Helena weekly herald., 1889-11-28
THE PROCLAMATION.A EXTRA.
ORDINARY DOCUMENT.


Gen. Meagher was acting Governor, in some
of his festive moods, he issued some rather
singular proclamations with startling fire.
quency, but since his day such executive
documents have been of rare occurrence. 1t
is not unlikely that they will again be-
come familiar visitor.
We rather expected that the Governor
would give notice through the papers
whether he had secured rooms for the two
houses of the Legislature. Till late yes
terday afternoon the Chairman of the
County Commissioners told all questioners
that no lease of rooms for the meeting of
the Legislature had been made, and the
Governor said the same thing. But the
only thing such notice from the Governor
ought to have contained does not appear.
There is, to be sure, command that The
House of Representatives shall meet in
certain hall once occupied by the Terri
torial House of Representatives. and the
Senate shall meet in another room in the
building, formerly occupied by the Coun-
Gil. But nothing has tIanspired whether
those rooms are still in the responsible Gus
tody of the County Commissioners OF are
the private apartments of the Governor.
Common courtesy to what is generally
regarded as co ordinate department of
government, should at least suggested to
the Governor to have said that he had Sc
cured for its use suitable rooms where the
two houses could meet This assumption
of the Governor in debating where sach
houses shall meet, without even deigning
to say whether these rooms have been
leased at all, or, if so, by whom, is in a
style that would do credit to the autocratic
Car of all the Russias We believe it is
the first time in the history of any free
| State that such an assumption was ever
made. If any parallel in the prolific his
tory of this country can be found, we shall
| be curious to see, but would not know
where to look for it. The constitution
provides that the first Legislative Assembly
the proclamation of the Governor, but we
| fail to find wherein the Governor is au-
thorized to direct in what building or what
rooms in any particular building it shall
meet He might with propriety have in
formed the members that he had secured
rooms in the court house that would be at
their disposal, but to 90 the extent of die
tating that the houses shall meet in rooms
| the control of which is in doubt is, in our
opinion, gross insult to the Legislative
Assembly, however it may have been in
tended. If it will submit to be dictated to
in such a matter, it would be a e tool for
an usurper to sustain his further assump-
tion of all the functions of government and
the utter overthrow of the Constitution so
recently adopted
That the Governor has further usurped
the judicial functions will appear in this
remarkable document, for he has under
taken what no Governor of free State
ever before attempted. to decide who are
legally elected members. There might be
some question whether the certificates of
members should come from the county
clerks or the State canvas-ing board. but
there is not one particle of law and no pre-
cedent in usage for the Governor to under
take any such duty. The constitution
makes each house the Judge of the election
and qualification of its own members. In
all our reading of our own or other consti-
tutions we have never found an instance
where the Governor was the Judge of the
qualifications of the members. 1t may be
the case in some Mexican or South Amer
lean States, but we believe this is the first
instance in the United States.
But the fiat has gone forth and we sup.
pose the Governor will carry out his pro.
gramme If he succeeds it will be- the
overthrow of constitutional liberty in Mon
tana and the establishment of dictator.
ship, with all executive, legislative and
: judicial functions combined in one person
1t will be in order to provide next for ar
armed guard and the proclamation of th,
Empire of Montana.
The Governors organ says the cours
adopted was in the interest of pesce. Tha
was the pretext of the Emperor Napoleon
in his coup d'etat. His favorite expression
was, "The empire means peace" 1t wa
r the peace of the grave for France, and
the representatives of the people of Mon
tana tamely submit to such usurpations a
! have been proclaimed, then Montana sink