The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-07-14
LAWRENCE KANSAS TERRITORY, SATURDAY, JULY H. 1885,

are illegal? If there is no way of distin-
gushing the legal from Illegal votes,
know of no rule by which to draw the line
of demarkation. My method of reason.
ing leads me to butone eonclusion-that
is that the Governor has in all cases the
power to decide upon vacancy. rhis
act makes it the duty of the Executive tc
ordera new election in all cases of yaean.
lcY. and inasmuch as itmakes this his du'
| ty, and does not define vacancy, it In
evitably makes it encumbent upon hin
to decide what vacancy is; he is to III
meaning to the word; no other power
can decide this; for the vacancy must bt
declared and new election called before
the Legislature can be convened. Can
this House pass an act referring back tt
its own creation, and declare that the Ex
ecutive has no right to call an election
by which this House itself was elected
Can it nullify the acts of the Governor;
Do the powers ofthis House date back 81
far, before its existence? Are the pow.
ers of this House and that of the Governor
one and the same? Can those of the one
counteract those of the other? The Gov.
ernor has said there was vacancy, caused
by incomplete, imperfect returns : he ha:
said so by virtue of that power in hin
vested by the organic act, and now
can this House annul that decision and
decide the election legal. regardless of the
returns? The organic act gives to this
body no such power; l have more conf.
dence in the wisdom and ability of the
trainers of that bill; different construc-
ton would be an insult to the friends oI
the bill. 1t is an exposure of the dishon-
esty or ignorance ofthose who thus inter.
pref it; and for one should burn with
shame to know that it had been announc.
ed that by such misconstruction of the act
l had divested the honest citizens of the
Territory of their only protection, of theil
dearest rights.
Again, if The Executive has the right
to Judge of the election of members O
this House, then he must have power tc
provide means ofsubstantiating or inval
idating the returns. 1t must be incum
bent upon him to give the citizens of the
several districts the opportunity of pro
testing and showing the illegality of sucf
elections, for it is only in this way that he
can become convinced of its legality Of
Illegally; but let us look at his further
instructions. The Esd Sec reads as fol
lows: "And be it further enacted, tina
every free white male inhabitant above
the age of twenty-one years, who shall
be an actual resident of said Territory
and shall possess the qualification here
matter prescribed, shall identified to vott
at the first election, and shall be eligible
to any Office within the Territory"
| This section makes it necessary for {
person to be not only an inhabitant. bu
an actual resident in the Territory, tha
he may be legal voter; he must not only
be in the Territory at the time, but must
live in 1t, have his home in it, the only
home he has; for he resides where his
home is, where his residence is; he must
have an actual, not a constructive resi-.
dence. Ii he is only living there for a
few days, 1t is only a constructive resi-,
deuce, not an actual one. Now it is fol
the Governor to determine whether OIL
not be is an actual resident according to
the usual meaning of the word, he must
determine this before he can determine
the legality of the elections, which he
must do before he can declare member
duly elected; hence it is his duty to pro-
vide and announce some means of pro-
| testing the election, so as to prevent ille-
gal voting.
Now has he done this !? Has he done
more than this? lfnotmore, then where
is that usurpation of power of which he
has been charged by large party in this
Territory. Let US refer to that part OF
his proclamation which prescribes the
manner of returns and Of protesting cleo
tons. This requires the judges of cleo
ton after receiving and counting the
votes, to deliver them in person to his
Excellency, and requires those persons
desiring to contestthe election in any dis
trict, to make written statement setting
forth the causes of complaint in the con-
duct or returns of such election, and af-
ter being sworn to, to present it to the
Executvein SO many days after the elec-
tion.
1t was on account of the erasure of the
word "legal" that the election was set
aside. If there is any meaning to this
word, if it is anything but an empty
sound, then ithas meaning in the organ
ic act. Ii then, such is the prescribed
form of returns, and if it means anything,
then this meaning must be respected, the
word cannot be considered superhuous,
Il, sir, am therefore unwilling to declare
that word of no force And further to
show the facts of the illegal voting, and
of the outrages attendant upon the cleo
ton, and to substantiate the course ofthe
judges in erasing the word "legal,' the
election was protested, and affidaviss of
the facts were given by residents of the
district All this showed the illegality.
and made evident the impossibility of
separating the legalfrom the illegal votes.
l hold sir, that with no expressed power
to declare vacancy, if that clause had
been left out of the act, sufficient author
ity was given the Executive to set the
whole proceedings aside. he must do it
by virtue of his Office, he is to perform
the Executive duties.
Isthere anything in this that looks like
usurpation of power-anything thatlooks
like overreaching? Manufacturing.
The proclamation only requires of the
people and of the judges ofelection what
the organic act intended it should re-
quire, there is nothing from beginning to
end that tFanscends the Executive au-
thority.
The Governors right to go behind the
election returns made by the judges In
due form, I win not argue-that ques-
ton does not arise in this contest /
only claim his right to prescribe the form
of returns. and his power to set an cleo
ton aside from imperfect returns, from
returns made contrary to the form BY
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