Nebraska advertiser., 1858-01-21

intruders within their bar, winked at by
a sympathizing executive.
What course is to be taken?
Three suggest themselves.
1st. To withdraw the bill producing
the excitement. To do this is to allow
the will Of the few to triumph over the
will Of the many the minority to triumph
over the rights of the majority-a course,
we suggest to your Excellency, seldom
adopted by American freemen.
End. For the majority to remain and
maintain their rights by opposing force
withforce, a course which every true lover
of his country hesitates long before adopt
ing, as it would give to our Territory, as
it has given to the history of our sister
Territory, q story of blood.
Sd. To temporarily remove to some
other place where their action would be
free and untrammelled; where a majority
of the Legislature might carry out the
wishes of the people. Under similar cir
Cumstances, this was the course which a
majority Of the Nebraska Legislature
deemed best to take, and upon their power
to de so, we wish in all frankness and
candor to express our views.
The Legislature once having met and
organized at the seat of Government, we
know of no law, either organic or special,
prohibiting them either directly or by in
ference, from temporarily a~djourning to
some other place, should their safety de-
mand it. There being no law 20 the con-
trary, their power to so adjourn follows in
due order of sequence, from first and
fundamental principles. The necessity
that Legislative action should be free, and
the right Of the people so to demand it,
and we hesitate not In saying that any law
depriving them Of such power would be
unwise In the extreme and fraught with
infinite mischief.
Having the power to so adjourn we
submit hat they are the sole and exclusive
judges of the necessity demanding it We
hold that it is not competent for either the
Executive or Judicial department to pass
upon and decide the amount of violence
either threatened, or actually necessary
toiintimidate this or that member, and thus
render an adjournment to some other place
imperative.
The connection of the Executive with
the Legislative department is for specific
purposes, and for those who are acquaint-
ed with the past history of our Territory,
it is not difficult to understand that to
make the power of the Legislature to ad-
journ dependent IN the approval of the
Executive, might be to place the deares:
rights of the people at the mercy of a sin
gle man, sympathizing with the few
trampling these rights under foot.
With these views we did not deem it
necessary to consult the then Executive,
in regard to our adjournment on the 8th
inst.
To that portion of your Excellency's
communication in which you speak of the
Capital having been located at Omaha
City, in the county of Douglas, and of the
concurrent action of the Governor, and of
the Legislative Assembly being required
to remove it, we need not reply at length
as the Legislative Assembly now in ses-
sion at Florence has never assumed that
the seat of Government of our Territory
had been removed to that place, but have
only claimed the right Of the Legislature
convened at the seat of Government, to
adjourn for good causes 10 some other
place, and there proceed to discharge its
legitimate function.
In regard to our mode of adjournment,
which you question, we would say that we
have been unable to find any provision in
our Organic act or elsewhere, requiring
that it should be by joint resolution, and
we look upon the absence of any such pro-
vision IN the Organic act as proof of the
wisdom and the foresight of it's trainers
and supporters, among whom we take
great pleasure in remembering that your
Excellency was not the least prominent.
The same circumstances which made
our a%dJ ournment~ imperative, might, as in
our case, render an adjournment by Joint
resolution impossible. Such a mode of
adjournment being in effect to. thwart the
mob In their opposition, would in every
conceivable case meet with the same re-
siStance as the matter which originally
melted it.
The action of the Council and House of
Representatives in the adjournment to this
place was in all but a technical sense con-
current. The House being called togeth-
er at 9 o'clock A. NJ, adjourned to meet
at Florence at 10 o'clock A. M. next day.
The Council meeting at 10 o'clockA. NJ.
when the fact of the adjournment of
the House to the time and place was no
toriouS both in and out of the Council
had Its Journal read and proceeded regu-
larly in the order of business, and upon
motion adjourned to the same time and
place.
1t only remains to say, in further proof
of the concurrent action of the two Houses
that they both met at the time and place
fixed uponin the adjournment, and at once
entered reciprocally upon their legitimate
duties in the enacting of useful and ne
cessary laws for the welfare of the people
of the Territory.
Your Excellen6y suggests the strange
spectacle of a Council in one place, the
House in another, and the Executive at
still another, as being a possible operation
of the power which we claim. With all
due Difference to the opinion of your Ex-