The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-08-17
ers of Maine would have been without their
pensions for the year 1882.

ers of Maine would have been without their
pensions for the year 1882.
A FALSE CHARGE.
The Governors organs assert daily that the
Council constantly takes pains to show its con-
tempt for that official, and has lost no oppor-
tunity to interfere with the proper conduct OF
the public service. The charge is false. The
Council, on the contrary, has treated Gov.
Plaisted with personal courtesy. 1t has never
failed to consult his convenience relative to
the time and manner of performing certain
duties. 1t has simply resisted his encroach-
ments when it was necessary and IN many
things has yielded rights established by custom
in order to prevent confusion in public bust
ness. Indeed, it has gone beyond ordinary
courtesy in allowing bills presented by him for
the compensation of members OF his somewhat
numerous military staff, not only when on
actual duty, but when they have attended His
Excellency on occasions of receptions and
balls. Republican Governors have not been
accustomed to present such bills for payment,
but there is no accounting for the peculiar
manifestations of Fusion economy, which must
be 80 gratifying to the "plain people"
CONCLUSION.
The cases above noticed cover the charges
which Gov. Plaisted's friends have made
against the Executive Council. They are mat
tiers of record, and this statement of each case
is sustained by that record. These facts show
that the Council is not guilty of any attempt to
interfere with the prerogatives OF the Cover
nor. of any violation of the Constitution or of
any discoIrtesy toward that official. On the
other hand, they do show that the Council has
constantly Welded power conferred upon it by
the Constitution and established by long line
of precedents. Candid people will see that the
charges of the Plaisted conventions and organs
and the complaints set forth in His Excel
lencys recent ieremiad are groundless and
frivolous, and that his attempt either to play
the role Of Jackson or to assume the charac-
ter of a martyr would be pitiful if it were
not contemplate failure.
Not SO with Governor Plaisted He has
shown himself trifiing, captious, exasperating
and arbitrary in his treatment of the Council /;
he has denied that body rights which its pre-
decessors have always enjoyed; he has. denied
its right to meet and adjourn in defiance OF
precedent and law he has usurped the func-
tions of the Council by attempting to remove
officers without its consent" he has given the
constitution the most forced and unnatural
construction in order to justify his highland
ed neutrality-suspicious. which no other
Governor except Garcelon has ever been fore
ed to put upon laws and constitutions Nor do
his inconsistencies and reckless diregard of
laws, popular opinion and coordinate branches
of the state government end with the Council.
He has ignored the popular sentiment of the
people by driving from place wounded SOL
der, in order to provide for his own son; he
has time and again, ignored the popular pref
erence for official appointments In his own
party by paying no heed to petitions; he has
permitted $50, 900 matured state debt to remain
unpaid nearly year in order to maintain lis
construction of the constitution, which makes
the Council puppet of the Governor; he is in
contempt of the Supreme Court today for
treating an officer as removed which that tr j.
bunal declares he has no authority to remove;
he has assaulted the independence of the judi
ciary by refusing to reappoint an able and up
right Judge for no other caufe than that his
opinions have not sustained His Excellency
and friends in their unconstitutional and law
less designs. In short he has permitted neith-
er constitution, precedent, nor coordinate
branch of the government to stand in the way
of his ambitious purpose. In view of his ex-
ercise of the one-msn power, one may exclaim
with Cassius:
s'Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed
That he has grown great"