Liberty advocate. [volume] (Liberty, Miss.) 1835-1866, 1841-10-28

regular election; ana lndt tnlS act, lope~
ther with the yeas and nays thereon, be
entered on heiournals Of the Senate and
House Of Representatives..
No part Of the act was referred but
the 9th section which is unqualified
and untrammelled by conditions of any
kind When analysed it contained
two distinct propositions. One is, TO
aid and facilitate the Union Bank
in procuring the loun Of its capital, by
pledging the faith Of the State lo its ulti-
mate security and rcpayment-the other
results from the first, and is more eflec-
tualy TO carry il out to wit; tha; the
State Shall issue her bonds for the a.
mount vi the capital payable to The Mssis-
sippi Union Bank,
This Law Or "sectionn .&as again
passed by the Legislature which met in
1888. The yeas & nays were entered on
the journals, and it received, on 9Th Feb.
1888, Governor McNutt's unqualified
appr0CaL
Before examine the 9Th section or
ascertain how far it is controlled by
other sections Of the act, it will be ne
ceSsary to advert to two objections,
which it is said renders this section in.
operative.
lst. That the whole law, Il. e,) the
whole act Incorporating the bank, was
not referred to the subsequent Legislature.
3D. That the law was not published,
the length Of time required by the codS
st ituion
readily admit that the "Iaw" and the
"whoIe law" proposing to pledge the
faith of the State and issue the bonds
must be referred; but deny that law
or any part Of law, not proposing to
create a state debt or pledge its faith, is
required to be referred. The word "law,
is used in the constitution in its ordinary
and common law acceptation. II is a
rule prescribed by the legislative authors
| ity. Each section Of an act Of the Legls-
Iarure, complete in itself, is "rule" or
or law" as to the subject matter Of the
section. An act Of the Legislature, COM
/ posed of many seperate and distinct sec.
tons is composed Of many and distinct
laws, because each section forms a rule
for legal action Our Penitenliary act
! has many sections. One defines murder
and its punishment, It's different degrees,
sc another defines burglary-a third
larceny-a fourth arson, and so on. It
the constitution had required that no law
Furnishing murder with death should be
passed, unless it was proposed and
passed in one legislature aud referred TO
and passed by a subsequent Legislature,
and that section Of the act furnishing muir
der in the first degree, with death, had
been aoan referred to the next succeed
ing Legislature, and passed the second
time, could the murderer, after his con"
viction, say to the Judge, YOU cannot pass
judgement on me; the law is uconstltuton-
al, because the whole law, ii. e. the other
sections in relation to burglary, arson,
&c. were not referred. The answer
would be, the constitution only required
the law" furnishing murder with death
to be referred for the action of the next
Legislature--it did not require other tS,os
IN the Penilentiary act to be 50 referred.
The "awn that is, the " section" punish
ing murder capitaIy, was referred to aud
passed by the subsequent Legislature; 1t
is therefore the "Iaw oil the land"
1t is settled principle Of law that one
section of an act may be demonstrations
al, because IL is a taV Inconsistent Clth the
constitution, whilst the other sections are
constitutional, because they are laws con
sistent with that instrument. The lie.
glslalure did not refer any other OF the
sections OF the act incorporating he his.
siSsipp Union Bank, because the subject
matter of these sections did not require
that they should be referred, and because
they intended their constitutional power
to Issue the bonds to the absolute and UNI
qualified, as provided in that section, subs
ject only to such conditions and stpula-
ions as might, by acts OF ordinary legls-
latlon land which would be subject 10 res
peal or modiicalon,) be annext.
I'd The second objection that the law
was not published the length Of time re-
CURED by the constitution Is unsustana.
pie. The ground Of objection is, that 1t
was published in the papers less than
three mouths. This is TACT that cannot
now be- enqulred into. The 47th section
,l the original act directed the law to be
printed under the superintendent Of the
Governor. The subSequen! legislature,
before they passed it second time, was
obliged 10 be satisfied Of the fact OF publi> !
,atloi. The executive before he applov.
ID it, was also, by his oath, compelled to
know that it had been legally published.
)t the lact oil publication, admit, is me-
essary by the constitution, but the ques-
ion is, who is to ascertain the Tact -
" hose Judgment is TO settle the matter
surely it could not have been intended,
hat This fact might be inquired INTO col,
lteraily, al anydstance OF lime, when al
he newspapers in which the law was
rnted were lost, and the witnesses VINO