The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1858-04-20

I Our State ConssAtusaea Another Chance 20,
| ave Pesple OF Bow York.
! Seized, We Suspect, with the State constitu
ton fever Of Kansas, and fully impressed with
the healing virtues Of popular sovereignty y
our lawmakers at Albany have decreed that L
the good people of the State Of New York de.
sire to patch up into better shape our present
r;ckety organic State Law, they have only to
cay 80, and the thing shall be done In other
words, bill has been passed by the Legislature
authorizing the people, IN our coming Novem-
Der election, to vote yea or nay upon the ques-
tion of a new Constitutional Convention. II
yea, then they will next be called upon to elect
delegates to the Convention, whose duty 1t will
DO 10 make such amendments of our present
State constitation as experience shall have
ehown to be cxpedient and desirable.
| We hope that the Convention will be
| ortd-that body Of sensible men will
next be elected for the work in hand and that
the Convention, thus constituted, will make
some radical changes In our present funda-
mental State law. As II now stands, it is
but crude and imperfect machine works
| badly, is ruinously expensive, and productive
of a continually increasing schedule Of corrup-
tions and rascslities Of all descriptions, great
and small. It's departures from the simple and
practical model OF the federal government
have cost the State within the last ten years
perhaps not less than ten Millions and this ox-
| cessively taxed city not less than ten millions
Of dollars, Of which no satisfactory account can
be given. For example, the executive depart
ment Of the State, and the executive depart.
ment of this city instead Of being distinct aud
independent OF each other, as between State su-
premscy and municipal sovereignty, have be-
| come so mixed up ard confused that VIC can
neither find the head nor the tail Of State jurs-
diction or municipal rights The general i'm.
preston is that the Mayor is our chief munich.
pal executive officer; but from the oiashing pro-
ceedings in the Street Commissioner case. for
| instance, between the Mayor and the Governor,
the executive functions properly belonging 10
the Mayor and the Corporation arc to a great
extent subject to the will Of the Governor.
Again, even 20 far as the powers Of local ju-
risdiction are allowed to our municipal sutho-
rites, they are go cut up between this and that
| officer, and this department and that, that the
Mayor is practically dispossessed of any
| efficient margin of authority, while the
| several departments Of our Corporation
are, for all the purposes of roguery and corrup-
! ton, most conveniently relieved of any special
authority or responsibility. All this should be
reformed We should have Mayor clothed
| with a degree Of executive power sufficient to
make him, in reality, the chief magistrate Of the
city and his powers, and the municipal func-
tions Of the city, and respectively of all other
cities and towns end counties, as contradistin-
guished from the executive powers, rights and
duties of the Governor and the State, should be
clearly defined. A joint committee of six, of
which four are appointed by the Governor and
confirmed by the Senate for the municipal
| government Of two or three cities and counties
in the lump, 10 certainly more than we con-
| tracted for in the constitution of 1916.
Next, the system of electing the Judges Of our
Courts for short terms, by the people, has
proved a most ruinous departure from the safe
old system Of an independent Judiciary OF all
the humbugs of popular sovereignty" run into
the ground, this has been the most dcmoralizing
in it, effects, and the most disastrous to law and
order We must return to the old system OF
appointing our Judges for q long term
or during good behavior, before we can expec,
an Independent administration Of the laws
| for, so long as the election Of our Judges Is
dependent, from year to year, or every two, three
or four years, upon rowdy politicians, Short
/ naro naoJ pobh;f- op1 c,,ob oaffta an Ionx 81
ru1ianism and crime with here and there an
exception) ride roughshod over Us, and laugh
at and defy our impoient mockeries of Justice
Another thing is urgently called for, In view
of the numerous frauds which, under our OK
listing Loose and fraud-cncouraging system, are
annually perpetrated at our political elections
and this thing is a Registry law. The political
jugglers at Albany, of all parties, from time to
time have made show Of attempting some
such law, but they always contrived to fail
But let such law, clear and strong he engraft
cd into our State constitution, and while all
parties will be compelled TO respect II, they will
lie robbed Of the power Of tinkering II into O
nullity. With these views, VIC are decidedly in
favor Of new Constitutional Convention I'm.
der our present State charter, our government
State and city, Is neither fish, flesh nor good rcd
herring. Its distinguishing fruits have beer
spoliations, embezzlements and squabbles among
the spoilsmen over the public money, and
general license to roguery, corruption, rufian
ism and crime. Oh, yes, let us have the Con
yention.
Az "EREoR IN THE BuI-"-Thc musica
| writer of the French daily. being out of tim,