Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-02-23

tween the public servant and the sovereign
duty of the public servant on
one side to render an account of his stew
ardship, and the right of the people on the
other to demand it: and again, the right Of
the representative 10 address the people,and
the duty Of all honest men to give him
fair hearing.
In pursuance ofthis reciprocal right and
duty, the undersigned now address themsei-
to their great constituency, the people of
Ohio. We desire to place before you brief
ly, calmly and truly. the facts which have
produced the state of affairs now existing
at the seat 'of your government, and to
place before you, without reservation, the
reasons for the firm and fixed determina-
ton we have taken in this crisis Of our
democratic institutions.
When we arrived here at the seat Of Gov.
ernment, we were met with the following
declaration in the Governors Message:
"One Of the most importont duties nec-
essarly devolving upon the present session
of the General Assembly, is the quadren-
nial apportionaent of the State, and as no
right is deafer to freeman than that Of
equal representation, / rest assured that
you will meet this fundamental trust with
fairness toward all parties and every dis
trict ofthe State, which its delicacy and
proper performance demand"
Similar professions had been made IN
almost allsshe public newspapers adyoca-
ting the same policy as the party in the
General Assembly.
Little, to be sure, is the confidence,
which experience has justified the people to
place in whig professions. The history of
the last eighty years is but repetition of
fair professions and broken promises, and
soon it will become O proverb applicableto
the whig party, that the fairer the promise,
the fouler the deed.
But small as our confidence in an hon.
est apportionment, still we were not will.
ling to condemn before hand. We waited
patiently for the forthcoming apportion.
ment bill. After more than months de-
lay, it was introduced in the Senate. Du-
ring its progress in Committee of the
Whole, we endeavored to amend it, but ev-
cry amendment was voted down, by strict
party votes. A few days subsequent to it,
after the bill had been reported from the
Committee Of the Whole, few of the very
amendments which we had proposed,
were moved on the part Of the majority
and adopted. This was no doubt intended
to show US, that we might expect something
from the grace of the majority, when they
pleased to confer it, but nothisg from their
justice. We then in the Senate again
made every effort to purge the bill of its
grossest inconsistencies and monstrosities,
but in vain. Not one amendment offered
by the minority, no matter how fair was q
dopted. Nor did we fail to endeayor to
get out of the bill, that provision Of it, by
which Hamilton county is divided into two
representative and two Senatorial Districts
We pointed to the Constitution, and the
first apportionment contained in it for Sen
atorial and Representative purposes, US the
construction Of the instrument contained
within the instrument itself, and showed
that the trainers OF the Constitution inten-
ded counties entire and undivided as the
constitutional Legislative districts.
We were then told that the trainers of
the Constitution only omitted to divide
counties, because they had not the necessa-
ry statistics before them. This position
we again proved untenable, because the
very first General Assembly, composed as
1t was, Of many of the trainers of the Con.
stitution, took no steps whatever to get any
information in regard to any such object.
In the law providing for an enumeration
ofthe people of Ohio, in accordance with
the Constitution, they asked tor the return
by counties. That was all they wanted;
for among the counties, and not among the
townships or cities of the State, Represen-
tatives and Senator's were to be aportioned.
And this we showed to be the practice in
every enumeration since taken, and every
apportionment based upon the returns there.
of by counties.
But to fortify ourselves still more, we
presented 10 the majority the opinions Of
some of the first men Of ftheir party, of q
Cowen, Mason,, and Phelps, men of the
hghes legal requirements, and who had in
various ways been intimately connected
with the history of our State and the oper-
ations of our government. These opinions
were expressed in the Morgan county con.
tested election case, and were sustained by
the unanimous vote of every whig men,
Der in the House of Representatives, in the
spring of 1856. The decision then
made was that no member could have n
seat in the General Assembly, unless voted
for by the citizens ofthe whole county, and
haviag majority Of all The vote. cast in
that county.
That was the decision upon which Belts
was ousted, he not having majority of oil
the votes cast in the county. The demo.
Gratis then in the General Assembly, admit
ted that no man could sit there unless voted
for by the entire county, bat they conten-
ded this applied only to The old county of
Morgan, as it was at The lime when the ap-
portionmenl bill was passed, and not to the
new county of Morgan, as gerrymundered
for base political purposes.
These our incontrovertible positi ons
were met by dogged silence and we we're
pointed to the opinion ofthe Attorney Gen.
eral, as the only answer to our positions!!