Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-10

Mouiton was guilty OF corrupt action
In his office. The attorney general fair
minded lawyer that he is. won't argue
10 you Tor second that he has offered
any proof of corruption; nobody will ar
que 1t; nobody has said it; and yet you
present that in your charges and YOU
fix up your charges so that you cannot
divide them yourselves: you have got
to vote on them altogether, and You
have got to vote yes or no on the cues
ton of whether you would remove Lew
is w. Moulton from office for some rea-
son, for, under the Constitution Of this
State, even this convention cannot re-
move him without assigning some rea-
son, and when you assign the reasons
you have said for corruptly conducting
himself in office, and you refuse to d-
vide your charges. You have got to
vote. as | say, on it as a whole, and
there isn't one of you, | don't care who
he is, don't care how prejudieed he is,
l don't care how much he may dislike
. the defence, l don't care how much he
may wish lie were at home that can
say to himself, much less to his neigh
Dor. that he has any right to stamp
Lewis w. Moulton with the charge of
corruption or that he may or that he
can found it, if he votes to remove him.
on the charge which you have filed
against him. l would like to have you
think of that; it may be of some i'm
portance to you.
One other matter ! would like to go
into briefly before l reach the discus
sion, and my discussion of the detailed
evidence will be very brief
Before | reach that part, l want to
call your attention to the fact that these
proceedings i'll the latter days of this
session of the Legislature strike funda-
mentally at the very basis of the form
of government under which YOU and /
were born and have lived up to last
week. We have in Maine Constitution.
There are several sections in that Con-
stitution besides the one forbdding the
manufacture and sale of Intoxicating
liquors. That is not all there is to the
Constitution. Aside even from the pre-
amble and the prohibitory clause there
are a number of important clauses in
the Constitution of Maine. And among
others is this: That the sheriffs of the
IL counties of Maine should be elected
by the people Away back, in 1890, be-
fore you had Progressive party, before
the clarion voices Of men like La Fol-
lette, Bryan and Roosevelt had aroused
the people to the fact that they were
losing their liberties, somebody had
sense and Judgment enough to see that
the people of the various counties of
Maine should have something to say
about their local government.
And back there you fixed it so that
the people of the counties of Maine
81 H.
statutory. enactment but by constitu-
tional law You made your sheriffs cleo
tive officers. What are your proceed
ings leading you to now? You have
found in some isolated cases where COR
ruption and vicious actions existed
where a sheriff has deceived his people.
and you have removed the sheriff in or
der that some temporary change may be
made. You are asking now in the last
days of this session to remove sherfffs
by wholesale, and to in effect make the
sheriffs office in Maine appointive. That
is what You are asking to do.
The peopel down in Cumberland coun-
ty thought they had right to elect Mr..
Moulton sheriff. They knew him. They
had lived under him two years. They
knew whether they wanted him or King
Graham when they voted and gave him
$500 votes and gave King Graham
something like 1000. | do not care
about the figures, about half as many
as they gave Mr. Moulton. They knew
what they wanted, and they knew just
how Sheriff Moulton was enforcing the
prohbitory law. They knew more about
that than of you in Augusta, who do
not live in Portland or Cumberland
county, because they were about there
every day and did not have to take the
distorted view of the matter as present
ed by Skillings or by Mir. Doherty OF
the other gentlemen.
They knew the conditions that exist
ed. and they said: Lewis Moulton
suits us and we want him for sheriff "
He went into office. Has he betrayed
any promise that he made to the peo-
pie of Cumberland in the three months
that he has been in office? Hos he con-
Quoted himself any differently than
when he received the verdict which is
known to all? Not at all Has he be-
trayed any trust imposed upon him
Nobody questions it. / say that the
people of Cumberland under the Con-
stitution of Maine exercised their right
10 eject Lewis MOullOn Snefiff, not 10f
three months, but for two years, and
with no change in his administration
with 10 change in the procedure, doing
just what they knew he would do in
the way they knew he would do it,
Are you men from Aroostook, from
Piscataquis, from Somerset, from Ok
ford, from my own county of Wash
ington, are you going to say: I'VE
know better than the people of Cum
berland who ought to be sheriff. We are
better judges than the people of Cum
berland as to how the sheriff should
conduct himself, hence we will nullify
the Will of the people, which we have
all shouted for during the last six
months? We will nullify the will of the
people and we will elect the sheriff OF
Cumberland or we will direct the Gov
ernor of Maine, who does not live in
Cumberland. to appoint a sheriff for us,
and who will suit us and never mind
whether it suits the people or not"
Whom it would be we have no means
of knowing. 1t may be our old friend.
do n IL