Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-05-24

gcther, shall be complete legislator.
and shall be called the General Assem-
bly, of Virginia"
Sec. 2. "One of these shall be call.
ed the House of Delegates, and shall
consist of one hundred and thirty. fonf
members, to be chosen aanualiy. for
and by the several counties, cities
towns and boroughs of the common
wealth." (here follows the apportiou.
ment.)
Sec. 3. "The other house OF the
General Assembly shall be called tho
Senate, and shall consist of thirty.two
members" (Here follows the appor.
tionment East and West of the noun.
tains, &C., "To keep up this Assem-.
bly, by rotation, the districts shall be
equally divided into four classes, and
numbered by lot. At the end of one
year after the first general election, the
eight members elected by the first di.
vision shall be displaced, and the va.
cancies thereby occasioned, supplied
from such class or division, by new e.
lection in manner aforesaid. This 70.
tation shall be applied to each division
according to its number, and continu-
cd in due order annually" (Here fol.
lows the division of the counties into
districts
Sec. 8. "The General Assembly
shall meet once or oftener every wear.
In the third article, section 8, it is
also provided, that ono law increasing
the compensation of the members shall
take effect until the end of the next
annual session after such law shall have
been enacted; and no Senator or Del.
egate shall, during the term for which
he shall have been elected, be appoint.
ed to any civil Office of profit under
the Commonwealth, which shall have
been created, or the emoluments of
which shall have been increased during
such term, except such offices as may
be filled by elections by the people,"
Nothing, we think, can be clearer
than this. The first members were
elected in October, and the first class
of Senators were only to be displaced
at the end Of one year after the first gen.
eral election-consequently, the term
of every succeeding class ends in Octo-
Der. The members are directed TO be
elected annually, and no one is permit
ted, during the term for which he shall
have been elected, to be appointed to
any civil Office of profit, &c. There
must, therefore, be an end of each term
defined, and it follows, from the very
spirit, if not letter, of the Constitution,
that no term can be short of one year.
If this were not the true construction,
then the first Legislature, under the
new Constitution, which did not ad.
journ until the 10th of April, had no
authority to organize our courts, and
to Go many other acts Of importance,
which were done after the 3lst of
March, the limit under the old state Of
things.
We recollect, however, perfectly
well, that Mr.. Leigh and other gentle.
men of the Convention who were men,
beers of the first session, gave it as their
opinion that the term of service did
not end until October, and there was
a general acquiescence in that con.
struction. We understand, too, this is
the opinion Of other distinguished legal
gentlemen.
p. S.-We are informed that this
opinion is concurred in by the Judges
of The Court of Appeals who are now
in the City, by the Attorney General,
and by many other distinguished gen.
tlemen whose views have been solicited.
Indeed we understand there is but one
opinion among all those who have at.
tentively examined the question.
The Executive, we presume, did not
consider itself authorised to decide the
question officially, or the Proclamation
would have been addressed, to avoid
mlsapprehension, specially to the Del.
egates and Senators who composed the
last Assembly.
Since the above was written, we
learn that the Governor has directed
copies Of his Proclamation to be for.
warded to the members of the last ses.
sion-which fact may be considered a
settling the point. Rich. Wing.
ANOTHER TURN OF THE SCREW
IIptiI thiu ,,orp;pr ,ho Dool- of A p,ar