Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-09-21
TIRE MUNICIPAL ELECTION
Mayors proclamation.

emanated from His Excellency, William
q. Brownlow, Governor of the State of
Tennessee, in which whilst referring to the
election of municipal officers shortly to
take place in the several chartered cities
Of the State, he proclaims, with something
more than judicial authorize tiveness, that
the Commissioner of Registration, in the
! several counties of the State "is the proper
person to appoint Judges and Clerks OF
election" feel il my duty thus prompt
ly to declare in response, that do not at
all concur with His Excellency touching
the power of said Commissioner in re-
gard to the appointment of Judges
and Clerks of elections in municipal
elections and the Board of Aldermen,
with whom | have the honor to be official
ly associated, after having carefully con-
suited the most astute and learned jurists
in the city of Nashville upon the question
under consideration, came, some time ago,
unanimously to the conclusion that they,
the said Board of Aldermen, did alone
possess the power of appointing Clerks and
Judges in the approaching election Of mu-
nicipal officers, and did also, in conformity
with said view OF the matter, proceed for
mally to appoint said Judges, and cause
their names to be announced, as having
been thus empowered to act, 10 the several
newspapers Of this city. 1t was due
to the great Importance of the ques-
tIon involved, IA well as to the chief
Executive officer of the State, that after
receiving copy of his proclamation, the
| subject should be examined anew, and that
the aid of counsel, learned in the law,
should be again invoked with view, if
possible TO avoid all erroneous action in
reference to a matter of such high impor-
lance in every point of view, whether legal,
social, moral, or economical. That has now
been done, and for myself as well as in be-
half of the Board of Aldermen Of the city
of Nashville, | now proclaim that We still
entertain clear and undonbting opinion
that the Commissioner of Registration of
the county Of Davidson has no authority
whatever to appoint Judges and Clerks
to act in the municipal election
which is to take place in this
city on the last Saturday OF the present
month that the clause in the charter of
the city which vests this authority TO ap-
point said Judges and Clerks in the Board
of Aldermen of this city, is yet unrepealed,
unmodified, and in full force that there is
no part of the franchise law, which, by any
construction, however strained, can be
plausibly interpreted as vesting this i'm
portant power in the Commissioner of Re
gistration; that, were the Board of Alder
men aforesaid to decline the performance
of the sacred and delicate duty of appoint
ment conferred upon them by the charter
o. the city, they would be guilty of a gross
and objectionable dereliction of Official
duty, would evince shameless disregard
Of the obligations which they have I'M
dertaken to perform, would manifest a
willingness basely to surrender up to sacri-
ice the great chartered interests con6ded
to their management and preservation, and
would make themselves unequiVocally
responsible for all the ruinous consequen-
ces which it is evident to every discerning
citizen in the State, must inevitably result
from that organized anarchy and rapine
with which this noble commercial me
tropolis is now menaced. Let It sbe known
then to all the world, that the election of
municipal officers heretofore advertised,
will take place, as heretofore ordered, in
manner and form as heretofore ordered
that the Judges of election heretofore APP
pointed by the Board of Aldermen of the
city of Nashville, viii be expected |
to perform the duties heretofore de-
volved on them that they will be held to
strict responsibility in connection with
their duties; and that they will be fully
sustained in the legal and peaceful exercise
Of the authority entrusted to them, By all
the power of the corporate authorities of
the said city of Nashville, in opposition to !
ali who shall illegally and violently at
tempt to counteract or impede them herein
In behalf of the corporate authorities of |
the city Of Nashville, | am furthermore |
commissioned to declare, that, in view of |
the excited and convulsed condition Of the
country, and the irritatedstate of the |
popular mind in every part of the Re- |
public, and in our own honored |
Commonwealth in particular from |
causes too obvious to need spe
cifcation, il is the fixed resolve of the said |
corporate authorities, and of all who are |
aiding and counselling them at this |
trying period in our history as people to |
exercise all possible discretion, moderation, |
and forbearance to make manifest in their |
whole demeanor the proper respect which |
they feel for the Constitution and laws of |
the United States, and the Constitution and |
laws of Tennessee, as made for all persons |
legitimaIely in places of high civic trust |
who periodically conform their official |
action to the great and essential principles |
embodied 10 the supreme law of the land. |
Whatever we may think of the injustice |
and impolicy of the Franchise law which |
now shuts ont eighty thousand worthy citi-
zens of our State from all participation
in the administration of the gov
eminent which their fathers instituted, |
so long as said law shall remain upon our
statute book unrepealed by a Just and mag
unanimous Legislature, and upheld by the
courts of the country, it is our purpose to
submit in good faith to all its provisions
80 long as the judicial decision of the SUI
preme Court Of the State referred to in
Governor Brownlow's proclamation asser-
tive of the validity of the said franchise law
shall remain unreversed by the Supreme /
Court of the Union, We shall accord it |
equal respect. Did We believe that the fran
chise law had vested the power of appoint
ing the Judges OF our city elections in the
Commissioner of Registration, we should |
certainly bow to his authority. Were we
of the opinion with Governor Brown
low that our Supreme Court had |
ever effectively settled the question in |
di-pute, we should at once acquiesce in its
action, however erroneous W e might deem
it. As it is, we shall persevere inhexibly |
in the course heretofore marked out to the 1
end of the struggle now in progress
feel it to be due to Gov. Brownlow to de
clare on this occasion, that ] am by no
means prepared to agree with those among
us who suppose that officer seriously to con-
template the exercise Of armed iRterUsation
in our municipal concerns, should the cor
porate authorities of the city still persevere
in maintaining the chartered rights of our
people as they conscientiously believe them
to exist. Nor is it lightly to be supposed
that. were he to undertake an experiment
in all respects so hazardous aud delicate,
the paternal government Of the United |
States, whose valiant and patriotic troops |
in our State election two months ago. |
so nobly preserved our citizens from
lawless violence, would quietly permit
40 grievous an infraction upon the rights |
of our citizens with IMMUNITY to occur.
i shall continue to entertain the opin-
ion which / now hold, that Governor
Brownlow did not intend in toe proclama-
ton which has drawn forth this notice, to
do more than simply to express his own
Conscientious opiR5on rs to the powers
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