The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-09-05
Dom essic News.

ing is Hoar's opinion, received this
morning by Gen. Candy:
ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, D. c., August %, 1869.
To The HON. JOHN A. RAwL1Ns, Secretary
of Wth..iu i' tG HG'
" SR:I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of July 81,
1869. IN which you request my opinion
1ponIso much of the questions submit
ted in cthe letter of the Commanding
Genpfal Of the First Military District,
-datei 10th inst., and accompanying pa
pers, copies of which are enclosed, as re-
fers 20 the legal qualifications of officers
to be elected under the proposed Consti-
tuition Of the State Of Virginia, and es-
pecially npon the question whether per-
sons elected to Office in such State under
said Constitution are required by the
supplemental Reconstruction Act of July
l9, 1867, to take and subscribe the oath
prescribed or referred to in Section of
said Act before entering upon the duties
question is the only one indicated with
such distinctness as to enable me to be
fally satisfied that its purport is appre-
hended, and I propose to confine nv an
swer to that. BY the statute of April
10, 1869, the registered voters of Virgil
MIA were authorized to vote on the ques-
tion of the adoption of Constitution
for the State, and ut the same time to
elect officers under it, subject to the ap-
proval of Congress. The vote has been
taken in pursuance ofNthe provisions of
the Act, and the election held, and some
parts of the Constitution submitted have
been adopted by the people and others
rejected. The parts of the proposed
Constitution thus adopted, if they shall
be approved by Congress, will be the
Constitution of Virginia, under which
all its officers will be required to act, and
the qualifications as well rs the duties of
these officers will be determined by it.
When Virginia is restored to its proper
relations to the country as State of the
Union, its officers and Legislature will
be sncI as the Constitution of the State
provides, deriving their powers from
that instrument; and it will clearly not
be in the power Of Congress to impose
any requirement of additional qualifica-
tions upon them different from those
which, under the Constitution Of the
United States, may be required in all the
States.
y If, therefore, any tests were to be i'm
posed upon members of the Legislature
not provided by the Constitution of vir-
ginia. or any restraint imposed upon the
people of the State in their choice of
officers not recognized by it, and not
made applicable under the legitimate
powers of Congress to all the States, the
Legislature and officers would not, in
my opinion, be the Legislature and
officers of Virginia under its Constitu-
ton. do not see that Congress can
undertake to furnish the State with
suitable Legislature to start with, or to
exercise any control over its composition
which could not be exercised over subse-
auent Legislatures. I am. therefore Of
the opinion that the oath prescribed by
the statute of 1862, and by the statute OF
July 10, 1867. Chapter so, Section 8, re-
quiRed to be taken by all persons elected
or appointed to Office in said Military
Districts, under any so-called State or
municipal authority, is not to be re-
quired of the officers of the State of
Virginia or members of the Legislature
elected under the new Constitution. It
does not seem to me that the provisions
of this second section, which are apDli-
cable to the government of the State un-
der military authority, were intended to
apply to the Legislature and officers un-
der whom the State is to be restored to
its proper relations to the Union, and by
whom the government of the State is to
be administered after its restoration.
This opinion is strongly confirmed by
reference to the second section of the
same ACT, which authorizes the COM
mander OF any District named in the
Act to remove or suspend from Office or
from the performance of official power
any officer or person holding or exer-
cising, or protesting to hold or exercise,
any civil or military Office or duty in
said District under any power, election,
appointment or authority derived from,
or granted by, or claimed under, any So
called State, or the government thereof,
and to detail competent officer or
soldier of the army to perform such du-
ties. 1t would be impossible to suppose
that Congress could intend that Legis-
lature, under the Constitution of State,
could have its members appointed by O
detail from soldiers of the army.
The only reasonable conclusion seems
to me to be that it was not intended that
any such Legislature should be allowed
to exist and act until reconstruction was
completed, except for limited and quail
fled purposes requisite to reconstruction !;