The Silver State

The New York Sun, one of the ablest and fairest papers published in the United States, has been frequently denounced by rabid partisans because of its unceasing allusions to the frauds which made Hayes President against the expressed will of the majority of the voters of the country. Now the Sun shows that its criticism of the Louisiana fraud was not caused by its opposition to Republicanism, but by its belief that the will of the majority should be respected regardless of what party or individuals might be benefited thereby. In discussing the Maine question the Sun criticizes the action of Governor Garcelon and his Council as sharply as it did that of Governor Kellogg and the Louisiana Returning Board in the Presidential election. It says:

"Governor Garcelon made one grand mistake. In his sharp, critical pursuit of technical errors in the election returns he seems to have lost sight of the great, supreme purpose of electors, to wit, a government by the people. Any course whatever which thwarts the will of the majority defeats that purpose. The expression of that will, though not made with all the prescribed forms, should be allowed to take effect. Otherwise these various provisions regulating the process of voting defeat the very object they were enacted to attain: that is, that the will of the majority shall prevail."

"In snatching at shadows, Governor Garcelon let go the substance. Government cannot be carried on upon the narrow rules suited only to a huckster's trade."

The course pursued by Governor Garcelon has been as erroneous in policy as in principle. No party can afford to obtain or to hold power by the perpetration of a wrong. No better illustration could be furnished of the error of his course than the frequent citation by many of those who defend it, of the crime of the Hayes conspirators as a precedent to justify the action of the Governor. Wrongs cannot be justified by precedents, however high or however numerous the precedents may be. The idea that men not elected could wriggle themselves, through some clerical blunders, or other trifling inaccuracies in the returns, into seats in the Legislature and constitute a valid government of the State, was grossly absurd. Popular government is not constituted by a sleight-of-hand. It is something more than a cheat. Had the Supreme Court fully sustained Governor Garcelon, on the ground that the strict letter of the law required him to pursue the course he had adopted even then such a necessity resting upon him would have been a great political misfortune.

The decision of the Supreme Court of Maine will improve the whole country by sound in law and eminently just. We concur entirely in the views taken by the neutral Judges. We ask not who loses or who gains by the decision. It is a matter of infinitely small moment whether one party or another shall be temporarily in power, when compared with the importance of preserving in absolute integrity the principle of real popular government.

Those Democrats in Maine who have received certificates of their election to the Legislature, but who knowing that they did not receive a majority or plurality of votes, and that the certificates are based on 'technical defects in the returns,' have declined to qualify or act, have done themselves lasting honor. Their course affords strong evidence of a sound and healthy popular sentiment, and is one of the most gratifying signs of the times.