Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1851-06-27

Mr.. MecANDL1sH. enll for a division of the
Mir. BANKS Before the question is taken, wish to
hear the words read which proposed to be stricken
olt.
The CHAIR explained that all that was rroposed to
he stricken out, simply the figures 1868"
The question being then taken, there WERE yeas 81
nnys 6l-as follows:
yr,s-Messrs Arthur Banks, Barbour Bocock, Bowles
pr,xton Burgess Cooke, Davis, Edwards, Flood Fuqua,
Garland NJ R. H. Garrett Goode, Hail. Hopkins. Janney
Tasp.r Jones' Lgon LyAch Lyons Mason, Meredith Nor
! Scott of Fauquer, Scott OF Richmond city. Shell
snu,hs,l Stanard Strother Taylor Tunis, Turnbull
Wallace Watts of Norfolk county, Whittle and Wool
N,vsHMsssrs. Armstrong, Bland, Blue Bowden, Car
lie Carter of Russell. Carter Of Loudoun, Chapman
ri;i,nn Claiborne, Deneale Douglas Faulkner. Fergu
nn Fisher Fulkerson, Fultz, Hays, Hoge Jacob. John
son Kenny Kilgore knote, Letcler. Lucas, McCamant
W.caudli.h. McComas Martin of Marshall, Martin o
Hsnrv Miller Moore, Murphy, Neeson, Randolph, Sey
NOW Sbetty Sloan, Smith of jackson, Snodgrass ole
phenson Stewart Of Morgan, Stuart OF l1tneK, sum
MGR. Tate. Van Wrinkle, White, Wiley, Williams o
Shenandoah and Wingfed-5l.
NJ NEWMAN who had paired off with Mr.. LrAKE
Mr. SuIru Of Grcenbrier. with MIR. RIDLEY, and DIR
ISw1u Of kauawha with MIR. CHAMRLtss, were excused
| from voting :,,:
gative. ~, J.. .,,a .,r,,os;
on now before the Committee is to have biennial eiec
tions and term OF two years for the House OF Dele
c.t.s md four years for the Senate, with decennla
tonment. suppose it Is hardly necessary io'
me TO dsclaim any purpose whatever OF embarrassing
the propoSition-but 1t appears to me,-ana VIII sIo
mi, motion and withdraw it, if satisfactory expla
nation is madchat that part of the prcet IS mprac
ticabe, which proposes TO give decennia reapPor
tionmept and of four years to the Senate think
the sessions of the will be biennial think
also that it is equally certain that the relative ursdic
ton the of the Senate towards that OF the House
Of Delegates will be considerably altered aud enlarged
b;f therefore that YOU cannot. without considerable
confusion have rc-upportionment OF House once Ill
ten wears wuse term ID four years The term must oe
dyisor Of the of re-apportionnent of that House
Hence the deccnia reapportionment for the Congress
of the United States can apply to the louse OF Repre-
sen,a,iyes but could not he applied to the Senate
h. propostion contemplaes the division OF Senate
into twn clussc First, at the end OF two years, one
cass goes out then at the end of four years the other
class roes out, At the end of that period another cleo
ton will take place for four years. which Will expire at
tho end of eight yeara and when the time of re-appor
p,npp takes place one half Of the term for which
that class of Senator'S have been elected will not have
expired and you apply the principle OF reapportlon'
men to BODY when the term OF one half OF lie mem,
bers has only half expired Now, submit that 1t will
h. ;mnraccablr to carry out this arrangement, with
that would require some Notwithstanding there should
II. , r.apportionlent of class ut the end OF ten
wears and Of the other class at the end OF twelve years
but that would produce great embarrassment aud nm
Guilty The best mode, as it appears to me, to place
In. two HOUSES as to their and periods Of election
upon the same footing. II You do that you will apply
the principle Of re-apportonment to both Classes hs
i. the hes, arrangement which can be made unless am
entirely mistaken in this view Of the subject. shall
move therefore, strike out that part OF the third
ton which reads
"Immediately after the Senators shall bo assembled
in consequence of such election they shall be divided BY
lot into two casses The seats of the Senators OF the
first class shall be- vacated at the expiration o he sc
cond year and Of the second class at the expiration OF
the fourth year. after such first election, aud which no.
aton shall bc continued bienniay, 30 that onehali
may be chosen every second year.
