Daily Mississippi clarion and standard. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1866, 1866-07-03
,erI6, 1865. 4 would follow that the judg.

berI6, 1866, it would follow that the judg-
ment was in this respect erroneous.
The Joint resolution of October rs, is the
onlylegislative act expressly relied on In the
return of the appellant, as ground OF ms re-
flsal to the issue the warrant demanded. But
that resolution may be laid wholly out OF
the question without affecting the result
1t may, for all the purposes OF the cause, be
considered. as never having been passed at
all and the decision can be safely rested en-
tirely upon the act of December 4, already |
quoted. That act expressly authorizes the
Auditor to issue warrants for all claims &C
cruing after the sixteenth of October, 1865.
But in the view we are now taking, there
was already law in full force providing for |
the. issuance of warrants for all claims, /
whether accruing before or after that date, |
and therefore no necessity existed for such |
an act, if only intended to sanction the lssu- |
ance of such warrants. Something else, |
therefore was intended, and the evident pur- |
pose of the Legislature was to prohibit the |
issuance of warrants in any case not en- |
braced within it. The intent being ascer- |
tanned, it must be carried into effect, if war |
ranted by the words of the act. 1t is true |
there are no negative words, nor any express |
repeating clause, and thai repeats by impll- |
cation are not favored by the courts yet |
it is a well settled rule of Interpretation, that
although the statute be not repugnant in all
its provisions to prior one, yet if the latter
statute was clearly intended to prescribe the
only rule that should govern in the case pro-
vided for, it repeats the original act. Sedg-
wick on State and Court law, l24, Davis VS..
Fairbairn, 3 How, U. S. Rep, 636; Dexter
and Limerick Plank Road Company VS..
Allen, l6 Barbour, Is. The application of
this principle to the present case is plain, for
it is clear that the Legislature intended this
act of December a, 1865, to prescribe the only
l. -
the issuance of warrants by the Auditor.
This act being passed, and taking effect
before the Judgment in favor of the relator,
took away the only foundation on which
that judgment could stand. Rey VS.. Good
win, Moore and Payne, BAL Butler VS.. Pal
mer, Hill, N. Y, 324; Smith on Const. and
Stat. law, S89.
The policy of the legislation under discus
sion is matter with which this Court has
but little concern, yet it may not be alto
gether impertinent to allude briefly to the
circumstances under which it was adopted.
The Legislature met after the close of four
years of exhausting and disastrous war
During its progress the people had cheertully
submitted to the greatest sacrifices, and had
contributed in taxes and voluntary offerings
enormous sums in money and property for
the support of the cause. Production had
been to great degree suspended. The coun
try had been ravaged in every direction;
towns had been sacked and burned, dwellings
pillaged and destroyed stock killed or driven
away, farming implements broken up, fences
| torn down and consumed, and the whole
| land as far as possible reduced to desolatiOn
and ruin. At the close of the contest, the
| labor system upon which all our prosperity
had been reared, abolished Probably
| one thousand millions of dollars would not
| much exceed the loss of property, OF all
| kinds, sustained by the people of Mississippi
l alone nUrinu the conflict tho Cfafa had
| strained its resources to the utmost. Large
| sums had been collected in funds which,
| though deprecated, were yet the common
| currency of the whole people, and ample pro-
| vision was thus made for the liquidation of
| all demands against it. When the contest
| closed, large amount of this currency was
in the Treasury, and the proper officers all
over the State were actively engaged in the
| collection of another heavy tax. By the I'M
| favorable issue of the war, all these funds
| became instantly worthless. The State Gov
eminent being subverted, no new revenue
| system could be provided, and when the
| Legislature assembled on the 10th day of
October, 1865, there was not one dollar in the
| Treasury. A small sum of money, sufficient
| only to defray the expenses of the Govern
| ment for a few weeks was paid into the
| Treasury by the Provisional Governor. 1t
was impossible promptly to provide an ade-
| quate revenue, and the widespread destitu-
people, peremptorily forbade the imposition
| of heavy takes.
| Under these circumstances, amid the doubt
and uncertainty that rested upon the future
it is not at all surprising that the Legislature
should have determined to postpone the
liquidation of the pre-existing debts of the
State to more propitiOus period, and for the
present to attempt no more than the collec-
ton of a sufficient amount of revenue to de-
fray the necessary current expenses of the
| Government. In doing so, it seems difficult
to deny that the Legislature exercised its
legitimate powers in wise and beneficial
| manner.
As regards the right of civil officers exer-
| clslng their functions in those portions of the
State not in the permanent occupation of the
| army of the United States, to receive their
salaries for the time anterior to such Occupa-
ton, We can entertain no doubt. The State
| of Mississippi is to-day the same State that
occupied its limits before the 9th day of
| January, 1861, and since that date. Its con-
stitutiOn and its laws are the same except so
far as they have been altered, from time to
time, by its own act. Rights of property are
to be governed, contracts are to be construed,
| and crimes are to be tried and punished by
the same laws that existed before the date of
the act OF SECESSION, or that have been en-
acted by the Legislature since. 1t is not A
| new State, or a new Government but the
same State and the same Government. The
military commanders have not assumed TO
alter our laws nor abolish them, but have
only changed the administration of them by
substituting new functionaries, chosen by
ourselves, under forms prescribed by them
During the period of transition, while the
State was held under the military rule. our
general system of laws civil and criminal
was not attempted to be abolished or sus.
: pended, except so far as those laws confiicted
with the exercise of the military power. OF
} with the regulations ordained expressly OF
implied by, by its authority, OF with the con.
stitution, laws, or policy of the United
States, but only their execution was sus
| pended for want of the proper magistracy to
enforce them. The State is not relieved OF
its debts by the revolution through which il
has passed, and the salaries due to its officers
| for the period during tine war; while they
t | were in the discharge of their functions
| stand upon no less favorable footing thar
other debts before the war commenced, OF
> lawfully contracted since. But it is for the
: Legislature to make such provisions for the
: discharge of these, and all other obligations
that rest upon it, as they may deem wise
, and proper. ......-
In view of the whole case, the Judgment
| | of the Court below will be reversed, and the
petition of the relator dismissed, at his cost,
: in both Courts.