The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-12

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Pennoyer enunciated it more than twenty
years after the close of the rebellion. He
hailed Cleveland's proposition to return
the flags as worthy Of all praise, at ono
in spirit with Grants reported refusal
to take Lees sword; an absurd view, since
the acceptance of the enemy's sword at
surrender is . mere formal military prlvi-
lege, which the victorious general can
enforce or not as he sees at by his cartel,
but the spoils of war captured in battle are
the property of the United States that no
president can dispose of without the per-
mission Of congress. Cleveland had no
more right without the authority OF con.
gress to return the Confederate flags than
he had to return the captured Confederate
cannon to furnish the bronze for Lees
statue.
Governor Pennoyer was then the Rip
Van Wrinkle OF politics, just awakened from
his sleep Of twenty years, leaning on his
old. rusted-out Southern squirrel rifle,
whistling for his dead dogs, cheering for
the .'lost cause" and its dead statesmen,
ignorant that Lee was dead, Davis dying
and Bob Toombs in his grave. The gov
ernor had another attack of estate su-
premacy on the brain" when President
Harrison visited Oregon; he maintained
that President Washington called On
Governor John Hancock, and accord
ing to this precedent President
Harrison must call on the governor.
since the Democratic mountain was not
constitutionally justified in going to the
the precedent" argument, the precedent
was all the other way: Governor Hancock
did call on President Washington; Gov
ernor Fairbanks sent his staff to meet
President Hayes when he visited the Ben
nington Centennial in 1877. 1t was
a mere question of public taste
and public courtesy; there was no
question of "of1icial rights" or preroga-
tives about it. 1t was mere question Of
taste whether Governor Pennoyer met
President Harrison warmly at the gate, as
did the governor Of California, or whether
he sat in his house with closed doors,
waiting for the president to ring, send in
his card and be ushered into the parlor by
the servant. And yet this simple matter Of
public taste and courtesy presented itself
to Governor Pennoyer's queer brain as if
it was question of gubernatorial dignity
and Estate rights"
The governor Landed Cleveland for an in-
defensible act in the matter Of returning
the flags, bat bitterly denounced him for
his just recommendation to congress that
our government pay the Chinese govern
ments indemnity claim for the Rock
Springs massacre; Governor Pennoyer
also denounced Cleveland for his anti-free
silver coinage views and Was not satisfied
that he stopped short of absolute free
trade in 1883 by his endorsement Of the
Mills bill. In his issue of pardons Gov
ernor Pennoyer seems to have small
thought Of the public safety, but seems
animated by the conviction that his ex-
ecutive powers under the constitution are
his private property, which may be prop
erly abused for the vindication and sup
port of a stupid personal blunder.
He vetoed the Portland water bill. which
made the city bonds free Of tax. This We
to was about as sensible as It would be for
man to put his paper on the market and
then depreciate it. City bonds issued for
municipal purposes, like water-works, as
matter of common sense ought not to be
taxed. The whole city owns tho water
works; the whole city gets tho benefit of
the money raised by the sale of the bonds.
Make the bonds taxable, you depreciate
the price, and the whole city loses by the
depreciation, and in case Of foreign buy
ers, loses the tax, too.
The governors argument for vetoing the
water bill was about as robust a. his reason
for pardoning de-sexed woman con-
victed OF theft on the ground '.of the
untitness Of the penitentiary as place Of
confinement for woman" 1t is better that
female thieves be made uncomfortable in
prison than that they should be pardoned
within q few weeks after conviction to the
danger and discomfort Of people out Of
prison.
No wonder this kind of an unarranged
brain should finally drop into that political
asylum for bedlami,e statesmen, "the
Peoples party"