Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-08-04
REGISTRATION BILL.
II COrleS Before the Law Court In Port.
land.
How Il App cared In the Hands OF Judge
Goddard.

1 pGiLANbs -ht- mug
Friday afternoon the matter of the medical
registration bill was argued by Judge God
dard for the plaintiff. Judge Goddard at the
opening said;
We respectfully invite the attention of this
honorable court to what the result, ordinary.
we believe that we may say uniform course
of business in the executive chamber during
the administration of Governor Bo1well, and
presumably from time immemorial, was.
The testimony and duties of Mr.. c. NJ.
Stevens, the Governor Secretary, Mr.. j. R.
Milliken. Clerk in the Secretary of States
office, and the circumstances surrounding the
case were reviewed at length.
Final affirmative action said Judge God
dard, on the part of both branches of the
legislature in compliance with the constitution
and the law and the rules of the Senate and
House authenticated by the signatures of
their presiding officers. Presentation of the
legislative enactment in the usual and proper
manner to the governor in the executive
chamber, Due and indeed unusual delibera-
ton on the part of the governor, covering
at least four days prior TO the final passage
of the act, deliberation which occupied the
executive attention even during the Lords
days. and which was protracted through the
forenoon of the following Thursday burning
which the governor avalled himself of the
opinions and counsel of several gentlemen
interested in the subject of the bill. Finally,
after and as the result of all that deliberation,
reflection and consultations. the deliberate
approval and signature of the bill, not during
the disturbing presence or under the imeG-
late influence of any adviser but after they
had all had an opportunity TO be heard and
had departed aud left the governor alone to
to the exercise of his own individual judg-
ment and the performance of a public duty,
in the presence only of his private secretary
The delivery of the approved act to his pri-
vate secretary, with the full knowledge of the
invariable routine practice of the executive
officer and inevitable and universal course
which awaited all approved acts to the Office
of the secretary of state like all its prede
cessors, The act having been approx ed,
and the business of the forenoon having
been thus completed the departure of the
governor for his home in the adjoining town,
leaving his private secretary in charge of the
executive office in the usual manner and
without any specific directions. The alb
half or two hours, the usual period, and the
delivery of the approved act during the in
terim by his private secretary according to
his usual practice in such cases, and, as un-
questi0nably understood, in the strict per
tormance of his official duty, at the Office of
the secretary of state the usual aud proper
place, and 10 the clerk whose duty it was and
for thirty years had been to receive and
enter all approved acts. The reception of
the approved act by said clerk in the office OF
the secretary of state, an the entry of the
usual minute on the act itself and upon the
two volumes kept in said office for the pur-
pose.
What, we respectfully ask, remained to be
done in order to give constitutional and legal
life to the "Act to regulate the Practice #
Medicine?"
Will It be claimed that a duty rmained to
be performed by the secrtary of state? 1t is
not easy to see how a neglect of duty on the
part of the secretary of state, an independent
public office elected by the legislature, and
whose functions are defined by the consti
tuition and the law and not by the governor
can operate to extend or enlarge the govern
ments constitutional power any more than a
prompt compliance with the statute and an
immediate performance of his official duty
by the secretary could abrdge
or limit the gubernatoral preogative. 1.-The
general principle which governs s,that while
there should be strict compliance with the
provisions of statute, yet where they are
directory merely since strict compliance is
not essential to the validity of proceedings
under such statute, unless they are declared
to be therein. This is especially applicable
where the rights of the public or of third
justices of this court in answer to Gov Gar
celon; 20 Maine Reports, page 500.
In the words of Judge Cooley, 1.-THE
bill had passed beyond his control
by the constitutional and customary mode of
legislation" for ''he had filed the bill with
the secretary of state with his approval sub
sCribed.''