of bribery!
The judiciary, the executive and the legisla-
tive branches of our Government are separate
and distinct. 1t is the province of the legisla-
ture to make, of the executive to obey, and OF
the judiciary to construe and enforce laws Up
to 1879 no executive of this or any other State
ever assumed to pass upon the constitutionality
of laws which had been enacted by legsla-
ture. But Governor Garcelon and his Council,
for coniessedly partlzan purposes, assumed this
responsibility, and although, under the consti-
tuition which he so dearly loved, he had the
power to demand the opinion of that branch
whose sole province it was to construe laws
yet he preferred to use has oacn Judgment aided
by the advice of Democratic lawyers, all OF
them politicians, and all of whom had coun-
selled and advised the rejection of returns and
disfranchisement of their own cities upon mere
technicalities at an expense to the State Of
$500.
These are the men who claim to have ''stood
by the constitution and the law,' and who
charge the Court with having been guilty Of
judicial usurpation.
When these men had overturned the will oil
the people, without law and without prece.
dent, and when the public excitement was
great, the Court was appealed to by Governor
Garcelon himself and when they had consci
entiousy discharged the duty which the CON
stltution had put upon them and answered the
questions which he had propounded, then he
and his co-conspirators scoffed at the Cour
whose opinion he had invoked and turned the
owners OF the goods over to a jury made up in
part of those who had received the goods
which he and his associates had stolen, for 9
settlement of their rights.
The Court were then called upon to decide
question which never was before presented tt
any judicialn tribunal, viz: Whether
republican government should continue tt
exist or whether it should give place to al
| oligarchy composed of eight men,.
| For if the Garcelon legislature was legal
| then it would be possible for him to summon
men who were never voted for at the polls; fol
| the men thus summoned to re-elect him ant
| his council; for them to repeat the perform
| ance in 1880 and indefinitely. Republican
| government would thus give place to an oil
| garchy.
This was the solemn emergency in which
the court was called to act, and no man who
| believes in a republican form of government
and is animated by desire to see it perpetu
| ated, can question the wisdom and soundness
| of the opinions rendered by our court, the
| members of which, knowing the base attacks
and insinuationS which awaited them, ye
| unanimously concurred in opinions which will
| ever stand as wise and patriotic interpretation
| OF those great principles upon which republi
| can institutions depend. A. w. G.