The Portland daily press., 1882-08-19
The Power of Removal.

The controversy between Gov. Plaisted
and the Executive Council seems to have
grown out of the attempt Of the Governor
without the advice or consent of the Coun-
ell, to arbitrarily remove faithful officials to
make place for his personal or political
friends. The Governor, elated at his eleva-
ton to the executive chair, arrogated to
himself powers which the Constitution con-
fers upon the Governor and Council, and
essayed at once to clear the deck of all Re-
publican officials snd replace them with
men of his own choosing. "The Offices"
reasoned the Governor, ''are the spoils the
spols belong to the victors-I am the victor;
hence, to me and my party attach the fruits
of that victory"
But when His Excellency proceeded to
carry out his pet project and savagely bran
dished his political tomahawk over the scalp
of Col. Spaulding, the Reporter of Decisions,
and one of the most gallant soldiers which
Maine sent to the war, the Council Joined
issue with s'the supreme executive" and
called att ention to the fact that their consti-
tutional prerogatives enabled them to i'm
pose check upon such mischievous de-
signs, and they were disposed to exercise
those functions and see to it that emo re-
movals be made merely for political rea-
sons.o The Governor protested; the Coun
Gil insisted; and, the opinion of the Court
being asked, the position of the Council was
affirmed; aud, to use the forcible language
of the Bangor Wing, from that day
to this the Governor sshas been lying on
his back kicking at the court and believing
over the asurpations of the Council, and
tanning the fires of his burning issueP'
Considering the prominence of this ques-
ton as to "the power of removal from Of
fice,'' it is not little singular that the con-
stitution in terms imposes no such power
either upon the Governor and Council, or
either of them. Indeed, this is true of the
United States constitution as applied to the
President; and Gov. Plaisted tells us that as
to matters of appointment the Constitution
of Maine and the Constitution of the United
States are identical-the Governor taking
the place of the President and the Council
of the Senate. And in the absence of any
explicit constitutional direction upon the
subject, perhaps the opinion of some of our
great constitutional expounders may aid US
in arriving at correct Interpretation of the
law.
In his great speech before the National
Convention at Worcester in 1882, in which
be severely denounced the ''spoils system"
as inaugurated by Gen. Jackson, then res
ident, Daniel Webster said:
"You will remember sill, that the Constitu-
ton says not one word about the Presidents
power OF removal from office. It is power
raised entirely by construction 1t is a con-
structive power, introduced at first to meet
cases of extreme public necessity When
the question of the Presidents power of re-
moval was debated in the first Congress, those
who argued for it limited it to extreme cases.
And it may be further said that there was
little or no danger of the abuse OF the power
for party or personal OBJECTS. NO PRESIDENT, 1t
was thought, would ever commit such an out
rage on public opinion. Mr.. Madison, who
thought the power ought to exist, and to be ex
ercised in cases of high necessity, declared,
peverth less, that il President should resort
to the power when not required by any public
exigency, and merely for personal objects, he
scottld deserve to be inlpeached. By very small
aiority,-I think in the Senate by the casting
vote of the Vice Presdent,-CoDgress decided
in favor of the existence of the power of rsmo-
val: granting the power in case of clear and
absolute necessity, and denying Its existence
everywhere else."
But three or four instances of removal &C.
eminent Mr.. Jefferson made several 9TH
ers, but not without producing such dissat-
isfaction that he deemed it proper to justify
himself in public paper. After this hardly
an instance of removal occurred for thirty
years, until Jackson's administration, when
a regular system Of removals was practiced
as plan of government plan for which
Plaisted now contends-to the victors be-
long the spoils!
In the same speech the great constitutions
al lawyer gave his idea of the functions of
the Senate-or, as applied to Maine, the Ex-
ecutive Council. Among the removals
m ade by Jackson was that of Major Mel
vile, noble old Revolutionary hero,
member of the famous "tea party in Bos-
ton Harbor. he was not of Jackson's party
just as the gallant Spaulding is not of Plais-
ted's party. Though brave soldier and an
accomplished gentleman, as is Col. Spauld-
ing-he had not put the party collar about
his neck. And so he lost his office. Says
Webster:
sSir, YOU will bear witness (the President of
the Convention was Webster's colleague in the
Senate) that when his successor was nominated
to the Senate, and the Senate were informed
who had been removed to make way for that
nomination, its members were struck with
horror; and yet, they said, what can zoe do?
The man is removed; zoe cannot recall him;
we can only act upon the nomination before us.
Sir. you and 1 thought otherwise; and rejoice
that we did think otherwise. We thought it
our duty to resist the nomination to- fill a "a
cancy thus created. " thought it our duty to
oppose this prescription, when and where and
as, we consttutoDally could. We besought
the Senate to go with u.s. aud to take stand
before the country on this great question. We
invoked them to try the deliberate sense of the
people, to trust themselves before the tribunal
of public opinion; to resist at first, to resist at
last to resist always, the introduction OF this
upsocial, this mischievous, this dangerous, this
beligerent principle into the practice OF the
government
From the foregoing it will be seen that
the position of Mr.. Webster was exactly par
alel to the issue upon which the Executive
Council and the Republican party of Maine
60 to the people in the pending campaign.
They have resisted, manfully resisted, Gov
erner Plaisted's attempt to supersede and
punish Judge of the Supreme Court, and
olhe. faithful officials, for possessing the
courage of their convictions: and, with Web
ster, they confidently appeal to the great
tribunal of public opinion in the belief that
they will be Overwhelmingly sustained in
resisting sat first, at last, always, the intro
duction of this unsocal, this mischievous,
this dangerous, this belligerent principle in
to .he practice of the government Of
Maine!
Boston Journal: Some time since the
Supreme Court of Maine, in an exhaustive
IssIars.d that tho G0Earn0E of th Of