The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-01-14

Victor Hugo in the "History of Crime"
which so vivdly describes the revolution Of
'52, says: "Two things stand erect in State
the Law and the People man murders
the Law. He feels the punishment approach
ing: there only remains one thing for him to
do-to murder the People. He murders the
People,"
The late Governor Of Maine with his hybrid
Council, his familiar spirit, the editor of the
Standard, and the fusion party, may not be
inaptly termed the assassins of Law and the
would-be murderers of the People. When DR..
Garcelon, as chief magistrate of the State, and
chief of the Executive Council, conspired to
wrest from the people their sacred rights, un-
der a solemn pretence Of obeying the strict
letter of the Law, he strangled the Law; he
stabbed the Lav; he murdered the Law.
What then? The voice of a cheated and out
ragged State, in re-echoing tones of indignant
reproach, rose instantly to overwhelm the
conspiracy and assert the supremacy of Law;
the sovereignty of Justice.
Having murdered the Law and quailiDg
under the protesting, the damning force OF
public opinion, in which he plainly saw his
punishment; no HAOSno W iOAsi'y
himself to protect himself from the legitimate
results of his crime. He appealed to the
sword; to the rife. He, without law, without
even the fo,nis of law, or so far as is known,
the advice or knowledge of his co-conspirators,
gathered arms and munitions of war in the
halls of the Legislature and put them in the
hands of his desperate minions, to do-what?
''To protect the property Of the State and pre-
serve the peace!" So he said What is the
fact? To menace the people; to stab the peo-
pie; to murder the people if need was to conf
plete the devilish character Of the plot. He
sent q messenger to a PEACEFUL law-abiding,
but excited city, on an errand calculated to in
flame rather than allay the resentment of the
nopulace. He put the capacity for forbearance
of the people to a cruel and needless test, in
mere furtherance of his design to intimidate,
to overawe a patient, loyal, outraged State.
Having failed in his attempts to precipitate
an armed conflict between himself and the
people, having deceived himself as to the abili-
ty OF the State to endure wrong and insult, and
having failed to baptize his nefarious schemes
in patriot blood, he submitted certain cunning
5y &c IsecI SiIgc5gf5ziz
IL
serve the respect Of every citizen, but which
have always been accepted as safe guides for
final action in trying public emergencies. He
did this,-not "by and with the advice OF the
Council" bnt opposed to it or that OF most OF
its members. He did it in professed Difference
to the desire of the peo pie. The submission OF
tlese questions to the Court was supposed to
imply a disposition and motive to be governed
by the spirit Of the law as contained in the
opinion His questions were all answered ad-
versely to his expectations, I'd every support
Of law or equity by which he trusted to prop up
his desperate cause was knocked away, and
the daylight of truth and reason shone through
the dark veil Of sophistry and error winch he
had woven to hide the true points Of the issue
from the eyes of the people. Did he submit to
the force of conviction and seek to avert the
doom of the coward and traitor? No; he as
sembled his league, and in defiance OF constltu,
ton, law, everything but the determinate Will
and foreordination of his Fusion cohorts, he
organized mob and called it a Legislature
He caused men to swear feaity and obedience
to q constitution and laws which he and they
had conspired to overthrow. He dsregarded
protests from loyal aggrieved representatives
| Of the people, and gave credentials to persons
who had been rejected in the popular elections
The last public act Of this make-believe patriot
ana hero, was 10 administer SOlelilI oalH u
an illegally organized body by which they in
voked the help of God to support tho constitu-
ton and obey the laws. A farce more rldlcu-
| lous was never enacted.
Having succeeded in getting the affairs OF
State into almost inextricable confusion ano
seeing his fusion rump Legislature sinking
into the mire of hypocrisy and lawlessness, he
retired from the scenes of his triumphs ano
| left the government in condition of anarchy
| This modern "Jackson''-God save the mark
as friend Walton would say-this executor o.
| the Law and murderer of the Law; this chiel
magistrate Of q State, and assassin of Justice
| has gone to the shades of privacy to mediate
| ca the sweet uses of adverSity.
| Alonzo Garcelon has had opportunities to dc
| noble acts of Governor of Maine, and render
| lust and equitable returns to those who made
| him Governor: But he cheated them; he de
| ceived them he defed them, BE failed how
| ever in completing his treachery. Though he
murdered the Law he did not succeed in muir
dering the People. Thanks to the peace-lov
ing, long-suffering, law-abiding People! But
he committed hari kari. The stabs medtatet
| for the people he inflicted finally upon himself
| and political suicide is the ignoble end
| Garcelon. G' Y.