A king but not a saint

It is perhaps not surprising that at a time of extreme political anxiety there is a tendency to view past leaders through rose-colored glasses. That tendency was manifested in a Dec. 11, 2024, Times Record article on William King written by local historian Lori-Suzanne Dell.

My quarrel with Ms. Dell’s article is not for what it says about a man who was Maine’s first governor and remains a local hero in Bath but for what it omits.

More specifically, in 1806, while serving in the Massachusetts legislative body (the General Court), King used the threat of unfavorable legislative action to induce the holders of a huge tract of land in what is now Maine to sell him a prime portion at a substantial discount to its market value. The financial benefit to King was estimated at $11,250 by the sellers.

In the words of Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Alan Taylor, the $11,250 benefit was in effect a “bribe.” Adding insult to injury, King, whom Taylor describes as a man with “formidable vanity,” had the temerity to have a portion of his newly acquired land incorporated as Kingfield although a subsequent attempt to have another portion named after his wife was rejected by the local residents.

For anyone interested in knowing more about this transaction, I highly recommend Taylor’s “Liberty Men and Great Proprietors,” which is available in libraries around the state, including Brunswick and Topsham, although curiously, not in Bath.

Steve Diamond,
Topsham

Suicide of a democracy?

John Adams once stated: “Democracy never lasts long. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Given his astute observation, are we as a nation now a witness to history repeating itself, after electing Donald Trump? Our democracy is precariously balancing on its foundation with a noose around its neck. How many of our elected officials, who have sworn an oath to protect our Democracy, are going to help push its foundation out of the way, fostering its suicide?

Only time will tell.

Sigrid R.E. Fischer-Mishler,
Harpswell