American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1880-06-12

original but quite characteristic way TO
| justify their acts by filling the public
mind with gross misrepresentation of
the acts OF their opponents. MIR. Eu-
gene Hale, the devoted and superserv-
iceable friend of Blaine, set so-called
Investigating Committee at work.
Judging from the methods and opera
tiOns of this Committee, its object was
| to whitewash besmirched Republicans,
nure or destroy the character of every
man connected with the late State Gov
eminent, to misrepresent the facts SO as
| to create profound and unjustifiable
prejudice against the Fusionists, and to
| prepare plausible and effective Repub-
| lican campaign documents ut the pub
lie expense. The report of this Com
mittee is so false, unjust and mislead-
ing that Ex-Governor Garcelon and the
gentlemen who constituted his Council
have published formal reply to it,
challenging its statements, correcting
its perversions of fact, and brushing
away its cobweb tissue of differences
and misrepresentation.
A great deal of stress was laid on
mutilated returns by the Hale Com
mittee. One of the mutations con-
sisted of letter "a" written with
different ink and with heavier mark
in the middle initial letter of a name.
When this mutilation was shown Gov
ernor Garcelon by the Hale Committee
he was amazed, declared that he had
never seen it before, and that if the
returns had been tempered with there
must have been a Judas in his Coun-
Gil; and the impression was given
to the public that Republican lost his
seat in the Legislature on account of
this mutilation of a signature. The
facts are that the mutilation was made
after the Hale Committee got possession
of the documents, that it consisted in
writing the middle initial letter over
the original in another ink, and that
Mr.. Josiah A. Slower, the Fusionist can
didate. was declared defeated and the
seat given to his Republican opponent
This is a sample. The returns were not
mutilated when the late State Govern
ment gave them up. If they are mutt
lated now, as the Hale Committee de-
clare, it is obvious enough what party
is responsible for the mutilation.
The statement put forth by ex-Gov-
ernor Garcelon and his former associates
traverses the whole ground in contro-
! versy. 1t bears the unmistakable stamp
of honesty and truthfulness in every
line, and challenges contradiction by
appeals to authorities which have all
the force of proof. Ex-Governor Gar
celon stands above suspicion as man
of stainless integrity and unimpeacha-
BILE truthfulness. The paper has only
to be read to convince everybody open
to conviction that the conduct of the
Maine Republicans in stealing the State
Government was AN act of shameless
wrong, consufnmated by unblushing au-
dacity, fraud and force. 1t is needless
to go over the ground now, further than
to say that the stories sent out by the
Hale Committee and published in the
Republican papers to prejudice the pub
lie against the Fusionists were so col
ored and distorted as to amount to
gross falsihcation. The simple facts
are that the Republicans spent a great
deal of money during the last
State was full of reports of
fraud and bribery. The Governor
and Council took no notice of these re-
ports. But when they examined the
official returns from which they were to
decide who were elected to the differ.
ent State offices they found that great
number were fatally defective accord
ing to the explicit declarations of the
Constitution, to the rulings of the SUI
preme Court, and to the precedents set
by their Republican predecessors. They
also found that in former years the Re-
publicans had allowed local officers to
"correct" the returns after they had
been received by the Secretary of State,
contrary to law, and that the Rcpubli-
cans had followed the Constitution and
the statutes to the letter whenever they
could seat Republican or unseat
Democrat by SO doing. In short, for
years the Republicans in Maine, under
the lead of Blaine, had played fast and
loose with the Constitution and laws,
as though the machinery of the State
Government were their own private
property Governor Garcelon and
| Council determined to obey the letter
of the Constitution and the statutes as
they had been interpreted by the SUI
preme Court, which had declared that
if municipal officers had failed TO do
their duty either by negligence or
ignorance the municipality which had
elected them must suffer the conse-
quence. They threw out all fatally de-
tective returns. More of these de-
fective returns were Fusionist than
Republican, but, owing to the way i'll
which the Republicans had gerry
wandered the State, the latter
lost more members of the Legislature
than the former, and the Fusion
lists were left in control of the State
Government. How they were robbed
of it by force and fraud, and how par
tisan Court was dragged into service
and made to do Blaine's dirtiest work
for a despicable end directlyIn the face
of its own decisions and the expressed
opinions of several of the Judges, will
be remembered by our readers. How
the Republicans got possession of the
State Capitol is told for the first time in
the Ex-Governor statement. General
Chamberlain was guarding the State
House and the other property of the
Commonwealth. On Friday, January
I6, he called in Governor Lamson and
asked that the Republicans be allowed
The use of Representatives Hall and
the Senate Chamber for caucuses the
following day. General Chamberlain
gave his solemn pledge that the Capitol
should be placed in the possession of
the Fusionist Legislature for its session
on the Monday following. General
Folsom and Colonel Claiming make
oath that Chamberlain gave this pledge
to the Governor. On Monday. when
the legal Legislature met, the State.
House was in the hands of the usurp-
ers, its gates were locked. a Gatling
gun stood at the entrance, and the
building was guarded by soldiers who
refused admis sion to the legal Legisla-
ture. This is Republican honor! This
is Blaineism. And the two thousand
dollars with which it was thought to
bride Fusionist Legislators to support
the usurpation and prevent the organi-
cation of the House remains uncalled >
for in an Augusta bank. The people of