Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1907-05-30

ness, and not yours, and you could
only act in his absence. though of
course you could have removed him,
If you had been willing to remove
him, for refusing to take the inn
proper and fraudulent action which
in his absence you took on his be-
half. You, however, obtained an
opinion from the attorney general
(the same gentleman whom the
newspapers report as now organizing
meetings to ask for your retention in
office), which opinion Mr.. Cooley
rightly stigmatzes as 'an absurdity,"
for as Mr.. Cooley says, 1t is only ex-
plicable on the ground either that
the attorney general thought that
there was no absolute evidence of a
violation of the law Ga conclusion
which 1t was inconceivable he could
have reached or that you could have
reached), or else that as there were
difficulties attendant upon the en-
forcement of the law you should go
out of your way to violate It. You
took advantage of the absence of the
commissioner of public lands on Of
fetal business to go yourself with the
attorney general, Mr.. Reid, to his
office and yourself complete the
transaction.
Would Not Wait.
by clerk in the lank office
that the matter should be delayed
until the commissioner could be COM
'municated with, as IL you wired him
II would be possible to get him back
in Santa Fe inside of two days. You
refused to permit this delay; although
there was absolutely no reason what
ever for such refusal on your part.
You directed the clerk to compute the
lmnIlnt Htla nf thA v,Vsir :
cipal and interest, and then asked
him to deliver the deeds, to which he
replied that he had no power to do
so and that the seal had not been af-
+ fixed to twenty-three of them. You
then directed him to bring all the
papers to your office, together with
the seal of the board OF public lands,
and in the presence of the clerk and
of Mr.. Hopewell, the beneficiary of
your grossly improper and PROBABLY
unlawful conduct, you affixed the
seals to the twenty-three deeds, and
handing them to Hopewell, asked il
he considered that a delivery. Hope
well replied that he did and handed
them back to you with the request
that they be recorded on the deed
records of the commissioners Of pub
lie lands. You handed them to the
clerk with instructions to have them
recorded and these instructions were
carried out. The deeds were return
ed to you and you handed them tJ
the attorney Of the Pennsylvania De-
Velopment company You accepted
from Mr.. Hopewell his personal check
for $11,113.74, which you subsequent
ly deposited in the office of the com
missioner of public lands. The de-
partment of justice reports that:
Illegal and Improper.
1T seems entirely clear that Gov
ernor Hagerman's action was both IL
legal and improper.
THE act of congress of June 21,
1898, and section l, chapter "a, laws
of New Mexico, 1899. supra, clearly
made the contract illegal at the time
Governor Hagerman alleges IL was
entered into. The delivery Of the
deeds could not have been enforced
by the grantees, or by the Pennsyl-
vania Development company, which
was not a party to the contract. The
governor had every reason to believe,
owing TO his correspondence with the
secretary of the interior. that the
transaction was Of very doubtful le-
gality, i'm spite of the opinion of the
attorney general. 1t was clearly his
duty, In my judgment, to withhold
delivery of the deeds and let the mat
ter be tested in the courts If the
grantees named In the deeds saw fit
to mandamus the commissioner OF
public lands. His action in usurping
the duties of the commissioner in his
absence was both Illegal and unjusti-
fable 1t was entirely competent for
him TO enforce the carrying out of
his wishes by administrative methods,
in removing a public official and ap-
pointing in his place some one in
sympathy with his policies, but it was
neither legal nor justihable to adopt
the course he did"
But One Course.
With the above statement | entire
ly agree. II | permit such an act by
The highest officer in the territory 10
go unpublished, l can not hold to ac-
count any subordinate official for any
infraction of his duty IL was "a grave
question i'm my mind whether 4 ought
not to remove you instead of merely
asking your resignation. 1 resolved
the doubt i'm your favor and request
ed your resignation. Under no cir
cumstances would 1 reconsider this
action.
Secretary Root has handed me a
long telegram from your father, I'm
which he states that he wishes me 20
delay my action on your resignation
until you have had time TO answer
the charges made against you, which
he further states are well known t-
Doe uufOunded, and made by party
freebooters 10 restore themselves q.
power. Apparently your father doe
not know, or disregards, the fact tha
these charges are contained iu thI
statement above referred 20 from th
+ department OF justice and in the rec
ords Of the interior department; tina
there is not the slightest question "a
10 the facts which were admitted b
I you in your interview with me as wei
as in your interview with Secretar
| Garfield. and that you had a ful
/ hearing before Secretary Garfield am
I before me. Under these circum
/ saying that the charges are unbound
/ ed / am unable 10 imagine II am
! party freebooter or any one else
/ guilty OF conduct such as yours L VII
. treat him just as l have treated 70