PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



743 



nine of the members enrolled themselves as 

 Liberals. 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. Quetion> tubmit- 

 ted to the Supreme Judicial Court of the State 

 of Mni in- Inj the Republican member* of the 

 Legislature, and the antwert thereto. 



STATE or MAIWX, IK SENATE, I 

 January 12, 1880. f 



Ordered, That the following statement of facto be sub- 

 miteci to the Justices of the Supremo Judicial Court, 

 and they be required to give their opinions on the ques- 

 tions appended thereto. 



Read and passed. C. W. TILDEN, Secretary. 



A true copy. 



Attest : C. W. TILDEN, Secretary. 



STATE or MAIXE, ra HOUSE OF REPBESENTATIVBS, I 

 January 12, 1880. f 



Ordered, That the following statementof facts be sub- 

 mitted to the Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court, 

 and they be required to give their opinions on the ques- 

 tions appended thereto. 

 Bead and passed. 



ORAMANDEL SMITH, Clerk. 

 A true copy. 



Attest: ORAMANDEL SMITH, Clerk. 

 GEORGE E. WEEKS, Speaker. 



STATEMENT OF FACTS. 



Immediately after the annual election of September 

 8, 1879, copies of the lists of votes cast in the several 

 towns and plantations for various State and county 

 officers, duly attested by the selectmen of towns and 

 assessors of plantations, and by either the town clerk, 

 deputy clerk, or clerk pro tern., and like copies of lists 

 of votes given in the several wards of the cities, duly 

 attested by the mayor and city clerk and a majority of 

 a legal quorum of the aldermen present, were duly re- 

 turned and delivered into the office of the Secretary of 

 State, thirty days before the first Wednesday of Janu- 

 ary, 1880. The Governor and Council opened these 

 returns November 17, 1879. 



Application in proper form was made by parties in- 

 terested for inspection of said returns, for the purpose 

 of discovering and correcting any defects or errors 

 therein ; but in a large majority of cases such inspec- 

 tion was refused by_ the Governor and Council, or 

 granted so late and in such a manner as to be 01 no 

 avail for the correction of errors. 



Senators and representatives elect made application 

 to the Governor and Council within twenty days after 

 the returns were opened, stating the errors alleged. 

 and gave due notice thereof to persons to be affected 

 by such corrections, or requested the same to be given, 

 and offered to correct any errors found therein by the 

 record, or by substituting for such returns, if defec- 

 tive, duly attested copies of the record in each case as 

 provided by the statutes, and by offering such other 

 evidence as is authorized by chap. 212 or the laws of 

 1877. But the Governor and Council refused to re- 

 ceive such evidence or to correct any errors in said re- 

 turns, or to receive a duly attested copy of the record 

 to be substituted for any defection by reason of any 

 informality. Under these circumstances the Governor 

 and Council proceeded to examine the returns, with 

 the following results : 



The return from the city of Portland was duly signed, 

 and showed upon ite face all the facts necessary to con- 

 stitute a legal election. It showed the whole number 

 of ballots given, and that Moses M. Butler, Almon A. 

 Strout. Ruel G. Maxey, Samuel A. True, and Nathan 

 E. Redlon each received over six hundred and forty 

 votes plurality over each of the candidates opposed to 

 them. The only defect alleged to exist in said return 

 was that it contained the words and figures " Scatter- 

 ing, one hundred and forty-three (148)" ; but this 

 number, if added or subtracted or disregarded, would 

 still leave each of the candidates above named a large 

 majority of all the votes cast as above stated. The 

 Governor and Council rejected said return, and refused 



to summon the five representatives above named, who 

 were elected and appeared to be elected by a plurality 

 of all the votes returned, to attend and take their Heat*, 

 and refused to report their names and residence to the 

 Secretary of State to bo included in the certified roll to 

 be furnished by him to the Clerk of the preceding 

 House of Representatives, as required by law. Subse- 

 quently to the making of said return, Moses M. But- 

 ler, one of said representatives elect, died, and in pur- 

 suance of the provisions of chap. 4, sees. 88, 44, uud 

 47, of the Revised Statutes, a new election was ordered 

 by the municipal officers of the city of Portland. At 

 such election Byron D. Verrill was elected by a ma- 

 jority of over one thousand votes over all others, and 

 a proper return was made to the office of the Secretary 

 ofState ; but no summons was ever issued to said Ver- 

 rill, and the Governor and Council refused to report 

 his name to the Secretary of State for the purpose above 

 stated. In the city of Lewiston, Liberty H. Hutchin- 

 son, Isaac N. Parker, and Silas W. Cook were elected 

 by a clear majority of all the votes cast. In the city of 

 Saco, George Parcher ; in the city of Rockland, Jona- 

 than S. Wflloughby and Theodore E. Simonton ; in 

 the city of Bath, Guy C. GOBS, were in like manner 

 duly elected representatives. In each of these four 

 cases the returns were in due form and signed by the 

 mayor, city clerk, and three aldermen. The Governor 

 ana Council in each of the above cases refused to issue 

 summonses and to report the names and residences of 

 the said elected representatives to the Secretary of 

 State, to be included in the certified roll. In the Web- 

 ster, Lisbon, and Durham class, William H. Thomas 

 appeared by the returns to be elected by a majority of 

 eighty-three votes. The returns from said towns were 

 without defect, and were duly signed by all the select- 

 men of each town. Upon rumor that the Governor 

 and Council refused to issue a summons to the persons 

 elected because it was alleged that the names or the se- 

 lectmen signed upon the returns from the towns of 

 Lisbon and Webster were signed by one person in each 

 town, all of said selectmen appeared before the Gov- 

 ernor and Council and made path that the signatures 

 were genuine. In this district another ground was 

 taken, that it appeared from extrinsic and ex parte evi- 

 dence that either the return was not signed and sealed, 

 or the record not made up, in open town meeting. The 

 Governor and Council refused to issue a summons to 

 said William H. Thomas, or report his name to be en- 

 tered on said certified roll, but did issue a summons to 

 Leonard H. Beal, a person who was not elected and 

 did not appear to be elected by said returns. 



The following is that portion of the statement 

 which recites the facts connected with the or- 

 ganization of the Legislatures : 



On the 31st day of December, A. D. 1879, the Gov- 

 ernor requested the opinion of the Justices of the Su- 

 preme Judicial Court upon certain questions submit- 

 ted by him ; and by the opinion of said Justices, in 

 reply thereto, it appeared that the objections and al- 

 leged defects in the returns hereinbefore stated were 

 without foundation in law. The Governor and Coun- 

 cil were requested in all these cases to recall the sum- 

 mons which by the opinion of the Court appeared to 

 have been improperly issued, and to report the names 

 and places of residence of the persons legally elected 

 to both branches of the Legislature to the Secretary of 

 State to be entered upon the certified rolls as required 

 by law ; but this they refused to do. A certified roll 

 was furnished by the Secretary of State to the Clerk 

 of the preceding "House of Representatives, containing 

 the names of one hundred and twenty-two persons 

 properly summoned as representatives elect and seven- 

 teen persons heretofore enumerated, viz. : Lewis Vo- 

 ter, Daniel Snow, Alfred Cushman, James O. White, 

 Leonard II. Beal, Osijood N. Bradburv. George W. 

 Johnson, Lincoln H. Leighton, Aaron H. Woodcock, 

 Harper Allen, Joshua E. Jordan, F. W. Hill, James 

 W. Clark, James Five, John H. Brown, James M. 

 Leighton, and Stephen D. Lord, and no more, no 



