Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-08-02


commissioners to have unlimited power nm
on the subject Of making estimates and caus
ing taxesto believed, and in fact with unliu1
tied power over the peopleand money Of tn
corporation.
Complainant submits to your Honor. thai
. under these most extraordinary bills there
is great danger Of irreparable mischief [,
the city of Nashville.
Notwithstanding, as general thing, th,
( Legislature deters in a great measure am
I thing Of purely local OF municipal charac
1 ter to the wishes of the people; : yet in these
/ instances the so-called Legislature defedthe
/ people and their wishes, and in the most in
K decent haste and against the remonstranco.
of the whole people, because not one man in
one hundred who had real or prominent in.
terest in the city desired such a law) and
with a contempt for the people rarely if ever
seen in this country, these measures were
passed By the so-called Legislature. These
bills, which are unjust and oppres-
sive, and destroy the last vestage Of dem
ocratic government so far as the city OF
Nashville is concerned, and which are par
tial and therefore void, and in the aggre-
gate as well as in the detail, most palpably
The present corporate authorities, the
Mayor and City Council, as well as the
whole people of the city, are in danger OF
suffering irreparable mischief unless they
can obtain the restraining power of a Court
of Chancery until they can have these grave
and momentous questions tried, and their
rights settled by the courts of the country.
Once in Office by the very terms of the act,
many Of the parties have a life estate there
in, with power to draw from the people a
bOuntiful support, with the sword and purse
Of the city given them as knock down ar
gument on election days that the principles
are right. Under these pretended acts the
persons now organizing, but who have not
yet notified the Recorder, if not restrained,
will bring about the most serious conflict Of
jurisdiction. These pretended laws do not
purport to repeal the laws creating Mayor
and City Council, nor do they purport to
abolish those offices, and hence for the City
of Nashville there will be organized and in
operation two sets of corporate authorizes No
one would pretend that these two powers
could act in harmony, one being republican
in form and the other despotic. What the
conflict will be can only be seen by care
full examination and comparison Of the laws
in force, and the pretended acts of the So
called Legislature.
BY the laws in force at the time Of the
pretended passage ofthese spurious acts, the
Mayor and City Council were authorized to
levy and collect taxes upon all property tax
able by law for State and County purposes,
to appropriate money and provide for the
payment of the debt and expenses of the
city; to make regulations to prevent the
introduction of contagious diseases into the
city, to make quarantine laws for the purpose
and enforce the same within ten miles of the
city, to establish hospitals and make regula-
tions for the government thereof; to estab-
lish a system of free schools and regulate
the same so as to avoid q sectarian influence;
to make regulations to secure the general
health of the inhabitants, and toprevent and
remove nufsances; to provide the city with
waterworks, within or beyond the boundaries
of the city; to open, alter, abolish, widen,
extend, establish, grade, pave, or otherwise
improve, clean and keep the city, streets,
alleys and sidewalks, or to have the same
done; to erect, establish and keep in repair
bridges, culverts, sewers and cutters; to pro-
vide for lighting the streets to establish,
support and regulated night watch and patrol;
regulate the same; to provide for the cree
ton of all buildings necessary for the use of
the city; to provide for enclosing, improving
aud regulating all public grounds belonging
to the city, or in any part of the corporate
limits; to improve and procure the naviga-
ton of Cumberland river within the city
limits, Of which extends TO the middle of the
river to such repair and regulate public
wharves, docks and buildings, and to fix the
rate of wharfage thereat, and to regulate
ferries, to regulate the stationary anchorage
and mooring of vessels or RATS within the
city, to tax and regulate auctiOneers, grocers,
merchants, retailers, taverns, bakers, coffee
houses, confectioneries livery stable keepers
to license, tax and regulate hacking, carriages,
carts, omnibuses, wagons and drays and to
fix the rates to be charged for the carriage Of
persons and property within the city, and to
the public works and property without the
limits of the city to license and regulate
porters and to fix the rate of porterage; to
license, tax, regulate theatrical and other
exhibitions, shows and amusements; to reg
ulate or prohibit and suppress all disorderly
houses and bawdy houses, to provide for the
prevention and extinguishment of fires; to
organize and establish fire companies; 20
regulate, restrain, and prohibit the erection
Of wooden buildings in any part Of the city;
to regulate and prevent the carrying on Of
manufactures dangerous in causing or pro-
ducing fires ; to regulate the storage of gun
powder, tar, pitch, rosin, saltpetre, gun-cotton,
and all other combustible material, and the
use of lights, candles and stove-pipes, in all
stables shops and other places to establish
standard weights and measures, and to regu-
late the weights and measures to be used in
the city, in all cases not otherwise provided
for by law; to provide for the inspection and
measuring of lumber and other building ma
ferials; to provide for the inspection and
weighing or measuring of stone coal, wood
and other fuel, hay, corn, and other grain );
TO provide for and regulate the inspection of
beef, pork, flour, meal, oils, whisky, and
other spirits in barrels hOgsheads, and other
vessels; to regulate the inspection of butter,
lard and other provisions, and to regulate
the vending of meats, fruits, fish and yegeta-
bles, to restrain and punish the forestalling
of provisions and to suppress hucksters; to
regulate the police Of the city to impose
fines, forfeitures and penalties for the break
ing of any ordinance, and to provide for
their recovery and appropriation, and to APP
point an officer for the town, being a Justice
of the Peace, before whom said recovery
may be had, and to do various other things
which may be found in the laws aforesaid
1t will be seen by the pretended laws of
the so-called Legislature that the Mayor and
City Council being left standing, they still
have many duties and burdens imposed upon
them, though all the means of complying
with their duty is taken away; and said pre-
tended laws have been so bunglingly passed
that they, if put in force, will unquestionably
put, or set up an organization in may respects
over and superior to the Mayor and City
Council, and in many respects it will come
in conflict with it and will result in collis-
ion and irremediable mischief. The mayor
and Common Council may still sue and be
sued, but what they might recover would go
to the Financial Commissioner, but what
might be adjudged against them, they would
have no means to pay.
Whether under the pretend ed laws the
Mayorand City Council, or the Commissioners
are to control the Fire Department, repair
the streets and keep up the waterwOrks, is a
question that viii have to be settled. Per-
haps the strongest reason for the Mayor and
City Crunch having had the power taken
away is to be found in the fact that their
money is all taken away. Upon the whole
case complainant charges mat great wrong
and irreparable mischief will be done if said
Commissioners are not restrained They
charge that the persons who claim to be the
Commissioners TO act, HENRY SToNE, +. W.
SPARKLING and JAMES DAVIS, are not Com