Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1867-06-05

tive functions at the seat OF Government.
am not prepared to cay that only these
4 proper State officials come within this term
OF description, nor ana prepared, as to judi
cial officers Of State, to limit the descrip,
ton to Judges of Courts whose jurisdiction
extends over the United States. must con-
tent myself in saying of these officers, exec
utiVe or judicial, that they are clearly within
the meaning of the law. Now, changing the
inquiry from an affirmatiVe,to a negative pro
cess, such officers as usually pass under the
description municipal do not come within the
purview of the Act; such as officers Of cities,
towns, villages and subordinate municipal di-
visions, whether their functions are executive
lor Judicial, or, as is sometimes the case, where
the same officer acts in both capacities. Out
side of these two representative classes, the
| first of which is clearly within, and the last
tof which is clearly without the purview ol
these clauses, we find in each Of these States
Eto be determined. 1t is impossible here 10
proceed by way of enumeration, and to dis
fnguish by name all those who are included
and all those who are excluded. All that
I!can be done is to establish some fixed rules.
Ii feel the necessity of crcumspection here in
Isaying who are included within the disfran-
tchisement rather than in saying who are not
for where there is doubt, according
Ito the rule of construction which has been
Preferred to, that doubt must be solved in favor
Eof, rather than against the right of the voter.
The exclusion.is all comprehensive as to time,
and applies not only to those who were in
Eofice when the rebellion commenced, but to
Ethose who held the prohibited Offices at any
previous lime, although they may have ceased
Ito hold such Office an. indefinite number Of
years prior to the rebellion. 1t is founded
Iol the idea of breach of official trust due
|sto the State as the author or donor of the
Trust. 1t is founded on the idea of q breach
Ecf trust not arising merely from allegiance as
citizen, but duty to the State in direct
official relation to that State, and through
that TO the Federal Government. So far as
this Act designates by name the persons who
violated such trus:, it is that class 10 whose
keeping the trust is especially confided-that
| is to say, the persons who were clothed with
the Legislative power.
Where, as in this instance, there is pur-
l.
one class is. designated as coming within the
purpose and other classes are left indefinite
and only to be asceriained by construction, it
| is allowable to find the indefinite class blythe
rule of assimilation. We see then, in this
! law, purpose Of exclusion as to the three
great Departments Of State, Legislative,
judicial and Executive. We see, further,
| that as to the Legislative Department made
\ up of legislative body, composed OF members
and various officers appertaining to such a
| body as Legislature, the exclusion is only
of the higher iunctionares OF that body, the
smembers, and isnot carried to its subordinate
toHicers The terms Of exclusion are not the
]smembers and officers Of q State Legislature,
Synt simply the members Of State Legisla-
Jture. As, therefore, the exclusion in 'the
Legislative Department has ef ct only upon
the highest class in that Department, it is safe
to say the same policy. of exclusion attaches
rather to such Cfticers as exercised functions
of important trust in 'hc EXC cutive and Judi.
cial Departments than to those whose func-
tions and duties are merely limited and SUI
bordinate.
have alrr ady called attention to tho COM
prehepsiveness Of these exclusions as to time.
Now. 10 declare them equally comprehensive
as to per. ons, and TO say that they embrace
all officers. large and small, coming in any
sense within the descriptions of executive or
judicial cfficers, who have at any time during
their lives held any one of the offices, would
have this inevitable result that in tie forma
tion of the Constitution Tor State by the
agency Of its own people, n large proportion,
perhaps majority, of the most intelligent
and capable Of the people would be excluded.
There is no part Of my duty in attempting to
give construction to these laws in which L
find myself involved in such painful uncer
tanty as in determining what officers outside
OF the classes already designated come with
in the Just range of exclusion. have said
that in addition to the class Of officers so
clearly coming within the terms Of he Act
as judicial and executive officers OF the State,
and to those classes which comprehend mill
tia officers and municipal officers who clearly
are not within the terms of the Act, there
remain vast number OF officers whose status
is in some way defined. Thcse are known in
popular language by such terms ofdcscription
as county, township and precinct officers.
Their name is legion their functions and du
ties are, for the most part, strictly local.
Some Of them-such as sherffs and justices
of the County Courts-have jurisdiction over
the entire county; others are restricted to
the smallest civil.sub-dvisious.
have directed abstracts to be prepared for
each of these States which will exhibit all
these offices, and the duties which appertain
to them, and the form OF oath required. |
must reserve for further consideration, after
the abstracts are made, the question whether
all of them, or if not all, what classes ofthese
officers come within the disqualification. As
10 all other executive and judicial officers
who are not, in popular language, character
lied as county officers, incline to consider
them as coming under the dtscriotion-of ex.
ecutive and judicial officers of the State,
within the meaning of these laws. deem
it proper here, in r. rrference to that class of
officers, judicial or executive, who are, by the
rule l have laid down, brought within the
operation of disfranchiSement 10 distinguish
class whose duties are not localized, who
stand in direct relation to the State, and who,
in my opinion, cannot properly be designated
as executive or judicial officers of State-1
mean that class of persons who exercise spe-
cial public duties, rather in the nature of oc-
casiona employment. than general and con-
tinuing official duty. Dissatisfaction between
Office and employment, and between an off
Ger of State and an agent Of a State, is
we'll established. Chief Justice Tilghmon, in
8 Serg. and Rawle l49, recognizes it in the
case of Commissioners appointed to lay out
roads and canals and other works Of public
improvement The question arose upon a
section in the Constitution of Pennsylvania,
which provided, that the Governor shall
appoint all officers whose offices are cstat-
lishcd by this Constitution, or shall be cstat-
lished by law, and whose appointments are
not herein otherwise provided for TLa Chief
Justice says: I" 1t has never been ascerlaiped,
nor is it easy to ascertain to what offices this
poyer of appointment extends. I speak of
Offices created by law Since the making of the
Constitution. The word Office is Of very