In the fifth section also. beginning with the 10Th line
and thenceforth it shall be the duty of the General
Assembly in every tenth year thereafter 10 rsaPP"r
ton and distribute the number OF Senators and Dele
gates throughout the Commonwealth according TO the
same principle Of representation.
Mr. Chiffon | do not know that really under
stand the gentlpnans proposition. | understood his
objection TO he, that upon rc.apportohmeht IN Ten
wears there would be Senators whose term OF office was
unexpred. Now according to the povison here made
the Senate soon they assemble are to divide them
selves into two classes class to go out ot office at
the end of two years and the other at the end of four
years. Can there be any apportonmcnt made, when
all the Senators terms rhall have expired
;. blr MASON If the amendment shall he adopted,
that objection will BE- ohvated because there will DC no
classification admit. that if you retain the ciasslti
cation the same objection would exist.
Mr. SUMMERS. understand the gentleman from
Southampton (Mr MAsos) to he Of the opinion, unless
the senatorial term be fixed at Two or hive years That
dec.nnal re.apportionment will not be found to WORK
we'll in practice in other words that it will be found
to BE- npracticabe Now, am decidedly of the OPT
nou that the senatorial term ought to be at least dou
bic that OF the delegates. | am against reducing the
senatorial term to two years and am not 10 lavor OF
extending it to five yenr have thought Tour years the
term fixed BY the present Constitution, was the proper
length of service for the Senate and it does not occur
to me at ALL that the difficulty which the gentleman
from Southampton (Mr. Mason has suggested, would
arise If this difficulty does exist, call his attention
to the fact that precisely the same arrangement was
made by the Cunv ention of 1890 of which the gen.
te,nan was member 1t is in these words: II shall
be the duty of the Legislature to reapporon once in
len wears wit in lS4l and every tenth year there
after representation of the counties cities and borougs
Of this Commonw ealth in both the Legislative bodies.
That is precisely the arrangement therefore, made 10y
himself aud his associates, i'll the Convention OF 1879;
and if this difficulty is real Que. would inquire OF
nly friend how tho.e with whom he acted IN lSs9 anu
80 expected that provision Of the Constitution to be
carried out.
! Mr. TAYLOR I would suggest to the gentleman
from Kanawha (Mr SrsMERs whether there Is any ne
cessty for making objection TO the term OF tre years
because if he is willing to have term oil tour years
and we have biennial sessions Of the Legislature, the
consequence will be- that senator's elected for five years
in the regular sessions will not any longer in fact
than senators elected for four years low, there is a
real difficulty suggested by the gentleman from South
amptou (3r. MAsoS) 1t seens to be supposed by the
gentleman from Kauawha (Mr SrMMERs) that the OBJ
lection can be obviated BY giving specific term to the
senatorial Offices, and dividing them into Glasses W
derstald the gentleman from Southampton (N1r MAsoS)
to saw, that it impracticabe to divide the aenaors
into classes ut AL His desire is that the term of all
the Senator'S shall expire at the time There Is
this real difficulty in the where the Senate shall be
elected for the term of four years. they will be compel
led to vacae their seats by re-apportonment or
else the rcapportounlet cannot 90 into effect because
those senator's whose term Of office has not expired
will continue under the apportonment, and those
whose term Of office has expired will come in under the
ncw
Mr.. SUMMERS. I would suggest to the gentleman
from Norfolk, (flr TArLoR,) that the same difficulty
would OCCUR if adopt the term Of two or five years
Suppose at the end of the first years there is new
re-apportionment If your terms two years there
will be one class of senators already elected, who arc
entitled 10 serve two years beyond the ten. So with
regard to the term of FIVE years At the end of the
first ten years there will be elected class of senators
whose terms Of Office have not expired and precisely
the came difficulty occurs which has been suggested BY