AUGUSTA – Gov. Alonzo Garcelon, Maine’s first chief executive with French roots, took office at a time of economic downturn.

In his inaugural address, delivered Jan. 8, 1879, he called for a reduction in state spending, cutting the state work force, and for the Legislature to work in a bipartisan manner.

When Gov.-elect Paul LePage, the state’s second Franco-American governor, is sworn in Wednesday, Mainers should expect to hear those same themes mentioned, 132 years later.

LePage, a Republican, will be sworn in at 11:30 a.m. at the Augusta Civic Center in a ceremony his staff said will be “a little bit more interesting” than in the past.

Garcelon, a Democrat, told lawmakers in his speech that “financial distress prevails to an unusual extent.”

“Property has depreciated in value; business interests are prostrated; thousands of our people are out of employment, and other thousands are working at prices which barely keep themselves and their families from the poorhouse; interest and taxes are paid with extreme difficulty or not at all; and in all circles there is a feeling of despondency in relation to business enterprises,” he said.

Garcelon and LePage were both born in Lewiston and had served as mayors — Garcelon of Lewiston and LePage of Waterville — before becoming governor. Garcelon was 65 when he became governor, and LePage is 62.

While LePage has French-Canadian, Roman Catholic roots, Garcelon’s great-great-grandfather James Garcelon was the son of Huguenots — French Protestant reformists who fled France in the early 1700s, according to the Muskie Archives at Bates College. James Garcelon came to the United States as a cabin boy in the early 1750s.

Unlike LePage, who had a difficult childhood on the streets of Lewiston, Alonzo Garcelon was born the son of prominent citizen Col. William Garcelon.

Alonzo Garcelon graduated from Bowdoin College in 1832 and went on to medical school. He was Maine’s surgeon general in the Civil War and wrote numerous letters during the war to Gov. Israel Washburn Jr. between 1861 and 1863, according to letters on file at the Maine State Archives.

Before his Civil War service, he served in the Maine Legislature, and after the war, in 1871, he became the first Democratic mayor of Lewiston, according to “Representative Men of Maine” by Henry Chase.

In 1878, the Democratic Party nominated him for governor. At that time, the state Constitution required governors to earn more than 50 percent of the vote to be declared the winner. None of the three men in the race exceeded the threshold, which left it up to the Legislature to decide.

“For the first time since 1855, the people failed to elect a governor,” wrote Louis Hatch in “Maine: A History.”

The election night results showed incumbent Republican Seldon Connor with 56,554 votes; National Greenbacker Joseph Smith with 41,371 votes and Garcelon with 28,208.

In the House, Greenbackers and Democrats worked together to send the names of Smith and Garcelon to the Senate for consideration. The Senate, which was then 31 members, had 20 Republicans and 11 Greenbackers. With no Republican left in the race, they chose Garcelon.

The Daily Kennebec Journal praised Republicans for their difficult choice in a Jan. 4, 1879, editorial. At the time, elections were held in September, rather than November.

“The Republican members of the Senate had a most unpleasant duty to perform,” the paper wrote. “They had voted in September against both the men, one of whom they have elected governor.”

Garcelon’s first and only inaugural speech — he was defeated when he ran for re-election the following year — called for the abolition of “unnecessary offices.”

“If three trustees can do the work of five or seven let the number be reduced,” he said. “If one commissioner of Railroads or other departments can do the work of three, and do it as well or better, let two be returned to the repose of private life or delegated to some more useful employment.”

While he was running for governor, Garcelon said he heard from voters that they wanted government reform.

“I cannot too strongly urge upon you the necessity for the most thorough scrutiny of the civil service in all its branches in order that economy may be rigidly enforced and the burdens of taxation reduced to the lowest reasonable point,” he said.

In conclusion, Garcelon referred to the unusual way he became governor and called the task a “grave responsibility.”

“I trust that your deliberations will be harmonious, and that the acerbity of party spirit will be forgotten, in your desire to promote the interests of your constituents, and to make this legislature, of which you are the members, conspicuous for its economy, industry, sobriety, and for its wise and judicious enactments.”

MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan M. Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at:

scover@mainetoday.com